ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW - 2020
Call: K8BKM
Operator(s): K8BKM
Station: K8BKM
Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: MI
Operating Time (hrs): 21.5
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 231
40: 189
20: 130
15: 14
10:
------------
Total: 564 Sections = 82 Total Score = 92,496
Club: Thumb Area Contesters
Comments:
My second QRP entry in SS CW, the first being two years ago in 2018 when I
finished 5th in the nation. I came within 15 Q's of my prior effort, due to less
operating this time around. I just couldn't overcome the boredom and endless
challenges of operating a contest with a weak signal. The main thing that kept
me going was an online chase with K9ZO. Both of us were posting to
contestonlinescore.com and I was using this as a motivator. I led in multipliers
early in the contest but almost never in Q's. ZO must have stayed up much later
than I (I went to bed around 1:30am ET) because when I awoke Sunday morning and
worked him, he was nearly 100 Q's ahead. I pretty much gave up hope. I think my
competition must have fallen asleep, had a family commitment, or was raking
leaves Sunday afternoon because I had an opportunity to catch up, both in
multipliers and in Q's. By about 6:30pm ET I was tied in mults and two Q's ahead
and decided to take a break myself. Not sure if my competition was done for the
night I became complacent and wasn't in a hurry to return for the Sunday night
crawl to the finish. In the end I learned that I'm not as much of a competitor
as I thought because I was more than happy with my effort and I am hopefully
optimistic that I will win my division.
I always struggle with which category to operate. I am not very competitive in
the unassisted categories and I've never tried HP. There's some very good
operators and good stations in my division. I generally try to run "under
the radar" and pick a less competitive category I think I can win. QRP and
LP unlimited (assisted) are my games. QRP is so dang frustrating though. So many
fill requests. However, I did have many compliment my effort with "FB
QRP" or "great sig" or similar. I even managed to break through a
few pileups for some much sought-after multipliers. I missed only WY and NT.
Conditions were "long". 40 went long early and 80 was long both
nights. Made it difficult to work many local in my state or division. I'm
curious what my most frequent section was, but I bet it wasn't local. At least
the bands were quiet and Sol certainly helped as well.
I really need to try a HP category next year but I baby my Alpha 78 with three
3CX400A7's. Those tubes are hard to find and expensive so I hesitate to run the
amp hard all weekend.
Thanks for all the Q's and for digging me out of the noise. See you next year!
73, Tom
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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