[3830] SS SSB W4LT(@W4DUG) Single Op LP

Tue Nov 22 15:00:30 PST 2011

                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: W4LT
Operator(s): W4LT
Station: W4DUG

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Tampa, FL
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   15
   40:  772
   20:  260
   15:  160
   10:   68
------------
Total: 1275  Sections = 80  Total Score = 204,000

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

Rig : Primary:  Icom IC7700 - Secondary: Icom IC756Pro2 set
up as "S-O-1-&-7/8th-R" using a hand mic and a Behringer 
audio mixer on the headsets feeds.  Manual delegation.

Antennas : F12 C31XR at 108f, F12 EF240X at 118f,
both fixed at 350 degrees, F12 C19X @ 68f, WC4E surplus 80m
sloping dipole at 90f and a Carolina Windom 160 at 30f for
the second rig's use.  Switching and rig control powered by
MicroHam Station Master/MicroKeyer2 (thanks to W4TV for loan
of a used interface cable for the 7700'd)

Soapbox : 

Last year it was SWR, this year it was rotors.  The
C31/EF240 stack rotor had issues.  Could not be swung more
clockwise than 220 degrees or more counter clockwise than
350 degrees... Er... That's the way I need to point!  So the
C31XR burned down the few trees on Baffin Island on 10m
and was rather useless to the west coast...  Although I 
worked quite a few KL7's on it (and also on the 40m beam).  
NWT, PAC and AK were worked in the first four hours, 
things were looking up for a sweep!

Lucky the 2el 40m beam has a 60 degree beamwidth.  I gotta
say, this antenna ROCKED! 40 was a blast with deep piles!  
The C19X worked much better than it did last year and was 
a solid performer.  The sloper actually made some Q's on 75m.

Concentrated on 40, because it was fun to run.  Broke my 
last year's score by a little, but didnt make my goal.  
No excuses, off my game this year.

A fun (in retrospect) moment:

At 10 minutes before end of my alloted 24 hours, was missing
PR and SB for a sweep and had relegated myself to accepting 
that I would not see a sweep this year...  Never heard a single
SB until a WB6 called me on 15 while running.  He tells me 
he is in Santa Barbara! I dropped my bag of rice cakes!

Yikes!  Now to find a Puerto Rican! And fast!  How to do it?
I remembered my neighbor who uses two frequencies, 14.250 and
14.280.  All the area Hispanic ops hang around there.  There
*HAS* to be a Puerto Rican there!

Down to 20m I go to '280 and call in Spanish "Anybody in the
Ilse of Enchantment around?". I get a reply by some "New York
Ricans" who tell me that there are some "real" Puerto Ricans
on 14250.  QSY there, point the little beam to PR 
(or as far as it would turn... 90 degrees; It has issues 
turning too) and call in again in Spanish... "Any Puerto
Ricans on frequency that can help a fellow Hispanic Guy out?" 

WP4MZW answers my call.  I work him... SWEEP!  Third 
consecutive year!  He was my next to last QSO!

I dont think this is a score indicative of the station's capability
The score is the operator's issue this time.  Wait'll next year.
My game was not 100% but no excuses (except that I *HATE* that
you cannot clear RIT from a keyboard command in N1MM with Icom 
rigs.  You have to press and hold the button on the front panel!!!  

I have to say the 7700 can be made to sound very good
indeed.  Lots of punch and crackle. You dont have to talk 
so loud as you do on the K3, so it saves your voice. The
DSP seems to allow me to understand people down to 1.3khz
bandwidth, I cant go lower than 1500 on the K3, so you can
narrow the bandpass more on the 7700, but I dont know how
"realistic" the bandwidth readout is... And there is AGC 
dance of death on the receiver and the crackly IMD artifacts
in heavy QRM reminded me of my days with my old TS850.  
Never hear that stuff on the K3.  

The 756Pro2 really did a great job on the wire antenna
working what I could pick up, but I am by far not an good 
SO2R op, need more practice.  Have an interface box now,
so I can stop with the kludges.  Really missed the 
second receiver.  

Ah, man, but the controls on the 7700 are like buttah!  Wish my
Elecraft felt so smooth and tactile.

Tremendous fun on runs the first day... Not so much fun
slogging it out the second.  Nobody blew me out on 40
this time.  Spent too much time on 40 and not enough on 
10/15 and they were hot.  But Im getting much better at
pileup handling.

73

-W4LT

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