[3830] SS SSB W4PK SO Unlimited HP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: W4PK
Operator(s): W4PK
Station: W4PK

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: VA
Operating Time (hrs): 8

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:  119
   40:   62
   20:   28
   15:    3
   10:     
------------
Total:  212  Sections = 82  Total Score = 34,768

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

Since I was using spotting assistance I concentrated on giving as many of the
PVRC members I could find contacts and secondarily working as many sections as I
could.  This time I managed to work them all except for GTA.

Propagation conditions Saturday night were really weird, 20M was completely dead
here and skip was really long on both 40 and 80M.  I could just barely make out
the calls from our members in the PVRC area and I did not have much luck in
contacting any of them.

Sunday afternoon and evening were much better with many from PVRC making it into
the log.  Late in the contest I actually tried running some on 80M and I put
over 60 contacts into the log before my voice gave out.  And this was with me
using recorded messages for my call and for my report! As you can tell I don't
normally like operating in SSB contests!

As usual I failed to check my antennas before the contest.  I had repaired my
80M 4-square after I encountered a problem with high VSWR during the CWSS
contest.  I have the verticals set up for the CW portion of the band and I use
vacuum relays to switch in 800pf capacitors in series at the base of each
vertical to move the VSWR minimum from 3550kHz up to about 3775kHz.  Obviously I
have at least one 800pf that is not being switched in properly.  I ended up
mostly using a low 80 dipole cut for the cw portion of the band and used the
antenna tuner on my Icom PW1 to match it. 

I did have fun working all the PVRC members and I am glad that I am able to
contribute to PVRC's overall score!

73, Sam W4PK


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