ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: W4ZW
Operator(s): W4ZW
Station: W4ZW
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Colorado
Operating Time (hrs): 20.3
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 280
40: 194
20: 393
15: 34
10:
------------
Total: 901 Sections = 79 Total Score = 142,358
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Comments:
Rig : FT-5000MP, K-3, TS-590S
Antennas : 3/2wl 80M Loop at 10,150', 80M Delta Loop at 10,070' 40M
Bi-Square at 10,075', 20M Half-square at 10,060', R-7 vertical at 10,035'
Soapbox :
Murphy was my co-pilot for this SS. It started this week before SS. I decided
to finally wire up the 220V and get the ACOM2000A unboxed and run Unlimited for
SS. Wired up an ugly cable for 220V (laying across the garage through the door
and across the floor), unpacked the ACOM and it faulted showing a short in the
tube bias. Usually that's a bad tube, had ACOM FEDEX in two tubes, and not the
tubes. So boxed it back up and it's off to ACOM for repair.
So it was to be LP again for SS. Went set up the SO2R only to discover my
bandpass filters are still in the box I left in Florida. Had everything checked
out and just before the contest started and decided to relocate one radio to the
left of my monitor, rather than the three in a line I had set-up for testing.
Hooked everything up, and no keying! And to boot my 2nd radio Bencher key fell
apart! Started the contest late, manually logging on paper and sending by hand
while trying to get the keying system working. Gave up on the SO2R set-up and
scrapped the computer controlled 2nd radio idea completely, but did use two
radios when possible.
After losing most of the first hour with this mess, settled down to a steady
pace on 80M where I have the best antennas and when I stopped at 1:00AM local
(MST), had over 500 Q's and every section except NE and NT. Fired up three
hours later to discover that the keying system was gone again. Spent an hour
getting that fixed (software and hardware) and started on 80M and had two
consecutive NE's call in the first five minutes. Computer kept crashing and I
became disgusted and turned everything off and went for a nice leisurely
breakfast and another two hour nap since I doubted I was going to reach my 1000
Q goal with computer gremlins. Finally found that the open wire feeder was too
close to the computer keyboard cable, and a toroid and some space solved the
keying issue.
So where's NT? I watched the bandscope on 15 and 20 for the tell-tale pile-up,
but never saw one and quick scans of the band failed to find NT. By late Sunday,
my second goal of a sweep started looking pretty dismal, so I started asking a
few guys if they had even seen NT and one said he was on 15M. Sure enough,
there was the pile-up on the bandscope even though 15 was pretty empty. No
sweep this year, he was almost inaudible with a hundred ear-crushing signals
calling him.
Settled back to a steady run on 20M with a nice frequency for a long time until
a well-known contester settled next to me with key clicks that destroyed about
2KHz around him. Even the brick-wall filters on the K-3 and the FT-5000
couldn't control his clicks. Moved, and the rate started looking better, so
set my goal for 900 Q's and was even tempted to work the last hours to try for
the 1000, but the pile-ups on those poor fresh guys was too daunting, so pulled
the plug with about 20 hours in this SS.
There's always next year. I am really pleased with these wire arrays for
domestic contests (and an elevation of 10K feet helps) since I seemed to be
able to work anybody I could hear. Much better performance than in CQWW SSB
where these loops aren't so great for DX.
I know a lot of guys had their logger fill in my section as WCF from the
requests for confirms and delays in acknowledging since they were busy changing
the section fill. I also had a lot of people tell me I was a dupe when they
weren't in my log; but my friend Ken, K4ZW, was also active. Hmmm.
Nice to hear old friends again from my first SS contests back in the 50's and
60's. I kinda miss those dupe sheets, and sending with my left hand so I could
log with my right. Oh well, there's always next year.
73's from 10,000'
Jon Hamlet, W4ZW/Ã?
Breckenridge, Colorado 80424
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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