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
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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