ARRL Sweepstakes, SSB
Call: VE7FO
Operator(s): VE7FO
Station: VE7FO
Class: SO LP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 22:20
Summary:
Band QSOs
-------------------------------
160: 0
80: 128
40: 13
20: 52
15: 177
10: 601
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Total: 971 x 80 = 155,360
Club:
Comments:
What a roller-coaster world contesting is.
CQ WW SSB Oct 27 - Fabulous fun, on a total high when it ended
SS CW Nov 3 - Gloom, despond
SS SSB Nov 17 - Personal life-time best for max rate and number of Qs in any
contest
CURRENT STATUS:
Those who read my SS CW story on 3830 may be wondering what's happening with
the TVI and telephone problems. Well, took a little TV set into the
neighbour's house, plugged it into their cable instead of their TV and, NO TVI.
They didn't care. To make a long, and unfinished, story short we had a pretty
good discussion the next day, they phoned the Gov't department involved in
regulating ham radio in Canada and now seem resigned to buying a new TV. I
installed a couple of disc bypass caps on their phone line which took care of
that problem. Sure eats up the time which could be better spent on antennas
(or fixing my sound card).
I have moved into the basement shack and it works. Went to a lot of trouble to
soundproof it. Can now barely hear the TV or stereo playing in the room
directly above the shack. I was going to say that my wife has to yell really
loud from the top of the basement stairs before I notice, but I didn't want to
give the wrong impression as to why I soundproofed the shack.
Rotor control box, which was still on the 2nd floor in CW SS is now sitting on
the dryer in the basement. Cable too short at the moment to reach shack.
PREPARATION:
I was determined that, for a change, I was going to be ready for a contest a
day before it started. Perhaps I made the mistake of saying that out loud.
All that was left to do was to set up TRLog for the contest and record the
appropriate voice messages to use with the sound card DVP. I have recently
been having problems accessing the sound card. Sometimes the volume control
icon in the Win98 system tray shows up after booting and, more often, it
doesn't. Well, I fought with this until 3 am Saturday, posted a message on the
TRLog reflector asking for help, shut down the computer and went to bed. Up at
11 am, in the shack at 12, SS starts at 1. Boot the computer and, lo and
behold, there is the volume control icon. Connected rig to sound card and
found card now outputs only garbage. However, it does do it all the time and
it is more than loud enough to overdrive the rig. Checked e-mail and read the
responses to my plea for help (thanks everyone) and decided I didn't have time
to do anything about it. Sent the wife out for throat lozenges (again).
WHAT HAPPENED:
The last contest without DVP I decided to mostly S&P to save my throat. This
time, as even with my modest antennas I know I can hold a run frequency for a
while, I decided Qs were more important. Realize I am going to have to do some
S&P to get the Wy and Nl sections I missed in CW SS.
2107Z - S&P on 10, first Q.
2111Z - 2nd Q, Mb, wow.
2112Z - 3rd Q. Wy, I don't believe this.
2159Z - Still on 10, 55 Qs, 30 sections including Mar. Looks like I could be
in for a fun time.
2259Z - Still on 10, 135 Qs, 46 sections including Nv and Bc. Don't know if I
have ever had an 80 hour before.
2359Z - Still on 10, 225 Qs, 56 sections including Sc, which I missed in CW SS.
I know I've never had a 90 hour before. At one point the 10 minute rate meter
said an astonishing 144/hr. Ham heaven.
0043Z - Switch to 15 with 285 Qs and 61 sections, including Ut. I guess 60 Qs
in 43 min isn't good enough for me any more. Then again, I might have
consulted my propagation info and realized I was on the wrong band to pick up
some of the harder mults.
0059Z - I'm claiming that it was the propagation info. 303 Qs and 3 more
sections, Vi, Qc and Nl. Visions of my first ever sweep.
0132Z - 326 Qs, and still 64 sections. QRT (sigh) to go out for unexpected
dinner with close relatives who I love more than giving up time from CQ WW next
week. Turns out it might have been better to take the time from next week's WW
than SS.
0530Z - Back at it. 15 dead so fire up on (shudder) 20.
0549Z - Feeling pretty good about my performance. At this point only 9
stations have given me a number that was 30 more than the one I gave them. One
was VO1MP and 3 were Multi ops. Oh man, I'm starting to feel like one of those
guys who know what they're doing. Hey, maybe at least a Section Award for VE7.
Work VE7CC who I know is doing a single op. I give him #334. He gives me
#1026. I think about taking up astronomy, which I put aside when I got back
into ham radio a year or so ago.
0552Z - Oh well, call W7GG. I give him #335. He gives me #1025. I can't take
any more of this and switch to (shudder) 40 on my dipole.
0605Z - Not much happening on 40. Made 3 Qs. Switch to 80. Instantly work
Sk. Heals the wounds a little.
0715Z - 380 Qs, 70 sections. Switch to 20. Well, you never know.... Work
Qc
and Vi again. Wonder if there is a market for sections I don't need. Surely
Qc is worth at least an Inrad filter to someone.
0723Z - Back to 80 with 384 Qs and 70 sections. At this time in CW SS I had
250 Qs and 70 sections but this time I've already knocked off most of the tough
ones, so feel that I'm way ahead, at least in the little sand box that I play
in.
