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[3830] SS SSB W5KFT(WM5R) Single Op HP

To: 3830@contesting.com, wm5r@arrl.net
Subject: [3830] SS SSB W5KFT(WM5R) Single Op HP
From: webform@b4h.net
Reply-to: wm5r@arrl.net
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 12:11:15 -0800
List-post: <mailto:3830@contesting.com>
                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: W5KFT
Operator(s): WM5R
Station: W5KFT

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: EM00st
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  253
   40:  474
   20:  391
   15:  583
   10:    0
------------
Total: 1701  Sections = 79  Total Score = 268,758

Club: 

Comments:

This is the second time I've tried this contest as a single operator.

Last year, K5PI and I could not get the WX0B SO2R Master to work on phone 
at all, and I had to abandon it before the start of the contest.  This year, 
we hooked up a Top Ten Devices DXDoubler instead, and it worked fine.  There 
were no major equipment problems to hold me back this year.  Just me :-)

I was hoping to get off to a better start this year, but I had an almost 
identical first five hours.  My first hour last year was 147 QSOs, this year
it was 149 QSOs.  After five hours last year, I was at 590 QSOs, this year 
I was at 595 QSOs.  I had some carrier (at one point, two carriers) jamming 
on my 15M run frequency from 2230 UTC to 2245 UTC, but it didn't make any 
difference.  I was stunned at how early the bands closed this year.  I had
K5TR's rate sheet from last year on hand as a guide to where I wanted to be
when.  This year, both 15 meters and 20 meters became unproductive hours 
earlier than they did last year.  Just three weeks ago, in the CQWW Phone 
contest, fifteen meters was open and productive into the 0500 and 0600 
UTC hours.  This weekend, the band died, for all intents and purposes from a 
single operator perspective, before 2300 UTC.  When I did a second-radio scan 
of the 15 meter band at 2356 UTC, there was not a single signal on the band. 
So, this really threw me for a loop.  One of the things I know that I need 
to get better at is getting off to a big start.  I really need to be getting 
my 140 and 120 hours up to 160 and 150 hours.  Part of this is learning how
to make band changes and being more or less instantly productive.  Part of it 
is just practicing running technique fundamentals.

I did comparatively better the rest of Saturday evening.  Last 
year, I quit for the evening around 0700 UTC with 837 QSOs, this year I quit
around 0800 UTC with 1001 QSOs.  I did a lot better on 40 and 80 than
I did last year - maybe the low bands were in better shape - with 
75, 78, 49, 51, 80, and 71 hours this year versus 74, 43, 31, 50, and 49 
hours last year.  80 meters was especially nice to me this year, 
even without Beverage antennas.  The rate tailed off sharply from 0745 UTC
to 0800 UTC when I quit, but maybe in retrospect I should have stayed on the 
air a little longer.

Sunday morning, I started off a little too early.  I got on briefly in 
the 1200 UTC hour, worked a couple of Caribbean stations on 20 meters, and 
quickly realized that my left amplifier (an Ameritron AL-1200) wasn't keying.
I decided to use one of my three half-hour off-times remaining to me 
and let the bands warm up a bit more while I looked into the problem.
I spent ten minutes or so before I solved it.  When I went to sleep, 
I had turned off one of the desk lamps by unplugging it - the on/off switch 
was broken (ironically, by me, several years ago, during a VHF contest.)  
Apparently, when I yanked that power cable out of the surge protector, I 
also accidentally unplugged the keying line from a Y-adaptor cable at the 
back of the radio - something not easy to see in the clump of cables behind 
the desk.

I lost ground, compared to last year, on Sunday.  I started Sunday 164 
QSOs ahead and finished on 73 QSOs ahead of my total last year by the end 
of the day.  In part this might be because I had one fewer hour of 
Sunday to operate, having stayed up an hour later than I did last year,
but still, I think I should be able to improve on that.  I first went to 
15 meters in the 1700 UTC hour and immediately began hearing backscatter
echoes of my own signal.  It didn't turn into great rate right away, though.
The 1800 UTC hour turned out be a big one for me, where I actually made 101 
QSOs before dupes (94 after dupes) on 15 meters.  I had some terrible hours
on Sunday, though.  Last year, my two bad hours below 50 QSOs/hr were 41 
and 43, but this year I had 49, 46, 39, and 21 QSO hours when I took 
no off-time.  Ideally, I should be making at least 60 QSOs/hr all day Sunday, 
but it's very, very hard to keep the intensity and focus up, and this is one
of the things I need to really work on to get better.  I think this year may 
have been worse, because the poor conditions really concentrated a lot of 
stations in less bandwidth and the QRM was so much worse than last year.  
This is my first solar cycle decline, so maybe I wasn't really psychologically

prepared for what happened.

One of the most frustrating moments of the weekend was around 2350 UTC
Sunday.  I'd been working stations at a decent clip somewhere near 14160 kHz
for a quite a while, when suddenly the station below me left - changed bands 
or took an off-time - and I was able to slide down a little and I had the 
most perfectly clean, beautiful run frequency I had had all weekend.  And the 
callers just tapered off until 0008 UTC, when I had gone for six full minutes
without a single answer to my CQs.  I had to go to 40 meters to work anyone.
The frequency was so wonderful.  It was just so heart-breaking.

