[3830] SS SSB N6WG Single Op QRP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: N6WG
Operator(s): N6WG
Station: N6WG

Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: Newark CA
Operating Time (hrs): 21.25

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   46
   40:   38
   20:   81
   15:   56
   10:     
------------
Total:  221  Sections = 68  Total Score = 30,056

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

This turned out to be a pretty good weekend, with better results
than I expected.  I worked nearly every station I could hear,
with very few getting away.

After chasing a Virgin Islands station for six hours, I finally
worked him.  Then two minutes later, I worked another one with
no effort at all.

I had a rate plan, but it was too optimistic.  Each hour
I slid a little farther behind.  I had planned on 270 QSOs, but
wound up with 221.  When I was getting ready to pull the plug at
0100Z to go to my own birthday party, I had 220 Qs and 29,980
points.  I thought, bummer, to come so close to 30K and miss it.
Quickly found one new station I hadn't worked, and got him in the
log.  Finished with 30,056 points, just over the edge.

The audio compression mod I put in my K2 seems to have worked
well, as I had several compliments on the audio from a QRP
station. 

I have two headsets, and this contest gave me a chance to try out 
both of them both under battle conditions.  The newer one is made 
by Logitech for PC gamers, with over-the-ear pads and a noise-
cancelling boom mic.  My original headset is a Radio Shack dual
earpiece unit, but with ear pads that are much too small for
comfort.  I hang it around my neck with the mic up by my lips and
use my regular good headphones with the big pads.  Both seem
to have worked ok, but the Logitech got a little uncomfortable
on the ears over time, so I traded off between them.  For $19.95,
I figured it was a cheap experiment.

I added an external homebrew mic preamp to drive the compression
circuit adequately, and the results seem worthwhile so far.
My next step will be to add a footswitch, since I have been
pressing a button on a small desktop box that houses the preamp.

My usual WimpyWire antenna system did the job this time with no
funny stuff.  I'm glad the weather was dry, as the 450 ohm
feeders change impedance when they are wet, and I have to rematch
everything.

It sure is handy having dipoles facing different directions.  Throw
a switch and Alaska is up by an S unit and a half, and the rest of 
the US is down by an S unit and a half.  Well worth doing.

With the noise problems I've been having, my rotating loop
paid its way.  Really made a big difference on 80 and 40m, so I
could work SSB on those bands, even through the noise.  Fortunately
the noise comes from either North or South of me, so the loop was
aimed right at the stations I wanted to hear.

The two things I noticed most in this contest were so many ops
saying, Please Copy xxx, and a lot of stations with very badly
adjusted audio processing and lots of distortion.  There were also
some extremely clean signals that were a joy to listen to.

All in all, I had a fun time.
Hope to see you all in the next contest.
73, Bob N6WG
The Little Station with Attitude


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