[SCCC] SS CW W6PH SOHP (more readable)

[W6ph--- via SCCC]

Call:  W6PH
Operator(s):   W6PH  
Station:  W6PH   
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Lone Pine CA
Operating Time  (hrs):  24
 
Summary: 
 
Band    QSOs  
160:   
80:        116  
40:        188  
20:        271  
15:        551  
10:          14  
Total:   1140     Sections 83 
 
Total Score 189,240 

Club:  Southern California Contest Club   
 
Comments:  
FTdx3000 plus AL1200 first 13 hours, LK-500ZB second 11 hours 
Win-Test  
Antennas: 80m 1/4 wave sloper below 40-2CD at 55 feet (AB-577 nr 1),   20m 
3el yagi at 50 feet (AB-577 nr 2), 15m 5el yagi at 55 feet (AB-577  nr  3), 
20-10m A3S at 40 feet (permanent Rohn 25). 

I got back  from Bonaire (PJ4X) late Monday night and made a road trip to 
Pacific Grove  on Wednesday and Thursday which gave me Friday to raise the 
temporary  antennas and get the station in order. High winds were forecast 
for 
Friday,  so I started at day break to get the antennas up. The wind really  
started blowing as I was raising the third mast and I had to get my  wife 
to 
hold the up-wind guy wire while I was cranking the   elevator.  She's a 
trooper. No mishaps and the antennas all had good  SWR.  (I have them 
all marked for quick assembly.) 

I tested everything on Saturday  morning and everything seemed fine.  I got 
a slow start as it has been  a year since I operated SS and I was  behind 
last year after the first  hour. But 15m was a bottomless pit of callers 
and I 
stayed on the same  frequency for four hours before finally heading to 20m. 
As the sun went down  I checked 40m occasionally but it didn't sound real 
strong and the stations  that I heard had already been worked. Finally 20m 
slowed down and I headed  to 40m. A highlight was being called by VE8EV 
around 7 UTC with a number 21. I quit with only ONN, SK, and PR missing 
at 1 am and got 5 hours of sleep. I turned the radio back on at 6 am (still 
 PDT)
and heard a weak VE3CX (ONN) calling CQ on 80m. I called him and he  came
right back. The computer was still booting up so I  wrote the info on  a 
piece of 
paper and entered it when Win-Test came up. I didn't want to  miss one of 
the 
last three sections that I needed. A little later I worked  several VE5's 
and 
didn't pick up PR until 23 UTC when I caught NP3A giving me nr  1019.  I 
never heard him before that! 

So why the two amps  listed above? About 7 or 8 am I started hearing a  
raspy noise on the  receiver thinking someone had turned on a device in the 
 
neighborhood,  so I decided to take a 30 minute break. As soon as I shut 
off the 
AL1200,  the noise was gone. I turned the amp back on and the noise came 
back. At  that point I decided to swap out the amp with an LK-500ZB that we 
use for  K6Z CQP. Fortunately it worked fine for the rest of the  SS.  I 
hit  
1000 contacts two hours ahead of last year and finished with 53 more  
contacts 
than last year. Fifteen meters was my gold mine. I swept 10m a  couple 
times 
to work any stations that weren't in the log already. Forty  meters never 
really worked for me. There seemed to be quite a bit  of atmospheric noise 
and signals were generally weak (except for K1ZZ  who sounded like he was 
across town). During the last hour I checked 80m and  I thought I had lost 
my 
antenna. There wasn't a single station on the  band which I thought was 
unusual at the end of the SS. 

As my friend  W6SX opines, you should be doing it for the fun of it.  At 
72, 
I am  still enjoying the fun of contesting just like everyone else  with a 
CK  number in the 50's. 

73, Kurt  W6PH