ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: N6WG
Operator(s): N6WG
Station: N6WG
Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: Newark CA
Operating Time (hrs): 22.25
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 1
80: 49
40: 91
20: 156
15: 93
10: 1
------------
Total: 391 Sections = 75 Total Score = 58,650
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
I was really worried going into this weekend, with conditions being predicted
much lower than last year. Wow, I needn't have worried. Last year was my best
effort so far, and I beat it by 6600 points this year, a 12.5% improvement.
That thumping and stomping you hear is the Happy Dance in progress.
I had 75 multipliers, same as last year, coming up dry on EMA, NNY, ND, NL and
MB, like so many other reports I've seen already. As always, I managed to
work
my usual token 10m and 160m Qs as well :-)
I borrowed an ICOM R75 receiver from Don, W6CZ, to see if having a search
receiver would help a small station. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it did
help me find new Qs, and also helped spot changes in activity level between two
bands. I did very little CQing, as I feel it's a waste of time in a "big dogs"
contest when you are only running 5w into a wire antenna. S&P was my game for
the weekend.
I was really pleased with my WimpyWire antenna farm. It seemed to get the
job done, especially on 20m. Very few stations got away once I drew a bead on
them, perhaps a dozen or so. It was interesting to see 40 and 15 almost equal
in QSO production, too. Even 80m came through on just my 40m dipole. I ran
up a temporary nonresonant doublet for the search receiver about 15 ft high,
and it worked surprisingly well. Once I even heard a signal on it that I
couldn't hear on my 40 ft high 40m dipole.
I guess my next construction project will have to be some filtering for the
search receiver so it can hear on one band while my TX is on another. At
present it just mutes while the TX is on, pretty much wasting the idea of
searching one band while CQing on another.
I got closer to 24 hours of seat time, but I'm not quite there yet. I need
to do more work on my break and sleep scheduling :-)
All in all, a great contest. After a few days of sleeping regular hours, I'll
be ready to go again.
Hope to see you all in the next contest.
73, Bob N6WG
The Little Station with Attitude
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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