[3830] SS CW N3BB Single Op HP
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Mon Nov 5 21:15:36 EST 2007
ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: N3BB
Operator(s): N3BB
Station: N3BB
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Austin, TX
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 71
40: 790
20: 566
15: 20
10: 0
------------
Total: 1447 Sections = 80 Total Score = 230,400
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
I ended up with seven dupes, since several people told me my "worked before"
message was not correct for them. Those, plus one or two bone-headed errors on
my part, left 1440 "score-able" contacts out of the number above.
My wife and I were in Fort Worth, TX on Friday to celebrate my cousin's
retirement. So we were away and had a four hour drive up and back. I didn't get
a whole lot of sleep that quick trip, but for some reason was not too tired in
the SS. I don't know-maybe keeping busy took some of the pressure off me before
hand.
I debated between 15 meters and 20 meters at the start. 15 is a "sucker band'
here because there are huge signals from W6 and W7, but the band is really
long. The footprint is narrow. So I made a split decision and started on 20. I
think that was the right decision, but at the very start I had trouble getting
a run frequency and called a lot of CQs with no answer. Finally I got my first
answer in minute three! Man, what a bummer way to start. I had a 96 first
hour-pretty good but a sure way to fall behind the race horses like N2IC and
N5RZ at K5TR. I had posted a print-out of the rate sheet from the 2006 SS on my
desk, and felt that I was lagging. I seemed to have a good hour #2 and #3
compared with last year, and when I QSYed to 40 for the last part of hour #3,
the rate took off and I had consecutive 93-73(bad)-96-90 hours on 40 meters,
which put me ahead of last year. I did almost zero 2R operation, just getting
used again to the long SS exchanges and trying to keep a clear run frequency.
The loud signals on 40 meters overloaded my FT1000MP (even with the roofing
filters) and there were all sort of "ghost signals" to deal with. I suppose the
old receiver was not able to keep the 3rd order IMD signals out.
It seemed there were more 00-06 checks this year, and that was good.
Basically when I am on 40 meters I feel loud and have a great mind set. On the
other hand, 80 meters here is not good as my beverages are sick. I never felt
like I was hearing well. Signals seem like they are in a big hole there.
The weather here was clear and dry, and there was little to no noise on the
bands except for the great signals. My power line noise was diagnosed and
corrected last year, and for the first time I can "hear" well. There were so
many ESP QSOs that I could never had made before. That made a huge difference.
Basically I operated SO1R for the entire first night. I was tired so slept four
and a half hours. I felt really pretty good when I got up Sunday AM, but had
little remaining off-times so had to go most of the day Sunday straight
through. When the rates dropped off some, I started to do serious SO2Ring
again, but had a problem being "smooth" with the long SS exchanged. It was
tricky to maintain the run frequency when "away." Hopefully I was not too
obvious.
40 meters stayed quite good until after 15Z Sunday and it was amazing to be
working QRP stations in W1 at that time. 20 meters had a mid-day sag, as usual,
but all in all both 40 and 20 were real work horses.
The SS is such a unique contest, and one must work "everyone" which means there
are a whole lot of super weak stations you must dig out. There were plenty of
times when I felt it would be impossible to get the info, but in all but two
cases the station would come up out of the background nothingness to be able to
hear. I gave up on only two people.
I had one panic, when both my atomic clocks failed to switch to the new CST on
Sunday. At about 01:10Z I was tired and came to believe that I had to stop
operating when there was another hour left in the contest. Of course the CUT
clock on the station's TR computer showed the correct time and another hour to
go, but I panicked and called K5NA's place and asked Richard's wife, Susan,
what the time was and when was the contest over. She thought I was joking with
her. I wasn't! Finally my sleep deprived brain figured out what was happening
and I went back to operating. Hope this doesn't make me "U" category! It all
seems silly now but I was in a dead panic. K5NA told me on the phone today that
WWV was not transmitting Sunday. (?) Maybe they were in the SS!
