ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: W5KFT
Operator(s): WM5R
Station: W5KFT
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: STX
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 38
40: 220
20: 501
15: 728
10: 141
------------
Total: 1628 Sections = 80 Total Score = 260,480
Club:
Comments:
This was my first single-operator effort in the Phone Sweepstakes
after many years of operating in the Multi-Single category.
We had some problems getting the WX0B SO2R Master to work for us
on phone. It had been used at the station for two-radio CW
contesting several times, but nothing Robert and I tried could get
the box to switch either mic audio or PTT. About an hour before
the contest, we gave up and re-cabled everything for one radio,
which may have been just as well, as I've never used two radios
in the Sweepstakes before and the full-blown single-operator
experience in this contest was enough to handle as it was.
The only subsequent major equipment problem I had was when the
Ameritron AL-1500 amplifier I was using began to reduce power, trip
off, and soon thereafter stops amplifying altogether on Sunday
morning. I took a half hour of off-time to see if I could figure
it out, but ended up moving the cables over to the other AL-1500.
At least it didn't happen Saturday afternoon.
I got off to a pretty good start, I think, ending up with 590
QSOs after five hours. Changing bands with one radio in this
contest was sometimes painful, and I had trouble with both of my
band changes to 20 and then 40. I think I waited too long in
both cases, especially on the move to 40. I couldn't really
find a good frequency on 40, and when I'd find something acceptable,
a few minutes later some change in EU broadcast programming would
start to wipe me out or something. Plus, right around 0330 - 0400,
I started getting really tired. I don't think I'd fully recovered
my sleep schedule from my trip to New Zealand a couple of weeks
before, followed by long days and evenings moving into a new house.
I actually had to take an off-time from 0353-0424 I was feeling so
terrible. Eating some food and walking around a bit helped me
quite a bit. Staying awake until 0700 was still a real struggle,
though. From about 0230 onward, I felt like I was having my butt
kicked. I didn't have any one serious failure or problem - but I
was out of sync, couldn't get into a rhythm, felt terrible, and
generally under-performed.
I woke up after a little under four hours of sleep, and a quick
breakfast, not feeling really great, but I had what I think was
a pretty decent run on 40 for that time of day. Things started
to slow down considerably, though, probably as I ran out of
contesters to work who were awake, and nothing was really happening
on 20 yet, so I took another off time to lay in bed and be catatonic,
but I never really fell asleep. I got up, started making some
QSOs, felt like it was something of a struggle, and then noticed
the problems with the amp. So, I took another off-time, but in
this one I got to move around a bit, ate a tortilla, and stretched,
which helped wake me up.
Starting around 1400, things started to pick up for the day, and
I kept going along at a steady pace for the rest of the morning.
I even had an 82 hour from 1600-1700 UTC. I have a few hours
significantly below 60 QSOs midday that should not have happened. In
a couple of cases, I made band changes that were less productive
than staying where I was would have been. In retrospect, I should
have taken my last off-time around noon instead of near the
end of the contest - I had a nice rate bump in the 0100 hour that
I might have been able to carry through to the end. I have
lots to learn still about how to maximize my QSO total on Sunday
in this contest.
Every section called me at least once except for VI. I came across
two KP2 multi-single stations within a few kHz or each other
while hunting for a run frequency on 20 on Sunday morning, and worked
both. I never heard another KP2 station for the rest of the contest.
My last section was the only one for which I had one QSO: A VY1
station found me with under four hours to go.
I was surprised by some of the sections in my worked-mults
distribution. For instance, I worked more stations in Montana
than 28 other sections. I worked more stations in Montana than
Western Massachusetts, San Diego, Alberta, or South Carolina.
