[SCCC] SS SSB K6ZH Single Op LP from Nevada

[Bill Haddon]

John.
you wrote: > I'm envious of N6ZFO's posting!

N6ZFO here. . . there are a few caveats about our location and antennas:

1) We're on top of an USGS official "mountain" -- Mt.Dali Dona, 600 feet
above Clear Lake with sharp drop-offs in most directions.  Coordinates (for
viewing on Google Earth e.g.) are: 39 00' 12.88" N, 122  48' 51.85" W
Horizon is 3 deg or less except 7 deg centered on Chile in the direction of
Mt. Konocti (4000 feet volcano; we are at 1900 feet ASL)

2) The 80m antenna.. . actually a 40m DE Zepp -- is about 60' AGL but there
are those slopes, notably to the ENE.  K6UFO has run the terrain analysis
(N6BV's HFTA) which shows a much higher effective height.

3) My 3 el 15 meter beam (a 3-el home-built mono-band Yagi) is at 25 feet;
but again there's the drop-offs; the HFTA  said "don't raise this antenna
much above 35 feet."
    -- as an aside. . I *never* rotate the beams during SS -- too much
distraction.

I had a separate 3-el monobander for 10m but never used it for even one
QSO.  Probably missed the PR and VO mults because of that, however.  Just
not a serious effort this time as NCCC did not make SS a focus contest this
year.

4) Also, lucked out with the scarcity of SF; while NV is sort of rare, this
time you had WX5S at W7RN handing out  a massive number of QSO's.  Matt is
a first rate SS op and of course he's got  W7 Radio Nevada behind him.  (I
think 4 over 4 on 40m). NV can be tough here though. . . in CQP I missed
NV, along with Ms. out of maybe 1400 Q's.

Tks for the QSO!  Sounds as if your QTH has great potential..  Be sure to
put in some Beverages.  Most significant antenna improvement ever for me.

73  Bill n6zfo

On Sun, Nov 18, 2012 at 10:33 PM, Jim Price <jnprice at pacbell.net> wrote:

>
>
>
>
>                     ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
>
> Call: K6ZH
> Operator(s): K6ZH
> Station: K6ZH
>
> Class: Single Op LP
> QTH: NV
> Operating Time (hrs): 11
>
> Summary:
> Band  QSOs
> ------------
>   160:
>    80:   57
>    40:   61
>    20:   51
>    15:  202
>    10:   81
> ------------
> Total:  452  Sections = 82  Total Score = 74,128
>
> Club: Southern California Contest Club
>
> Comments:
>
> First SS contest operation from our 'second home' in Goldfield, NV
> (Esmeralda
> County - rare if anyone needs it).  I was singing a song called "ONE is the
> loneliest number" since that was the only section I didn't work  :-(
>
> Learned a couple of obvious lessons:
> 1) 100 watts plus TH-3 at 30 feet = not loud (although I did have a nice
> run on
> Sat. afternoon on 15 meters)  I'm envious of N6ZFO's posting!
>
> 2) do not ever use a G5RV on 40 and 80 meters for this contest (at least
> not on
> SSB!)  I do have a 40-80 inverted vee combo here, but I got lazy because of
> cold, windy wx and didn't put it up.  "My bad."
>
> Exciting moments:  I went to bed on Sat. night needing 6 sections:  PR,
> WV, ME, VO1, ONE, and ONS.  I was most concerned about KP4.  So after
> breakfast on Sun. morning, I punched the radio on to 10 meters, and the
> first signal I heard (and worked) was NP4G.  OK!
> Tuned up the band - next:  VO1TA  OK!.
> Tuned down the band - next:  NW8U in WV  OK!
> About an hour later I worked K8PO in ME  OK!
> About an hour later I worked VE3RCN in ONS  OK!
> But no ONE - not heard, not worked.  Sigh...
>
> Certainly there were some big scores from NV, but I heard many times
> "thanks for NV, I needed that one."  So even if I couldn't get runs going
> most
> of the time, I guess I made some people (including WN6K) happy!
>
> On to next year.
> 73 - Jim, K6ZH [hopefully with a 7 callsign for later contests from
> Goldfield]
>
>
> Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at:
> http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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