ARRL Sweepstakes, CW
Call: WC1M
Operator(s):
Station:
Class: SO HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
-------------------------------
160:
80: 107
40: 360
20: 392
15: 152
10: 252
-------------------------------
Total: 1263 x 80 = 202,080
Club: YCCC
Comments:
Equipment: FT-1000D / Alpha 87A, FT-1000MP / ACOM 2000A
Antennas:
80: delta loop @ 70', trapped vee at 60'
40: 4-square w/60 radials/element
20: 4-el @70', C3E @ 50'
15: 5-el @50', C3E @ 50'
10: C3E @ 50'
That was fun! Conditions were superb on Saturday, best I've seen in SS. Ran 10M
much longer than expected, almost three hours. I had an amazing 54 mults on 10M
-- I'm sure I've never done anywhere near that many on 10M. I kept thinking I
should move down, but the rate was too good -- the 6's and 7's just kept
coming. Seems to me that since you can only work stations once, moving down is
only important for getting stations outside the skip zone or that can't operate
on all bands. The other bands were very quiet until Sunday, making for great
rates and pleasant operating. The new 20M and 15M monobanders worked well,
especially the 20M (30-foot boom). They'll show more of their stuff in the DX
contests. I'm hoping to stick a temporary 10M monobander up before CQWW CW.
I think I could have done a little better had I not been so fumble-fingered in
the early going. It always takes a while to get used to SS. It would have
helped to get to the radio at least 15-30 minutes before the start, but for
some reason I was rushing around getting ready and didn't sit down until just
before the gun went off. Gotta work on that.
As luck would have it, I heard VY1JA warming up on 28026 a couple of minutes
before the contest and snagged him in the first 40 minutes or so. I kept
switching back and forth between VFOs looking for an opening in his pileup. I
probably lost some rate doing that, but since YT is usually near the last of
the sections I get (if I get it), I felt it was worth it. The other tough
sections from here are MAR, sometimes NL, and sometimes VI. Got NL very early
from VE1GO on 20M, at 0038z, got VI from WP2Z at 2338z (15M second radio), but
didn't get MAR from VO1GN until 0602z on 40M. That was my 79th section, by far
the earliest I've ever reached that number. Sometimes I have trouble finding
MS, WY, and MT, but not this year. The last section was RI -- for some reason I
couldn't find until 1233z. Still the earliest sweep I've ever had, by a wide
margin. It's great to be able to concentrate on Qs and forget the mults.
Sunday afternoon was real tough. I was so out of touch with the outside world
that I though the low rate was due to a solar disturbance (there was, in fact,
a satellite proton event.) I didn't realize it was World Series game 7 until I
read the soapbox comments on 3830. Duh! Had I known, I would have saved a bunch
of off time. The last few hours it was very hard to find anyone I hadn't worked
-- only the die-hards and QRPers were still on. For what it's worth, I caught
the amazing 9th inning.
This was a new personal best, over 100 Qs better than last year. I'm sure some
of that came from focusing more on the Q rate in the first six hours --
according to the experts, this contest is won during that period and you can't
make up for lost Qs. I agree. But I have to believe that a good percentage of
the extra Qs came from the great conditions. I wonder what kind of scores could
have been run up if the World Series game had not been a factor.
Tough as it is, this is still one of my favorite contests. I'm out of the
top-ten already (no surprise), but think I'll rank a little better this year
than last. I'm hoping K5ZD will hang in there for a W1 top-ten. See you in CQWW
CW and next year in SS.
73, Dick WC1M
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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