[3830] SS CW WB5VZL(@K5TR) Single Op HP
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Mon Nov 7 21:39:27 EST 2022
ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW - 2022
Call: WB5VZL
Operator(s): WB5VZL
Station: K5TR
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: WTX
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 0
40: 389
20: 226
15: 319
10: 38
------------
Total: 972 Sections = 84 Total Score = 163,296
Club:
Comments:
As many of you know I really like the ARRL SS contest. Because I am
not a very good CW op I mostly operate the SSB version of the SS. And
in the last 10 years or so I have traveled to several other stations
to operate SSB. I have done it from N9RV in MT, W6NL in SCV and K8AZ
in OH. It has been great to do the contest from some different parts
of the country and also to get to visit and use some very fine
stations and get to spend a few days with their owners. I hope to do
more of this in the coming years.
Operating from WTX this year in the CW SS is really a part of what I
am doing above but this time it was to operate the contest at a small
station. This has also been one of the things I have wanted to do -
operate the SS at some station that does not have much in the way of
antennas. And last year I started thinking about this a bit and in
the spring I scouted a few locations that would be petty easy to go to
without to much work. I decided to look at WTX - because it is
usually needed ever since N5RZ moved east into STX. N5NA and N5ZC are
usually on - and they were this year as well - I worked them
both. Perhaps there were others on as well.
The two locations that I looked at in April were cabins in two Texas
state parks. One was at the state park in Colorado City, TX and the
other was at San Angelo State Part - in the city of San Angelo. They
are not very far apart but they are two of the three state parks in
WTX that have cabins for rent. The cabins have electricity, beds (bring
your own linens), refrigerator and microwave. They do not have
bathrooms but those are usually located within short walking
distance. They even have a 220v outlet in the cabin for the AC/Heater
as well as 30A and 50A RV hookups outside. So if you wanted to run a
220v 1500 watt amp you could. The cabin at Lake Colorado City where I
stayed in the spring had a small table and some chairs.
After looking at the two sites last year I decided that while I liked
them both the local terrain (better sloping ground) that I would
operate from San Angelo State Park. Several months ago I reserved a
cabin and started thinking about what radio, antennas and maybe what
amp I would take. In the end I took all of the stuff that makes up
one of my remote stations I have setup. K3, KAT500 tuner and a KPA-500
amp. I did consider taking the other remote radio an IC-7300 and also
an Alpha 78 but decided I would take the 500 watt amp and tuner since
it would make for a smaller station and less headache in hookup and I
knew the KAT-500 tuner would just work with the matching amp.
What do do about antennas? Over the years I had always been impressed
with AA5B getting on in SS SSB with dipoles on 20 and 40 and maybe a 2
ele quad on 10/15 and turning in good scores from NM. And I had been
wanting to get on with some dipoles and give it a go. And I may still
do in this for SSB at some point soon. Although likely not this
year. When I operated from OH one of the antennas I made the most
contacts on in SSB SS at K8AZ's house was a dipole at 40 ft. For all
the stuff within 200-300 miles this was the antenna - not the 4 ele
yagi above 100 ft. So, I knew some simple antennas should be ok for
working stations in SS esp on CW. I had planned on using a 40 ft
Spiderbeam mast holding a fan dipole of sorts with elements for 40, 20
and 10 meters. The 10m elements would be taped to the mast to make a
vertical dipole and then the 20 and 40 wires would act as guys for the
upper part of the mast. But when I go to the park on Friday and
started putting up the antennas the wind was just howling and I was
having trouble making this work. In the end I went with an antenna
that I have used on a few vacations to the Texas gulf coast. I
vertical. I removed the 10m wires from the dipole and started by
taping the 40m wire to the Spiderbeam mast as I put it up and then
when I got to the height that the 20m wire would start I taped it to
the other side of the mast. The feed point ended up about 6 or 7 ft
above the ground and I ran the wires from the other side of the dipole
off to about ground level sloping away from the feed point. I ran 40m
one way and 20m the other direction. This antenna had good SWR on 20
and 40 meters. It also was about 3:1 or less on 15 meters. The SWR on
10 meters was about 5:1 or higher as I recall. The KAT-500 tuner had
no issues tuning this setup on 40, 20 and 15 and would let the amp put
out 500 watts. On 10m - while it would tune it - it would only let me
put about 350 watts into the mismatch - which was fine. I have a
mobile rig and antenna and I put a 1/4 wave vertical on the car and
ran a feed-line to it. I compared signals between the two antennas -
and the dig vertical was better than the 1/4 wave on the car. I even
added two radials to the car antenna but the big vertical was still
better.
