ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: W6YX
Operator(s): AA6XV, N7MH
Station: W6YX
Class: School Club HP
QTH: Stanford University
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 164
40: 294
20: 707
15: 262
10:
------------
Total: 1427 Sections = 80 Total Score = 228,320
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Our plan up until the day before the contest was that Nick/KZ2V and I would be
24-hour alumni operators and we'd recruited a couple of our student members to
put in as much time as they could for a multi-op W6YX class S effort.
Dave/AA6XV was also available part-time as an alum, if needed.
A last minute opportunity for Nick to operate at W7RN left me as the only
full-time operator. Our student members were going to drop in to help but in
the end they were no-shows.
Rebar/N6CCH and I reorganized the station on Friday evening so that a separate
effort signing K6SU could operate from a different room in the shack. For the
W6YX effort we used a couple of FT1000MP Mark V rigs, with an Alpha-78 amp on
the run radio and the second radio barefoot.
We've learned that we can have 2 operations active at the same time on 80, 40,
20 and 10 meters by pointing antennas in specific directions that null out
interference and by having enough frequency separation. The only times that we
really had any interference issues were when one or the other station was
pouncing on a packet spot too close to the other station's run frequency.
I opted to start on 20 meters since we don't have a good solution for running
two stations on 15 at the same time. A couple of years ago I had averaged
close to 150 an hour for the first several hours on 20 but this year there just
weren't enough callers and I was at 400 Q's after 4 hours. That's when the rain
static really began to get bad and only the loudest stations could be worked.
I dropped down to 40 and found that below 7200 was packed with everyone trying
to avoid the broadcast carriers. My choice was to try to muscle into a spot
below 7200 or try running above 7200 and deal with the broadcasters. I opted
for the latter and tried to position myself to minimize the broadcast carrier
interference. Rain static was S9+20 or greater on the Yagi so I listened on
the Beverages where it was only S7. Our Beverages do not receive as well as
the Yagi on 40 so I'm sure that there were many weak callers that were not even
heard. When I noticed that I'd only worked 28 stations in a clock hour I took
an unplanned hour break.
AA6XV arrived during this break and Dave and I split the run operating the rest
of the evening. We tried to pounce on packet spots on the second radio but
since it was barefoot we didn't often get through unless no one else was
calling. It was more productive to search for unspotted stations and call them
than to wait in line for one that had been spotted.
I went home to sleep and returned to the shack ready to start again, having
taken our full 6 hours off. Rebar and Joanna/K6YRU already had K6SU on 40 in
the other room using the Yagi so at the appointed minute I started trying to
jump on packet spots on 40 using our inverted vee. All of the more easterly
stations had pileups of other nearby stations and weren't hearing me. I tried
CQing but the broadcast carriers above 7200 were even louder than they had been
in the evening and no one called. I moved up to 20 and saw a spot for VO1TA who
was about S7 so I tried calling him for a few minutes fruitlessly. Someone
finally answered my CQ on 20 for the first QSO after the break, 17 minutes
after I had started trying to work someone.
The rate on 20 picked up and got up to about 80 an hour. We needed 2 mults, ND
and NL. When I first got to 20 I couldn't hear N0GF at the spotted frequency
but 20 minutes later returned and quickly got ND with an S9+ signal.
Several VO stations had been spotted on 15 so I listened there on the second
radio. I didn't think I'd easily break the pileups barefoot so I moved the run
radio there, worked VO1KVT, and tried running on 15. The rate was slower than
on 20 so I moved back to 20.
15 was better later in the morning but most of the day was spent on 20. Dave
returned with 3 or 4 hours left in the contest and he took over the run radio
just as we moved to 40.
I was glad that the contest was over for this year and hopeful for better
conditions with no rain static in future years.
73,
-Mike, N7MH
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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