[3830] SS SSB W6YX(N7MH) Single Op QRP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: W6YX
Operator(s): N7MH
Station: W6YX

Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: Stanford
Operating Time (hrs): 22

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:   40
   40:   79
   20:  139
   15:   36
   10:     
------------
Total:  294  Sections = 79  Total Score = 46,452

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

I had planned to try to recruit some student members to operate in the
"S" class but was sick in bed and didn't make it to the W6YX meeting
on Tuesday. I wasn't sure I'd be well enough by Saturday to operate but
recovered and felt fine.

I had never operated QRP or unlimited low power in SS SSB and ultimately decided
to try QRP for a challenge. It was quite challenging!

Visiting relatives delayed my arrival at the shack so I had about 15 minutes to
set up. John, K2YY, was already there when I arrived and had set up for a
part-time HP effort with one of the club's FT1000MPs.

I managed to get all set up, or so I thought, only 5 minutes after the starting
bell. Then I tried to record SS messages on the K3 DVRs. Playing back old
messages worked fine, but the new messages were just noise. To make a long story
short, I spent the first hour of SS SSB discovering that the MIC SEL
configuration for one of the K3s had been changed to the front panel mike input
and that the cable from the SO2R box to the other K3 had a broken connection in
the mike wiring. I decided to start with just one K3.

The P3 showed no holes on 20 to try to run, so I S&P'ed up and down the
band. If I got lucky no one else was calling at the same time and I'd be heard
and make a QSO. Most of the time I'd end up waiting through several Qs to work
someone or eventually give up.

I went to 40 early and worked as far to the east as MN and LA but no one further
east could hear me. It was only after about 0130 that I began to make QSOs on 40
with the east coast. On 80 I only worked 6's and 7's except for NM, CO and
KH6CJJ.

After the activity moved from 40 to 80 I was able to find clear spots on 40 to
CQ but most runs dried up after 3 or 4 Qs and my run rate averaged to about the
same or worse than S&P.

The K3 I was using has a second receiver so I finally configured Writelog for
SO2V but it wasn't very helpful because I was Auto-CQing and just as I tuned the
second RX onto a signal the CQ would start up again. On Sunday I realized that
SO2V worked much better by manually hitting F1 whenever I'd either tuned enough
or heard enough to know who was on a frequency.

My sleep time would have enabled me to operate for the full 24 hours if I hadn't
missed the first hour and taken a couple of other half-hour breaks. There are
one or two other gaps in the log of a half hour or more when I didn't work
anyone but was at the radio trying to.

Early morning on 40 and 80 was surprisingly unproductive with only 1 QSO in the
first hour. I heard lots of stations but only W5JJ in AR heard me on 40. Finally
I worked a few west coast stations when they started showing up. Everyone back
east was working each other and not hearing a QRP W6.

20 was very good early in the morning and I probably should have checked it out
before 1500. Almost everyone seemed to hear me and there weren't many other
callers to compete against. 15 was also very good and I could successfully use
SO2V to CQ below or above the main activity while S&Ping.

I didn't have any problems with K2YY operating high power on the same band until
we got to 15. He began running close to 21300 and I could only work stations
much higher in the band for the couple hours he was on 15 and my rate sunk to
single digits. The rate wasn't much better on 20.

By late morning I needed only about 10 more mults. I called K3WI for DE but
someone came up on frequency so I needed a repeat of his number. The
interference on his end made me uncopiable so we didn't complete the QSO. I
tried calling again when I heard him several hours later but only got a QRZ? at
that time.

A similar thing happened with K9TM in WCF. He gave his exchange and I heard WCF
but not much more due to QRM and then he couldn't copy me at all. Guess that's
par for QRP. I heard many other WCF stations, but other than K9TM only heard one
KG4 calling CQ - with a big pileup.

I heard VO1AW calling and working someone, otherwise heard no other NL. 

In addition to DE, WCF and NL I needed NT and SF going into the final hour. I'd
heard VY1AAA several times on 20 on Saturday, but never calling CQ. Just before
0200 I heard VY1AAA patiently calling K1RX on 80, but K1RX was working a bunch
of nearby stations and not hearing VY1. A short while later I tuned across
VY1AAA calling CQ, gave a call, got an "X" in reply, sent the call
again and made the QSO.

I had heard several SF stations on 20 - K6RIM, N6ZFO, and W6PZ; and had tried
calling all of them in vain. Sunday evening I heard W6PZ and N3RC on 40 and
tried both of them - no dice. Just after working VY1AAA I found W6PZ CQing on 80
and repeatedly called, at least 10 times. No one else was calling but he didn't
hear me. Amazing to me that I worked VY1 QRP on 80 but couldn't work SF.

Congrats to the other top-scoring QRP ops - ND0C, who outscored me in less time
and N5EE who scored just a bit less than I did in far less time. I suspect that
VE6EX will top us all. I only worked 5 other 'Q' precedences but I heard several
others working stations. I have new respect for anyone that enters an SSB
contest QRP.

73,
-Mike, N7MH


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