The second-to-last hour of the contest the most painful.  I made only 21 QSOs.
I really could not get anything going anywhere I tried.  20 meters was
gone, and 80 meters wasn't there yet.  

I never worked the Northern Territories, and I was afraid I'd finish with 
only 78 multipliers, as I had not worked Newfoundland, either, but a VO1 
station called in on 80 meters and worked me in the final ten minutes of 
the contest.  I never did hear either VY1JA or VY1MB.  Every other section
I worked at least three times, except Alaska, which I only worked once.
I heard maybe a dozen signals on 10 meters all weekend, all stations I had
worked before, and I never bothered to check out 160 meters.

In the second hour of the contest I had the most bizarre exchange given to 
me by an LAX station: "Please copy four one alpha..."  There was a slight
pause, almost not worth noticing, between the four and the one, so I decided
to get a a repeat on the number and precedence, just to be sure, by asking, 
"Is that forty-one alpha?"  "No, no, it's four one alpha."  "Your number and
precedence is forty-one alpha, QSL?"  "It's four one alpha, four one alpha." 
"So, it's forty-one alpha?"  "No, negative, it's four one alpha."  "The number

is four one, forty-one?"  "Negative, the number is four."  "The number is 
just four?"  "QSL."  "OK, what's your precedence?"  "One alpha.  The 
precedence is one alpha."  Sigh.

Thanks to Robert Brandon K5PI, who came out to the station Friday night 
to make sure everything was ready to go on Saturday.  Thanks to Bryan W5KFT 
for letting me use his fabulous radio station on the lake.


----

Station:                                                                      
http://www.kkn.net/~w5kft/

160 - Inverted V @ 145'

 80 - Sloping dipoles - NE, NW from 150', SE from 135'

 40 - Cushcraft 40-2CD @ 150', rotatable
      Cushcraft 40-2CD @ 70', fixed NE 

 20 - Hy-Gain 204BA @ 157', rotatable
      Hy-Gain 204BA @ 105', fixed NE
      Hy-Gain 204BA @ 53', fixed NE
      Hy-Gain TH7DXX @ 60', rotatable

 15 - Hy-Gain 155CA @ 135', rotatable
      Hy-Gain 155CA @ 90', fixed NE
      Hy-Gain 155CA @ 45', fixed NE
      Hy-Gain TH7DXX @ 60', rotatable

 10 - Hy-Gain 105CA @ 140', rotatable
      Hy-Gain 105CA @ 100', fixed NE
      Hy-Gain 105CA @ 60', fixed NE
      Hy-Gain 105CA @ 30', fixed NE
      Hy-Gain TH7DXX @ 60', rotatable

Radio 1:  Kenwood TS-850SAT, Ameritron AL-1200
Radio 2:  Kenwood TS-850SAT, Ameritron AL-1500
Headset:  Heil Proset
DVK:      W9XT Contest Card
Software: TR Log 6.78
Other:    SX0B StackMatches, Ameritron RCS-8V switches, ICE bandpass filters, 
          Top Ten Devices Band Decoders, Top Ten Devices DXDoubler, CDE rotors


  HOUR   80SSB   40SSB   20SSB   15SSB   TOTAL   ACCUM
  ----  ------  ------  ------  ------   -----   -----
   21       0       0       0     149     149     149
   22       0       0      11      93     104     253
   23       0       0     111       0     111     364

    0       0     112      18       0     130     494
    1       0      41      60       0     101     595
    2       2      68       5       0      75     670
    3       5      73       0       0      78     748
    4      33      16       0       0      49     797
    5      40      11       0       0      51     848
    6      80       0       0       0      80     928
    7      71       0       0       0      71     999
    8       2       0       0       0       2    1001
    9       0       0       0       0       0    1001
   10       0       0       0       0       0    1001
   11       0       0       0       0       0    1001
   12       0       0       2       0       2    1003
   13       0      43      14       0      57    1060
   14       0      11      38       0      49    1109
   15       0       1      60       0      61    1170
   16       0       3      36       0      39    1209
   17       0       0       5      56      61    1270
   18       0       0       0      94      94    1364
   19       0       0       0      28      28    1392
   20       0       0       1      67      68    1460
   21       0       0       0      50      50    1510
   22       0       0       2      46      48    1558
   23       0       0      25       0      25    1583

    0       0      50       1       0      51    1634
    1       4      15       2       0      21    1655
    2      16      30       0       0      46    1701

  TOTAL   253     474     391     583


--
The best 60 minute rate was 150/hour from 2103 to 2202
The best 30 minute rate was 160/hour from 2103 to 2132
The best 10 minute rate was 174/hour from 2103 to 2112

The best 1 minute rates were:
 4 QSO's/minute    8 times.
 3 QSO's/minute  132 times.
 2 QSO's/minute  373 times.
 1 QSO's/minute  527 times.

There were 50 bandchanges and 11 probable 2nd radio QSO's.

