[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): 19

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    1
   80:  347
   40:  246
   20:  141
   15:   14
   10:     
------------
Total:  749  Sections = 82  Total Score = 122,836

Club: North Coast Contesters

Comments:

Last year we moved to a new QTH after 42 years. Down came all the towers and
wires. The metal scrappers found a gold mine on our treelawn. I found time
between moving chores to put up a 40M Inv Vee in the backyard just to get on
for SSCW 2017. Fun, but frustrating to not be able to change Bands to pick up
mults as propagation changed.

This year I made a big improvement by replacing the 40M antenna with a G5RV
and that allowed me to get on all the Bands. I was really impressed with how
well it worked at only 30 feet and 150 W. Worked all Sections except VI which
had an amazing pileup. I couldn't hear him, but the buzz on the Cluster said
he was signing PR!! WFWL is good advice in situations like that and time will
tell if it was good or not. No worry for me since I didn't work him - HIHI!!

Next year should be even better since I'm in the process of putting together
a SteppIR. If you've ever done that, you know that it's quite a challenge and
brings back memories of an Erector Set when I was a kid. Only fellow old fogies
will even know what I'm talking about.

Condx seemed pretty good for our sad state of the Solar Cycle. QRN was not a
problem at my end and QSB only killed off a few QSOs. I was amazed and
impressed
with how strong many of the Q-Class Stations were. It's still 5W, right??

It seemed to me that activity was down somewhat. I only worked one station that
had a Q number over 1000. Usually, there are dozens over 1K near the end of
the Contest. As a LP station, it's normally tough to find a spot where you can
pull off a run for a reasonable length of time. It seemed easy this year. Also,
it didn't seem a problem to break pileups into Big Gun stations, probably due
to not such a ton of callers. Worked NT, NL and PR early which is usually rare
for me. Sweated out EWA, ND, QC and RI until later on Sunday. WTX, WY, VT and
NNY were easily worked. Last Section worked was SC!! Only one VI seemed to show
up (?) and he was so ESP weak and had non-stop callers on top of him that never
stopped to listen that I gave up after listening several times. So much for
any hope of a Clean Sweep when faced with that!!

Station: IC-7700, 150W, G5RV at 30 Ft, Crusty-trusty CT-Win on Windows XP

(P.S. Weekend Football Games were monitored on-line on nearby laptop.)


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