INTRODUCTION: As you recover from SS 'Phone and prepare for CQWW CW, =
you have here the belated SS CW musings of a very little pistol who has =
been almost invisible for over 15 years. I don't pretend to the wisdom =
or literary skill of K3ZO or K5ZD ("The Great North Texas Shootout" in =
an old NCJ is one of my all-time favorites), but if you think you might =
be interested, read on. Otherwise, click on "Next."
BACKGROUND: To understand where we are, we often have to remember from =
where we
came. I used to be a pretty good second-rank SS CW operator, guest =
op-ing at various stations,
and making 1080 QSOs from W4BVVin 1978 (in response to my query, a note =
from K1KI at
ARRL says that a busted call on the KL7 cost me the sweep). In 1982 I =
got married, changed
some major facets of my life style that affected my availability for =
contests, and moved; in 1983
we had twins. No time to put a rig together. Pretty much QRT, except =
for reading QST and
NCJ, and, much later, catching contesting.com on the Web from work. For =
a few years I made
some SS contacts from the club station at work. Then silent for 10 =
years. In 1996 I made 51
contacts using neighbor W3/G3ZCZ's station in an impromptu 3-three hour =
Saturday evening
operation. My log looks like a Who's Who of SS CW.
LAST YEAR: During 1998 I got my old OCFD hung from the tree in the =
backyard. Sunday
morning of SS CW the juices started flowing, so I dragged out the Drake =
T4-X and R4-B and got
everything hooked up on the workbench. The antenna feed system was a =
kluge: 25 feet of
window pane ladder line at the dipole; 40 feet of TV twin lead, snaked =
through the aluminum
casement window into the basement storage room; balun on the floor; =
co-ax across the floor to
the workbench. I couldn't get it matched on 15 meters. I had time for =
one QSO before I ran my
first errand of the day, but I couldn't remember if I still had the =
homebrew keyer's output wired in
the "K3KU circuit" configuration for grid block keying, so I plugged in =
the straight key and
worked KE3Q (Go, PVRC!). What a thrill; he even knew my name! When I =
got home I hooked
up the keyer, and I managed about 80 QSOs in a few hours of on-and-off =
operation, standing up
at the workbench. Another Who's Who for a log, but what a blast it was.
Operation was terminated as we were finishing dinner (about 2300Z), when =
my son reported
"There's smoke coming out of your ham radio." I ran downstairs and saw =
the smoke coming out
of the RF section of the T4-X. As I tried to remember which knob turned =
it off, there was a flash
and pop from inside the smoke. I yanked out the AC line plug. I =
discovered that when I had
given up trying to match the antenna on 15, I had turned the wrong knob, =
and had left the
transmitter in TUNE -- for over three hours. Later, I found a =
replacement pair of 6JB6's in my
radio stuff. I don't know if they were matched -- or even if they were =
unused -- but the
transmitter seemed to work. I packed away the station, dreaming of next =
year.
THIS YEAR: For 1999 I did a little preparation, although I worked to a =
zero budget. I
improved the antenna feed system by moving the balun outside and =
splicing together three pieces
of RG-58 to get from the rig to the balun. (This co-ax is probably over =
25 years old.) I set up the
rig on a counter so I could sit down to operate, albeit with the rig and =
keyer paddle at armpit
height. I kept the paper log on a clipboard on my lap. The old homebrew =
ePROM message
generator for the keyer had a bunch of broken wires on its cable =
connectors, so I had to go with
the paddles all the way. I couldn't get full output on some bands -- =
maybe I was supposed to
tweak some trimmers in the T4-X when I replaced the tubes -- but I did =
manage to work an S5 on
40 CW. All right! Ready to go!
I got started Saturday night about 0100Z. I relied on my experience to =
tell me when to change
bands, figuring my volume would come from 40 and either 80 or 20, =
depending on conditions.=20
Hit the high bands for Western multipliers. I figured that with limited =
operating time I could
average 20 QSOs/hour. I had several other things to do on Sunday, and I =
had to finish by 0100Z
Sunday night to attend a class. I hoped that by operating most of =
Saturday night and as much as
I could of Sunday, I could make over 200 QSOs, figuring on a multiplier =
in the high 60's. The big
question was whether I would be able to CQ at all, even on 40 in the =
morning, which used to
work for me.
