ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: WI9WI
Operator(s): WI9WI
Station: WI9WI
Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: Winter, WI
Operating Time (hrs): 19
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 115
40: 105
20: 153
15: 63
10: 12
------------
Total: 448 Sections = 77 Total Score = 68,992
Club: Minnesota Wireless Assn
Comments:
What a difference some good antennas make. I've been doing the SS CW QRP roughly
every other year since it became a category, which I believe was 1989, with some
success, winning the Central Division several times and cracking the top 10 box
a few times. My best result was 2 years ago when I ended up 4th overall, not
terribly far behind the winner. All of those years I had pretty good antennas.
In 2013 the line up was:
80: 2 phased verticals, a 260 ft dipole fed with ladder line at 65 ft, and a
dipole at 45 ft
40: 2 el Cushcraft at 100 ft, dipole at 45 ft
20: 204BA at 110 ft
20/15/10: F12 C3E at 65 ft, F12 C19 at 55 ft, A3 at 35 ft
3 shortish beverages
Due to a number of reasons I had to take down my 100 ft Rohn 45 tower last
year. For this year that left me with:
80: single vertical, dipole at 45 ft.
40: 2 phased verticals, dipole at 45 ft
20/15/10: C19 at 55 ft
The results speak for themselves. My score is down 40%, and QSOs down almost as
much. I could not run well at all. I had about 115 QSOs running (25%) where in
2013 I had almost 250 (over 33%). I had only 24 second radio QSOs (5%) because
I spent so little time running. Last year I had about 70 (10%). Late Saturday
night I was actually doing S&P on both radios, which sounds hard, but
really isn't when the rate is only about 15/hr on each radio. The mult
situation was similar. In 2013 I missed only NL which I never heard. This year
I heard KL7, KH6, VE4, VE6 and VY1, but couldn't connect. Never heard ND.
Conditions played a bit of a part, but they really weren't that bad. I also
didn't put in as much time. It was very apparent early that I wasn't going to
score well, so I lost some motivation. I blew off 4 hours Sunday afternoon to
listen to and watch some football.
Next year I'm going to try to improve my antenna situation, though I probably
won't do QRP again for another year or two.
Thanks to everyone who was patient with my weak signal. I have never given out
so many repeats. There were really only a few times that we had to totally give
up on a QSO.
73
Jim WI9WI
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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