ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: K4XD
Operator(s): K4XD
Station: K4XD
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: Raleigh NC
Operating Time (hrs): 23.5
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 325
40: 260
20: 230
15: 24
10:
------------
Total: 839 Sections = 80 Total Score = 134,240
Club:
Comments:
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS CHRONICLE MY 24 HOURS WITH SS IN A WAY THAT
EVEN MY LOVELY, INFINITELY PATIENT AND ADORING WIFE WONâ??T PRETEND SHEâ??S
INTERESTED IN HEARING!
Itâ??s my second year of hamming and second SS, and this contest is growing on
me! Itâ??s the right length to feel like youâ??ve really done something but not
so long that you start thinking about cleaning the garage. You can get a
decent run going without a ton of aluminum in the backyard. It stretches you
enough to feel that youâ??re a slightly better operator than when you started
And you can spend most of Saturday tinkering with your rig so it will break
unexpectedly during the test and keep you from getting bored.
And SS is not above throwing a sucker punch now and then to keep you on your
toes â?? like the band conditions Saturday night. I confess, prior to Saturday
night I wouldnâ??t have thought of 80M as the best band for a schedule with my
friends in CA, but it sure was on Saturday. Or did half the hams in CA get
together and build 4 element 80M yagiâ??s for Octoberâ??s club construction
project? I worked one S9+ SV / SCV / SF station after another, but the guys
â??up the streetâ?? in VA and MD sounded like they were calling from a rock in
the South China Sea.
My goal was to break 100K points. Seeing some of the scores rolling in now, in
retrospect that may have been too modest of a goal, but it seemed like the
logical â??next targetâ?? after last yearâ??s performance. My other goal was
to work the full 24 hours, which I almost did â?? I got confused toward the end
and took off 30 minutes more than I should have. Had a nice dinner though!
In my extensive experience of four SSâ??s ;-), MB and NT have been the
nail-biter sections to get, so I was quite pleased to work both in the first
hour. The two holdouts were ND and, of all things, SB. A ND guy called me
during my run on 20M (thanks!) and relieved that pressure, and then I saw a
spot for SB, called him, and thanked him for the sweep. Note to the endless
parade of SV/SCV/SF guys â?? if you want a bigger pileup next year, take one of
those 4 element yagis to SB.
On voice keying: earlier in the week I contemplated buying an MFJ DVK, but
being a computer geek I figured I would â??reallyâ?? work on getting
WriteLogâ??s DVK feature working this time. I have two sound cards plus the
motherboard sound chip to work with, which is a blessing and a curse. Itâ??s
very versatile, which is computer lingo for â??very confusing.â?? After
fiddling with the excellent sound configuration utility that comes with
WriteLog (really, it is), and then dropping into the .ini file and wondering
what the difference was between a â??LineInIndexOverride,â?? a
â??WaveInMicIndex,â?? and a â??WaveInIndex,â?? I finally got it all working the
way I wanted. I even figured out the â??record all QSOâ??s audio to diskâ??
feature which lets you re-live the glory of the contest one Q at a time at your
leisure. In case you finish cleaning your garage and fixing your â??tinkeredâ??
rig.
If you use any kind of DVK, I recommend plugging your transceiver into a dummy
load and listening on a second receiver. Nothing works as well to let you know
how youâ??ll sound on the air as you fiddle with audio levels, compression, and
filter settings. I heard a couple of guys who really needed to do this â?? the
initial contact by mike on their end was at least an S5 â?? but when they kicked
in the recorded part of their exchange, the level dropped to an S2 . Sounded
way under modulated.
I also used GoldWave (any WAV file editor would do) to trim my pre-recorded WAV
files to remove those long pauses as the other guyâ??s call sign is spelled out
letter by letter.
â??Kiloâ?¦â?¦â?¦.Fourâ?¦â?¦â?¦.XRayâ?¦..Deltaâ?¦â?¦.<snore>.â?? All-in-all,
this system worked. I could type in a call, hit F2, and WriteLog would spell
out the exchange including the QSO number and other call. Type in the other
exchange, hit F3 and have it send â??thanks, K4XD SS.â?? I even recorded
separate WAV files for W0 â?? W9, K0-K9, etc., so it would say â??Kilo Threeâ??
in one natural breath and then â??Mike..Mike.â??
