[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): 8

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:     
   40:  484
   20:     
   15:     
   10:     
------------
Total:  484  Sections = 66  Total Score = 63,888

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

My favorite Contest above all. I enjoy the challenge of the loooooong Exchange
which isn't so bad once you're into the rhythm of it.

Last year, I missed SSCW due to a knee replacement which kept me from getting
to the Shack in my basement. That was the first time not doing CW Sweeps in
over 45 years! This year, we moved to a new QTH and a week before the Contest
I had no radios set up and no antennas. Not to be denied 2 years in a row,
the XCVR and computer were set up on a table and verified still working with
each other.

Since it seems that if an HF'er has a working station on any Band, it would
be 40 Meters, I decided to throw up an Inv VEE for 40 on a tree in the
backyard (about 35 feet). A long run of coax through a basement wall and
a crawlspace finally got me a usable station on one Band.

Starting off, I usually find a quiet freq and call CQ hoping to get a run
started if I can hold the freq and attract callers. I chose 7036.75 since
it's available to all Classes and away from the usual high power folks and
not too near the digital and QRP hangouts. Amazingly, I was able hang on to
that freq for several hours until blasted off by a couple of HP types that
decided to take it over. I jumped up to 7037.75 and stayed there for several
more hours. 1708 CQs later, I had 484 Qs with 16 dupes and stopped when the
QSO counter hit 500. Not even ONE S&P QSO which makes me wonder why I was
in the Unlimited Category and not even using the Bandmap/Cluster. DUH!!

I was pleasantly surprised to work 66 Sections by only CQing and staying on
virtually ONE freq. It will be interesting to see if very many stations made
a Clean Sweep since the hurricane devastation probably wiped out many folks
in the Caribbean and the US South. The Sections I missed were all far out
West except for NL. 

Sunday evening became challenging when a line of severe thunderstorms came
through the area. QRN made smooth copy of the long Exchange difficult at
times. As luck would have it, a static crash would often come at the same
spot where I needed to get a fill on a requested repeat. So, I'm sure I'll
get gigged on a number of QSOs where I ended up guessing on the info.

Station: IC-7700, Old Dell XP Computer running old CTWin, 40M Double Bazooka
Inv VEE up abt 35 feet running SE to NW.


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