ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: KR0P
Operator(s): N5RZ
Station: KR0P
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: NE
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 273
40: 582
20: 401
15:
10:
------------
Total: 1256 Sections = 82 Total Score = 205,984
Club: Lincoln Amateur Radio Club
Comments:
I recently retired & moved to a new QTH in Central Texas (STX) this past
summer. After the Texas QSO Party in September, was corresponding with my West
Texas buddy N5NA & mentioned I didn't yet have a QTH to operate from for CW
SS since I wouldn't have much up for antennas at the new QTH, Alan said I
should go to Nebraska since that always seemed to be a tough one. Thought
about it for a bit & made some phone calls & sent some e-mails. Ended
up hooking up with John, KR0P, who had recently put up a 80M-6M SteppIR at 90'.
Perfect! He was happy to host me, but mentioned his station wasn't really set
up for serious contesting. After a few e-mails back & forth, decided to to
bring my K3 and SPE Experts 1.3K-FA + some cables & other accessories. This
would be my first Sweepstakes ever outside of Texas, so I was really fired up!
Arrived at John's Thursday afternoon - what a great QTH! We hit it off great -
he is a super host! Looked at the situation & began setting up Friday
morning. He uses an ANAN 8000 & AL1500 with keyboard & mouse control.
We found room at his operating console to set up the K3 & SPE amp as the
"main" radio, and his ANAN for the second radio. I brought some old
ICE 419 bandpass filters & we had everything hooked up by early evening.
The K3 would use the SteppIR and a Hustler 6BTV, and the ANAN would use a multi
band sloper. He had N1MM+ which is what I used. Everything worked well.
Used the SteppIR in "bi-directional" mode, pointing E/W to hit both
coasts, alternating to the 6BTV to catch the guys down south.
Started the contest on 20M & had some deep pileups which got unruly at
times! Rapid QSB was rampant, but was able to manage 112/102 rates the first
two hours. 20M started drying up & went to 40M at 2318 to good rate.
Really didn't do too much with the second radio till I went to 80M & the
pileups settled down a bit. At that time, noticed the ANAN/AL1500/Sloper combo
at a KW would lock up the WinKeyer when it was on 40M. Throttled that amp back
to about 300W when it wa on 40M & all was OK.
Took a bit of learning curve to use the ANAN as it was mouse controlled &
finally got it down.
Took first off time at 0737 with 816 Q's in the log. Condx were good &
quiet on 40 & 80, but everyone had gone to bed. Back on at about 1000Z and
started the Sunday slog, hitting two radios hard & taking off times when
things got real slow. Listened to 15M a few times, but very few signals &
all were dupes. Never made a QSO there.
Seems like as Sunday progressed (regressed?), condx seemed to really go punk.
I scheduled my last operating time to finish up at 0115Z, and 40M sounded like
a big RF attenuator + the static crashes were really bad. 80M was no better.
Kept the SteppIR at about 110 degrees hoping to pick up the elusive VI section,
but no luck. AB2ZY (NNY) called in at 0058Z Saturday night on 40M, so got that
one in. Found VY1AAA on 20M late Sunday afternoon for #82
John showed up with Pizza & Beer when I was done - a nice ending to a
great weekend! Packed everything up & got some shut-eye.
My goal was to get NE in as many logs as possible & have a great time.
Both goals achieved! Thanks to my great host John, KR0P! BTW, John will be
doing a serious multiop in Sweepstakes Phone.
Got up Monday Morning early & made the 14+ hour 820 mile drive back to
Texas.
Thanks to all for the contacts! SS CW is always fun - See y'all next year,
hopefully from the mundane STX home QTH!
Station #1: Elecraft K3 SPE Experts 1.3K-FA amp, 80-6M SteppIR @ 90' &
Hustler 6BTV
Station #2: ANAN 8000 + Ameritron AL1500 (KW on 80M & 20M, 300W on 40M)
and multi band sloper
N1MM+ Logging Software
73, Gator, N5RZ
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