[3830] SS SSB KK1L Single Op HP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: KK1L
Operator(s): KKL1
Station: KK1L

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  501
   40:  340
   20:  644
   15:   73
   10:    0
------------
Total: 1558  Sections = 80  Total Score = 249,280

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Every year I feel like I am getting just a little bit better at this. I was
disappointed in the first hour, but in the second and third hours my running
really seemed to click. Later on in the contest the same techniques did not work
as well. The overall contest felt like it went very smoothly for me. There were
still several hours which just would not produce Q's at the rates I would like.
This just seems to be the nature of SS. It was not for lack of trying. I was
doing all the same things that attract rate at other times. The 11th hour (start
of bed time), and the 26th, 27th, and 28th hours (dinner time Sunday) were in
the 30's...arrrrghh that is grueling.

A key station improvement this year was a 2x6 remote antenna switch I designed
and built. It is a real joy to be able to put either radio on any antenna. I do
not have a full array of isolated antenna choices on all bands, but every year
there are incremental improvements. Apparently there was some activity on 160m
this year which I might have been able to glean a few new Q's from if I could
have run 80m while S&P on 160m. I share a feed line to my 160m and 80m inv-V's
so this was not possible. Hindsight says I could have called on 160m while S&P
on 40m during the last 30minutes (80m was really lean in the last hour this
year). I am not sure it would have made much difference at all. I have in the
back of my head somewhere somebody famous said (of multiband contests) "If you
are calling on 160m, you are losing".

My TX antennas are all on one tower at this point. With the new 2x6 switch I was
able to do some interaction experiments in real time. I have a 2el40 on top at
99 feet. Then a pair of phase-able TH6's at 90 feet and about 56 feet. There was
definite coupling between the TH6's. I found however that if I pointed one of
the stack at 330 deg and the other at 240 deg I could be on 15m and 20m with
good effect and with only very frequency specific minor interaction. I had
checked the system before the contest, but did not consider the 90 degree
misalignment trick until during the contest. It did confirm for me that the 2x6
relay board layout was effective for crosstalk.

All in all I was not bothered by intentional QRM. There was contester late in
the contest, who lost his cool a bit on 80m...it was late and that stuff
happens. I have been guilty of it too. 

I do remember not being able to get within about 5 KHz of one particular 1x2 6
lander. Twice on 20m I would this intense unusual QRM which seemed like it was
less than 1 KHz away. I found the same station on both occasions down the band
about 4 KHz with an S9+0dB signal. The QRM on the freq I was using was S7+. I
understand about running shoulder to shoulder at 1.5KHz apart and bone crushing
signals being loud on the +/- bandwidth tails, but this was nothing of the sort.
I wish I could remember the call, so I could point this out to them (I can only
narrow it down to about six stations). I know I would want to know if it were
me.

I was asked very politely at one point if I might consider moving for a net that
was going to start in 15min on 20m. I made the usual trade a Q for moving deal
and said I would start sliding up a bit over the next 15 minutes. At the end of
that time I was 1.5 KHz above the net with a descent rate. I still had a station
come up from the net and ask me to move (again politely). To this person I
explained briefly and politely that I had already moved, that nets are announced
+/- QRM, that I did the "+" part, and they need to do the "-" part. Seemed fair
to me. I was there another 40 minutes with no complaints.


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