[3830] SS CW K8BL SO Unlimited LP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: K8BL
Operator(s): K8BL
Station: K8BL

Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: OH
Operating Time (hrs): 23

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  288
   40:  401
   20:  162
   15:  115
   10:   14
------------
Total:  980  Sections = 83  Total Score = 162,680

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

By far my most favorite Contest!

Scored higher than last year, but only because there were 3 new Mults. Condx
were pretty good for the most part, IMHO. Saturday had better propagation on
the higher Bands in terms of distance, but that seemed to weaken on Sunday. It
was difficult to work closer stations (<200 mi.) on 20M due to a pronounced
echo. All I could figure was that there was GW and Backscatter at the same
time, but with different propagation delays. Sunday after sunset there was a
lot of QRN for me on 80M.

After the Contest, I was discussing things with the XYL and telling her the
activity seemed down somewhat. She's pretty savvy after living with a Ham for
almost 50 years! She mentioned that it was probably due to the 2 million
places without power on the East Coast. DUH!! She's probably right, as usual.

The Mults came in a little different than in previous years. Some of the more
difficult ones were snagged earlier than usual. NT/NL/PR/VE4 were in the Log
within the first 100 Q's! Almost had a Sweep before hitting the sack at 0800Z
with only ND missing. Finally got one at 1629Z after being up for 4 hours.

Last Mults were:
#80 WCF at 0447Z in Q 343
#81 SF  at 0639Z in Q 428
#82 NNY at 0732Z in Q 458
#83 ND  at 1629Z in Q 670

Last year, I lost some Q's because I went over time a wee bit. The "ON" clock
on my Logging Program must calculate differntly than reality. So, this year I
stopped when it hit 23 Hours just to be safe.

My strategy hasn't changed since going to "Assisted". I still start down the
Band from the high end doing S&P until I hit a clear spot. Then I try to start
a run freq until some High Power Stations close in on me. That makes me
continue my S&P down the Band until I find another clear freq to run. It
seemed to work pretty good this year since my CQ-Counter ended up at 2055!

Since "Assisted" allows me to use a BandMap, I tried a new tactic that made
me fantacize about being SO2R. Late in the Contest when new stations were
getting hard to find, I'd see a new one pop up on the BandMap. I'd hit the
A=B VFO button and go get the new guy. Then, I'd quickly (hopefully) hit the
B VFO and jump back to my Run Freq. Most of the time I'd get back in time to
save the freq - but not always. HIHI It worked quite well for me since I'd
be looking at a worked-out BandMap more often than I'd like.

Observations:
- I usually have difficulty finding a NL Mult, but I must have wkd 5 this
year.
- Only wkd 2 stations in the quadrupal digits. One in SD and one in VI.
- The one and only NT station each year was now op'g M-Class! Made it easy.
- The one and only ND station I heard was op'g Q-Class! Really?!!
- The new ON Sections turned out to be quite easy to work.
- Not an abundance of Dupers, but this year I refused to work any since it
  always bothers me to do mental math to remember how many Q's I really have.
- Quite a few Busted Calls were spotted, causing ME to be a Duper! DOH!!
- Couldn't resist jumping to 15SSB to wrk HV0A for the first time this year!
- Why do so many stations call so far off freq that they are almost outside
  my Filter threshold? Do they have their XIT or RIT offset unknowingly??
- A significant number of stations held the SAME freq the entire Contest.
- Why do so many guys decide to tune up just when I'm trying to get the
  Exchange from someone I can barely copy???
- I set my speed for 30WPM and rarely had to slow down for anyone - FB.
- Some guys must have been 40+ WPM and were having great runs - FB.
- Not too many guys with Checks in the 40s, but still a ton with 50s.
- A good sign is that there were a lot of stations Checks since Y2K!!

Station:  IC-7700 & Logging with ancient CTWIN on refurb'd Dell w/Win98
Antennas: Old-old TET 4EL Triband @ 50', Double Bazooka Inv Vee's for 40 & 80
           with apexes @ 50' both facing E/W.

C U in SS Phone (Yuck!!)


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