With the antennas settled I then set up the radios. While the other
cabin had a table and chair this park did not. There was a nice
counter but it was too high if I only bought a chair. In the end a
quick trip to a nearby Walmart got me a small folding table and chair.
The table is about 30" x 48" and folds in half - so it fit in my
small
car. And I got a simple folding chair. These worked great and I am
sure I will use them again.
On Friday night I got on 20m with 100 watts and was handing out Parks
On The Air (POTA) contacts on CW and then I went to 40 meters and did
it there for awhile. At some point on 40m I turned on the amp and
ended up working 41 on 20m and 62 on 40m. The antenna seemed to be
working ok and the radio/amp/tuner were doing fine. But this was not
the contest.
When the contest started I spent the first hour on 20m - this was a
mistake - I think in my mind I was still on conditions from the last
few years. Early in hour two I went to 15m and after a few contacts it
was clear this is where I should have stared the contest. The band
was really good and was open to all the right places. Duh! In
retrospect I think I was also concerned about how well the 15m antenna
would work - but as it turns out it worked really well on 15m It
seemed better on 15 than the other bands. I think this or some
variation will likely be my go to portable antenna. It was really
good. It is great that in SS you do not have to be on all the bands.
While the tuner would tune up the setup on 80 meters I did not make
any contacts on that band. 40/20/15 were all I needed.
The rest of the weekend went well - and the chair, while not great,
did not kill me and I am feeling no ill effects today.
The location and antennas worked great. It was very RF quiet and that
was great and I seemed to be getting out well - I worked a lot of
QRP stations and was called by many weak stations. I also was amazed
at how good the signals were to stations in my skip zone - and I had
no issues working the high power stations on any band on scatter
etc. I felt loud. It was a lot of fun. I am glad I decided to run
500 watts - but I am sure 100 watts would have not been bad but maybe
harder to work the scatter contacts.
The location has a nice slope to the north and I am sure that helped.
The park is located on a lake but I am not sure how long the lake has
been low but there are boat ramps and picnic areas that were abandoned
a long time ago - maybe 20 or more years. There is still water but it
looks more like a stock pond than a lake. As a result the park is not
crowded. There are 6 cabins for rent. And I really wanted to be in
number 6 as it is on the end but I ended up in cabin 5 - the folks in
6 appeared to be a father / daughter hunting trip. They were only
there during the days - sleeping I think - and gone at night. The
first Saturday of November is the opening of deer season in Texas.
It was very quiet. Yesterday by 11 am all the other cabins were
empty - they had all been occupied. And this morning when I went to
take a shower there were fewer than 10 RVs and one tent camper in the
campgrounds. There in another section of the park that has camping
and RV spaces but it is further north and you have to go on the
highway to get to it - so there could be some action there.
On Saturday before the contest I went on a 5 mile hike/walk on some of
the trails in the park that only passed three people - two on the
trail and one guy that was fishing in some pond - not the lake.
I would go back and do SSB here but I am not sure how well received it
would be for me to be screaming into a microphone in the cabin area
for 24 hours. I suspect that might not go over well - maybe if I had
someone to tell me how loud it was outside of the cabin with all the
windows closed. The walls did not seem all that thick. Maybe it
would work. Something to think about.
The contest went well for me other than not starting on 15 meters. I
was not sure I would get a clean sweep but around 04z I decided to do
some S&P and the first station I work in W1VE in VT - and I am
thinking well how will I work NT if W1VE is not on from there. And
then I work PEI, PAC and NT (VY1CO) in in the next 20 minutes of doing
S&P. But I still need LAX? But I work on and by the end of the night
and my first off time to sleep I only need QC, NL and VI - I know all
of those should be pretty easy in the morning. QC and NL came pretty
quick but VI was eluding me. I kept looking. One trick I can use at
my station is to switch to the SE antenna and tune 10 or 15 and they
stick out as the big signals on the band. This does not work with a
vertical but I finally found the KP2 on 15m and putting him in the log
closed out the sweep.
I had a great time - now to do this on SSB or from ME or some other
place with wires and a tribander. All of it would be fun and
interesting.
Thanks for the contacts - it was fun.
