ARRL Sweepstakes - CW
Call: W4PA
Operator(s): W4PA
Station: K4JNY
Class: SO QRP
Section: TN
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
-------------------------------
160: 0
80: 70
40: 299
20: 278
15: 168
10: 77
-------------------------------
Total: 892 x 80 = 142,720
Club: Tennessee Contest Group
Comments:
Scribbles on the notepad next to the rigs
Pre-contest: Arrived @ K4JNY at 12:30. Jeff had everything ready including a
fixed A3S pointed west to allow SO2R operation on the same band simultaneously
if desired. Hooked up A3S to 160m position on stackmatch box for easy access.
NW and NE Beverages not operational. NW was shorted feedpoint and a break.
Fixed both. NE was broken in middle, fixed. NE feedpoint showed evidence of
lightning damage. Matching toroid fried. Jeff uses a propane torch to solder
Beverage wire directly to hardline without toroid. Now ?working? :-)
2100: Contest starts.
2113: Keyboard on laptop freezes during a floppy disc file save. 30 seconds
of tapping and pleading unlocks keyboard without having to reboot the computer.
2206: TR-Log shows a runtime error, a screen full of gibberish and a DOS
prompt. Computer completely frozen. Had to re-boot, lost about 5 mins of op
time. Fingers crossed that this will not continue.
0440: W6HU sends ?00? as check. Brain will not process this information. I
ask for several repeats.
0749: Sleep offtime begins.
1145: Wake up, feeling ragged. Make fresh pot of coffee. I had earlier
awakened at 1110 and jumped out of bed thinking I had overslept and didn?t
really get back to sleep.
1207: Back on air. Need VO1, WY, and NFL for a sweep.
1545: Quick conversation with K3WU on 40m to swap scores.
1753: Rate is dr?a?gg?ing at 12/hr. Decide to take 30 mins off. Still need
VO1 and WY.
1824: Back on air.
1830: VO1MP is on 28.057.5 listening up 1 with a mammoth pileup. I think ?I
AM LOUD?, point the 4/4 stack right at him and snap off a quick ?W4PA?. I do
not work him on the first call. Or the second, third, or fourth. I get the
message.
1928: After an hour of intermittent calling, VO1MP is in the log. Where?s
Wyoming?
1948: SO2R is now SO2T as some genius spends 12 minutes intermittently tuning
his linear on my run freq of 14.018. I slide up 500 Hz after the first couple
of minutes and shake my head and listen on the side of the passband. That guy
will be on the phone with the factory wondering why his amp smoked.
At the same time, I had the S/P rig on 28.070 when someone started tuning an
amp there. Two ears, two bands, two carriers.
2119: W7TSM in Wyoming is on 21.011 running 25 WPM with a small pileup. I
point all the artillery, the TH6 stack, the 4 el 15 and already have the A3S on
him. The low A3S is loudest. I?m calling?..calling?..calling. Please?
2139: W7TSM is in the log for the sweep.
0114: Laptop goes haywire again. During the floppy save backup TR-Log shows
another runtime error, and freezes the computer. I was working K1TH on 20m
during this. My apologies to him. I could hear him sending W4PA NR? NR? but
with no laptop, I have no CW keying. I try to send the number using the TUNE
button on the Omni-VI. This does not work. By the time I get the laptop going
4 mins later he has left and I have to scratch the Q from the log. It also now
occurs to me that the earlier computer crash was also during a floppy save.
Hmmm.?
0143: Last QSO (#892) is with K8LX on 80m. Available op time runs out at
0148. Off 0148-0300.
Bottom line: 892/80 for 142,720 QRP. See you next year!
Scott Robbins, W4PA
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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