[3830] SS CW K3FIV SO Unlimited LP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: K3FIV
Operator(s): K3FIV
Station: K3FIV

Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: Point Arena, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 16:46

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   49
   40:   97
   20:   84
   15:   70
   10:    0
------------
Total:  300  Sections = 79  Total Score = 47,400

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

Almost!  Managed to work 79 sections.  Heard NL but my 100 watts and wire
antenna just couldn't break through the crowds.  Lots of fun, the bands seemed
reasonable and there were lots and lots of stations.

I think this was my first CW SS.  I may have worked one back in 1964 or so, but
it's hard to remember.  I'm still (re)learning CW after a 40 year hiatus.  I
used to work traffic nets in the 60s, so it felt familiar - except the messages
don't have any body.  Just headers.  And there's no net control to bring order
to the pileups!  Hey, would that be legal in contests - having a Net Control
like traffic nets?

Had a little trouble this time - effects of a lingering cold made it hard to
decipher fast code - too easy to miss a dit here and there!  Did all S&P - my
ears weren't working well enough, and I've found with my LP station I can work
more stations faster in S&P when the bands are crowded.

15 was surprisingly busy at the start.  I heard a handful of stations on 10,
but none of them could hear me.  

There was a strange propagation effect on 20 on both Saturday and Sunday. 
Usually I can't hear other stations in CA within a hundred miles or so, since
my QTH is behind a mountain range from almost everyone else.  However, this
weekend there were lots of CA stations audible on 20, with weak to medium
signals.  All of the signals had a strong echo and reverb, which tended to blur
the code together and make it almost impossible to copy.  Sounded almost like
people were sending code by hitting a bell.  I wonder if it had something to do
with the recent solar flare and NVIS-type reflections from almost overhead.  A
similar effect was happening on 40 as well, but not quite as pronounced.

I worked "U" class with the Skimmer and regular spots enabled, to see how that
works.  The bandmap was always extremely full even after limiting to US/VE
spots.  I found that many of the spots were for stations I couldn't hear at
all, even with timeouts set to 10 minutes.  Also, there were lots of broken
calls.  Actually, if you listened to what people were sending, I noticed that
the Skimmers were usually just reporting what was actually sent, e.g., the "SS"
at the end of the callsign.  

It seems like only a matter of time before the Skimmers post a station's
exchange as well as call sign and signal level.

I think I prefer the old fashioned way where you actually tuned the band to
find stations, and used the radio to copy the callsign and exchange.

On Sunday, I still needed NE (as well as NL), but no spots had shown up for
hours.  So I methodically scanned the band to work whomever I could.  I was
very surprised to find K0NE CQing with no takers.  But I never found NL before
the impenetrable pileups formed.

I learned some lessons.

1) Don't refinish furniture in the workshop next to the radio room a few hours
before the contest starts.  I had a terrible headache Saturday night, which I
attributed to the cold, but when I came back after going to bed for a while the
chemical smell almost knocked me over.  Didn't notice it the day before.

2) My station has a "kill switch"!  I have one of those WTMK computer keyboards
- Way Too Many Keys.  There's several dozen keys that I never use, and don't
really know what they do.  Well... in the heat of battle, my little finger
brushed over one of the keys off to the right.  The computer immediately shut
down - no "Windows is shutting down", no delay, just off.  Since I'm using a
Flex SDR, the radio is the computer, which meant the radio had shut down too. 
Couldn't even grab the paddle to finish the QSO.  At first I thought it was a
power failure - but the lights were still on.  Then I noticed the key that I
had accidentally hit - labelled "Sleep".   Aaarrgghhh!  Fortunately the key
next to it is conveniently labelled "Wake".  Unfortunately hitting that key had
no effect whatsoever.  Took a few minutes to sort it all out.  Sorry to whoever
I was working at the time!  I didn't mean to disappear.   Hmmmm. I have a key
labelled "search" - maybe that's the one I should use to find those missing
multipliers?

3) Note to self - change the batteries in the wireless keyboard and mouse
before SSB SS.  You have been warned.

4) I need to improve my typing skills, and maybe get a different keyboard too. 
Never learned to touch type, and hunt-and-peck is clearly not only too slow but
also dangerous - see #2.  Never thought of typing as a CW skill....back in the
60s I used to be able to copy message traffic at 35wpm with pencil and paper. 
I think those neurons are gone now.

Thanks for all who pulled my signal out!

73,
/Jack de K3FIV
Point Arena, CA

Rig: Flex-3000, 100 watts
Antenna: 135 foot Carolina Windom at 35 feet, all bands
QTH: Point Arena, CA CM88eu


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