1000Z - 475 Qs, 75 sections. Have been switching between 80 and 40. The
neighbours (remember them?) have set their alarm to 1000Z to wake them up so
they can watch the Leonids meteor shower. The clock radio goes off at the
appointed hour and the gentle music is fully modulated to the radio's max
output capability by VE7FO working SS. So, already they're seeing stars and
they aren't even out of the bedroom yet!
1018Z - 479 Qs, 75 sections. Pretty slow. Decide to QRT, get some sleep and
maybe get the rate back up again when I get up. Go up on the roof deck, look
at a few meteors (very spectacular) and go to bed worrying about Nd, Nwt, Pr,
and, of all things, Sb. Not worried about Pac.
1808Z - Back at it on 10.
1818Z - Work Pac.
1827Z - Work Nd.
1831Z - Consult propagation info and conclude that I am on the wrong band to
work Nwt. Switch to 15 and start S&P for VE8/VY1. As is my custom, I start
down in the cw band and QSY up.
1835Z - The first phone station I find is VY1VY. Work him. "Yes, yes, yes".
1857Z - Work Sb. One to go, Pr.
1900z - 498 Qs, 79 sections. Consult propagation info which tells me I'm on
the wrong band for Pr. Switch to 10.
1959Z - 580 Qs, 79 sections. An 82 hour.
2053Z - 664 Qs, 79 sections. An 84 hour.
2113Z - A somewhat bemused WP3R listens to me yelling, "A Sweep, A Sweep, the
first one in my life!", and is nice enough to spend the time to congratulate
me. Now I can forget S&P and CQ my heart (and throat) out.
2155Z - 704 Qs, 80 sections. Thinking I might break 1000. Getting slow.
Switch to 15.
2233Z - 730 Qs. This is better? Back to 10.
0015Z - 834 Qs. Back to 15. Just came off a 67 hour but 10 is fading fast.
Got a bit less than 3 hours to make 166 Qs. Hmmm....
0059Z - 859 Qs. Well, that was a 60 hour. I gotta chance.
0153Z - 934 Qs. Neighbours call. While they realize I'm in an important
International Competition and they have tolerated not being able to watch TV,
their daughter has a homework assignment which requires access to the Internet.
Everytime I transmit, her connection is dropped. I suggest that I change
bands and, if there is the slightest hint of interference, they are to phone me
and I will shut down. They agree. Switch to 20 (shudder).
0259Z - 974 Qs. Wow. Not 1,000 but damn good compared to my usual 600 or so.
HUMOUR:
In CW SS I missed Wy. In this one I worked 6 of them. (Well, maybe this is
irony rather than humour.)
I mentioned earlier my sound card problems and request for help on the net. I
was very startled when a 4 said, "Hey Jim, did you get your computer working?"
One time when I was on 20 I was wondering whether I was getting clobbered by
QRM so asked someone, "How's the QRM on me?" He made a suitable answer
followed by someone else breaking in, saying, "Hey, it looks really good on
you." Took me 3 minutes to regain my composure before I could call CQ without
breaking up.
Was amused to hear a VY1 imposing "time-outs" on the unruly children in the
pileup, i.e. telling them to go away for 3 minutes and when they come back to
shut up until he said QRZ. I thought his approach was very charitable. In the
same position I might have been tempted to work the guy and not put him in my
log. Maybe hand out serial # 10,000 to each one of them.
I was horrified to see TRLog disappear from my screen to be replaced by a
message from Windows saying the printer was out of paper. Turns out my
daughter was trying to print something over the network to the printer on my
computer. Not as bad as a cw test where I was using the parallel port for
keying and she sent a print job to the MkV.
SUMMARY:
First ever sweep. I used to dream of doing this when I first got on the air in
the 50s.
Got on the air last year after, I think, 30+ years. In last year's phone SS
did 406 Qs and 76 sections. (In the 1966 phone SS I did 184 Qs and 60
sections. Good enough to win the VE7 Section Award. Times have sure changed.)
I notice a big improvement in my operating skills over the year. Last year I
would often forget the guy's call while typing it into the log. Very
embarassing to ask for a fill on the call when he's 20 over 9 and you know he
knows it. None of that now. I have even got to the point where when several
call I can sometimes remember part of a call that I didn't answer and, upon
completion of the current Q, I can say, "Now, the W8," or whatever I remembered
of the call. And yes, those long pauses before I come back to you because I
can't talk and type at the same time are both diminishing in length and getting
fewer in number. For you folks that are rolling your eyes at this, I never
claimed to be a good op, I'm just pleased to see progress.
Have yet to get the family trained to understand that a contest is like a
marathon. You don't try to talk to marathon runners during a race, you don't
suggest that they stop for a while to engage in some other activity.
"What is your husband/father/brother/son doing this weekend?" "He's running in
a marathon." "Ooohh... very impressive."
"What is your husband/father/brother/son doing this weekend?" "He's down in
the basement talking on his hammer to a bunch of other loonies all over the
country and says he's not coming up for 24 hours and not to bother him." "How
strange. Maybe you should go down there and ask him why he's doing this.
Surely there are more important things he could be doing around the house."
This isn't a description of what it is like here (well, maybe 10%), but it does
seem that, if you're not a moving target, you get interruptions.
I like the European approach of calling it Radio Sport. Makes it sound
important. (Perception is everything.)
One of the things I really like about SS is the, "You only work a station
once," rule. This means that little guys like me can actually get through to
the rarer sections and make a sweep. Imagine what it would be like trying to
work VY1 or VO1 if they were a mult on every band and all the big aluminum guys
were keeping them occupied.
Thanks for the Qs everyone.
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