[3830] SS SSB VA7ST Single Op LP

Sun Nov 20 21:15:25 PST 2011

                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: VA7ST
Operator(s): VA7ST
Station: VA7ST

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 14

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:    2
   40:   38
   20:  253
   15:  265
   10:  109
------------
Total:  667  Sections = 80  Total Score = 106,720

Club: Orca DX and Contest Club

Comments:

Ran into a lot of friends this weekend -- the bands were mostly full of guys and
gals having a great time. Conditions were good, but the bands were crammed to
overflowing. 

The only disappointments were how poor 40M and 80M were here. In 2008, I had
171 and 204 Qs, respectively. This year, just 38 and 7 Qs on those bands. I had
planned 20 or more hours on the air, but ended up with just 14 hours due to
packing it in early on Saturday night thanks to terrible performance on the
lower bands.

During the test I was reminded of a few truisms:

1. Check "82" doesn't get out well at all. Spent an hour playing with the rig's
EQ settings and that helped on Sunday. Still, 82 may actually represent the
number of repeats needed per Q. 

2. "The frequency is in use" and "They're all in use" (overheard in a contest
last year) are both true.

3. The rarer the mult, the more QRM will show up at that moment.

4. Jeff AC0C's roofing filter for the FT-2000 works wonders.

Despite having a target of 1,500 Qs (adjusted once 40M turned out to be a waste
of bandwidth), my only real goal was to beat last year's high power effort with
low power this year and to chase a clean sweep. Managed both -- first phone
sweep for me. 

Got many of the tough ones in the log early with 10M playing like 20M once did
(thanks to the lads in crucial SD, ND, ID, MB, SK, AB, NL, AK, PAC, RI, ME, VT,
CT, NH), but went to bed Saturday night needing VI, PR, NWT, QC, and SF (go
figure).

The high bands came to life at about 1400z out here starting with 20M, but with
15M and 10M quickly opening as well. 10M was so strong, early in the day it was
full of loud Europeans off the side while I was beaming the US Southeast. Took
a while to start whittling away at the needed list. Found QC first just before
1900z, then tuned across a huge pileup on NP4A on 10M, and tried for 10 minutes
without success. Came back 20 minutes later and managed to crack through. PR
logged. Down to three.

An hour later, ran across AA6YX and then W6PZ just up the band, back to back
SFs -- why did I worry? 

Just NWT and VI left.

Found a loud VE8EV working his own pileup not far up the band from the ongoing
pileup on NP4A, and turned the beam north to work him. Just VI remaining. Hmmm.
What to do?

I really wanted the sweep, so I spent half an hour combing through 10M, then
15M, then 20M looking for a KP2. No luck. I heard a couple of fellows chatting
about working a VI at around dusk Saturday evening on 20M, but that was no help
on Sunday afternoon.

The search wasn't working, so I found a slot on 15M to see if I could finally
get a run going. I sent a couple of QRL?s in a quiet(ish) location, and someone
came back with their callsign -- a sudden run was on. Five rapid Qs later, a
very welcome NP2B called in. "That's a sweep for me!" I told him, so excited I
was barely able to accurately hit the Enter key to log the QSO.

Two things happened at the same time: I completed the sweep, and I pushed past
last year's 80,000 points with the 80th multiplier. With the pressure off, I
just enjoyed running and handing out BC to as many callers as possible.

Had a great time, but the 40M and 80M washout felt terrible Saturday night. I
mostly had fun on Sunday, and what fun!

Thanks for the contacts. It was great to run into so many friends on the air
this weekend. See many again in CQWW CW. Very excited by the prospects of The
Big One in these conditions.

-- Bud VA7ST

http://www.va7st.ca/home.html

The Orca DX and Contest Club...
http://orcadxcc.org

Year-over-year...

2011 SOLP 14hr   667     80      106,720
2010 SOHP 11hr   554     73       80,884
2009 SOLP 16hr   500     74       74,000
2008 SOHP 16hr   753     78      117,468
2007 SOHP 11hr   421     77       64,834

Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/