[3830] SS CW WX3B(@W3LPL) Single Op HP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: WX3B
Operator(s): WX3B
Station: W3LPL

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:     
   40:     
   20:     
   15:     
   10:     
------------
Total: 1100  Sections = 79  Total Score = 173,800

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

2010 Sweepstakes CW report

 A big thank you to Frank (W3LPL) and Phyllis for hosting me again this year.  
A number of DX stations called in, especially on 80 meters, and there is no
substitute for 2 element quads at 200 feet.  Evidently the loud UN7 worked
during Sunday night’s run thought the same thing.

Sweepstakes CW is truly a great teacher.  Anyone who can stay in the chair
Sunday has an important  skill mastered:  fighting boredom.

As a WX3B first â€" I ran un-assisted this year.  I wanted to find out what it
was like to maximize my score and get a sweep the hard way.   All 79 of the 80
sections I worked found me, however my 80th, P.R. never called in, and I never
heard them during my few pounce-fests.

I got an incredibly slow start on what sounded like a good run frequency and a
great 20 meter band.  Fortunately things picked up quite a bit and were lively
all day/night Saturday.   

Somewhere around 3:00am local time, I got very sleepy and convinced myself that
my 45/hour rate was too slow to be productive.  Frank (W3LPL) warned me that
Sunday rates were low, however I managed to convince myself that 45/hour was
too slow to continue operating effectively.   What I didn’t realize was that
I would not see a sustained rate like that until late Sunday night! 

By 7:00am I was back in the saddle, feeling tired, but reasonably “ok” for
not having much sleep.  I was surprised to hear how many loud signals were on
40 & 80, yet calling CQ produced very limited results, perhaps 30+ / hour.  It
was slow, and I figured things had to pick up as the day went forward.

“Jim:  You need to save time off for the Sunday football games” says my
gracious leader/station host. 

I thought to myself â€" the rate couldn’t possibly get much slower than it
already is....and that, was one of the most incorrect conclusions I drew all
weekend.

Sunday morning…..and into the afternoon, for what seemed to be hours, things
were grinding along at the slowest rate I remember ever having.  This year
things seemed MUCH worse than last year and I then I remembered why:   No
assistance = no packet chat with friends.    That makes Sunday an entirely new
lonely experience.

At one point in time, when the “last 10” rate dropped to about 9, I thought
about driving back to my house, and starting over with a new call sign.

I had slept for 4.4 hours (the .4 is significant) â€" and loosely monitored my
off times on the CT clock and it started to look like I wasn’t even going to
be able to get 24 hours of operating time in the contest because I had taken
too many “mini-breaks”.

At about 8:30pm things really started picking up nicely.  My CQs were being
answered on 80 meters, and my rate, for the first time on Sunday, had a “last
10” over 50.  That was when big mistake #2 was gently revealed with a tap on
the shoulder:

W3LPL:  “Jim, what times did you take off besides your evening nap?”
WX3B:  Shrugs shoulders, “Oh, many short breaks here and there â€" LOOK at 
the CT “on”  time, I’ll never make my 24 hours of operating with all
those breaks I took”.

W3LPL:  “Jim, I just went through your log, you have not taken any 30 minute
breaks since your 4.4 hour break (and that .4 hours is not 30 minutes, so it
doesn’t count)”.  Yes, I had taken a total of (3) 24 minute breaks, and the
rules of Sweepstakes are, a 24 minute break counts as NO break â€" they must be
in blocks of 30 minutes.

So here it is, Sunday night, I have the best run going of the entire day, and I
was already “on” for almost 30 more minutes than permitted.   Lesson
learned:  Always have enough operating left time to work the last two hours of
the contest!

SS/CW is the more difficult of the two SS contests for me personally â€" and I
am now turning  my attention to building some great teams for two Parallel
operations:  one at the K4VV super-station, and one at home!

73,

Jim   WX3B


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