[3830] SS SSB K0HC School Club HP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: K0HC
Operator(s): W0BH N0LRA K0WHY + SAM
Station: K0HC

Class: School Club HP
QTH: KS
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:  375
   40:  682
   20:  500
   15:   36
   10:     
------------
Total: 1593  Sections = 80  Total Score = 254,880

Club: Hesston College Amateur Radio Club

Comments:

Another enjoyable SSB Sweepstakes in the Hesston College log, our best run to
date. This year, one unlicensed student helped out. Sam was a "veteran" from
last year and did an excellent job of logging and running as he had time.

We had one equipment glitch. The VOX decided to quit working with normal
settings during the middle of a QSO.  We quickly tried the manual PTT thumb
switch which had been working.  The switch also decided to pick "now" to quit,
making us think for a time that we had a more serious issue.  Plugging in a
foot switch solved the manual PTT problem, and setting the VOX gain to 100% and
anti-VOX to 0% was a band-aid for the VOX issue, but the transmit problem cost
us a number of "long" minutes and stopped a nice run.

The last two Sunday holdouts for the Sweep were once again NT and NL.  This
time, we found a very, very faint VY1EI on 15m with what seemed like no hope of
getting through.  The conditions improved marginally, and somehow Eric was able
to hear us for #79 (he was #80 for us in the CW Sweep this year).  Then at
1935Z, a loud VO1HE called in on 20 meters to make our day.  We can't say THANK
YOU enough to the stations who put on the "rare ones" each year.  For us, those
were NL, NT, PR and VI, each with only one contact.  Another surprisingly rare
section (#78 on our list) was SNJ.  We didn't put SNJ into the log until 1630Z
on Sunday, and we only worked four stations from SNJ overall, about a quarter
of our usual SNJ total.  Since the totals for all surrounding states were
normal, propagation didn't seem to be the issue.  IL (77), VA (75), and OH (71)
were the big producers this year.  15M was open quite a bit and loud to
different parts of the country at different times, but we could never get a run
going and stuck with the rate on lower bands.

Sometimes numbers or calls jump out as you operate along.  On our #1111 we
worked N4CE who gave us #111 and a chuckle.  We worked K3BBB and immediately
afterwards, WB8YYY. A check of the log shows we also worked calls with EEE,
GGG, III, MMM, OOO, QQQ, TTT and WWW.  Of course, if things like that become
interesting, it probably just means you've been operating too long.  I really
proved that point by giving out a new precedence (I'd just been thinking about
what time it was): "You're number 2015 Zulu, K0HC, check ..."  For some reason,
I was asked for a repeat!  Of course "S" for School caused a number of repeat
requests as well.

It's always fun stopping for a few moments and chatting with other school
stations.  This year we worked 15: N0UNL KD5VVI K2CC W6YX N9UC W8SH W9JWC W8EDU
W5YM W1YK W6RFU KJ4QCP W5ZD W9YT and K0VVY. Special greetings to Middle
Tennessee State University (KJ4QCP) for a first-time entry.  Interest seems to
be picking up every year!

Thanks to all the stations for being out there once again. Both CW and SSB logs
have been uploaded to LOTW. Until next year ...

73, Bob, w0bh
trustee, k0hc
Hesston College Amateur Radio Club


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