[3830] SS SSB KE1FO Single Op LP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: KE1FO
Operator(s): KE1FO
Station: KE1FO

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 16.5
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   68
   40:   85
   20:  181
   15:  116
   10:    0
------------
Total:  450  Sections = 73  Total Score = 65,700

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Started off the contest on 15 and 20 as 2 radio S&P.  I felt good after the
first couple of hours, 84 q's in the bag, all S&P from my tiny gun station. 
Felt loud enough on these two bands, but could never find a place to settle down
and call CQ.  Hour 3 only yeilded 24 q's, on 15/20/40M.  40 was killing me - I
didn't feel loud anywhere on 40 - lots of loud signals but nobody could hear me!
 At 0015z I moved one rig to 80M.  80 was just as bad as 40.  Lots of loud
signals, but nobody could hear me there either.  From 0000z until 0333z, when I
started my sleep break, I had just 69 q's, mainly on 40 & 80, but a few on 20. 
My plan had been to operate until 0600z or so, but I was getting tired and I
just didn't feel like banging my head on 40/80 any longer so I was off to bed
with only 174 q's in the bag.  

I returned to the rigs at 1045z - revived from extra rest.  No sense in getting
up really early since 40/80 were so miserable the night before.  I was hoping to
hit 40 early and find a good spot to hopefully get a run going as the sun
marched across North America.  No such luck.  The 10, 11, and 12z hours yeilded
a total of 27q's on 40/80 and a few on 20.  Again, not feeling loud on 40 at
all, so my few attempts at running were met with not a single q.  The 13 and 14z
hours only netted 38 q's as 20 starts to open.  At this point I knew I probably
missed my chance at RI and VE2, the propigation is real tough there on the high
bands and 40/80 just weren't playing well for me.  By the end of 16z things were
starting to "pick up" a little bit.  I had a "run" frequency on 20M - well let
me state the truth here.  Nobody bothered me as my computer called cq over and
over again with little response.  I had a clear frequency, and nobody cq'd on
top of me, but I had an average of 1 q every 3-5 minutes.  This left plenty of
time for 2nd radio playing but was of little satisfaction.  This practice of
letting 1 rig cq and making S&P q's continued for the next several hours.  I had
become much less serious because of how poorly the station was playing on phone,
so there were several small breaks in there for lunch and some family time. 
Thanks to AD6E for the spot at 2237z, but it was of little consequence as I
didn't work a new q on that frequency until 2345z and another one at 2352z.  

At the start of the contest, I had hoped for 1000q's.  By the time I went to bed
at the end of the first night, I was thinking I'd be happy to get close, or at
least over 750.  By midday on Sunday it was clear that 500 was a much more
realistic goal and that a sweep was probably not in the cards this year.  At
around 2300z, with 417 q's in the log, I decided that 450q's would be a sanity
saving goal, since I was just utterly frustrated with calling LOUD stations 3
and 4 times while they had NOBODY else calling and not being heard.  Plus, 15
was gone, 20 was fading fast (where I actually felt like I had a chance of being
heard), and I knew that 40/80 were not my strong point this weekend.

I ended at 0130z and q number 450.  K1AR had a nice loud signal from NH.  I
thought, here we go again, I'll call till I'm blue in the face and then finally
eek out a qso repeating every element of the exchange six times.  Fortunatly he
heard me on the first call, got all the exchange info on the first try and I was
done!

I operated much less seriously in SS CW but had almost as many q's and found the
q's came much easier.  Either the propigation was much worse, or I'm really
getting to enjoy CW (I never would have thought that 10 years ago when I was
struggling to pass my 5wpm)!  Obviously the narrower bandwidth of CW makes is a
much better mode for a marginal station such as mine.

Thanks to W1CX for loaning me his LISPA (Loyds Incredibly Simple Phased Array),
which is a 2 element phased array for 20M.  Certianly played better than my MA5B
at 25 feet on 20M.  Thanks to my family for giving me the space to devote 16.5
hours of our weekend to this event.  Thanks to everyone who kept trying and
finially got my exchange.  And finially, thanks to all the new hams and
contesters who got their feet wet and gave all of us "serious" guys a point.

73 de Al, KE1FO


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/