[3830] SS CW W7RM(N6TR) SO Unlimited LP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: W7RM
Operator(s): N6TR
Station: N6TR

Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: Boring
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   26
   40:  380
   20:  158
   15:  162
   10:  133
------------
Total:  859  Sections = 83  Total Score = 142,428

Club: Boring ARC 

Comments:

Quite an experience operating this contest while sitting in my hotel room in
Bangalore, India.  My business travel made it possible to operate from A73A for
the CQ WW SSB contest, but made it impossible to be back home in time for the SS
CW.  NO PROBLEM!!  Just add a few things to the station and make it possible to
connect via remote control.

Several pieces of software made this possible.  I was using two different
remote desktop programs into two different computers from my laptop.  N6TV
helped me find a program that will allow remote desktop to work on a WIN98SE
machine (TightVNC) which essentially allowed me to have a window open on my
laptop with TR Log running!!  Using a program I was familar with was really
important when dealing with a one second delay from pressing a key and hearing
something happen.  When I pinged my router at home - I typically had about 280
ms roundtrip averages.  

Another critical piece is getting audio as quickly as possible.  Zoli, HA1AG
introduced me to RemAud by DF3CB.  After adjusting the parameters with that -
the latency was short enough to enable me to run stations pretty well.  This
program worked VERY WELL - better than IPSound and way better than skype.  we
actually got this working initially during the A73A operation.

I had a web cam on the radio to keep an eye on things.  This was really useful.
 It was running on a Win7 box and I was using TeamViewer 7 for the remote desk
top there (this is a very good program for general purpose remote desktop).  I
logged into the K3LR cluster site so I could watch for multipliers.  This took
the place of having a second radio.  I used a KRC2 with the K3 to do the
antenna switching.  I could even use the OPT output to switch in a tribander
pointing north - which was used to work VY1EI.  

As far as the contest went - things seemed a little flat at the start - but
okay.  I operated straight through for the first 22 hours.  I had never done
that before - but the sun was out!!  After 22 hours, I was ready for sleep and
wanted to be able to function at work Monday morning (the contest ended at 8:30
AM local time on Monday).  However, after about 5 hours of sleep - I was wide
awake and put in the last two hours.  This enabled me to work VE3ZI on 80
meters for my last multiplier with about 15 minutes of on time left.  Really a
trip to pull that off and then walk downstairs and be in zone 22.

Many thanks for the QSOs and patience when things didn't go right.  I ended up
doubling a lot when the normal rhythm of the QSO didn't work out.  I found
sending around 26 WPM or so seemed to make the rhythm work out best.

Antennas in Boring - OR:

80 - 4 square (used to be at W7RM)
40 - 3 element beam at 105 feet - 2 element wire quad
20 - 5 element at 72 feet (designed by K1DG)
15 - 5 element OWA at 80 feet (designed by K1DG)
10 - 5 element at 68 feet (designed by N6ND mostly)

Rig - K3 at 100 watts.

Many thanks to W7NI and the Willamette Valley DX Club for allowing me to use
the W7RM callsign.  The SS just wouldn't be the same without it.


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