ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 13.7
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 590
40: 135
20: 464
15: 42
10: 53
------------
Total: 1284 Sections = 80 Total Score = 205,440
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
205K in 13 hours 40 minutes real time on air, perhaps the biggest SS score in
the least amount of time this year. Unfortunately, that won't get anyone into
too many record books, Hi! It's nice to average 94 Q's/hour, but of course
Sunday was never up to that rate, best clock hour Sunday was 89 Q's in the 13Z
hour on 40M.
The cold germs were literally flying around work last week. I realized about
noon Saturday something bad was happening in my sinuses and could only imagine
feeling much worse by the end of SS. Actually the worst was Saturday evening
around dinner time and Monday afternoon at work; I'm much better now. I was off
to the in-laws for dinner from 2202-0123Z. I found a pretty clear spot on 75M
away from "kilowatt alley" and had the mother of all SS runs, an East Coasters
nirvana. QRM was minimal enough that I needed almost no fills and found a
technique that worked well for reducing the pile-up sorting time. No doubt, it
helped to have most ops waiting around until they made it into my log and got
the semi-rare WV section in theirs. From 0124-0417Z I worked exactly 400
stations, best clock hour rate was 144 in the 02Z hour and best last 10 was
168.
I finished the night early needing 10 sections.
Sunday seemed slow a times especially around noon; the lowlight was S&P'ing
about 5 minutes before finding someone new. The 10M opening around 18Z was
interesting. At one point 3 stations in a row stopped by to give me their first
SS QSO. Throughout the SS, I coached quite a few through their exchange; and as
others have said, it was nice to see all of the recent licencees joining in the
SS fun. The first time a check of 10 was fired at me I was thinking 1910? It
took some getting used to.
The section search was pretty easy getting KH6LC/QRP calling in through QRM
on 40 or 20 in the wee hours of his morning, finding PR, VI, and NL on 20
before the mob arrived. AB and MT were quickly logged near the start of my 20M
running Sunday. That left NF and AK. I decided to start searching 15 for NF and
found VO1TA within about 2 minutes beaming his way. AK was tougher; I allowed
myself one sweep of 15 finding VY1EI over S9, but no AK. I decided to try 10
which was open to the western Rockies and OR/WA mainly with no AK luck, but did
manage to run about 45 stations. The average WWA was about S1-S7 on 10; right
after my run petered out I found K7RL 20-30 db over 9! I was also by far
Mitch's loudest signal worked on 10. Congrats on the fb effort Mitch! I decided
to try to run on 15 and about the 3rd Q was loud KL7AC, mission accomplished.
Despite many loud signals, 15 was never very productive to me and I pretty well
convinced that my antenna height of 95 ft often causes a very bad take-off to
CA. They just were not that loud, but NM, CO, and the Rockies were booming in.
20 paid some of its usual big dividends (Q total there only 1/2 of 2009), but
not another AK was worked until just as the band was fading to the 6's and 7's.
Last year I must have run at least 8 AK stations on 20, different condx. The
other big difference was almost no Es during the SS which hurts us in the east.
20 was not runable after 2320Z Sunday,closing much earlier than '09. 75 was
productive but miserable with a fellow club member moving in on me to the point
of needing many fills.
Thanks to all for the Q's and the patience when the waiting list grew large.
The quality of operating overall was probably the best I can remember. Next
year, I hope to have myself and the station in better shape.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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