The last section in the lower 48 that I worked was Alabama. And I
only worked three stations in Alabama! I worked 70 stations in
Maryland, but only 4 in Delaware! From my location in EM00,
Washington, D.C. is clearly the big metro area with a ham population
that figures importantly in a big score. Chicago and New York
are the next closest, with about 80% as many QSOs as the Washington
D.C. area. A section that seems to be much rarer than it should
be is Alberta. I worked only five stations in VE6. There are really
big cities in VE6! Alberta was my last section worked last year,
too. I worked more stations in Alaska, Wyoming, and Eastern
Washington than I did in VE6. I worked almost _ten times_ as many
stations in Western Washington as I did in Alberta. Are the hams
in Western Washington really that much more active than those in
Alberta?
I have operated some contests where everything just clicked and
I could feel like I was operating on all cylinders for the entire
contest. This was not one of those weekends. Sweepstakes is a
much harder contest as a single operator than I thought it would be
I am very grateful for W5KFT and K5PI for getting me out to the Ranch
for the contest this weekend.
Radio: Kenwood TS-850SAT
Amp: Ameritron AL-1500
Headset: Heil Proset Plus
Software: TR LOG 6.69
DVK: W9XT Contest Card
Antennas: http://www.ctdxcc.org/~w5kft/
HOUR 80SSB 40SSB 20SSB 15SSB 10SSB TOTAL ACCUM
---- ------ ------ ------ ------ ------ ----- -----
21 0 0 0 147 0 147 147
22 0 0 0 53 61 114 261
23 0 0 0 89 23 112 373
0 0 8 3 84 0 95 468
1 0 0 122 0 0 122 590
2 0 20 52 2 0 74 664
3 14 22 7 0 0 43 707
4 0 31 0 0 0 31 738
5 24 26 0 0 0 50 788
6 0 49 0 0 0 49 837
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 837
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 837
9 0 0 0 0 0 0 837
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 837
11 0 63 0 0 0 63 900
12 0 1 16 0 0 17 917
13 0 0 15 1 0 16 933
14 0 0 69 0 0 69 1002
15 0 0 15 48 0 63 1065
16 0 0 0 82 0 82 1147
17 0 0 0 33 10 43 1190
18 0 0 0 51 0 51 1241
19 0 0 3 38 0 41 1282
20 0 0 0 38 19 57 1339
21 0 0 1 8 28 37 1376
22 0 0 3 54 0 57 1433
23 0 0 53 0 0 53 1486
0 0 0 51 0 0 51 1537
1 0 0 69 0 0 69 1606
2 0 0 22 0 0 22 1628
TOTAL 38 220 501 728 141
1. Il 119
2. Va 74
3. Mdc 70
4. Oh 69
5. Mi 64
6. Mn 59
7. Scv 51
8. WWa 47
9. Em 45
10. Nc 43
11. In 40
12. Ep 39
13. WNy 37
14. Ct 37
15. Wi 37
16. NNj 31
17. ENy 30
18. On 30
19. Sv 28
20. Eb 26
21. Co 26
22. Tn 25
23. Or 24
24. WPa 23
25. SFl 23
26. Ky 21
27. Az 21
28. Nh 20
29. Ga 19
30. Mo 19
31. Ia 18
32. SNj 18
33. Lax 18
34. NLi 16
35. Sjv 16
36. NTx 16
37. Wv 15
38. Ks 15
39. NFl 14
40. Org 14
41. Vt 14
42. Bc 12
43. Sf 12
44. Ri 11
45. WcF 11
46. STx 11
47. Ew 11
48. Mt 10
49. Nd 10
50. Sb 10
51. Ut 10
52. Id 10
53. Sd 9
54. Me 9
55. Ak 8
56. WMa 8
57. Sdg 8
58. Sc 7
59. Wy 7
60. Ne 7
61. Mb 7
62. Ok 6
63. NNy 6
64. Ab 5
65. Nl 5
66. Pac 5
67. Mar 4
68. Sk 4
69. Nv 4
70. De 4
71. Ms 4
72. Ar 4
73. Nm 4
74. Al 3
75. Qc 2
76. WTx 2
77. La 2
78. Pr 2
79. Vi 2
80. Nwt 1
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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