[3830] SS SSB K5WA(@AB5K) Single Op HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: K5WA
Operator(s): K5WA
Station: AB5K

Class: Single Op HP
QTH: NTX
Operating Time (hrs): 19
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:   97
   40:  422
   20:  395
   15:  432
   10:  154
------------
Total: 1500  Sections = 83  Total Score = 249,000

Club: DFW Contest Group

Comments:

I knew this was going to be a short contest up front because I have to catch a
plane to V49J on Monday so driving a sleep deprived 3 hours back from AB5K to
Houston late at night was not my preferred option.  I planned to quit in the
early afternoon and also planned to get to Terry's fine station only two hours
before the start of SS SSB.  I had used his station for SS CW so making it
suitable for SSB would be NO problem, right?  Bad plan.  Terry's world class
RTTY contest station runs great but my plans to run SSB and use the DVK feature
of N1MM required a bigger revamp than I planned.  It is funny now but when the
contest was supposed to start and I sat down and realize the DVK wasn't
pointing correctly because of a number of issues, I was panicking big time.  We
also found out that setting Terry's Win Server 2003 to Win XP compatibility mode
made N1MM crash when a file (any file, database, .wav, function key) tried to
open.  Contesting without N1MM was going to be tough.  About 40 minutes after
the contest started I was still flailing around trying to get started
correctly.  Terry graciously ripped out his audio cabling and constructed a new
audio cable to run from a single sound card (his RTTY setup uses two) to each
rig and THEN I was able to really start the contest.  Needless to say, hearing
scores that were 200-300 ahead of me after only 90 minutes was discouraging but
I plowed on at a reasonable rate and was sure I would catch up. ;-) (just
kidding)
I finally got comfortable with the station on SSB and had a really good time
even though I wasn't competitive.  PR, VI, and NL were my open mults until
nearly noon on Sunday.  Once I got PR and VI on 20, a couple more of each
popped up but my only NL was VO1BQ who answered my CQ and completed the sweep. 
I had actually given up hope of a sweep this year because I had not heard
another NL so you can imagine my relief when he showed up.  If you can't have a
big score, at least a sweep keeps things respectable. 
Again, massive thanks to Terry, AB5K, for hosting me.  I wish I had 10% of his
antenna theory to know how his antennas are supposed to be used because I
should have put them to better use but I still had fun and he didn't laugh at
my choices during the contest.  Now, if I can only find my memory stick where I
brought home the N1MM database...  I sure hope Terry's computer doesn't crash. 
;-) 

Thanks for the Qs from all the extremely low QSO count guys (lots of 1s in my
log) and the QRPers!  It kept things interesting.

Bob K5WA


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