ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW - 2020
Call: K3KU
Operator(s): K3KU
Station: K3KU
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 407
40: 187
20: 99
15: 11
10:
------------
Total: 704 Sections = 83 Total Score = 116,864
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
My usual delayed start (2325Z Saturday evening). And, as usual, I took a quick
scan of 20M to see if any rare Sect's were hanging around. First thing I heard
was SB, which sticks in my mind as rare. One year it was, in fact, the surprise
rarity, and I often have trouble nabbing one. So, I was happy to get that one
in the log. (I worked only one more SB.)
Then, a quick scan of 40M -- already "gone long" -- which yields
maybe-rare NE and PR (worked two more of each!) and GTA. (Do you remember a few
years ago when GTA was the surprise rarity? This year I worked 10 of them.)
Then, on to 80M, which is supposed to be my main band. I can usually have some
nice runs from the Eastern population centers. Tonight, 80M is very noisy; I
can hear only the loudest signals. Uh oh!
A quick scan for easy QSOs and juicy mult's gets me NNY. He is a loud PREC B,
and has almost 200 QSOs already at 0020Z, so maybe NNY will not be so rare, even
with NM2O's QSY. (I worked two more. The third NNY was somebody doing a
last-minute remote, maybe feeling that NNY was rare this year after all.)
(You can see that I am violating a Prime Commandment of SS: "Don't worry
about multipliers. Just keep running, and the Sections will all come to
you." That is absolutely correct -- if you have high power and big
antennas (or you have N3QE's magic dipole). With my 100 watts and magic-free
dipole, you have to hunt for mult's if you want the Sweep. And I want the
Sweep, even if I could score more points by not spending so much time searching.
(This year I did make a point of working plain QSOs while searching for
mult's.))
So, now on 80M, it's time find a freq and try to settle in for running. But it
feels like it's not working. Most of the responses are from a few hundred miles
out; nothing close in. 80M has "gone long". More "Uh oh".
All I can do is S&P as fast as I can, call CQ when I hit a clear spot, and
keep checking 40M. After a while the noise on 80M goes away, so running works a
bit better, and after a longer while the band "shortens". But I still
feel like running is not working so well. Nonetheless, getting called by the
mainstay PE just before 02Z on 80M gave a fantastic feeling. Whoa! He is QRP!
And he already has over 350 QSOs! Looks like PE will not be rare after all.
And so it went all night long. At 09Z (4 AM) I took a one hour break for some
food and a short nap. Back on at 10Z for 30 minutes to scarf up the newcomers;
then a one hour break at 1030Z some other necessary duties, planning to be back
on at 1130Z (a little after sunrise) to look for NL on 40M. And there he is!
Of course, I later heard him running several other times on various bands, but
it was good to have him in the bag, and I never heard another one.
Sunday daytime was mostly S&P on 40M and 20M (I think I was much more
efficient than in previous years). I also did some CQing on 40M and a little
CQing on 20M, and keep checking 15M after the sun rises out West.
Why violate another another Prime Commandment for East Coast SS: "Do not
get sucked in by 15M"? And why CQ on 20M and even on 15M? Because that's
how I expect to work to work the rare-for-me western mult's (EWA and WY), and
that's where I might hear AK (because I did not hear them on 40M over night) or
(fat chance) YT.
That over-attention to 20M and 15M paid off. 20M yielded my two WY QSOs (easy
enough, once I found them). On 20M I also managed a QSO, with many repeats,
with the main AK participant, and then nabbed two others more easily a little
later. One excursion to 15M got me my only EWA, just barely, as he faded out
after asking several time "NR?". I kept sending my NR, and even my
entire report before he came back loud enough for me to hear "QSL".
Phew!! (I heard two other EWA S&P, but they never pounced on me.)
And what about NT? I felt that the I would not be able to break the pileup if a
part-time non-expert tried CQing, and that my CQing on 20M (or maybe 15M) was
the best chance. Boy, do I know my SS CW. But I never heard a CQer and I was,
as expected, not loud enough to attract one by CQing. (That reminds me of my
trying to attract VE4YU in the years when MB was rare.)
After working that third AK at 2230Z I dropped down to 80M to see if it was run
time yet. I did a few excursions to 40M and even checked 20M until it completely
closed (is ther still a chance to find the NT mult???), and by 0030Z 80M is all
there was. Same problems as Saturday night: very noisy at first,and thee band
is long. Thirty-minute breaks at 00Z and 0130Z took care of my remaining
off-time. The last hour provided 25 QSOs (and no NT).
On Sunday evening it still felt like my 80M runs were not as good as in the
past, and I felt like many of the latecomers were cleverly running instead of
S&P. Sometimes S&P really was more productive than CQing. (Remember,
this all unassisted; S&P means turning the big knob and decoding signals
yourself.)
Nonetheless, it appears that my 80M runs were good enough (requires further
investigation); and my S&P was, I think, much more productive than in the
past. My QSO total is well above the last few years (maybe more stations QRV
because of COVID??). I worked really hard, and it was fun!
Here are the lessons from this SS CW experience:
1. For me, "Tune for maximum fun" is the best motivator. YMMV, or
maybe we have different understandings of "fun". I'm happy giving up
a little score to try for the Sweep (Wait til next year!), and I don't know if I
could adjust that attitude only for my own sake. And I'll stop to work some
old friends and even some good-guy contesters I've never met. (All that might
change if you challenge some group with whom I identify -- Go PVRC! Go RSM!)
2. With 20 years experience with my little best-I-can-manage station (and many
earlier years of SS as a guest op at big stations), I know what I can do with my
station. I know where I can get QSO volume and where I have to look to find
mult's. I've filtered the Received Knowledge and Prime Commandments to find
what works for me. I don't waste time and (psychological) energy trying things
that don't work. It keeps me happier; see #1.
So, thanks for the QSOs, and thanks for a good time.
And thank you to my wife and family for indulging me for yet another SS CW.
Would you like to see some pictures of my grandchildren? I hope I'm still
having this much fun with SS CW when they are old enough to appreciate it.
"Go, Grandpa, go!"
73, Art K3KU
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