[3830] SS CW KB0VVT Multi-Op HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: KB0VVT
Operator(s): KB0VVT, K0OU, KG0US
Station: KB0VVT

Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: MO
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:  278
   40:  342
   20:  460
   15:  117
   10:    6
------------
Total: 1203  Sections = 80  Total Score = 192,480

Club: Raytown Amateur Radio Club

Comments:

We operated using antennas located in our 80 foot wide by 30 foot deep backyard
located in a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri.  We used the short KT34A tribander
on a 50 foot Universal self supporting aluminum tower.  The Alpha Delta DXB
160-80-40 meter sloper is attached to the tower along with an old Hygain 2BDQ
doublet 80-40 meter dipole.  The 80 meter portion of the Alpha Delta Sloper
crosses over the top of our house and is mounted to a Radio Shack TV mast
secured in a somewhat portable five gallon bucket filled with concrete located
in our front yard.  I have the pole placed very close to our miniature cherry
tree in order so make the setup somewhat stealth.  The last antenna used is a
crippled R7 vertical located near the very back of the yard.  It needs some trap
work or something as the VSWR was pretty pathetic and narrow on 15 meters as
well as on the WARC bands that of course were not used during the contest.

I took the Thursday and Friday before the contest off from work in order to
prepare for the contest.  During the week and most of Thursday I wasted much of
my time trying to fix one of my Windows 98 computers that we use for contesting.
 I installed a USB network card and the latest driver but could no longer
connect to the Internet through my dial-up account.  I kept getting DNS errors. 
Finally I forced myself to give up and disconnect and replace the new hard drive
with the fully function old hard drive complete with operating system.  On
Friday my wife Barbara KG0UT took off work to help me install fresh ground wires
on the tower and also to install the Hygain dipole and assemble the R7.  We used
these antennas during Field Day and had not yet installed them again in the
backyard.  It was during the assembly and sprucing up of the R7 that we
discovered the VSWR problems.  I spent the remainder of the time on Friday and
Saturday setting up the station, setting up Writelog on the computers, and
building another Band Decoder box for one of the ICOM radios being used.  I
built the decoder circuit using a perf board with wire wrap sockets, wire wrap
wire, and a wire wrap gun that I purchased from Radio Shack many years ago. 
Radio Shack and Digikey provided most of the components.  Thanks to K6XX and
also Top Ten Devices for the bases of the design used.  By the way the band
decoder circuits were used to operate the Dunestar filters.

My 16 year old daughter Rebecca KB0VVT and I usually do this contest on our own
since Barbara KG0UT does not care too much for code.  Barbara passed the 20 wpm
code to earn her Extra and has not touched it since.  On the other hand Rebecca
loves helping to run the Field Day CW station and operating during CW contests. 
Rebecca missed Field Day this year because she was one of three hundred
brightest High School students selected by the Missouri Scholars Academy to
attend classes for several weeks at the University of Missouri in Columbia,
Missouri.  During her stay she lived in the dorm and had a rigorous schedule of
classes and other activities.  This was a great experience for Rebecca and it
was also a good experience for Barbara and myself since Rebecca is our only
child and has never been away from home.  Unfortunately, Rebecca was gone during
the Field Day weekend.  She was really looking forward to CW Sweepstakes since
she missed Field Day.

Most people probably do not know it but Steve Lufcy K0OU (ex KM0L) introduced my
family to contesting many years ago when Rebecca was much younger.  For him
introducing us to contesting has been a double edged sword.  He probably enjoys
seeing us and especially Rebecca getting better and better at contesting.  On
the other hand, he only lives about a block and a half from our house.  That
usually means that we pound each other quite a bit during contests.  If at all
possible, we try not to establish a frequency in the middle of the band allowing
Steve a chance to coexist on the other end of the band.  This year something
very unusual happen.  For probably the first time ever, Steve was not going to
be able to operate SS CW.  This is not possible!  K0OU would never miss SS CW! 
But it was true.  Steve had promised his daughter in Tennessee that he would
attend her wedding that was to fall on SS CW weekend.  He told us to really kick
butt since he would not be around to interfere with us.  Well, Steve called my
on Tuesday evening to tell me his daughter’s wedding was postponed for a few
weeks.  After a couple of conversations with Steve,  I got smart and asked him
if he would like to join our multi operator team for the first time ever.  Steve
agreed to operate with us during SS CW weekend.

Our plan for the weekend was to use one ICOM radio with amplifier on the KT34
tribander and Hygain dipole.  We had a second bare foot ICOM radio used to scan
the bands using the R7 and Alpha Delta DXB sloper.  Rebecca ran a frequency on
the main radio most of the time.  She operated from 3 pm Saturday until 11:30 pm
on Saturday night.  She wanted to operate later but she had to go to bed.  She
was scheduled to play violin solo during church service the next morning.  Steve
went home around that time and I operated the main radio until 3:00 am on
Sunday.  I went to bed around 4:00 am after I rebooted the machines and reloaded
the logs, put the amp in standby, and shut off the radios.  This is where having
Steve really shined the most.  I always have trouble getting back up on Sunday
morning after going to bed at 4 in the morning.  Steve agreed to come back and
start operating at 6:30 am on the main radio.  I took over on the main radio
sometime after I got back up at 10:00 am.  Rebecca took over running the main
radio after she got back from church and ran it pretty much for the rest of the
contest.

Barbara did not operate during the contest but we could not have done it without
her.  She helped setup, clean house, made runs to Radio Shack, and provided us
with food and drink.  She also took care of all the chores that Rebecca and I
normally help with.  Thanks Barb!


Dave KG0US


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