[3830] SS SSB KH6VV(KH6DV) Single Op LP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: KH6VV
Operator(s): KH6DV
Station: KH6DV

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: hawaii
Operating Time (hrs): 15.1

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:   24
   40:   66
   20:  436
   15:  493
   10:   15
------------
Total: 1034  Sections = 78  Total Score = 161,304

Club: 

Comments:

The common theme "What a difference a year makes" was played out here also.
There was an opening on 10 meters the second day there were just too few
people working it to justify staying on the band. During that opening the
conditions were good enough that when I called WP3R the operator asked me
to standby because Angel wanted to say hi. I could hear Angel talking in the
background almost as well as the operator in front of the microphone. 

15 meters was just plain hard work. The band never did produce strong signals
and closed early both days. From out here we need at least a decent 10 meters
and a strong 15 to do well.  With 10 not opening well and 15 closing early,
everyone crowds into 20 meters making it almost impossable to use. Every run 
I managed to establish on 20 meters was ruined by qrm shortly after it got
started. I did back myself into the lower corner at one point and that kept
anyone from getting below me and causing qrm. That ended when a loud CO2 
station started a ragchew just into the foreign phone band about 1.5Khz 
below me. We all know how SA stations love to run the audio gain all the way
open.  20 meters closed very early Saturday evening (a disaster)forcing me to
qsy to 40 meters 3.5 hours before sunset here. 40 meters with low power 3.5
hours before sunset is not great.  With poor conditions and loads of qrm the
long SS exchange was a slow process on every band and at all times. My main
radio developed a tx audio problem the day before the contest and I was forced
to use the back up which doesnt have the great selectivity of the main radio.
The lack of selectivity and heavy qrm meant I wasnt pulling full calls out of
the pileup most of the time. Usually I get a full call and a couple additional
full or partial calls every time, not this year. 

I notice what I believe to be an increase in the number of M and U stations.
Normally in SS a packet spot doesnt increase my pileup activity very much,
they
usually have limited value. A packet spot will normally produce a couple M or U
stations extra and thats it. With so many M and U stations this year, a packet
spot would actually produce a short burst of activity. I noticed the
occasional
bursts and went to the cluster after the contest and compared the spots to my
log, sure enough there was a packet spot just before each burst nearly every
time.  The number of Q stations with great signals seems to get bigger every
year, a nice trend.

Thanks to everyone for their Q's and hanging in there with my constant requests
for exchange info repeats.

Mahalo
Ron KH6DV (KH6VV)


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