[3830] SS CW N1DC Single Op LP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: N1DC
Operator(s): N1DC
Station: N1DC

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: EMA
Operating Time (hrs): 14.5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  121
   40:  106
   20:   97
   15:  110
   10:   40
------------
Total:  474  Sections = 78  Total Score = 73,944

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

My goal this year was a sweep. Came up 2 short missing AK and PAC, but it was
still my best ever. I never heard Alaska. Did hear one low power KH6 Sunday
afternoon on 15M, but the pileup and detriorating band conditions made the
contact impossible. 

This year I had done plenty of testing earlier in the week and thought I was
ready to go. Murphy was around again with an unexpected CT crash during the
first 15 minutes. The QSO count got "stuck" and the first QSO registered as 0000
UTC. It took me 45 minutes to get the corrupted log fixed. I ended up creating a
new filename and manually entering the first 6 QSO's. Finally got back into a
S&P mode at 22:00 looking for multipliers. 

Conditions were very good here Friday night and throughout Saturday. I've been a
ham for 36 years and never heard the bands collapse like they did on Sunday
around sunset. In the final hours, I planned to run stations to build up my
score. 80 and 40 had S7 noise with only 3-4 stations audible. 20 and 15 had
activity but signals had really bad QSB and echo. It took me multiple attempts
to complete Q's on bands with signals in the mud around S2. Unbelievable
compared to Saturday! Lesson learned...operate as long as possible when the
bands are in good shape. I went to bed at 0730 Sunday morning. This turned out
to be a mistake and probably cost me at least another 200 Q's.

A fun contest and very good practice for the upcoming CQ WW. Thanks to all that
answered my CQ especially the many QRP stations.  73...Rick


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