ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: K0DU
Operator(s): K0CL K0UK K0DU
Station: K0DU
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: Co
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 308
40: 370
20: 881
15: 173
10: 1
------------
Total: 1736 Sections = 80 Total Score = 277,280
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Comments:
Friday evening before the contest the wind came up and the forecast was for
heavy wind and snow through the weekend. I cranked the Forty meter tower down
from about 80ft to about 50-55 ft because of the wind. I thought the wind may
settle down later and we could run it back up. No Chance.. the wind was getting
worse ! Forty meters was tough for two reasons.... the Cushcraft Forty is
nothing more than an elevated dummy load ( piece of crap ) and it was now
cranked down to make matters even worse. The other antennas played very well.
The new 51 ft boom five element 20 works great..... The weather continued to be
a factor, snow static got us several times in fact it got so bad it was S-9 plus
10 db even on the beverages and I had to shut the rig off a couple of times for
fear of damage to the receiver . Needless to say the rate went to hell during
snow static times. Sunday we started to recoup some as far as a decent rate
until the winds kicked back up to over 70 miles per hour . We had several power
bumps and each time we had a bump it shut the Alpha down . The Alpha had to go
through the warm up period each time. Finally we took another bump and that was
it we lost power for about 8 hours. We were about 3 hours short of completing
the contest. Larry K0CL and Bill K0UK did most the operating over the 21 hour
period and I think they did a great job all things considering. Weather cost us
probably closer to four hours of the contest,if you include the snow static
times and the final power failure . It is to bad I am sure the four hours we
lost due to weather we would have shattered our 1736 Q's . As to the future we
just put up a 90ft tower and are working on a full size thirty and forty meter
Quad . Winter is here and unless we get a break in the weather it won't go up
until spring. We look forward to a decent antenna on forty! On a positive note
we all got to use the new Yaesu FTDX 5000 and we were quite pleased with the
performance. Best of the Holidays to all! Thanks to all for the contacts .
73's... Jerry K0DU
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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