[3830] SS SSB K3KU Single Op LP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: K3KU
Operator(s): K3KU
Station: K3KU

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: MDC
Operating Time (hrs): 7:22

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:    2
   40:   37
   20:   62
   15:   60
   10:    5
------------
Total:  166  Sections = 59  Total Score = 19,588

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Quoting W3LPL "K3KU on SSB?!?!"  Yup.  Wanted to give a QSO to a few special
friends and to make a few points for the Club.  Cobbled up a homebrew boom mike
for my headset, fired up the new-to-me TS-850 and the similarly-new-to-me CT. 
Got on 40 SSB Thursday evening to see if the audio was OK; couldn't find anybody
for a quick radio check.  'sOK.  Wife will be out Saturday evening and most of
the day Sunday.  I must be livin' right.

Saturday afternoon the sore throat and cold that had been threatening for
several days finally broke through.  Ugh.  Managed to operate about 80 minutes
with two breaks before giving up and going to bed.  Lessons learned the first
evening: 1) Being weak on SSB is much worse than being weak on CW (I knew
that!); 2) Learning to log with the keyboard simultaneous with learning to log
from SSB is going to take a while; 3) The old computer which was RF-quiet in
SSCW is really crudding up 75 and 40 phone.  Inference: This will be a slow,
hard, S&P effort.

Which it was.  Slept in Sunday morning.  Wife fixed me hot tea with lemon and
honey (Be jealous!  Call me multi-op!  Won't bother me.)  A long hot shower, and
I'm back in the chair about 11AM local (1600Z), feeling prety good.  About six
hours of slow, hard S&P, and I have to quit for a community obligation.

Highlights: 1) Hearing KD6WW/VY0 waft up out of the noise on 20 Sunday
afternoon, calling CQ with no pile-up.  Hardly believing my ears (well, I had a
lot of that on SSB), I dumped in my call.  GOT HIM!  I think.  He asked for
fills, and I'm not sure I heard him QSL before he faded out, but I'm leaving it
in the log. 2) Hearing VE2AWR answering CQ's, moving up the band.  As he
finished a QSO I dumped in "AWR up 2", slid up and started calling him.  GOT
HIM!  3) Seeing all the reports here from the Left Coast, bemoaning their
missing NL.  Why, there was VO1TA calling CQ on 15 for quite a while Sunday
afternoon.  Piece of cake.  (I'm just trying to make myself feel good, after all
the years of my Left Coast friends saying "KL7?  Four of them called me on three
different bands.")

Lowlights:  1) Being last in almost every pile-up.  2) Missing easy Eastern
sections (EPA!  SNJ!  NH!) because all the business was on the high bands.  3)
Missing OK, and then reading K5YAA's report.  I passed him by several times
because I thought I had already worked him.  ARRgghh!  3) Realizing that I have
some typing errors in the log, and that I am sure to get dinged a few.

Apologies and Thanks: To all who dug me out (and then thanked ME for MY
patience!), and especially to the loud ones who had to send fills because I
messed up the logging.

Question for the ages: Given that I don't like 'phone, and given how hard I had
to work for my tiny score, and given how sick I felt Saturday evening, and given
that I had to quit early, how come I HAD SO MUCH FUN?

73 and see you next year (maybe), Art K3KU


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