ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 9.3
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 206
40: 191
20: 207
15: 34
10: 0
------------
Total: 638 Sections = 80 Total Score = 102,080
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
The three days before the contest were all very busy. I planned on replacing
ladder line on 80/20M dipole Thursday. The rope snagged in the pulley at the top
of the tower leading to exhaustion before completion; it took about an hour
Saturday to finish. Friday, Chris ZS6EZ stopped by for a half hour visit; it was
nice to meet Chris. Listening to 75M in the WW a week before was scary with even
W1's skipping over even by 24Z both nights. Also, my back problems were worsened
by the WW, so a part time effort was my choice.
I got off to a really good start for me. My first hour was 77 Q's which would
have been better if I had not tried 15 before 20M. Then, on 80 between 2335Z and
0124Z I made 185 Q's, a steady no CQ run almost all of the time after 2345Z.
But, I was out of energy after that. The only really slow time for me was after
40 slowed down at 15Z until 1940Z when I discovered virtually no skip zone and
lots of activity on 40. PVRC'ers who did not work 80 hard the first night and 40
hard late afternoon Sunday missed a boatload of fellow club members. It
could/should have been so much worse, but the solar storm helped enhance the low
bands and shorten skip zones.
Overall, I averaged 69 Q's per hour, one of my best part time effort rates. But,
I was more tired than I should have been especially at lunch time Sunday. SS CW
just is not one of my favorites. Copying all of that data is not fun even with
virtually no local or propagated noise and shorter than normal skip. Getting a
fill is much worse than in the pre-automation days. My hats are off to the SO2R
guys who S&P'ed their way through the slim hours. Activity seemed fairly
limited, lots of checks in the 50's and 60's as usual. It was a bad SS for
"N" mults; I never heard NE, ND or NT. I was lucky enough to find NP3X
for VI with a serial number in the 20's on 15. Activity from NL, PAC and WV
seemed higher than normal.
I had trouble sorting out calls in my pile up mainly because everyone seemed to
exactly zero beat my frequency. Don't forget that besides your keyboard, you
have a XIT control. It will help shorten waits. Thanks for all of the Q's,
overall operating was at a high level.
73, Jeff
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