[NCC] K8BL - SS CW 2017

[Jim Stahl]

I was pleasantly surprised to have two QSOs with a guy who didn’t have a station when I left Ohio!


73  -  Jim   K8MR


> On Nov 6, 2017, at 6:20 PM, R.T.Liddy <k8bl at ameritech.net> wrote:
> 
> ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW 
> 
> Call: K8BL 
> Operator(s): K8BL 
> Station: K8BL 
> 
> Class: SO Unlimited LP 
> QTH: OH 
> Operating Time (hrs): 8 
> 
> Summary: 
> Band  QSOs 
> ------------ 
> 160: 
> 80: 
> 40:  484 
> 20: 
> 15: 
> 10: 
> ------------ 
> Total:  484  Sections = 66  Total Score = 63,888 
> 
> Club: North Coast Contesters 
> 
> Comments: 
> 
> My favorite Contest above all. I enjoy the challenge of the loooooong Exchange 
> which isn't so bad once you're into the rhythm of it. 
> 
> Last year, I missed SSCW due to a knee replacement which kept me from getting 
> to the Shack in my basement. That was the first time not doing CW Sweeps in 
> over 45 years! This year, we moved to a new QTH and a week before the Contest 
> I had no radios set up and no antennas. Not to be denied 2 years in a row, 
> the XCVR and computer were set up on a table and verified still working with 
> each other. 
> 
> Since it seems that if an HF'er has a working station on any Band, it would 
> be 40 Meters, I decided to throw up an Inv VEE for 40 on a tree in the 
> backyard (about 35 feet). A long run of coax through a basement wall and 
> a crawlspace finally got me a usable station on one Band. 
> 
> Starting off, I usually find a quiet freq and call CQ hoping to get a run 
> started if I can hold the freq and attract callers. I chose 7036.75 since 
> it's available to all Classes and away from the usual high power folks and 
> not too near the digital and QRP hangouts. Amazingly, I was able hang on to 
> that freq for several hours until blasted off by a couple of HP types that 
> decided to take it over. I jumped up to 7037.75 and stayed there for several 
> more hours. 1708 CQs later, I had 484 Qs with 16 dupes and stopped when the 
> QSO counter hit 500. Not even ONE S&P QSO which makes me wonder why I was 
> in the Unlimited Category and not even using the Bandmap/Cluster. DUH!! 
> 
> I was pleasantly surprised to work 66 Sections by only CQing and staying on 
> virtually ONE freq. It will be interesting to see if very many stations made 
> a Clean Sweep since the hurricane devastation probably wiped out many folks 
> in the Caribbean and the US South. The Sections I missed were all far out 
> West except for NL. 
> 
> Sunday evening became challenging when a line of severe thunderstorms came 
> through the area. QRN made smooth copy of the long Exchange difficult at 
> times. As luck would have it, a static crash would often come at the same 
> spot where I needed to get a fill on a requested repeat. So, I'm sure I'll 
> get gigged on a number of QSOs where I ended up guessing on the info. 
> 
> Station: IC-7700, Old Dell XP Computer running old CTWin, 40M Double Bazooka 
> Inv VEE up abt 35 feet running SE to NW, old operator.
> _______________________________________________
> NCC mailing list
> NCC at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/ncc