[3830] SS SSB W6YX School Club HP

[webform at b41h.net]

                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: W6YX
Operator(s): NF1R, KZ2V, K6SF, KG6NUB, N7MH
Station: W6YX

Class: School Club HP
QTH: SCV
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:   88
   40:  288
   20:  560
   15:  595
   10:   57
------------
Total: 1588  Sections = 83  Total Score = 263,608

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

We put together a team of a couple of faculty members and several alumni for
this effort.  We worked Rebecca/KB0VVT, our lone student contester, who was
home in MO for this one doing a multi-op with her parents.

I had social engagements in the evenings prior to the contest so I didn't have
time to set up the station until Saturday morning.  Two hours before the
starting bell I arrived and got almost everything set up, making sure that
voice keying worked on the two main radios and we could still access our
recorded messages from last year.

I finished verifying the network on 3 computers and then realized that I'd
missed the first two minutes so I found a clear spot on 10 meters and CQed.  I
was called by KT0R for his number 4 and then I got no answers to my CQs for the
next 5 minutes.  I tried calling a few stations but no one heard me.  The
stations I heard were weak but should have been workable.

I switched to 15 meters and eventually worked 96 in the first hour after only 1
QSO in the first 8 minutes.  I tried listening on the other radio to see if I
could S&P on 10 meters but the receiver was dead on all bands.  My second hour
was 94 but after giving up on trying to get the second radio going I made 120
Q's in the 3rd hour.

At 0100 Clayton/NF1R arrived and took over the run and had a 110 hour on 20 and
then moved to 40.  Sawson/KG6NUB showed up and helped me diagnose the second
radio problem.  A club member had unplugged the coax that goes from the
bandpass filter to the amp.  Once it was back in place the second station
worked well.

Nick/KZ2V took over from Clayton and ran for most of the evening.  Sawson has
little HF experience so he listened to the run station to get used to it.  He
does a lot of VHF/UHF, EME contesting and satellite operation and his major
observation was that HF contesters do not use the standard phonetic alphabet as
consistently as he's used to.

The second radio became valuable after 0430Z when the run rate dropped.  Up
until then we'd only made 2 Q's on the second radio.  Things really died down
at 0800Z, earlier than I remember from previous years.  We had 82 mults at this
point, only needing PR.

I started up again at 1400 and was joined a couple of hours later by
Chris/K6SF.   Chris did the running while I worked spots and searched for other
new callsigns.  I quickly found NP4G for PR.  We ended up working at least 3 of
all mults except for VI with only 2.

KZ2V returned on Sunday for another few hours of running and then in the last
couple of hours I finally got Sawson to take over the run station.  When his
run frequency became unusable due to a nearby broadcaster he moved down to
7243, asked if the frequency was in use, and got a profanity-laden diatribe
against contesters in response.  He asked me if HF contesting was always like
this then finished out the contest there, moving about 1/2 kHz up when someone
complained we were interfering with a net at 7240.

On Sunday I went back to 10 meters using a different Yagi and was able to work
stations but only had a few short runs while we dual-CQed on 10 and 15.  I
later learned that some club members had fixed our 160M antenna which shares a
feedline with the 10M Yagi I thought I was using on Saturday.  The switch at
the tower base was still in the 160 position.  A low SWR and the immediate call
from KT0R on Saturday had misled me into thinking I was using the right
antenna.

Some interesting statistical quirks gleaned from CBSW:
 - we only worked 4 stations with checks of 85, but at least 11 in all other
years back to 1954.  What happened in 1985?
 - we only worked 99 stations in the 6th call area, far below all other call
areas
 - 21 School Club stations were worked including W1AF and W1MX

73,
-Mike, N7MH


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