ARRL SWEEPSTAKES -- 1996
Call: AB6FO Section: LAX
Mode: CW Category: Single Operator
High Power
BAND QSO QSO PTS SECTIONS
80 121 242 -
40 499 998 -
20 556 1112 -
15 98 196 -
-----------------------------------
Totals 1274 2548 78
Score: 198,744
Equipment Description:
TS-950SD, TS-950SDX, Alpha 87A, Dentron MLA 2500 (see comments)
DuneStar Bandpass Filters, TopTen Automatic Stub Selection Boxes and
Band Decoders, DuneStar antenna phasing boxes for stacks.
80 Meters: Force 12 EF180S rotating dipole @ 77'
40 Meters: Force 12 EF340 3 element monobander @ 72'
20 Meters: Force 12 EF420 4 element monobanders stacked at 85'/53'
15/10 Meters: Force 12 EF515/410 5 element on 15 / 4 element on 10
interlaced on one boom, stacked at 53'/33'
Club Affiliation: Southern California Contest Club
Comments:
While there may never be a good time for Murphy to visit, at least he
had the courtesy to visit Wednesday night before the contest. When he
was finished screwing up the PIN diodes on one of my Alpha 87A's at
least he left me enough time to pull the old Dentron out of the closet
and get it set up. The only time Murphy visited during the contest was
to make the image on my computer monitor start to swim intermittently
by having the sides curl in on the display. Just when I though I might
get seasick, it stopped.
I thought I was going to get to have a new antenna system up and use a
new call for this one, but the FCC didn't cooperate. I did replace the
PRO96 and now have fully maxed out my 45' X 145' city lot. 80/40/20
are on the telescoping tower and the 10/15 is on the shorter tower on
the roof. I also took the opportunity to replace all the coax with the
best stuff I could get short of hard line (can't use hard line on a
telescoping tower!) I get the sense that I now have less interference
between the two radios than I did before, though when on 40 it is
difficult to use the second radio on most of 20, even with the
bandpass filters and stubs on both radios. I also get the sense there
is less TVI/RFI.
I've left myself post mortem notes the last few years on strategy and
the two that have cropped up every time that I have ignored are:
1. Start on 20, and 2. Get in the trenches, 14025 - 14050. This year I
finally followed my advice and got off to my best start ever with a 91
1st hour and 96 2nd hour. But I didn't make my goal of a 100 hour.
Another note from last year was to move to 40 early. I followed that
advice too, going at 2345, but that might have been a mistake. The
last 10 rate meter was in the 70/80s on 20 and dropped to 60/70s after
the move, even though 40 seemed busier than 20 at the time. 20 was
still going well, no New England, but most of the rest of the country.
I was working all over the country on 40, New England, the South,
Midwest and West, but the rate just wasn't there. I've seen the notes
about how bad 40 was. It didn't seem bad as signals were fairly loud
from all over the country. I don't know why the rate wasn't there. I
fell behind last year by the 6th hour and never caught up. I should
have saved off time for the last three hours, as those rates were 32,
34 and 22. Somehow after rates in the 90's, 80', 70's, 60's, its hard
to keep going after 12 straight hours when the rate drops to the 40's
and 50's. But I've got to tell myself those rates late at night when
I'm tired are much better than the rates at the end of the contest, at
least at this point in the sunspot cycle.
On the positive side, it seems the antennas did some good, as my score
didn't fall off as much from last year's as some of the other scores
I've seen posted. And I think I must have been loud because the small
slot I found to CQ in seemed to get a little wider after a few
minutes. I also had a number of Europeans call me Sunday morning on
20. I'm looking forward to CQWW with the 20 stack.
Also on the positive side was the relative ease of getting a sweep
this year. I heard K8HVT/KP2 in the first hour, but wanted the 100
rate and didn't break off my run to go for him. I figured he'd be easy
to find and work on 15 on Sunday, and that turned out to be the case.
WY and PAC were found on the second radio Saturday evening. The only
other tough one was VE8/VY1. That section makes for my only
interesting anecdote. I heard VY1JA in QSO with VE3EJ. As soon as I
heard the VY1, I got real excited and ready to pounce. But Jay started
rag chewing with VE3EJ. It seemed like an hour, but was probably 30
seconds. After they finished exchanging pleasantries, I dumped in my
call. I guess Jay must have called VE3EJ and it was EJ's frequency,
cause Jay sent UP 1. So I went up one and gave my call. Unfortunately,
by the time I got to the call in the exchange, I realized I was
working someone else. I never was able to find Jay again, but
fortunately he found me on 80 later in the evening.
73. Ken, AB6FO, KWIDELITZ@DELPHI.COM
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