But the DVK felt a bit sterile, and during the contest, I ended up using
â??live audioâ?? for most of the exchanges. It just kept me more involved.
And despite living in the South for almost 30 years, my native New Yorker
background lets me talk fast on demand. Somehow, the momentum of the run seems
broken when you hit a key and wait in silence for 10 seconds while the computer
does the work. (Why silence? When I push the â??monitorâ?? button on the
ICOM, it generates feedback. Iâ??m sure itâ??s happening because, well, there
is a feedback loop between my PC and the radio. I could tinker with it, but
then Iâ??m sure something more â??versatileâ?? would stop working).
I did use the DVK to give my voice a rest when it started getting a little
hoarse. I was glad it was there at those moments.
On to the event itself. By 2030Z the bands were starting to fill with SS
warm-up traffic and the excitement was palpable. Kind of like the buzz in the
stadium before the team takes the field. And then at 2100, pandemonium.
Even though CQ WW SSB was only a few weeks ago, I wasnâ??t quite prepared for
the signal density on 20M at 2100:01. I tried running but could barely hear
the people who answered me through the splatter. I hereby (hearby?) christen
those who run at 125/hour or better in the first four hours of Sweeps as having
â??Ears of Steel.â?? My hat is off to you gents. Can I borrow your ears next
time? Or at least your receiving antennas?!
My pre-game mental image of finding a nice quiet 3 kHz wide spot, setting up
shop and confidently answering a 150/hr run quickly degenerated into a mad rush
to try to get through any pileups in a frenzy of increasingly erratic S&P.
Minutes ticked by and the Qâ??s did not mount up according to my well-conceived
plan. As Mike Tyson once said, â??everyone has a strategy until they get
hit.â?? It was positively depressing to give my exchange â??W6XYZ, please
copy number 33U K4XD 06 NCâ?? after hearing â??K4XD, please copy 225A W6XYZ 58
SV.â?? After a couple hours of increasingly desperate S&P I went to 40M,
remembering my semi-decent runs from SS CW only two weeks back. OK, this has
to get better. Not. I managed to follow up two 26 hours on 20M with a 22 Q
run on 40M that took 90 minutes. I literally kept checking my antenna switch
to make sure I wasnâ??t still plugged into the dummy load. Hello, hello, is
this thing turned on??
At this point I remembered all the talk on the reflector about 80M being the
â??SS money band.â?? OK, I needed some cash, fast. I went down to 80M and the
Left Coast was booming in there too. Only problem was the East Coast was not.
So I S&Pâ??d on 80M for a couple of hours, with my rate still hovering in the
mid-30â??s. At this point I compared my rate to that of SS CW from a couple
weeks ago and it was actually lower. I almost bagged it in disgust, but just
like in the movies, I said to myself, â??donâ??t stop now, youâ??re not a
quitter!â?? and soldiered on with images of glory in my mind. And things
started to improve â?? I found a spot in the Extra band that had almost 2 kHz
of splatter-free spectrum and parked there, enjoying, at last, a couple hours
of slowly improving rates. Still nothing to get excited about, but the needle
was starting to move in the right direction, with some bursts up to 100/hour.
At 3:30AM local time, things started to slow down, including my brain, so I
figured it was a good time for Break Number One. Although I read that I should
sleep in multiples of 90 minutes, when the alarm went off at 6:30AM local I
reasoned that 40 would be open to W1 and W2 land for at least a couple of hours
past sunrise so I hit the snooze button and got 30 more minutes of blissful
shut-eye.
One of my best pre-contest moves on Saturday was setting up the coffee maker
for Sunday morning, so a nice fresh pot was waiting for me. I tossed the dog
out the door and did a couple of stretch moves to get the blood flowing and
quiet the little voice that kept saying â??Hey! What are you doing getting up?
Youâ??ve only had 3 1/2 hours of sleep!â?? Back to the dials. (Remember when
radios had dials?)
I spent a little time on 80M and finally, the East Coast was LOUD. Yay! Life
was normal again. Up to 40M at 1300 and things really started flowing.
Nothing like seeing the QSO-o-meter hitting 130/hr! I know, for many of you
thatâ??s when you look to see if you accidentally switched in the dummy load.