I went to sleep still needing three mults. Here is the story and timing on how
I worked them-all on Sunday.
*NWT at 16:59Z on 15 meters (QSO #1073) VY1JA-called me in a run. Very
difficult as his signals were very weak. RST 219. Took two or three minutes to
complete. Many repeats. J was super-patient. Thanks! VY1JA was really loud on
Sunday later on 20 meters. But when J called me on 15 meters, it took the
pressure off and I could focus on the rate after that.
*WTX at 12:48Z on 80 meters (QSO #882) N5ZC-found Rich CQing loud on 2nd radio.
Worked N5DO (loud and everywhere CQing) and W5ESE later.
*NL at 12:09Z on 40 meters (QSO #847) VO1HP-called me on 40 meters with nr. 27A
in a run. Then another NL called me at during the same 40 meter run at 12:43Z
for QSO #877. I never heard another NL on any other band.
That's it. Congrats on the wonderful scores from N2IC, WP3R, and others to come
(K5TR and WX0B).
Here are my numbers. It's a new PR for me.
rate
HOUR 80CW 40CW 20CW 15CW TOTAL ACCUM
---- ------ ------ ------ ------ ----- -----
21 0 0 96 0 96 96
22 0 0 97 0 97 193
23 0 18 65 0 83 276
0 0 93 0 0 93 369
1 2 71 0 0 73 442
2 0 96 0 0 96 538
3 3 87 0 0 90 628
4 6 70 0 0 76 704
5 20 50 0 0 70 774
6 19 33 0 0 52 826
7 2 13 0 0 15 841
8 0 0 0 0 0 841
9 0 0 0 0 0 841
10 0 0 0 0 0 841
11 0 0 0 0 0 841
12 6 42 0 0 48 889
13 0 10 32 0 42 931
14 0 43 10 0 53 984
15 0 13 35 0 48 1032
16 0 7 32 2 41 1073
17 0 0 18 10 28 1101
18 0 0 19 8 27 1128
19 0 12 20 0 32 1160
20 0 3 55 0 58 1218
21 0 11 29 0 40 1258
22 0 9 34 0 43 1301
23 0 15 23 0 38 1339
0 1 44 1 0 46 1385
1 5 20 0 0 25 1410
2 7 30 0 0 37 1447
TOTAL 71 790 566 20
qso distribution
1. Il 64
2. Va 54
3. Mi 53
4. Mdc 53
5. Oh 49
6. Scv 49
7. WWa 48
8. Mn 46
9. Ep 43
10. Wi 39
11. Nc 37
12. Sv 33
13. In 32
14. Az 32
15. On 31
16. Co 31
17. STx 29
18. Org 28
19. Em 27
20. NNj 25
21. Tn 25
22. Or 24
23. Ct 24
24. WNy 20
25. NLi 20
26. Ga 20
27. Lax 20
28. Ia 19
29. SFl 19
30. Nh 18
31. Sjv 18
32. NTx 18
33. Eb 16
34. Mo 16
35. Al 16
36. ENy 15
37. Sdg 15
38. WPa 14
39. Wv 13
40. Ut 13
41. Bc 13
42. Nm 13
43. WcF 12
44. Ky 12
45. NFl 12
46. Sc 11
47. Sf 11
48. Ks 11
49. SNj 10
50. Sb 10
51. WMa 9
52. Ew 9
53. Ok 9
54. Nv 9
55. Me 8
56. Id 8
57. Mar 8
58. Mt 8
59. Vt 7
60. Pac 7
61. Ab 7
62. Nd 6
63. Wy 6
64. Ri 6
65. Sk 6
66. La 6
67. Ak 5
68. Ar 5
69. NNy 4
70. Qc 4
71. Ne 4
72. De 4
73. Mb 3
74. Vi 3
75. Ms 3
76. Sd 3
77. WTx 3
78. Pr 2
79. Nl 2
80. Nwt 1
73, Jim N3BB
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