ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW - 2019
Call: N3ND
Operator(s): N3ND
Station: N3ND
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 9
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 54
40: 287
20: 169
15: 7
10:
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Total: 517 Sections = 79 Total Score = 81,686
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
Well, if I had read the rules (again) I wouldn't have set a goal of 1000 Q's. I
had forgotten that you can work a station only ONCE per contest and I was not
doing the full contest! Oh well. SS has never been my favorite and now I
remember why! And also, this was the first contest in memory that I have ever
run w/o spotting assistance. It wasn't fun as I like to see rates of well over
100/hr in S&P mode. I had to tune the radio myself. What's that all about?
Then to discover/remember that I can only work someone once per contest, the
contest indeed seemed to drag on.
OK, enough excuses. The station played well even though my lower LPDA had to be
left in one position (ring rotor issues). Conditions I thought were excellent
and it was the first contest this contest season that there was little to no
atmospheric noise/static; main TX antennas sounded like beverages. That said, I
did run diversity with my SAL-20 which allowed me to pull out quite a few
stations that would have been missed with only the TX ants. Diversity worked
exceptionally well on 40M where my 2-el yagi is too high for close-in Q's.
There were times when I couldn't copy a station on the yagi, but the SAL-20 on
the sub-RX was outstanding. Cool stuff.
This contest contest seemed to have more than its share of dirty/key-clicking
stations than other recents contests. I mean some stations were horrible.
Methinks it's because the new rigs (at least YAESU and ICOM) allow TX CW rise
times to be set way too short (ARRL says 5ms is right and that's what Elecraft
does). What's with that? It's the biggest reason I boycott those manufacturers
that allow unscrupulous hams - with ease - to knowingly cause key-clicks as an
advantage to keeping a clear TX freq. Just plain stupid. (How do you really
feel, Dan?).
So, regardless of all this stuff, I am happy to have added some Q's for the
Club's welfare.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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