[3830] SS SSB AD1C SO Unlimited LP
webform at b41h.net
webform at b41h.net
Tue Nov 24 14:01:10 PST 2009
ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: AD1C
Operator(s): AD1C
Station: AD1C
Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: CO
Operating Time (hrs): 16
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80:
40: 315
20: 194
15: 144
10:
------------
Total: 653 Sections = 80 Total Score = 104,480
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Comments:
Radio: ICOM 765 Pro III
Antenna: HyGain AV-640 Vertical
Software: WriteLog 10.73
I wasn't sure how much time I was going to put into the contest. I knew we had
some errands to run during the weekend. I wanted to get on mainly to fill in
the missing states for my Triple-Play award (TPA), since I had worked much less
phone than CW or RTTY this year. I decided to run unlimited (assisted) with the
help of packet, so that the bandmap in WriteLog would be useful as I tuned
around the bands. I sure could have used a voice keyer; I have all the
hardware and software, but have never set up the voice memories.
Saturday morning I took apart the top section of the vertical to see if I could
fix the 40 meter problem that developed during the CW Sweepstakes. I cleaned
and tightened everything, and remarkably, even though it was mostly horizontal
(leaning on a lawn chair), there was a nice SWR dip around 7100 kHz, so I
declared victory and put it up. It tuned up as expected, and I never had a
single problem with it on 40 meters during the contest.
The contest started out slow. I had hoped to work some of the locals on 75
meters right at the start, but I couldn't get either the vertical or the attic
dipole to load up there. I also had a high noise level, so I just bagged it.
I started on 15 meters, working RI and ME, two states I needed for TPA (Doug,
N1LI knew I needed ME, and was surprised I found him so quickly!). Signals
were good, so I ran around working guys, then started CQing around 21400 kHz
and worked a string of guys all along the East Coast. In the 2nd hour, I ran
around 20 meters trying to find a CQ frequency, but was unsuccessful.
My first "packet grab" was WW0H on 40 meters at 2228z; Nebraska can be tough
from Colorado. Since WriteLog does not highlight spotted calls as new mults
based based on the section in the spot comment field, I constantly had to watch
the packet spots window as the spots went by, and this was very distracting.
I could not really get any good runs going on either 20 or 40 meters early on.
So many signals! I'm always afraid of being too close to someone, or calling CQ
on top of someone I can't hear. Maybe if I felt louder. Anyway, I did finally
get a 1/2 hour run of stations on 7223 kHz during the 03z hour.
At 0547z (10:47 p.m. local time) I pulled the plug (with a splitting headache).
I have no antenna for 75 meters, and I had already worked most of the stations
who were still on 40 meters. I had 76 sections in the log, needing only NL,
SC, DE and MAR. Little did I know it would take just over 1/2 hour the next
morning to finish the sweep!
Sunday morning I woke up later than I wanted, and worked some DX before
checking on the contest (taking advantage of having the vertical up). I saw a
spot for VO1KVT on 20 meters, and after a few calls, that one was in the log
(the only section I missed on CW). I decided to check out 40 meters first, and
while tuning around found KF4GDX in SC right around the same time he was
spotted. Then I saw a spot for DE on 20 meters, but he had a big pileup. Only
a few minutes later, W3NX in DE was spotted a few kHz up from the first one, and
after a couple of calls (almost no pileup), that one was in the log. I saw a
spot for NY3C (also in DE), but he was not there. Tuning up 1 kHz, I found
VE1ZD, and despite some bad QRM, I worked him at 1507z for #80 and my first
ever sweep!
For the rest of the contest, I tried (harder) to run when I could find a
reasonable frequency. I stayed on 15 meters as much as possible, since the
signals were strong and there was lots of band to spread out. I still watched
the packet spots, trying to work guys in the rarer sections, to make sure I'd
have a "good contact" in each one after log checking. I saw spots for AK and
NT, but was unable to hear any of them; I'm glad I worked them Saturday. As
usual, I took off a few hours in the middle of the afternoon to watch
football.
Near the end of the contest, I was CQing on 7290 kHz, I logged someone at
0159z, then I told the next caller, "Sorry, the contest is over". But the
spectrum scope on the '756 still looked "active", so I tuned around and there
were still plenty of stations on! I am used to the contest ending at 10 p.m.
local time on the East Coast, but in between my move to W0-land, plus DST, I
got all mixed up on what zulu time that actually was! So I operated for
another 40 minutes, putting 30 more stations in the log, the called it quits.
I only had a couple negative experiences in the contest. One was when I tried
to work someone who was not in my log, and not only did he insist we had worked
before, he proceeded to tell me all the QSO details! It would have been faster
just to work me again! He may have thought we worked, but I did not log the
QSO for whatever reason (maybe QRM or QSB wiped him out). The second was when
someone had the audio level of their programmed message recorded too low. All
I could copy of the exchange was the serial number (which he spoke), but the
rest (pre-recorded) was about 10 dB down, into the noise. After a couple of
tries, I finally implored, "Use your voice!" and he finally got the idea, and I
copied the info easily.
Below are counts of the times I worked each section and each check. Thanks to
everyone for getting on the air, and to the sun for finally getting some
sunspots going.
CK Total SEC Total
19 1 VA 32
22 1 IL 30
24 1 SCV 30
30 1 MDC 25
38 2 SV 23
40 2 OH 20
41 1 MN 19
48 3 IN 18
49 1 GA 15
50 1 NC 15
51 4 ON 15
52 12 SJV 15
53 8 STX 15
54 18 AZ 14
55 20 MI 13
56 12 OR 13
57 20 WWA 13
58 22 CT 12
59 21 LAX 12
60 11 EB 11
61 16 WNY 11
62 18 ENY 10
63 22 KS 10
64 17 LA 10
65 18 NH 10
66 9 NTX 10
67 12 AL 9
68 16 CO 9
69 9 EMA 9
70 13 SFL 9
71 13 EPA 8
72 14 SDG 8
73 21 SF 8
74 6 UT 8
75 14 MO 7
76 19 OK 7
77 14 ID 6
78 17 TN 6
79 10 WI 6
80 4 WMA 6
81 4 EWA 5
82 6 NFL 5
83 7 NNJ 5
84 3 ORG 5
85 5 VT 5
86 7 WPA 5
87 3 WV 5
88 3 KY 4
89 11 ME 4
90 8 NE 4
91 11 NM 4
92 9 NV 4
93 11 PAC 4
94 13 QC 4
95 8 RI 4
96 10 SD 4
97 8 WCF 4
98 4 AR 3
99 4 BC 3
00 8 IA 3
01 6 MS 3
02 7 NLI 3
03 4 NNY 3
04 11 SC 3
05 6 SNJ 3
06 7 MAR 2
07 12 AB 2
08 6 DE 2
09 7 MB 2
MT 2
NL 2
PR 2
SB 2
SK 2
VI 2
WTX 2
WY 2
AK 1
ND 1
NT 1
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