But for me it is â??big fun.â?? No 130 Q hours, just a nice peak rate there
and many minutes of rate above 60. My best hour was 80 Qâ??s on 40M at 1500.
Things started slowing down quite a bit after that and I spent the rest of the
afternoon alternating 30 minute breaks with 30 min S&Pâ??s and piddly runs on
20M. At 2100Z I found a nice slot at 14.205 and spent the next two hours
generating 105 Qâ??s there. Still not a neck-snapping pace by any stretch, but
some good stretches with back-to-back Qâ??s and two or three callers at a time.
A nice â??beginnerâ??s pileup.â?? Thanks!
At 2126 I saw a spot for SB and hopped up to 14.269 to work W6TK for the sweep.
Thanks OM. Iâ??m not sure what made me happier, getting the sweep or finding
my run frequency still available when I came back. I know Iâ??m not supposed
to chase mults during SS, but hey, Iâ??m compulsive and staring at the white
dots in WriteLogâ??s multiplier window just eats at me.
I think this was also the first time I noticed my call popping up on the
WriteLog Bandmap (in the â??unworkedâ?? light blue color â?? I almost clicked
it out of sleep-deprived reflex!). Thanks to any and all who spotted me â??
the pickup in rate was quite noticeable within minutes. I usually spotted
anything I worked that was not on the WriteLog bandmap already.
Where do you go after 20M slows down? 40M of course. Well, after 20 minutes
and 4 Qâ??s on 40M, I had second thoughts so back to 80 we go for the rest of
the night. I ran for 90 minutes on 3.824 and 3.864, and then things started
slowing down and the splatter from people with the same idea started getting in
the way of Qâ??s with the weaker stations. I recalled all that nice spectrum
below 3.8 and decided to play there for the last 30 minutes. Fifteen minutes
from the end stations started coming out of the woodwork and kept me busy until
the final buzzer sounded. I didnâ??t see myself spotted, and I really thought
the rate would be higher in the General end of the band, but maybe a lot of
others were avoiding the QRM too.
SS humor: My usual end of QSO comment was â??thanks for XXâ?? where XX was the
other guyâ??s section. Me: â??Thanks for Nebraskaâ?? Him: â??Thank you.â??
Two seconds silence, then he comes back with â??I wish I could get it!â?? I
guess 80M was long in NE too.
Even more random thoughts:
* An amplifier is a good thing
* Iâ??m really glad I hooked up my AL-80B as a switchable alternate amp to my
THP solid state amp. The AL-80B laughs at SWR that shuts the THP down. It
runs like a tank for hours. The THP gets tired (OK, hot) and starts cranking
back power after CQâ??ing every 3 seconds for a while. But the THP rocks for
S&P.
* My score would probably double if I could get points for all the cheap PC
speakers in the neighborhood I â??contacted.â??
* I wish I had the antennas of the Q precedence stations with the S9 signals
* Even though for much of the contest my rate was mediocre, thanks to BIC Iâ??m
happy with the result
* Iâ??m too new at this to feel bad about a score under 250K ;-)
* Iâ??m in awe of people with Ears of Steel
* Iâ??m in awe of the people who racked up my score or better in 5 hours
* I tried my new K9AY loop a couple of times but it was easier to just shout
â??your number, AGAIN AGAIN!â?? until I was hearing it in my sleep
* Hams are by and large very patient people. When I shouted, â??your number,
AGAIN AGAIN,â?? they all calmly repeated their numbers. Thanks!
* S&P is OK but Running IS
For next year: Figure out how to run more. Improve my receiving antennas.
Record even shorter DVK messages.
I know itâ??s popular to say â??ham radio is dyingâ?? but SS proves to me there
are a lot of operators and a lot of good stations out there, still waiting for
the right stimulus to come along and activate them. Contesting, and SS in
particular, is clearly a powerful stimulus. So are big DXpeditions. It
wouldnâ??t hurt for us to dream up some more.
And now, speaking of dreams, I need some sleep. CQWW CW is less than a week
away!
73,
Rowland K4XD
AL-80B
BIC
Fun of watching points mount up when you get past 60 mults.
Value of spots
Ears of Steel
Pre-fills â?? off by one?
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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