[3830] SS SSB N9OU Single Op LP

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB - 2019

Call: N9OU
Operator(s): N9OU
Station: N9OU

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:   21
   40:  151
   20:  115
   15:   10
   10:     
------------
Total:  297  Sections = 78  Total Score = 46,332

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

100 Watts and nothing but dipoles can make this a challenging contest. Not using
spotting networks makes it more difficult. Spending 90% of the time sweeping up
and down the bands searching out new stations--any station--and hoping to find
my missing mults had me spend a lot of time listening.

Good news was that my coil-loaded 40/80m dipole, after only being on 10/15/20/40
last year, worked fairly well, and gave me another band at night. The plan was
to add the loading coils and the extensions to the end of my current 40m dipole.
What I failed to realize at first was that the 40m part of a 40/80m coil-loaded
dipole is LONGER than a single-band 40m dipole. This was discovered on Saturday
morning when I finally finished the coils. A quick extension made for the 40m
side and some tuning was completed 2 hours before start time.

Given the later hour, I started with my 20m and 40/80m dipoles up
simultaneously, a change from my usual one-up-at-a-time that I've done before. 
A little organization to make the 40/80m be directed NW and the 20m mostly N
made it such that they didn't interfere at all.  One thing going well for me.

Another thing went well on Sunday around noon when I decided to see if 15m was
open. Previously, my 40m single-band dipole wasn't resonant on 15m and I had to
switch.  With the new 40/80m coil-loaded, I figured I'd try it out (I forgot to
check it with the antenna analyzer on 15m before it started), and lo-and-behold,
SWR less than around 1.5:1 the entire 15m phone range!  Now with two dipoles up,
I covered 4 bands, which was a great advantage of not having to lower dipole
centers and connect new wires every band change!

However, at the end, five sections eluded me: BC (never heard), NL (heard CQing
but couldn't get through, then lost and never refound), QC (never heard CQing,
always answering other CQs right before I got through), my SS nemesis ND (never
heard), and an odd one, WI, which, like QC, I heard calling other stations but
never heard calling CQ or answered mine.

Overall, I did beat my score from last year, even though I had one less mult
this year.


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