Here are some photos:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/3kTvC6UzFt24bmQD7
Here are a lot of numbers:
BAND Raw QSOs Valid QSOs Points Mults
__________________________________________________
40CW 397 389 778 19
20CW 232 226 452 43
15CW 330 319 638 21
10CW 40 38 76 1
__________________________________________________
Totals 999 972 1944 84
Final Score = 163296 points
CALLSIGN: WB5VZL
CONTEST: ARRL-SS-CW
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
2100 0 0 0 65 0 0 65 65 6.7
2200 0 0 0 7 74 0 81 146 15.0
2300 0 0 0 0 73 0 73 219 22.5
0000 0 0 8 44 0 0 52 271 27.9
0100 0 0 65 0 0 0 65 336 34.6
0200 0 0 41 0 0 0 41 377 38.8
0300 0 0 43 0 0 0 43 420 43.2
0400 0 0 46 0 0 0 46 466 47.9
0500 0 0 47 0 0 0 47 513 52.8
0600 0 0 30 0 0 0 30 543 55.9
0700 0 0 12 0 0 0 12 555 57.1
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 555 57.1
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 555 57.1
1000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 555 57.1
1100 0 0 20 0 0 0 20 575 59.2
1200 0 0 17 0 0 0 17 592 60.9
1300 0 0 0 45 0 0 45 637 65.5
1400 0 0 0 7 26 0 33 670 68.9
1500 0 0 0 0 11 7 18 688 70.8
1600 0 0 0 0 20 10 30 718 73.9
1700 0 0 0 0 33 0 33 751 77.3
1800 0 0 0 0 26 0 26 777 79.9
1900 0 0 0 0 0 19 19 796 81.9
2000 0 0 0 0 11 2 13 809 83.2
2100 0 0 0 0 30 0 30 839 86.3
2200 0 0 0 29 15 0 44 883 90.8
2300 0 0 0 29 0 0 29 912 93.8
0000 0 0 24 0 0 0 24 936 96.3
0100 0 0 18 0 0 0 18 954 98.1
0200 0 0 18 0 0 0 18 972 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 0 389 226 319 38 972
Gross QSOs=999 Dupes=27 Net QSOs=972
Unique callsigns worked = 972
The best 60 minute rate was 93/hour from 2212 to 2311
The best 30 minute rate was 96/hour from 2211 to 2240
The best 10 minute rate was 114/hour from 2213 to 2222
The best 1 minute rates were:
3 QSOs/minute 1 times.
2 QSOs/minute 191 times.
1 QSOs/minute 587 times.
There were 13 bandchanges and 0 (0.0%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.
Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
-----------------
3 2
4 569
5 299
6 102
------------ M u l t i p l i e r S u m m a r y ------------
Mult 160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
-------------------------------------------------------------
Il 0 0 19 11 21 0 51 5.2
Oh 0 0 16 11 19 0 46 4.7
Va 0 0 11 9 21 5 46 4.7
Mdc 0 0 17 9 11 4 41 4.2
Mn 0 0 9 5 19 0 33 3.4
Mi 0 0 8 6 14 2 30 3.1
Tn 0 0 10 5 14 0 29 3.0
EPa 0 0 11 8 3 5 27 2.8
Nc 0 0 10 7 7 0 24 2.5
WNy 0 0 6 7 10 1 24 2.5
WWa 0 0 11 5 7 1 24 2.5
NFl 0 0 9 6 6 1 22 2.3
Scv 0 0 9 6 6 0 21 2.2
Wi 0 0 6 5 10 0 21 2.2
Or 0 0 11 2 5 3 21 2.2
Az 0 0 12 6 2 0 20 2.1
Sv 0 0 10 3 7 0 20 2.1
Co 0 0 16 3 0 0 19 2.0
In 0 0 5 5 9 0 19 2.0
NNj 0 0 6 2 7 3 18 1.9
Ky 0 0 5 5 7 0 17 1.7
Ga 0 0 5 5 6 0 16 1.6
Mo 0 0 8 5 2 0 15 1.5
STx 0 0 10 2 3 0 15 1.5
EMa 0 0 3 3 8 0 14 1.4
SFl 0 0 4 3 6 1 14 1.4
Sdg 0 0 8 2 2 0 12 1.2
Nh 0 0 5 3 3 1 12 1.2
WPa 0 0 3 3 5 1 12 1.2
Org 0 0 6 3 2 0 11 1.1
Ct 0 0 2 5 2 1 10 1.0
SNj 0 0 4 1 5 0 10 1.0
Sc 0 0 3 3 3 0 9 0.9
