[3830] SS CW WI9WI Single Op QRP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: WI9WI
Operator(s): WI9WI
Station: WI9WI

Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: WI
Operating Time (hrs): 22

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:  159
   40:  204
   20:  139
   15:   87
   10:     
------------
Total:  589  Sections = 80  Total Score = 94,240

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

Another stab at QRP SS. In general it worked out quite well, though not so well
as my last time in 2004. Fun was had and that's what counts.

Just before the test I installed an INRAD roofing filter on my venerable
IC-765. I do feel it made a difference, especially on 40 and 80 Saturday
night.

The bands: I felt that all the bands were as good or better than could be
expected for this part of the sunspot cycle. With HP or even LP I would have
started on 20 or 40 running, but from previous experience I knew this would be
a problem early in the test with QRP, so I started on 15 hoping to fill out
most of the western mults and work some of the rarer mults such as VY1, AK, PAC
and VI. This worked out well, and I snagged J, VY1JA after only a few calls in
the early pileup. Then on to 20 where I filled out some more mults including
AK. I went to 40 shortly after 0000Z and spent until 0700 there and on 80.
Attempts to run Saturday night were somewhat unfruitful with a few short runs
terminated in 10-20 minutes by lack of response or being pushed off the
frequency. Most successful was a 30 minute run on 40 that netted 20 QSOs. By
plan I quit shortly after 0700 with 300 QSOs and 70 mults in the log. Of the
300, 68 were made in a little over 2 hours of running.

I set the alarm for 6 hours of sleep, but I was moving pretty slowly Sunday AM.
Getting up, making coffee, feeding the dog and letting her out for a bit, and
having a bite to eat cost me almost another hour. I started on 40 shortly after
1400 and worked 91 stations in the next 3 hours including my best run of 63 QSOs
in 85 minutes. I picked up 5 more mults in this time. I then went to 20 for a
bit and bounced around 15, 20 and 40 for the rest of the afternoon. CQing was
effective for short periods, but I seemed to run out of stations to work
quickly. I took a 45 minute break to rest my brain about 2330. After 0000 I
went to 40, then 80 for the rest of the test.

Of the 589 QSOs, 189 were worked in a bit over 5 hours of running, and the
remaining 400 in 17 hours of S&P. I did have a second radio, but made no QSOs
on it. I used it to check other bands for activity and in the later hours to
look for missing mults on other bands, but never found one. Got them all on the
main radio.

The mults: My early strategy of being on the higher bands early seemed to pay
off, since I picked up some of the what for me are harder to find mults, such
as VY1, AK, VI, SD and  ID early. I had 70 when I quit at 0700 and by noon
local I had picked up SC, MO, NE, NLI, and ENY on 40 and MS on 20. The last 4
were QC on 20 at 1829, NL on 15 at 1935, and PAC on 15 at 2107 (I worked 3 PAC
in about 5 minutes at this time). That gave me 6 hours to find VE4 for the
sweep. I had heard VE4VV several times Saturday night on 20 and 40, including
one time on 20 calling CQ with no answers, but I just didn't have enough ummpf
for him to hear me. Just before sundown I found him CQing on 20 with a huge
pileup. He was weak, and best heard on backscatter with my antenna Southeast.
Again I didn't have enough ummpf to crack the pileup, in spite of trying on and
off for about 30 minutes. I had pretty much given up on the sweep when I found
him on 80, 42 minutes before the end of the test, strong and with few callers,
and he was easily worked. Thanks Derrick !! Probably the hardest other mult was
NL. I only heard one but fortunately propagation was favorable on 15, he was
very strong and I worked him in only 4 or 5 calls. 

I didn't quite meet some of my goals this time. I've been suffering from a
nagging chast cold, and took too much time off. An extra 2+ hours in the chair
would have probably gotten me well over 100K, and at least closer to the top
10.
I did get the sweep which I'm real happy about. Two years ago I had it with 6
or 8 hours to go. We'll see how the category plays out in the WI Section and
Central Division.

Lots of great operators out there !

Thanks for all the QSOs.

Rig IC-765, some listening on my IC-706
80: Inv V at 80 ft
40: 2 el at 95 ft, dipole at 40 ft
20: 4 el at 100 ft, C-19 at 55 ft
15: C-19 at 55 ft

Jim
WI9WI


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