[3830] SS CW KE3X SO Unlimited HP

Mon Nov 7 21:59:45 PST 2011

                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: KE3X
Operator(s): KE3X
Station: KE3X

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: Oakton, VA
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  261
   40:  577
   20:  251
   15:   86
   10:   21
------------
Total: 1196  Sections = 80  Total Score = 191,360

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

First, many thanks to Jack Reichert N4RV who has graciously hosted me for
several Sprints and Sweepstakes in the last 15 months.   Each time we are
getting closer to finding the limits of Jack's station, but we are clearly not
there yet.   I will use this 3830 post to make personal notes for next year,
starting with the 'Disappointments' (to get them out of the way) first:

1.  Lost one amplifier:    Murphy arrived early the contest, when I lost audio
in the right headphone whenever the Radio 2 amplifier was turned on.   Nothing
fixed it:  swapping cables, cleaning ground leads, removing/replacing
connections to the DX Doubler box, even swapping in a spare amp.   We figure
maybe a faulty component in the DXD box or a bad coax shield allowing RF into
the shack.   So running with HP was limited to 40-Meters (based on station
layout, except for a short time running HP on 80-meters in the last 3 hours on
Sunday night, but by that time it was too-little-too-late) , and the second
radio was limited to 100 watts.   Not being able to run effectively on
20-meters was a huge disadvantage all weekend, and it showed in the band
totals.

2.  Slow start:  the first four hours were 74, 66, 70 and 58.   That's a small
improvement over 2010, but for some reason it always takes me a while to get
going in this contest.  Never had a hourly rate above 80 all weekend.   Where
do guys find those 100-hours in SS CW, anyway?

3.  Hard to hold a CQ frequency when pouncing on the second radio:   I wish I
had a nickel for each time I had just begun to send my exchange on the second
radio when I heard "QRL?  QRL?" in my left ear and had that sickening feeling
of "Oh no, in 8 seconds I am going to lose my run frequency and there's nothing
I can do about it".   Many options to combat this, but none of them are very
pretty!   Thankfully with the bands wide open I could usually find another run
frequency without too much hassle.

Next, the 'Bright Spots':

4.  Better SO2R results:  The primary goal this year was to push hard on the
second radio and add another 100 Q's to last year's total of 1,100.   This year
the Gross QSO count was 1,215 and Net was 1,196 so I'll chalk that goal up to
the 'Win' column (even though propagation helped).   I had a good laugh at
VY2ZM's observation:  "I never tuned so hard for anything that moved".   Yeah -
I was wondering why I felt so wiped out by Sunday night ...   Here are a  few
snippets from the log:

FREQ   UTC    NR    CALL
28043   1554   0852   N5OE
07033   1555   0853   NS8O
07033   1557   0854   W3ABT
07033   1557   0855   VA3EC
28029   1558   0856   N6RK
28034   1559   0857   W6SC
21004   1602   0858   K9MU
21006   1604   0859   K5MV
07035   1605   0860   K4FXN
07045   1607   0861   KB9OWD
14035   1609   0862   KM5PS
14039   1611   0863   N7NM

... and later:

FREQ   UTC    NR    CALL
21039   0019   1138  K2NO
07007   0021   1139  NU8Z
21022   0027   1140  W6WQC
21023   0028   1141  W7WHY
14068   0032   1142  NE7D
07008   0034   1143  W4HZD
07008   0035   1144  AA5TD
07005   0038   1145  N6ZA
07029   0041   1146  KJ4FDV
07046   0043   1147  KE0L
07062   0044   1148  K1PQS
03549   0053   1149  W4HEX
03549   0056   1150  KQ8M
03552   0057   1151  KO4OL
03531   0058   1152  K4EDI
07059   0100   1153  K3UA
07053   0102   1154  W1TO
07029   0104    1155  N4GG
07025   0105   1156  WB0GKH
07021   0109   1157  K9MA
03535   0111   1158  KA9FOX

I have not checked the total number of band changes, but it must be over 250.

5.   Finally Learned to use the DX Doubler in 'PTT Mode', which mutes the
sidetone when you are transmitting, and switches both ears to Radio 2.   By the
end of Sunday it started to feel automatic.   My thanks to the NCCC Sprint gang
and Eric, NO3M in particular this year as I have tried to climb up the SO2R
curve.  Still a long way to go.

6.   Interesting Band Conditions:    W1's were workable on 15-Meters from the
DC area ... what's up with that?   Last time I recall these conditions I was in
high school (1977-80).   Need to relearn my 'Propagation A-B-C's.

And finally, I'll close with a story from the 'Dumbass Department':

N1MM Logger started malfunctioning when I tried to send CW using F2 on the
right-hand radio, giving a '.wav file error'.  Re-starting N1MM did not work. 
Rebooting the PC did not work.   Total panic.   Was I going to have to log by
hand for the remainder of the contest?    At that point, Jack wandered into the
shack and casually pointed out the second radio 'Mode' switch was accidentally
set to LSB instead of CW :-)    I think that was after only 20 hours of SO2R
... I really have no idea how some guys do it nonstop for 48 hours.

Overall, this was great fun, and I think Jack's station is capable of at
1250-1300 Q's in SS CW given optimal band conditions, two working amps, and
more skill from the op!

I will be at home for Sweepstakes Phone, probably doing a 'family style
Multi-Op' with my sons.

73,

Ken, KE3X

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