ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 20
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 40
80: 363
40: 276
20: 241
15: 68
10: 0
------------
Total: 988 Sections = 79 Total Score = 156,104
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
SS for me was different for me this year, unfortunately not in a
positive way! Low solar flux keeps getting the way of having a good
time and a successful outing. Band condx were not disturbed enough to
matter and the noise level on the low bands was low. It was an
average weekend for this point in the cycle.
The first couple of hours were tortuous; I couldn't run well anywhere
on 20 and 40 was too underpopulated. S&P was wait your turn, very few
successful first calls. I finally got a decent run going on 20 as the
activity moved down up high in the band. KH6GMP called in for Pacific
Sec. After 20 dried up, I moved to 75 and established a nice run on a
decently clear frequency. But, at about 0140Z the skip zone rapidly
lengthened out and my comeptitive dipole at 60 ft became a dummy load.
S&P was wait your turn again and running impossible. I tried my
vertical which does work well, but signals were almost always better
on the dipole. Out of desperation, I tried 160 and picked up 40 Q's
in a couple of trips. I quit for the night about 0415Z with 400 Q's
in the log and all of the eastern sections worked.
Sunday morning, almost no one showed up on 75 and 40 was slow with
long skip again til about 1430Z. Even then, almost no PA stations
were workable. All day long 20 and 15 were slow; 20 was wall to wall
activity, difficult to run well. 15 was not open well to CA much of
the day and was even poorer into WA, K7RI and W7WA were weakish.
40 was my best daytime band with a good run in late morning working
many ops with a NR under 100; I should have milked it a bit harder.
I only needed AK and NT as of late morning for a sweep which wasn't
really a priority. 15 didn't seem to be open up to there during a sweep
of the band around 2030. At 2120, I started looking on 20 and found
loud as always KL7J about 14308. Then I found VY1MB soon after; he made
2 Q's and asked for sections he needed, then annnouced "I'm taking a
break", oh well! 75 produced some good runs for a while Sunday evening
starting out on a very quiet frequency which turned into a sea of QRM
from ragchewers just above me.
I should have done better. It was more work than fun a lot of the time.
Low flux and low power don't mix! By mid-Sunday afternoon my neck was
hurting from the stress of operating/digging out calls/breaking thru
other callers S&P, so I took some breaks. Many thanks to the good old
contesters who knew me and made an effort to give me a Q, it was much
apppreciated.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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