[3830] NA Sprint CW N3BB HP

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                    NA Sprint CW Contest

Call: N3BB
Operator(s): N3BB
Station: N3BB

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: TX
Operating Time (hrs): 4
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Op Time
---------------------
   80:   80        
   40:  105        
   20:  135        
---------------------
Total:  320    Mults = 49  Total Score = 15,680

Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club

Team: Austin Powers

Comments:

Congrats to the great scores.  W4AN, N6TR, W4PA and others are terrific.  K6LL
once wrote that he reads all the reports on the 3830 archives, and I do too. 
These reports are interesting.  How N2IC put up two simple inverted vees for 40
and 80 the day of the Sprint and made almost 400 Qs is incredible.  This was a
PR for me, with 320 QSOs.  But like N5RZ said, it was ugly at times.  I started
off the contest making the first three contacts and finding that NA would not
accept the guys’ names!  After nearly ten minutes of rasslin’ with it, I found
that the NAQP is a different setup from the NA Sprint.  Duh.  OK, so 3 whole
contacts (w/out names) in the first 8 minutes.  That’s a great way to start!  I
violated the rule of making sure that the full QSO info is entered in set-up. 
Later, going to 40, the 402CD yagi locked up the keyboard of radio A, and that’s
a new one for me.  So I switched the radios as the antenna was OK on radio B. 
Another 5 minutes and rebooting.  Finally, I forgot to set the Alpha 76 tuning
up when Radio A was put on 80.  I spent 2 or 3 minutes calling people in pileups
and getting no one before realizing that the amp puts out no power on 80 with
the 20 meter settings!  Somehow, I kept my wits and kept after it.  

Everyone was crunched into the 7015-7030 space with the RTTY QRM above 7030. 
There were five stations calling for every CQer.  I had worked both 40 and 20
from the start, and the third hour on 40 was terrible.  Fortunately, after
getting the amp settings right, the last 55 minutes on 80 were a godsend, as I
found a great rhythm, and worked up the band from 3520 all the way to 3560 with
nice couplets and getting most everyone on one call.  There were 80 contacts on
80 meters in that last 55 minutes and that saved the day for me.

Using the N2IC format, thanks to K1PQS (ME), K3MM (MD), K4NO (AL), K4FXN (AL),
W4OC (SC), KL7WV (AK), W7UQ (ID), W7TTT (NV), NC7J (UT), N0AT (IA), K0BJ (KS),
K0OU (MO), W8TM (NE), WB0O (ND), WD0T (SD), VA7CW (BC), VY1JA (YT), XF1K (XE),
and ZF2DZ (ZF) for being the sole QSOs in their mult.  I heard AA1SU in VT and
missed him, but never heard VE9, WY, MT, WV, LA, AR, RI, VE6, or FM, which have
been mentioned.

It’s thrill to experience the high level of operators in this thing.  Congrats
to all.  Thanks to the Austin Powers team.  We tried to get some new guys out
for the Sprint in addition to N5RZ and the like.  It's also amazing that I can
operate 4 hours in this thing and never hear K5GN who is 100 db over S9 here on
40 and 80, and who made a lotta QSOs!


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