ARRL Sweepstakes - CW
Call: WC1M
Operator(s):
Station:
Class: SO High Power
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Section: NH
Summary:
Band QSOs
-------------------------------
160:
80: 141
40: 263
20: 298
15: 155
10: 165
-------------------------------
Total: 1022 x 79 = 161,476
Comments:
Two things I learned in this contest:
1. Never pull an all-nighter the night before a major contest.
2. In SS, work straight through the first 24 hours (escpecially if you know
propagation is likely to deteriorate on Sunday!)
#1 happened because I was frantically rushing to finish building the outboard
keyer/switch for WriteLog. I had planned to have it done much earlier, but as
luck would have it, I had to do a last-minute trip to Seattle earlier in the
week and ran out of time. I was lucky to get the keyer finished at all. The
device wasn't strictly necessary because WriteLog does fine PC generated CW
(*if* I kill the HP scanner process that hogs the CPU.) But the keyer circuit
also provides some important stereo switching from the keyboard, and I wanted
that for SO2R.
#2 is self explanatory. However, I might modify that rule to work the first 23
hours, go to sleep, then work the last hour of the contest. After a very dull
Sunday, things really exploded from 0200Z to 0300Z Monday -- that was really
fun.
This is the first contest in which I worked all of the allowable hours. Perhaps
that's a sign of things to come. I'm pretty sure that switching from coffee to
tea (mostly decaf) a couple of months ago played a part in this, as did
avoiding carbohydrates and eating mostly protein during the contest.
Did my first clean sweep on CW (got one on SSB a couple of years ago), and that
was nice to get in a year that was evidently one of the tougher ones. Got NWT
pretty early in the contest, plus my usual nemesis: MAR. This year KP2 turned
out to be the really rare one, but I managed to find him on the second radio
and worked him split after a few calls. Last year's log shows several other
KP2s on, so I guess this was a thin year down there. Also took some time to
find WY and MT this year, although several MTs showed up after I got the first
one.
The score was a little disappointing, considering that I did only a little
better in QSOs than last year (and last year I only worked 21 hours.) Last year
I only had 76 sections, so that worked out better. I think conditions might
have been better on Sunday last year, and perhaps my strategy was better.
The second radio really helps on the clean sweep, but it's not much help for
boosting the rate -- the exchange is just too long to make much use of the
second radio. The second tribander, new this contest, certainly made things
better, but I expect it will contribute a lot more in a DX contest.
WriteLog worked well, although there are still a couple of items needed for
first-rate SO2R performance. It sure is a pleasure to be able to use a Windows
program for logging. It took several weeks to iron out the configuration issues
and get familiar with the program, so don't expect to buy it the day before the
contest and have no problems!
Although there were times that I wished I could work stations once per band, I
really like SS the way it is. I can't help feeling that my medium-size antenna
farm might someday place in the top ten, provided I can improve my skill and
strategy enough. That's a lot more of a stretch in the DX contests.
73, Dick WC1M
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