[3830] SS CW N8SS Single Op LP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: N8SS
Operator(s): N8SS
Station: N8SS

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: MI
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:     
   40:     
   20:     
   15:     
   10:     
------------
Total:  905  Sections = 82  Total Score = 148,420

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

Good to be back after a 2 year hiatus from SS, contesting, radio, work, and life
in general.

It's true about antennas that they weren't big enough if they stayed up.

I got most everything working before the contest.  Looks like while I was away
I took a power surge which killed the FT990, blew the serial driver in the
control computer, and exploded the optoisolators in the CAT232 control boxes. 
I replaced the computer, fixed the CAT232 boxes and got a replacement FT990 for
the second radio.

Managed to restring the RX antenna through the woods and was pretty much ready
to go except that I couldn't get the main beams to turn.  Oh well, I had enough
stuff thrown together to be able to play.  The RX antenna wasn't much help. 
Maybe it is broken as well.

Got off to a crappy start and was surprised at how bad the bands sounded. 
Watery distorted signals until I finally got around to checking on the second
radio after the first hour and found that the bands sounded pretty good on that
one.  Add the FT-1000d to the list of broken junk I now own.  Not even sure
where to start to fix that one.  It still works, just sounds bad.

So I end up making about 800 QSOs on the second radio.  After a while the side
tone in the newer FT990 was driving me crazy and making it hard to copy on the
other radio while doing the SO2R.  Of course the sidetone adjust is inside the
radio so I grit my teeth until Sunday morning when I can't bear it any more and
take a 30 minute break to open up the radio and turn it down.

CW bandwidths must be getting narrower or I'm not as loud as I used to be
because I had an inordinate amount stations showing up in the passband of my
run station and start CQing as if they couldn't hear me.  Maybe it's age, maybe
it's mileage.  I am probably becoming less tolerant.  At least if they aren't a
dupe I can shift a hair and work them but I hate to encourage them either.

Missed NL for the sweep but managed to get KL7 in the last hour.  Go figure.

Two years ago when I was in rehab and didn't know my own wife's name it was
beyond anyone's wildest dreams that I would ever be able to pilot a radio
station for a ragchew let alone a CW contest.

It's good to be back.


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