ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: W6YX
Operator(s): W6LD,N7MH,N6DE
Station: W6YX
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: SCV
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 58
40: 256
20: 288
15: 387
10: 354
------------
Total: 1343 Sections = 80 Total Score = 214,720
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
Our all-time best effort in SS CW from W6YX. We finally got a replacement
40-meter beam put up in September after our 25-year-old 4 el. KLM lost 1.5
elements in a big windstorm during last year's CQWW CW weekend. (Taking down
the KLM - http://www-w6yx.stanford.edu/w6yx/w6yx.workparty.020303, Putting up
the M2 - http://w6yx.stanford.edu/antenna/). The new antenna has worked well in
CQP, CQWW Phone, and now in SS CW.
One hour before the contest started we discovered the ACOM 2000A that we planned
to use was having filament voltage problems. Inspection revealed a loose
connection to the circuit board, but adding a drop of solder didn't fix the
problem. We exchanged the ACOM for an Alpha-78 which made for one more knob to
turn when switching bands and a little less power output.
Heard lots of stations on 10 meters an hour before contest start and then all of
a sudden the band was dead and many of the same stations were staking out
frequencies on 15. We set up to CQ on 28008 and worked several stations with
strong signals from the midwest, northeast, and southeast so we decided to start
on 10. Our S&P station started on 15 meters. We had a first hour of 121, 95
Q's from the run station and 26 Q's from the S&P station.
We lost several Q's while we were giving the exchange on the other radio and
didn't have time to get in a quick AS to let the calling station know to stand
by for 10 seconds. This must be more of a challenge for the SO2R guys who only
have one brain to handle 2 radios. One memorable N8 station called us on 20
early on Sunday and was gone by the time we could respond, he later called on 15
and the same thing happened. Fortunately when he called on 10 later we didn't
have a QSO in progress on the other radio and we made contact. A lesson for
S&P'ers - if the CQ'ing station doesn't come back to someone right away and
doesn't continue CQ'ing in your face, then consider waiting 15 seconds or so to
see if they're prevented by transmitter lockout. Thank you to all of the
stations that did stand by.
We heard VY1JA on 40 early Saturday evening and called J then. Our operator
grew suspicious when J's check (and section) wasn't the same as our database
showed. We quickly realized that we had instead logged the info for N4PN who
was CQ'ing on the same frequency and had come back to our call (confirmed by
later calls to N4PN by our 3 ops - sorry PN, you weren't in our dupe list). J
may also have come back to us at the same time, but since we didn't have his
exchange we made sure by working him when we found him on 10 late Sunday
morning. We saw a spot for VO1MP and worked Gus for the sweep at 2016Z.
We were hoping to improve our 4th place multi-op showing from last year, but
unless someone else does really poorly in the log checking process it looks like
we will be 5th at best since the W6KP superstation was activated by the K6AM
crew and beat us along with the other 3 ahead of us last year. There was a
glimmer of hope when we were at #592 when we worked K0RF at #533, but they
managed to catch up and pass us after figuring out their computer problems.
We're getting closer though, so maybe next year...
-Mike, N7MH
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
|