ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: NN3W
Operator(s): NN3W
Station: N4RV
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Oakton, VA
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 680
40: 385
20: 373
15: 116
10: 3
------------
Total: 1557 Sections = 80 Total Score = 249,120
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
First of all, a big thank you to Jack Reichert, N4RV, for permitting me to
invade his home QTH for the weekend. I originally had no plans to operate this
contest as I had burned up most of my "hall passes" for the year. I even turned
down John Evans who had invited me to operate Clarksburg for SS. Nonetheless,
about a week before the contest, Jack, who lives about 2 miles away, invited me
to op. Since the logistics were very, very easy, I accepted his invitation.
Jack did a tremendous amount of work getting the station ready which had not
been run in close to a year. He climbed towers, restrung wires, put up a
fantastic 40 meter loop, fixed relays, and did other chores. Mr. Reichert, I
salute you.
Now, as to Sweepstakes.
This was my first Phone SS in since 1991 when I oped K6XT in San Diego when I
was a young teen-aged contester. During those years, SCCC and SDDXC met and
always discussed Sweepstakes. Amongst the stories and strategies that were
traded and passed along by guys like Glenn Rattman, Jim Neiger, and Charlie
Oakes (now SK), was the notion of the fabled East coast strategy - "Stay on 40."
I heard it, but never understood it. I do now.
It's quite amazing to see how you can make nearly 70% of your QSOs on the low
bands. There was an endless supply of stations to work and was very easy to
do.
Jack's station performed very well. I felt very loud on 40 and 80, and took
liberal use of his Beverages to negate some horrible S9+ powerline noise that
appeared not more than 3 days ago.
Unfortunately, not having experienced East coast SS operating, I miscalculated
on off times. I had to take the last hour off to make my required 6 hours of
off time. That was a mistake since the 0200z hour for me on 80 was very, very
productive and I would have gladly traded the last off period for one during -
say - 1700z. My other drawback was that there is no SO2R at N4RV. As such, I
could not really S/P will working on one radio. To spread out a bit, I took use
of the second receiver on the FT-1000 and tuned the same band that I was running
to listen for stations. This did work for about 30 Qs, but it was not easy.
On the other hand, I had very good runs on both 40 and 80 and did well working
the piles. It was a joy to run.
Anyhow...Congrats to the top tier performers like W7WA, K4XS, and W6YI. Very
impressive scores.
Equipment: FT-1000 MkV Field
Linear: Alpha 87
Antennas:
80: dipoles NE-SW and NW-SE with 4 beverages
40: 4 el wire beam towards Europe; 2 dipoles; square loop
20: tribander
15: tribander; 5x5 stack
10: tribander; 6x6 stack
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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