Ia 0 0 0 5 4 0 9 0.9
EWa 0 0 2 2 5 0 9 0.9
Al 0 0 1 4 4 0 9 0.9
Ab 0 0 5 1 1 1 8 0.8
Sf 0 0 3 2 3 0 8 0.8
NTx 0 0 5 1 2 0 8 0.8
ENy 0 0 1 4 1 2 8 0.8
WcF 0 0 5 1 2 0 8 0.8
Ks 0 0 5 3 0 0 8 0.8
Eb 0 0 4 2 1 0 7 0.7
Gta 0 0 2 3 2 0 7 0.7
Bc 0 0 3 0 3 1 7 0.7
Mt 0 0 1 2 4 0 7 0.7
Me 0 0 3 3 1 0 7 0.7
Sjv 0 0 3 2 2 0 7 0.7
One 0 0 3 2 1 1 7 0.7
Nv 0 0 2 4 0 0 6 0.6
Ons 0 0 1 2 3 0 6 0.6
Id 0 0 3 1 2 0 6 0.6
Sd 0 0 3 0 3 0 6 0.6
Ri 0 0 2 3 1 0 6 0.6
NLi 0 0 2 2 2 0 6 0.6
Ne 0 0 3 2 0 0 5 0.5
Ut 0 0 3 1 1 0 5 0.5
Sb 0 0 4 1 0 0 5 0.5
Ok 0 0 5 0 0 0 5 0.5
Lax 0 0 3 0 2 0 5 0.5
Wy 0 0 1 1 2 0 4 0.4
Wv 0 0 1 2 0 1 4 0.4
Sk 0 0 0 0 3 1 4 0.4
Ms 0 0 3 1 0 0 4 0.4
Ar 0 0 4 0 0 0 4 0.4
Nm 0 0 4 0 0 0 4 0.4
WMa 0 0 2 1 1 0 4 0.4
Qc 0 0 0 1 2 1 4 0.4
NNy 0 0 0 1 2 0 3 0.3
Ak 0 0 1 1 1 0 3 0.3
Mb 0 0 2 0 1 0 3 0.3
Vt 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0.3
Pac 0 0 3 0 0 0 3 0.3
Onn 0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0.2
De 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0.2
WTx 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 0.2
Nd 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0.2
Pr 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0.2
La 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0.2
Pe 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.1
Nt 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.1
Mar 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0.1
Nl 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0.1
Vi 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.1
------------------------------------------------------
Total 0 0 389 226 319 38 972
Sweepstakes Checks
Check QSOs Pct
----------------------
00 7 0.7
01 2 0.2
02 4 0.4
03 4 0.4
04 3 0.3
05 4 0.4
06 0 0.0
07 2 0.2
08 1 0.1
09 5 0.5
10 2 0.2
11 1 0.1
12 4 0.4
13 2 0.2
14 4 0.4
15 5 0.5
16 7 0.7
17 7 0.7
18 1 0.1
19 4 0.4
20 3 0.3
21 7 0.7
22 2 0.2
23 1 0.1
24 0 0.0
25 0 0.0
26 0 0.0
27 0 0.0
28 0 0.0
29 0 0.0
30 0 0.0
31 0 0.0
32 0 0.0
33 1 0.1
34 0 0.0
35 0 0.0
36 0 0.0
37 0 0.0
38 0 0.0
39 0 0.0
40 0 0.0
41 0 0.0
42 0 0.0
43 0 0.0
44 0 0.0
45 0 0.0
46 0 0.0
47 2 0.2
48 1 0.1
49 1 0.1
50 2 0.2
51 4 0.4
52 6 0.6
53 10 1.0
54 16 1.6
55 17 1.7
56 14 1.4
57 25 2.6
58 28 2.9
59 30 3.1
60 27 2.8
61 37 3.8
62 36 3.7
63 40 4.1
64 32 3.3
65 25 2.6
66 28 2.9
67 25 2.6
68 29 3.0
69 33 3.4
70 32 3.3
71 32 3.3
72 28 2.9
73 23 2.4
74 23 2.4
75 37 3.8
76 36 3.7
77 35 3.6
78 22 2.3
79 14 1.4
80 11 1.1
81 12 1.2
82 7 0.7
83 6 0.6
84 6 0.6
85 4 0.4
86 11 1.1
87 5 0.5
88 4 0.4
89 10 1.0
90 4 0.4
91 13 1.3
92 15 1.5
93 7 0.7
94 5 0.5
95 7 0.7
96 3 0.3
97 3 0.3
98 4 0.4
99 2 0.2
U.S. Call Areas Worked
Area QSOs Pct
--------------------
0 100 10.3
1 65 6.7
2 104 10.7
3 99 10.2
4 124 12.8
5 49 5.0
6 99 10.2
7 95 9.8
8 91 9.4
9 93 9.6
--------------------
Total 919 94.5
Sweepstakes Precedents
Precedent QSOs Pct
----------------------
A 389 40.0
B 174 17.9
Q 68 7.0
M 30 3.1
U 305 31.4
S 6 0.6
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