[3830] NA Sprint CW K4XD HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    NA Sprint CW Contest

Call: K4XD
Operator(s): K4XD
Station: K4XD

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Raleigh, NC
Operating Time (hrs): 3

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Op Time
---------------------
   80:   34        
   40:   59        
   20:   19        
---------------------
Total:  112    Mults = 35  Total Score = 3,920

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Team: 

Comments:

Bzzzt bzzzt bzzzt bzzt bzzzt bzzzzt bzzzzzzzt.... it's a bird, it's a plane,
it's a hive full of angry bees!  No, it's CW Sprint!  

First time Sprinter, well first time with more than one or two QSO's and then
saying "no way!!" and going back to something less challenging, like working
RTTY with my ears alone...  Decided I would plod through and just let the bees
buzz by without getting flustered.  I re-read Tree's great "Sprint Survival
Guide" and armed to the teeth,, well, maybe just to the gums, I went forth
where only fools and angels dare to tread.

After getting beat out about 10 times, I managed to find someone who actually
had to CQ twice, and jumped into the fray.  Immediately I realized my name is a
real liability in this contest.  Rowland... too #$! long.  OK, I'll shorten it
to Rowl.  Great, I've taken an already uncommon name and turned it into
something that absolutely no one will recognize!  Is there any way to submit
"Rowl" to the pre-fill databases ;-)??  I guess at my current rate of 112 Q's
per Sprint, everyone should recognize Rowl by about 2025!  I am now extremely
jealous of guys named Ed and Tim, although on my first encounter with Ed, I
wondered who would name their boy "L."  I'm seriously thinking of legally
changing my name to "E" although I'm not sure I want the network's lawyers
coming after me.

OK, we're going to roll with Rowl... and then after 2 Q's, my lovely wife's
voice filled the room "Dinner time!!!"  Uh oh, forgot to make a contest
reservation... back in 60 guys and gals.

Back at the dials a bit after 0100 and now I'm in it for the duration.  Why
does 20M sound like it's under water?  It has been raining here post-Hannah but
this is ridiculous.  Bees buzzing in the ocean.  Only ham radio...  Answer a CQ,
hey it worked.  Now do I move up 1 or 5?  Try 1.  Answer another, move, answer,
move.  Hey this is fun.  The West coast guys are booming, even if they are
under water.  K4XU, finally a local... no, he's in OR!  0124 and there's Bruce
from nearby Chapel Hill, although he sounds weaker and more watery than the CA
stations.  Bizarre.  Alright, I remember that around 0130 everyone heads to
40M, so down we go.  Gee, the bees are flying faster here again.  I try the
"Sprint Hop" bouncing from one end of the band to the other, but it really
doesn't seem that bad to just answer a CQ, then get called or CQ once or twice,
then move 5 and look for another unworked QSO in progress.  I'm getting a little
better at this although I'm still getting beat out more than half the time, and
I'm getting used to the "NAME" fill requests.  Alt-K ROWL ROWL Alt-K.  Next
time I'll program a macro key.  

Answer, log, hit CQ, type in the call, hit enter... I listen in horror as I'm
sending "W7XYZ 599"  What the???  Oh, my WriteLog F10 macro is set from another
contest.  I've been hitting F2 to send my CQ Exchange and that is programmed
correctly, but I forgot to copy it down to F10.  I hate sounding like a lid
when I actually know better!  After building different WriteLog templates for
every contest I've finally standardized on a layout for the basic exchanges, F1
for CQ, F2 for CQ Exch, F3 for TU QRZ, F4 for the most common fill (soon to be
ROWL), F5 for K4XD, F6 for SP Exchange.  

Now that my Tokyo HyPower HL-1.5KFX (recently voted the hardest model number to
type in ham radio) has been stable, I love its no tune point and shoot nature. 
But it is still a bit finicky about SWR and protects itself around 1.8 or 1.9. 
So it is not particularly Sprint friendly -- more than once I would patiently
wait for my chance to POUNCE and then stare at a fault light on the amp and
realize I was probably sending 50W.  But sometimes that was enough.  

I'm starting to get into this and get the rhythm down, hey this is actually
fun.  Check the time, it's 0314 and I'm still on 40.  THe band has some life in
it too but if I don't get down to 80 I'll miss it so here I go.  Once again the
pace is faster as the "early adopters" who know each other's names and states
by heart wing past me at 50WPM.  But people are pretty friendly, they slow down
a bit and things are going well.  I'm usually sending at 28WPM according to WL,
and given that everyone is asking "NAME" I figure it won't be much help to go
any faster.  Maybe next time...

Missing an hour and being a newbie at this, I figure breaking 100 will be doing
OK for me, and I do, although there will probably be a few deductions so we'll
see if I still make it past 100 when the dust settles.  

Thanks to all for your patience and the introduction to Sprinting.  Glad I
persisted, and I'll be back!  Although I think I may hold off on SO2R until
everyone recognizes ROWL...

Equipment
Icom 756 Pro II
Tokyo HyPower HL-1.5KFX
Spiderbeam for 20M
Cobra Ultralight Jr for 40M
Cobra Ultralight Sr for 80M
Spaghetti and meatballs by Patient XYL


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