[SECC] SS SSB NJ8J Single Op LP

[Ben Coleman]

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                    ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: NJ8J
Operator(s): NJ8J
Station: NJ8J

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 18

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
- ------------
  160:
   80:  130
   40:    8
   20:   63
   15:   67
   10:   40
- ------------
Total:  308  Sections = 75  Total Score = 46,200

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:
Equipment:
Alinco DX-77T
LDG AT-11MP Automatic Antenna tuner, MFJ-969 Antenna tuner

Antennas:
Even for Bedsprings Brigade Manor, You Don't Want To Know

Managed to get started better this time than for SSCW - only 2 hours
late instead of 4 1/2.  I would have gotten started earlier except that
I had to spend time when I finally got the the shack recompiling tlf
(the Linux-based logger I used).  I found a few glitches during SSCW,
and patches had been posted for it, but I had to pull the new code down
from the git repository and rebuild.  I got the rebuild started, then
started operating, and when the rebuild finished, quit just long enough
to get the new version of tlf installed.

80 again turned out to be the money band for me.  I got in about 27 Q's
on 20 thru 10 in the first couple of hours, and dropped to 80 (skipping
40, where the noise was too high to do much) at 0050Z, and pretty much
stayed there (4 Qs on 40 and 1 on 20) until I quit at around 0800Z.  Got
started again at 1800Z and tried to pound on 10 and 15 until 2145 when I
dropped down to 20.  After a few Qs on 20, I realized that the local
noise source seemed to be gone on 20 (usually it gives me a noise floor
at about S7 on the S-meter - now the noise floor read about S2 or less).
 Made me wish I had gone to 20 earlier.  I'm not sure it's permanently
gone (the noise floor seemed to be up to S5 after the contest), but it
was nice to be able to operate for a bit without it.  (it also makes me
think I have more than one noise source - 40 still had the S9+10 noise
floor that's been there for a while.  I may have to look at operating 30
more - the heavy noise I see on 40 starts dropping out at just under
9Mhz, and it is quite lower on 30 (as in you can actually hear normal
atmospherics (which was one of the things that twigged me to realizing
the noise was gone on 20)).

It was interesting to hear how operators handled my call.  I got quite
used to hearing someone start calling back to me with "November Eight",
hesitate (you could almost hear the light going on over their heads),
then "OH!  November Juliette Eight Juliette".  I like my call (and got a
few comments from operators who said they liked my call), but I wonder
why so many people seem to initially drop the first J ( I don't see this
on CW, just SSB).

Next attempt at operating full-time will probably be NAQP.  Meantime, I
need to get the wire antenna to a less strange configuration, and dig up
the pieces and parts to get the Antron vertical back up (yeah, I know.
But I suspect it will do better on 10 than the wire currently is).

Ben
- -- 
Ben Coleman nj8j at benshome.net
 "I love the way Microsoft follows standards.  In much the
same manner that fish follow migrating caribou."
                                            Paul Tomblin
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