[3830] ARRL SS CW K7QO/7 SO QRP

[adamsc at pr.erau.edu]

                     ARRL Sweepstakes, CW
                    
Call: K7QO/7
Operator(s): K7QO
Station: 

Class: SO QRP
QTH: Jackson WY
Operating Time (hrs): 20
 

Summary:
 Band     QSOs
-------------------------------
  160:      0
   80:     14
   40:     86
   20:    135
   15:    112
   10:     30
-------------------------------
Total:    377 x     75  =  56,550

Club: Central AZ DX Society

Comments:


First attempt to operate away from home QTH or visit nearby contest station to
operate.  And education is expensive no matter how you get it.  :-)

Flew into Jackson Hole, WY on Friday night.  News media said the VP was in SD.
They were wrong.  :-)  Needless to say the security level was higher.  I got
stopped several times while putting up a random wire at the hotel asking what
I was doing.  

I operated from the third floor of a hotel in Jackson Hole.  Nice view of the
Grand Tetons and another hill blocking my eastern path.  Next year a different
location.  Had to do this this year as I got no response to any letters sent 
out
to about 20 General Class and higher Jackson hams asking about a station to 
use.
N7NG did respond and he is in CT now.

Power level of 4W with less than 100' random wire and no aluminum at 40'
significantly reduced my score from the 85K or so last year from Prescott.
And a continuous noise level of S-6 to S-7 didn't help.  Not making excuses
here, just showing what I learned from this experience. Hope I don't wind
up with too many busted Q's due to the noise level.  It was tough going but
there were a lot of strong sigs on 15 and 20.  Didn't seem crowded like last
year but that may just be that I was in an RF black hole galaxy. 

I have for more than 6 years preached to the QRP crowd on the QRP-L 
reflector that aluminum is necessary in order to compete in this contest
or any other major contest.  Hopefully next year I can import aluminum
into the state of WY or should I do NWT?. :-)

Also using a new radio (I will go back to the Corsair I next year) with 
zero offset from RCV and XMIT and had to spend a lot of time adjusting RIT
on each band and between Qs.

Missed VT, AL, AR, YK, and NL.  Didn't even hear them but I think I worked
everyone in VE7 and VE5 areas.  :-)  Did get another Q-station in WY to call
me on 40m Sunday morning and I was in the lead at that time.  Rumor is
that he beat me badly and not a surprise considering that he had a better
antenna system that I obviously did.

Thrill to work PAC, VI, PR, and AK on 40 meters instead of the usual 20m
at twilight.  And a lot of time spent listening to Qs add on the usual
TNX FOR WY and other thank you's.  My pleasure.  And I had a number of
requests for a fill on the SEC.  Guess WY wasn't heard that much in
previous years......

I couldn't run a freq and when I did no one heard me or the offset was
off and I missed the call(s) or the noise level ate the signal.  No high
run rates this year.

With the CT9.66 upgrade I finally got my computer to hold up and not
barf during the test.

As Arnold says --- "I'll be back."

FYI

dit dit

Chuck Adams, K7QO/7




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