ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: N7ZG
Operator(s): N7ZG
Station: N7ZG
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: WWA
Operating Time (hrs):
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 77
40: 185
20: 278
15: 7
10:
------------
Total: 547 Sections = 77 Total Score = 84,238
Club: Western Washington DX Club
Comments:
First of all congrats to Chris KL9A (@WA7LT), Matt K7BG, and Rex K7QQ (aka
Quack). Iâ??m betting that these guys will win EWA, MT, and WWA in SO-LP. I
havenâ??t seen Chrisâ??s score yet, so NW division is up in the air. I wasnâ??t
all that happy with my score this year, as it was virtually identical to last
yearâ??s. My band totals tell the tale:
2005 2006
80 77 88
40 185 63
20 278 350
15 7 64
=== ===
547 565
I planned my off time primarily for Sunday morning so that I could attend
church services with my family (5 of 6 hrs). I was hoping to get some good
rate on 40 late at night, but I just couldnâ??t get above about 50/hr at best
and only for short periods. On Sat, I tried to use the K1WA on 15 on one radio
with the SteppIR on radio 2 20M. This was not a winning combination as the 15M
totals show. If I had to do it all over again I would have just used one radio
during the high rate periods alternating between 15 and 20. It was fun working
on my SO2R technique, but I feel that SO2R would work best during transitions
in the propagation. SO2R is not a magic bullet and can impede a score as sad
experience proves (in my case). Rate, rate, rateâ?¦ . Note to self, read
this 3830 post next year. But hey, it sure was fun. Iâ??m really starting to
enjoy the long exchange on CW. Iâ??m not so sure about phone though. I
missed only 3 mults. VO1, VE4, and VY1/VE8. They were on â?¦ You guessed
it,,, 15 METERS. I had all the other hard mults like NNY and ND in the log
very early. I was hoping these in demand Canuks would call in during my 20M
runs. Oh well.
I spent quite a bit of time over the last few months working on the station,
trying to squeeze the most out of my little pistol 80 x 100 foot lot. The
inverted Vee for 80 has been placed on the bench for now and has been replaced
by a half-sloper for 80/160. There is a relay at the feed point that switches
in a loading coil for 160 (A trap would be nice, but itâ??s hard enough tuning a
half sloper without that in the mix). Interestingly, it tunes well on 160, but
Iâ??m having a heck of a time getting the VSWR in check on 80M. Iâ??ll use a
tuner for now, but Iâ??m not sure how much power Iâ??m actually radiating. If
anyone actually reading this post has any suggestions, Iâ??d be happy to hear
from you at guy_molinari *AT* hotmail.com. This fallâ??s contests will be the
first full year that the K1WA sloper array will be in use at N7ZG. It
continues to perform well, especially at low angles. I was hearing and working
stations on the east coast before sunset and before sunrise on the first call.
Iâ??m easily seeing F/B ratios of 18-20 db. Iâ??m looking forward to see how
well it works in CQWW. I sure wish I had a decent ground system for all these
slopers. The thought of moving is not at all appealing. I guess itâ??s time to
go to the Caribbean. Also new are 2 fresh runs of surplus RG-214 to replace the
crappy RG-58.
The station:
Radio #1: Elecraft K2/100
Radio #2: ICOM 751A (Piexx computer interface)
3 EL SteppIR at 60ft
K1WA sloper array for 40M (full size dipoles) with homebrew switching system.
Half sloper for 80, swiched loading coil for 160
Homebrew SO2R controller
K1EL WinKey 2
Dunestar individual bandpass filters for 80-10
N1MM software in SO2R mode.
Homebrew stubs, commutate switching, DC over coax injections, and misc
thingies.
I might try to do an informal multi-op with my brother-in-law for SS Phone. He
needs some motivation to upgrade beyond Technician class and this might do the
trick.
CU in CQWW CW SOABLP. Looking at the prop forecasts, this is probably going
to be a 20 only affair, but hey, Iâ??m going to use my hard earned SO2R setup
and 40M array. Even if it hurts the score dammit ;-)
73 - Guy
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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