ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: K8MM
Operator(s): K8MM
Station: K8MM
Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: MI
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 371
40: 453
20: 117
15: 59
10: 11
------------
Total: 1011 Sections = 80 Total Score = 161,760
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
I dedicated this effort to my close friend K8DD who is critically ill and unable
to participate in SS this year. Here's to you OM, I really missed our annual QRP
SS competition between the two of us.
The best band conditions I've ever heard on 80 and 40 in my seventeen years of
CWSS! Many QRP stations on the west coast were a true 599 on 80m Sunday night.
I lucked out early calling CQ and had several of the more rare sections call
me. The only section that I had to look for was NT.
My biggest improvements this year were keeping my butt in the chair the full 24
hours, making sure I had one or more gain antennas (over a dipole) on all bands
and staying in contest shape by running SO2R during the Thursday night NS
sprints. Working 50 or more domestic contests a year (NS sprints)really taught
me some things about propagation and where I needed to improve my antennas. My
wife was also an important part of this effort by keeping me well fed by
bringing meals to the shack, putting up with all the wires in the air and being
a contest widow for the weekend. Stan, AC8W, also loaned me his K2 when one of
mine had stopped sending band data to my computer the day before SS, Tnx OM.
I got off to a quick start this year working 70 q's in the first hour which was
quite an improvement over the 44 q's from last year. 40M was the band I ran on
while I added some S & P q's from 20M.
I spent the last couple years building my antenna farm specifically for
domestic contests and it has really paid off. This year I added a 100' tower
with a small tri-bander at the top to compliment my existing 50 footer with a
tri-bander. The big tower and my 90' Maple trees support 3 element wire moxon's
on 40 and 80 along with a couple low dipoles. The moxon antennas helped me hold
a 40M and 80M run frequency a lot easier than in the past. I only lost my run
frequency a couple times this year. My 80M phased vertical array would
sometimes out do the moxon to the E or W coast, but that seemed to change by
the hour on especially Sunday evening.
Having two independently fed tri-band yagi's was a big plus this year allowing
me to keep cq'ing on 20M while being able to S & P on 15M. It gave me the
ability to be heard and worked more quickly than using my 40M dipoles like in
years past. It also helped me locate VY1EI and eventually work a sweep, first
time for one in a few years while operating qrp. It took a while to make it
through the pile and follow him as he slowly QSY'ed his way up the band. I
eventually figured out his pattern and got him on the first call when he moved
up to a brand new clear frequency. The last one for me was K5KG in ND, thanks
for being there OM, you were the only ND I heard. I also made a quick check on
10M to see if anything was happening because I was hearing several west coast
stations in CQWW a couple weeks before. I called CQ on 10M for fifteen minutes
just to see what would happen while S & P on 20 and 15. I ended up having 11
stations call me and I tuned across several others that I had already worked.
Over the last four years I've really tried hard to see how I well I could do in
this category and it's been a hard fight against some good competitors and
stations. I was six qso's ahead of K0PC 45 minutes in when we worked and 22 q's
behind K4RO about 5 hours in. We'll see how things shake out after log
checking.
Rig: A pair of Elecraft K2's with home-brew SO2R box.
Antennas:
80M - Dipole at 60', 2 element phased vertical array, 3 element reversible wire
moxon at 90'
40M - Two Dipoles at 70'. One N/S and the other E/W. 3 element reversible wire
moxon at 70'
20/15/10 - Two independently fed CC A3S tri-banders. One at 100' and one at 50'
on a separate tower.
RX antennas - 2 unterminated beverages, one 600' E/W the other 360' N/S
Thanks for all the Q's and see you in SS SSB, I'll be on part time.
73,
Ian - K8MM
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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