[3830] N5LT '97 SSB SS
Russ - N5LT
russ at inetport.com
Thu Nov 20 11:17:56 EST 1997
Callsign: N5LT
Operator: N5LT
Station Used: N3BB
Category: SOHP
BAND Raw QSOs Valid QSOs Points Mults
__________________________________________________
80SSB 49 49 98 2
40SSB 802 801 1602 8
20SSB 736 735 1470 21
15SSB 414 414 828 48
__________________________________________________
Totals 2001 1999 3998 79
Final Score = 315842 points.
This has really become the contest that I wait for all year.
This was my third time out in SSB SS and was a bit of an improvement over
my last 2 entries (AA5RB in '95 and N5KA in '96. Also the third call
I've used! All from N3BB). Still in the high 1900's though as I just
missed the 2000 qso "after dupe" mark.
I have been very busy at work and didn't have any time to think about
this contest . I was out of town 3 days the week of the contest and I
first started giving it some thought as I was returning home about 9:30pm
Friday night.
I'm pretty much a seat of the pants operator but it would have been nice
to look at last years log (which I did about 2000z Saturday). Last year
I got off to a slow start with a 120 first hour. I knew this year I
needed to be in the 150+ range so I wouldn't get left in the dust.
Last year I tried to stake out a frequency early, but it didn't seem to
pay dividends, so this year I just found a clear spot at 2100z and
started off. I had a decent first hour at 161. The rate dropped
substantially in the next hours, but my first 7 hours were over the 100
mark so I was pleased with that. I started on 15m and left for 20m at
2203z, perhaps I should have hung around a bit longer, but it seemed the
thing to do at the time.
The conditions on 20m were very rough. Lot's of stations and I just
couldn't seem to get much going. I was ready to go to 40m and started on
that band at 0100z. The station (N3BB) really plays on 40m. There is a
3 el yagi at 120' and a new 2 el Cushcraft at about 60'. I felt loud on
this band. I tee connected the 2 yagi's together to give me East/West
coverage, but I seemed to lose my ability to control the frequency. I
ended up putting them back on their own after about 30 minutes. Maybe it
was mental, but I felt things went my way again. My 40m number ended up
being pretty good.
Last year I felt I operated too deep into the morning, but this year I
was there again operating until 0900z before my first break. About 15
minutes longer than last year. I was getting ready to take a break and
decided to give 40m a few more minutes when VY1JA called in at 0846z.
Thanks Ken and J. (In addition to my Q with VY1JA, VE8EV called me on
Sunday. Thanks!)
I listened on 10m only briefly and never deemed it worthy to switch over.
The on again - off again RF problems with the "left" station were on
again so my 2 radio flexibility was limited. The low bands worked, but
10-20 were no go. I desperately wanted 2 radios, so Jim and I rewired
the station before the contest taking 20m out of the Top Ten boxes and
running it through some 2 position switches to allow me 20-80 on 1 radio
and 10/15/40/80 on the other. That was not really a problem, just a few
more switches to throw to change bands.
The only problem that was a pain was that I couldn't get the DVP working
with my 2 radio box. The DVP was working, I just couldn't get the
interface right. I normally go through a mental block trying to hook it
up, but I always figure it out. (This is a problem when you only operate
5 times a year!) This time I had it working on one radio, but then no
audio on radio 2 - not even the mic. I just bagged it and decided to
play w/o it. I had a few hours of really intense 2 radio dueling cq's
and that was a challenge. I could get about 24-30 cq's out per minute
(assuming no response) and I did this for a 2 hour stint on Sunday and
then maybe another hour to 1 1/2 hours later. That comes out to about
1440 - 1800 cq's per hour. Of course I had exchanges and qrz's and
stuff, but you get the picture. It becomes second nature after a bit,
but copying an exchange while rapidly cq'ing on another band is a
challenge. Lot of fun though. Needless to say I had alot of people
around the office Monday morning asking me what I did over the weekend as
my voice was quite hoarse.
My rate using this method was roughly 20% better using this method. As I
have mentioned before this is a tradeoff. It can wear you down,
especially w/o a DVP. It seemed to payoff for me. A few q's can make a
big difference in this contest. The loss of that 20 % over the 3 1/2
intense hours would have dropped me at least 2 places in the standings.
Once again lots of fun. I look forward to this contest, but at times I
almost seem to dread it because I want to do well. This is the only
contest that affects me this way. This year I took a pretty laid back
attitude into it. Maybe because I didn't have alot of time to think
about it, maybe because I knew some things weren't working exactly right
at the station. Once I got into it the adrenaline started to flow, but
perhaps this mind set helped.
Congrats to all and best of luck in the remaining contests in '97!
**** Rate Report ****
HOUR 80SSB 40SSB 20SSB 15SSB TOTAL ACCUM
---- ------ ------ ------ ------ ----- -----
21 0 0 0 161 161 161
22 0 0 117 8 125 286
23 0 0 116 1 117 403
0 0 2 113 0 115 518
1 0 114 0 0 114 632
2 0 104 0 0 104 736
3 1 116 0 0 117 853
4 2 85 0 0 87 940
5 5 66 0 0 71 1011
6 22 30 0 0 52 1063
7 12 50 0 0 62 1125
8 5 56 0 0 61 1186
9 0 0 0 0 0 1186
10 0 0 0 0 0 1186
11 0 0 0 0 0 1186
12 0 0 0 0 0 1186
13 0 0 1 0 1 1187
14 0 33 20 0 53 1240
15 0 0 32 41 73 1313
16 0 0 51 29 80 1393
17 0 0 23 48 71 1464
18 0 0 56 19 75 1539
19 0 0 37 37 74 1613
20 0 0 38 24 62 1675
21 0 0 12 46 58 1733
22 0 0 41 0 41 1774
23 0 28 39 0 67 1841
0 0 31 36 0 67 1908
1 0 26 3 0 29 1937
2 2 60 0 0 62 1999
TOTAL 49 801 735 414
**** QSO Breakdown ****
1. IL 116
2. OH 112
3. MI 101
4. VA 68
5. MDC 66
6. MN 60
7. EP 58
8. WNY 55
9. NC 48
10. NNJ 47
11. WWA 47
12. EM 45
13. EN 46
14. GA 45
15. WI 42
16. SCV 39
17. CT 39
18. TN 39
19. WPA 34
20. CO 34
21. LAX 34
22. NLI 33
23. OR 33
24. ORG 31
25. IN 31
26. SV 28
27. KY 28
28. NH 27
29. MO 27
30. SFL 26
31. STX 26
32. SNJ 25
33. IA 25
34. ON 22
35. AZ 21
36. NTX 20
37. SJV 19
38. KS 19
39. EB 17
40. NFL 16
41. NE 15
42. ID 14
43. WMA 14
44. ME 14
45. SB 14
46. SC 14
47. WV 14
48. AL 13
49. SF 12
50. NV 12
51. MT 12
52. AB 12
53. AR 12
54. RI 11
55. SDG 11
56. UT 11
57. SK 10
58. QC 10
59. NNY 10
60. BC 9
61. EW 9
62. NM 9
63. OK 9
64. VT 8
65. MS 8
66. WY 7
67. ND 7
68. MB 6
69. SD 6
70. LA 6
71. MAR 5
72. PAC 5
73. WTX 5
74. AK 4
75. DE 3
76. VI 3
77. NL 2
78. PR 2
79. NWT 2
Russ--
N5LT
russ at inetport.com
"Contesting is a contact sport"
Russ--
N5LT
russ at inetport.com
"Contesting is a Contact Sport"
--
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