Number of letters in callsigns
Letters  # worked
-----------------
   3         1
   4       820
   5       640
   6       232
   7         4
   8         2
   9         1
  10         1

------------ M u l t i p l i e r   S u m m a r y ------------
Mult     160     80     40     20     15     10  Total    Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------
Il         0     21     43     10      7      0     81    4.6
Oh         0     16     25     20     16      0     77    4.4
Scv        0      7     16     15     35      0     73    4.1
Va         0      3     11     21     36      0     71    4.0
Mi         0      6     22     15     23      0     66    3.7
WWa        0      5      5     14     33      0     57    3.2
Mdc        0      7      9     10     30      0     56    3.2
In         0      1     30      6      4      0     41    2.3
Sv         0      4     11     11     14      0     40    2.3
Mn         0     10     17     11      2      0     40    2.3
Ep         0      3      6     17     13      0     39    2.2
NNj        0      2      2     13     22      0     39    2.2
Eb         0      1     13      5     17      0     36    2.0
Wi         0      3     21      6      6      0     36    2.0
Tn         0      6     22      4      4      0     36    2.0
Nc         0      5     13      6     11      0     35    2.0
Az         0      8     12      7      7      0     34    1.9
WNy        0      3      1     17     12      0     33    1.9
Em         0      3      1      6     19      0     29    1.6
Or         0      3      4      8     14      0     29    1.6
Co         0      8     18      0      2      0     28    1.6
Sjv        0      9      6      4      8      0     27    1.5
ENy        0      2      6      6     11      0     25    1.4
NFl        0      2      6      7      8      0     23    1.3
On         0      0      3     11      9      0     23    1.3
Nh         0      1      3      5     13      0     22    1.2
Lax        0      1      6      4     11      0     22    1.2
Ga         0      3      8      8      3      0     22    1.2
NLi        0      1      0      9     11      0     21    1.2
Ct         0      2      2      4     13      0     21    1.2
Org        0      4      1      8      8      0     21    1.2
SFl        0      0      3     10      8      0     21    1.2
STx        0      7      5      1      7      0     20    1.1
Ky         0      2      8      4      5      0     19    1.1
WPa        0      1      7      4      6      0     18    1.0
Bc         0      4      0      3     11      0     18    1.0
Id         0      1      0      7      9      0     17    1.0
Ew         0      1      3      5      8      0     17    1.0
NTx        0     11      4      0      2      0     17    1.0
WcF        0      3      3      4      6      0     16    0.9
Mo         0      4     12      0      0      0     16    0.9
SNj        0      1      1      6      7      0     15    0.8
Sdg        0      2      1      2      8      0     13    0.7
Nv         0      4      3      3      3      0     13    0.7
Ia         0      4      6      3      0      0     13    0.7
Al         0      3      9      0      1      0     13    0.7
Ks         0      7      4      0      2      0     13    0.7
Sf         0      1      3      1      7      0     12    0.7
Sb         0      0      3      2      7      0     12    0.7
Me         0      0      1      7      4      0     12    0.7
WMa        0      1      1      3      7      0     12    0.7
Nm         0      4      7      1      0      0     12    0.7
Wv         0      2      2      2      5      0     11    0.6
Vt         0      2      3      2      4      0     11    0.6
Sd         0      6      4      1      0      0     11    0.6
NNy        0      1      1      1      6      0      9    0.5
Mt         0      1      2      4      2      0      9    0.5
Ri         0      1      1      4      3      0      9    0.5
Ms         0      4      5      0      0      0      9    0.5
Sc         0      1      2      4      2      0      9    0.5
Qc         0      0      0      2      6      0      8    0.5
Nd         0      2      4      2      0      0      8    0.5
Ar         0      5      2      0      1      0      8    0.5
Ab         0      1      0      2      4      0      7    0.4
Ne         0      2      4      1      0      0      7    0.4
Ok         0      4      1      0      2      0      7    0.4
De         0      0      1      2      3      0      6    0.3
Wy         0      2      2      1      1      0      6    0.3
Ut         0      0      3      2      1      0      6    0.3
La         0      4      2      0      0      0      6    0.3
Mb         0      0      1      2      2      0      5    0.3
Mar        0      1      0      1      3      0      5    0.3
Vi         0      0      1      2      2      0      5    0.3
Pac        0      0      0      0      4      0      4    0.2
WTx        0      2      2      0      0      0      4    0.2
Pr         0      0      2      1      1      0      4    0.2
Sk         0      0      2      0      1      0      3    0.2
Ak         0      0      0      1      0      0      1    0.1
Nl         0      1      0      0      0      0      1    0.1
Nt         0      0      0      0      0      0      0    0.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total      0    253    474    391    583      0   1701

Callareas   Worked
Area   QSOs    Pct
------------------
   0   141     8.3
   1   136     8.0
   2   175    10.3
   3   153     9.0
   4   220    12.9
   5    93     5.5
   6   254    14.9
   7   203    11.9
   8   161     9.5
   9   165     9.7

Sweepstakes Precedents
Precedent  QSOs    Pct
----------------------
    A      916    53.9
    B      315    18.5
    Q       82     4.8
    M      152     8.9
    U      223    13.1
    S       13     0.8


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