Years ago when I ran the ARRL SS I could sit on 10, 15, and 20 and run
W1,2,3, 8, 9 (Va W4) and VE for hours from South West Mississippi. I had
fair luck on 40 but 80 was mostly S&P. When the band switched west the
operation was closer to operating in Georgia as the W6 and W7 and western W0
were mostly running and not looking for S& P so I had to S&P.
In those days the places to operate were W6, W5, and parts of W7. I was
about as far east in W5 as possible and still be competitive. W6 stations
took a big QSO lead at first and then fell behind. The last several hours
were usually peaking west so they could sometimes catch up and even pass me.
I still never figured out how K6EVR got 140 to `170 contacts in the first
hour and a half when I struggled to 70 or 80 (back then 60 per hour was a
real run on EITHER mode!).
I agree with John K4BAI that the SS allows the normal station to be
competitive. I ran 500 watts to a single 4-400A and a Gonset Tri-Bander at
50 feet with wires 40 and 80. Since we had a power mult back then I
borrowed a 4-125A from W5GRP and ran 150 watts input.
Turns out I learned later several ran High Power and claimed the mult and I
guess that is why ARRL finally dropped the mult. Sure made me feel great
to run stations and place well
with 150 watts. My local competition W5DQK ran a BW 5100 and a 75A3
receiver. Shelton used a stack of 2 el Telrex beams and you could almost
touch the bottom 20. I think he used 30 feet of Rohn 6 or 20 and how the
antennas turned through the thick pines on his lot I will never know. I
remember the WA2 who came to visit me in 1962 or 1963 was surprised at both
our stations and antennas.
Even being handicapped by operating from Georgia I see no reason why a
normal station with a linear and tri-bander cannot make 1500 QSOs on phone
and 12 or 1300 on CW. I remember talking with John K1AR when we both worked
at Wang. He was very upset with
not being competitive from New England (hard to break into the top 10)
although he had good success in DX contests.
So jump into the SS and go for it. I always look around for local Georgia
stations so don't be surprised if I give you a contact.
73 Dave K4JRB
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