Well, it worked just like I figured. My family was extremely =
cooperative, letting me play radio for
over 15 hours all together. (My Sunday evening class was a disaster; I =
kept falling asleep listening
to the teacher.) I got 310 valid QSOs: 10 on 80 meters; 208 on 40; 86 =
on 20; and 6 on 15. I
didn't try 10 meters because I couldn't remember which crystal positions =
were for 28.0 MHz in the
Drakes. My signal was VERY weak, but I had so much noise and hum in the =
R4-X that I wasn't
going to hear any weak signals. S&P was a struggle, and I raised only =
four or five QSOs on CQs,
most of those while trying to attract a multiplier. I got asked for =
lots of fills (some maybe from
running together the check digits 6 0). My band changes were pretty =
good. I thought that 74
Sections was great until I saw how well the other modest stations did. =
Still, it shows that I didn't
do everything completely wrong. Heard QC and MAR S&P-ing, but couldn't =
attract them.=20
Heard the KP2 pile-up, but didn't spend much time in it; we don't rely =
on miracles. Never heard
ND or YT (seeing VY1JA's activity, this was probably a tactical error on =
my part). Total score, a
whopping 45,880.
Being in SS CW and catching all those neat multipliers was a big thrill, =
but the high spot of the
contest was working old friends. Notably, hometown boy N6XI, who had =
telephoned to say hello
when he visited his parents (OM K3QDC) the week before SS. I met Rick =
when he was
KN3QDD (CK 61). Also, W1MX classmate W6OAT, who showed me in 1962 how =
the big guns
do it. (W4ZV was also in that class at W1MX, along with a few other =
then-active contesters.=20
We had followed W4RX and K2KIR, and we were followed by a host of other =
well-knowns --
including K3QDD. I got us disqualified from 1963 ARRL DX CW by calling =
TI2LA out of the
band; I had zero beat him with a VFO birdie from the CE 200V, and the =
real carrier was on about
6.9 Mc/s; the FCC noticed.) Biggest ego stroke was being remebered by =
K4BAI (op at W4AN),
with whom I had operated at PJ2CC on 20 meters in CQ CW about 1980. In =
appreciation, when
I heard John calling CQ in 'Phone SS last Sunday afternoon I dug out the =
mike and gave him my
only QSO.
OBSERVATIONS: Other than the escalation in antennas and towers and in =
receiver
performance, the biggest change in the CW SS in the last 18 years is the =
increased agility. This
comes from computer logging and station control, from the change to CW =
transceive, from the
second radio, and probably some from the automatic antenna tuners. The =
footswitch spotting
mod I added to the T4-X was hi-tech in the late '60s, but it slows down =
S&P compared to
transceive that really works. Having to rotate three bandswitches and =
manually tune the rx
preselector, and the tx, and the matchbox means that the big guns make =
five QSOs every time you
change bands.
The skill of the top operators is amazing. They hear the weak ones =
(me), they copy through the
QRM, they do umpteen things at once, and they don't get flustered. And =
the perseverance of the
little guns is also amazing, especially those who are working to improve =
their skills, and especially
the rare multipliers who press on for our benefit (I doubt that somebody =
in YT or VI really needs
another MDC). Rather than complain about the some newby multiplier's =
having trouble managing
the pile-up, I prefer to remark the skill of N7NG: a whole call pulled =
out of the mess every time.=20
It took me two sorties to work him, and even after I got him I listened =
for a while.
SO OVER TO YOU FOR YOUR FINAL: I'm amused to see people complain that =
their score
was held down because they couldn't get the computers networked to =
control the second radio. I
had only two problems with my logging software. I kept breaking the =
lead on my Pentel pencil,
and the the 11"x17" dupe sheet (produced by K3KU for PVRC in 1979) =
couldn't quite fit onto the
counter space in front of the rig.
If the only guys who got in the contest were the ones who don't enter =
unless they have a chance
of winning, then 150 QSOs could win. Maybe you outscored me, but I'll =
bet I had more fun. Just
ask my family.
My first off time came after only 30 minutes. A co-congregant called to =
tell me that their adult
son had at last succumbed to his long illness, and to ask if I could =
help set up the arrangements for
the mourning period. There may be few things more fun than ham radio, =
but for sure there are a
lot of things more important.
Thanks for reading. 73 ES CUL.
--
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