ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 43
40: 252
20: 521
15: 21
10: 0
------------
Total: 837 Sections = 78 Total Score = 130,572
Club:
Comments:
* FT-2000 and N1MM Logger, unassisted
* tribander at 45' (Sunday at 30')
* 40M half-squares
* 80M delta loop
Had a terrific time! 20M and 40M were in great shape for a domestic contest. I
just know the bands are carrying well when quite a few QRP guys beat the Bs in
pileups.
No Murphy visits, and after three years of horrendous power line noise and
running like an earless alligator, I have found a (kludgey) way through the
noise. (More on that below).
80M -- extreme atmospheric noise Saturday night. Western half of NA was
workable but not much beyond that.
40M -- Wow... a hot band. Went to it late afternoon and was actually heard east
of the Rockies. Up and down for a while in early evening, but mostly up. Verdict
is in: half-squares are definitely working better for both DX and domestic than
inv.-V beams and phased delta loops used in the past few years. Can hardly wait
to try out my new secret weapon to EU on 40M in CQWW CW (i.e.: I have revisited
the trusty parasitic vertical array).
20M -- Very good all the way through. Closed down early Saturday evening, but
was open much earlier than I anticipated on Sunday morning. Figured I'd have a
couple hours on 40M waiting for 20M to warm up in the a.m., but no waiting
needed.
15M -- Last year, made 103 Qs for 32 mults here. This year it was a W4-fest and
not much else. 4 mults, 21 Qs.
10M -- Why bother with 20 and 40 wide open? Dead as a doorknob.
Highlights: VY1JA calling in on 40M for NWT (Yukon qualifies, hi). Thanks J.
Oh, and VE4YU calling in for MB (thanks Ed). And, of course, thanks to VO1HE
for NL thanks Paul). And to the KL7s and KH6s who called in -- thanks all. Was
shocked at how many PR and VI stations I worked. Sat at 78 from early Sunday to
the end.
Lowlights: Never hearing WTX or ME. Last year, had 'em both in the bag early
on. Should have been easy finds. Wonder what the big missing-in-action section
was this year? (Hope Noel didn't put Maine ops off the air.) Sure hate to get
to 78 and stall. Guess the years you don't hit 80 are what makes a sweep
special when it happens. Shut out every year except 2004.
Was still dark when I got up Sunday and started working 40M. As pre-dawn light
arrived, I could see throught he shack window a lot of movement out in the back
woods. Then it was light enough to see that the wind was gusting and the
movement was the pine and fir trees snapping around violently. Couldn't hear
the gale with the headphones on. Ran out and cranked down the tower half-way
(hey, it's a contest) to reduce stress on me and the tower. Ran all day Sunday
with the tribander at 30 feet or so. Didn't notice much difference from 45
feet, and the real high angle probably played in my favor.
I was only about 20 per cent S&P. The rare ones found me. The not-so-rare but
needed ME and WTX didn't. Had some long runs -- 188 Qs on 20M early Sunday
morning, and 164 Qs later in the day. Fun stuff for a little station like
this.
Haven't really had to worry before about playing out most of the calls on the
bands. But I noticed as I got up over 800 worked, it was dead slow. Kind of
like climbing a mountain... the air gets way thinner and the work exponentially
harder the higher you go. Don't know where guys with 1,200 Qs were finding the
callers. SO2R must be the answer -- cast a bigger net, boost your pleasure.
Tried SO2V a bit, but just couldn't keep sufficient focus with the complex
exchanges. Kudos to those who can do it in SS. I have to train the brain more.
I was down to 1 every three or four minutes by the end (those calling in were
loud and from all over). Typical late-Sunday doldrums. Even at that pitiful
rate, I figured it was better to CQ than try to find the odd needle in the 40M
haystack.
Took 3 hours off Saturday evening when 80M turned up rotten, and 40M was picked
over. Got back on for a few hours late evening/early Sunday to see daylight
savings time roll in. Got up again at 6 a.m. Pacific and stayed in the chair
for most of the day and into the evening. Yikes. Pounding headache by the end
of it. Forgot to eat all day, and had a glass of water in the morning and was
in flow so deep I never thought to go back for more. Rehydrated, took 2
aspirins and headache disappeared.
About the noise... Last fall, I purchased the MFJ-1026 Noise Canceling box.
Works great when running low power, using the rig's T/R line to switch out the
box on transmit. Haven't used the 1026 when running high power because the
rig's T/R line won't trip both the amp key voltage and the simple
close-to-ground MFJ-1026 in parallel. Until now my choices when beaming US/VE
on 20M-10M have been:
1) go QRO but accept the S7 noise, or
2) go low-power and use the MFJ box (this worked Sunday morning for a while,
but couldn't hold a run freq for long. Sure could hear everyone FB though).
Desperate for noise relief but also needing to get some rate without being
kicked around, I left the rig T/R line going to the amp, and decided to trust
the MFJ-1026's internal RF-sensing T/R circuit. As the 1026 only ever sees
40-50 watts on xmit, it's pretty safe and worked like a charm. Suddenly, I can
run the high bands to US/VE again and use some power at the same time. Very
happy ham here. Bring on CQWW and please do call, stateside ops. The alligator
can hear again.
Year-over-year looks like this:
Year QSOs Pts Sec Score
-------------------------------
2002 370 740 72 53,280
2003 182 -- 52 18,928
2004 580 1160 80 92,800
2005 527 1054 73 76,942
2006 648 1296 79 102,384
2007 837 1674 78 130,572 <- HP
CU you all in CQWW CW and many in SSB SS.
-- Bud, VA7ST
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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