[3830] SS SSB K3KU Single Op LP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: K3KU
Operator(s): K3KU
Station: K3KU

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:  380
   40:   99
   20:   42
   15:   62
   10:   30
------------
Total:  613  Sections = 82  Total Score = 100,532

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

A fun contest. It would be even better if they ran it on CW a second time
instead of on 'phone.

Old fashioned Class A.  100W and a 200-ft dipole and CT-DOS with DVK.  No SCP,
not even a band map.  Some nice runs on 80M -- lots of PVRC and some MRRC and
SMC.

Interesting stories from the Search for the Sweep:

Besides starting after nightfall Saturday, I take about one hour off just after
dawn (outside obligations trump the improving rates).  About 1100Z I took a
quick scan of 40M to see if any of the NL's had shown up yet.  Nope.  When I
came back on 65 minutes later, there was VO1MP, CQing right where I had left
the dial!  Got him with one call.  That's going to look like I cheated on the
off-time. (Worked another VO1 four minutes later, and got another in the
afternoon on 15M.)

Scanning 15M Sunday afternoon I found an AZ station running.  I got ready to
jump in the pile, but he announced "I was only gonna get on until the
coffee was ready, and it's ready now.  So long."  I dumped in "So
long, K3KU" hoping he might come back.  Nope; silence.  To my surprise,
nobody else grabbed the freq, so I started calling CQ.  I was rewarded
immediately with that third NL, KS, my second NE ... and a well-known
Hawaiian!!! Yahoo! Won't have to sweat the PAC mult!  Except he says he's in
AZ.  Bummer! (Actually, I said something like "What a cheat! Thank you.
QRZ?").  Continuing the run, I got another AZ, a third NE, ... and a WL7
(again, yahoo!) who was really in Alaska and gave me NR 37.  That was the end
of the run -- seven QSOs and one new mult -- but no complaints.  That's good
results on 15M for 100W and a 200-ft dipole.  15M was amazing that afternoon,
open all across Canada and US.

Before I got the AK, I also still needed OK (easy), MS (heard an active one
Saturday night), BC (same),  VE5 (usually find one Sunday afternoon or
evening), SF (what happened to the NCCC activity?), ORG (sometimes rare, but
usually a big score or two), EWA (sometimes rare, but I know who had a big
score on CW), and NT (from my lack of luck here in SS CW, I'm worried).

With so many Sections missing, I thought maybe I should try to forget about the
Sweep and work on volume �" try for a new personal best, and make more
points for PVRC.  But I kept searching 15M, and 15 minutes after getting AK I
found the EWA I'd been alert for.  Then the very next QSO was one of the VE5
regulars.  The S&P rate was poor (where could I have done better?), but 15
minutes later I found �" and easily worked �" PAC.  Things were
looking up!  Another 12 minutes, and there is VE8EV!!! Wow, is he loud!  One
call, and he's in the log.  Now I was down to five missing mult's.  Maybe this
will work out!  

By now I'm running upstairs to tell my wife each time I log a new one.  My
family knows how important the Sweep is to me.

Twenty minutes more S&P on 15M yields the BC regular I had heard Saturday
night.  All right, only four to go: OK, MS, SF and ORG.  That should be doable.
 There are usually some big efforts from all of them, and one from MS has
already been heard.  Even so...

It takes a bit over an hour (and 25 QSOs) more S&P �" mostly on 15M,
with excursions to 10M and 20M �" to find an ORG on 15M.  He gave me NR
882.  I'm always puzzled by how long it can take to QSO somebody so active. 
The time was about 2100Z, and I took a 40-minute break.  About 15 minutes after
getting back on I found the big multi-op from SF, who gave me NR 1211.  Again,
I'm puzzled; but I'll take it.  I'm beginning to love 15M.

With only OK and MS to go, and not hearing much southerly on 15M, I move to 20M
for better S&P chances.  After about ten minutes there came one of those
Contest Highs.  I heard a K5 give a running station give QSO NR 128A ... from
MS!!  The runner was loud, but the K5 was louder.  I judged (hoped) that I'd be
loud there, and jumped in with "K5... up two K3KU!"  I tuned up a
couple of KHz and found a clear spot.  ("Clear" is easier when your
Little Pistol station can't hear all the QRM that everybody else hears, and
when the path is so strong between you and your target.  Also when you're
desperate.) I started calling the K5, and in a few moments he came back. Oh
yes, oh yes!!!

Nothing left but Oklahoma.  How could that be?  Am I about to become the
anti-hero of a Greek tragedy, brought down by my hubris?

I had snagged the MS mult at 2217Z.  20M petered out just a few minutes later. 
I spent the rest of my on-time frantically searching 40M and 80M for OK, with
occasional desperate CQs.  Any slightly unfamiliar 5 land call I heard while
searching was run thru the CT dupe check, just to make sure I had really worked
them.  CQs got some nice little runs on 80M, but all in the Northeast and Ohio. 
On 40M I did find the other big gun from MS.  (His NR 843.  How in the world do
I miss these guys until so late?) When I commented that he sure had been rare,
he asked "What else do you need?"  "Oklahoma."  "Oh
you'll find one."

Ah, but was wrong.  Another missed-by-one disappointment.  Oklahoma!?!?  I'll
be spending some time figuring out how I missed OK.

There is a bright spot though.  At the end of the 'Test there were only 50
weeks to the first full weekend in November 2016.  CU SS CW, and I'll be trying
for a Sweep.


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