[3830] SS SSB VE4EAR Single Op HP

[webform at b41h.net]

                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: VE4EAR
Operator(s): VE4EAR
Station: VE4EAR

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: 
Operating Time (hrs): 23
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   36
   40:  437
   20:  415
   15:  589
   10:  160
------------
Total: 1637  Sections = 80  Total Score = 261,920

Club: 

Comments:

That was an interesting ride! Moments of absolutely great signals and run rates
followed by what seem longer moments of totally bedlam. Started on 15m with
great rates and great coverage all over the US. Worked 5 straight hours at 100
Q/hour between 15 and 20m. then someone closed those two bands with a thump.
Surprisingly just before the close of 20, I found huge short skip signals into
W9 land which was unexpected.

With the closure of 20m, it was the start of my skid. 40m was well entrenched
with well established stations running and there was not a spare kHz to be
found. Above 7200, it was filled with shortwave broadcasters and packed with
others CQ’ing in between. I feel like I had been invited to a party but was 2
hours late in arriving. The band was also very noisy and signals were getting
long.

80m Saturday night was also very painful. High noise and very weak signals.
After 0600z 40m turned a bit and I imagine a lot of casual folks headed for bed
and finally I was able to make some progress on 40m. I had planned on taking a 3
hour break at 0900z but extended that to 0800z.

Started again at 1200z on 40 as it was the place to be. Moved to 20m early as I
wanted to find a nice spot before the rest of the party guests arrived this
time. Found a great quiet spot and it wasn’t long before the guests started
arriving. In hindsight the rate would have been better on 40m and I probably
lost 50-Qs by jumping to soon. Even on a quite band it also wasn’t long
before two extremely loud mouth types took up residence on either side of me.
They kept elbowing their way closer from each side as if I wasn’t there. I
just’ can’t believe that if someone is QRM’ing you, you must be impeding
them in some way.

Frustrating note. The action of finding someone's pileup and then parking your
KW right next door and trying to feed off the pile is just plain rude. In fact
it just kills the pileup as you smother the station trying to run or you kill
his rate because he is constantly asking for repeats because of your QRM. Other
stations waiting in the pileup move on because they don’t want to wait. So you
effectively kill your own source of Q’s.  The idea of drafting off a popular
station is a good one, just leave a little room between yourself and the
pileup!

Just before noon, moved to 10m to see what was up and as expected, the skip
zone missed a large chunk of the US from here. The extreme coasts were workable
but the best band was 15m. On 10 the rate was just too slow. 

Took a 3 hour break to watch the Blue Bombers destroy the Tiger Cats in the CFL
eastern final. Then back on and ran til the end using all the bands and making
good use of the second radio.

Lesson learned for next year. Do no not be late to the 40m party Saturday night
and don’t leave it too early on Sunday morning. Secondly, go where the east
coast goes and go with them.

For me the sweep came early Sunday morning with a VO1 calling in for NL as the
last section. The typical hard sections of ND, MB and NT were in the log early.
PR was also threatening to be a problem but a fortunate band change to 40m
landed me right on his pileup just as he was announcing he was going split.
Even then I spent 10 minutes trying to get through.

Hope MB made it into your log as I know there were several others on including
YU, EA, and JWC.

Thanks for all the Q’s. 

Equipment
Rigs: IC7700 and IC746-Pro
Antennas -Optibeam OB11-5 for 20/15/10
         -Force 12 Delta 240 for 40m
         - Sloper for 80m
         - Inverted L for 80
         - StppIr vertical for 40-10
Software N1MM


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