[3830] SS CW W1NN Single Op LP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: W1NN
Operator(s): W1NN
Station: W1NN

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: OH
Operating Time (hrs): 23.6

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:  468
   40:  274
   20:  119
   15:   81
   10:   79
------------
Total: 1021  Sections = 80  Total Score = 163,360

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

It's nice to have the high bands open, but since 80 meters is my most
competitive band, the improvement in high band conditions is not really a plus
for me.  My 80 meter QSO total this year dropped by 158 contacts. Overall, I
was 45 contacts short of my 2010 total.   

The contest started off pretty well for me and after 3 hours I was ahead of my
2010 pace, but activity on 80 was slow to build and the hourly rates for the
next 5 hours were about 10 contacts per hour below 2010.  I have created a
table with my hourly Q totals from the past five years and as each hour passes,
I enter my current rate and cumulative total in the columns for this year so I
can monitor my performance.  I have found that this is a very helpful tool,
although it can be depressing if you see that you are falling behind.

Conditions on 80 were actually very good and the west coast was quite loud late
at night, so after midnight I had a couple of decent hours.  When I took my
first break in the 0800 hour, I was only 15 contacts behind my 2010 total at
that time.  

Sunday was the real problem for me.  Rates on 40 in the morning were just not
there and it became extremely difficult to sustain any kind of rate the whole
day.  I fell about 50 contacts behind my 2010 total on Sunday morning and never
did recover.  Sunday afternoon was more painful than I can ever remember.  I
went over 800 contacts around noon but it took the next 10 hours (minus 3 hours
of breaks) to make the next 200 contacts.  

On the positive side, nothing broke and I managed to make my first sweep in
quite a few years.  I think I worked at least two stations in every section
except VE4 (thanks VE4EAR) and NT (thanks VY1EI).  With people spread out, it
was easy to find a CQ frequency (but not enough callers!).  

It seems that the Unlimited category has become very popular, especially among
ops who are not operating for a full 24 hours.  And there seems to be a slight
increase in the number of post 2000 checks, but exactly 25% of my contacts were
with ops licensed in 1959 or earlier.

I guess if I'm ever to become really competitive, I'll need some aluminum. 
Last year K8AZ loaned me his old A3S tribander and I temporarily mounted it on
a fiberglass mast at around 40 feet.  It wasn't much better than my dipole on
20 but I thought it would help me on 10 and 15 this year so I put it up again. 
Unfortuntely, something is wrong with at least one of the traps because it won't
load on 15 and 20, so I took off the outer traps and put it up at 36 feet to use
on 10 meters.  It seemed to work well but I just couldn't get any sustained runs
going on that band.  For the other bands, the antennas are all dipoles.

Another SS in the books!  Many thanks to all for the contacts and the
cameraderie.  It's always fun to hear and say hello to many friends from over
50 years of radio contesting.  

73,  Hal W1NN 
Check 57
Medina, Ohio


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