[SECC] SS SSB AA4LR Single Op LP

[Bill Coleman]

                  ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB

Call: AA4LR
Operator(s): AA4LR
Station: AA4LR

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 20.2

Summary:
Band  QSOs
------------
160:    2
 80:  104
 40:  187
 20:  261
 15:   66
 10:   31
------------
Total:  651  Sections = 82  Total Score = 106,764

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:

Antennas:
Cushcraft A3S/A743 @ 15m (40-10m)
Shunt-fed 15m tower (160,80m)

Equipment:
Elecraft K3/100 w/ KAT3 running 100 watts

Comments:

All in all, a pretty good performance this year. This is the first SS Phone effort above 100,000 I've made since 2004.

Since moving back near Gwinnett county, I've been working to make the station ready for contesting, but I haven't quite had time to do everything. I decided about a week before SS Phone to not take things so seriously. After coming down with a cold on Thursday, this was probably the right tack.

I managed to get the 80m shunt feed networking going again, with the addition of a new variable capacitor. But I didn't have time to build a 80/40/20m trap dipole, nor get the K9AY loops back up, nor set up the second radio. So, it was just one radio and one set of antennas.

Right at the start conditions seemed pretty good. Spent the first half hour on 20m, until I got pushed off a run frequency. Next couple of hours were running on 20m, followed by quick scans of 10 and 15m. Found VE8EV before 2300z on 15m, which meant a very rare multiplier was in the bag. Hit 40m briefly at 2345z, and when I came back an hour later, it was already modestly long. 

Tough going after 0200z -- with 40m going long and all the west coast stations crowding down, it was off to 80m. Generally, I don't find the shunt-fed vertical to be very effective in the early evening. That was my experience up in Floyd county when I had both the 10m high dipole and the inverted-L. Lacking an alternate 80m antenna, I slugged through until 0630z, at which point I switched off for sleep.

I ended that evening with 310 Q and 77 mult. Not a great start, but not too bad. I needed only VI, MS, OK, AK, NL and ONE for a sweep. I decided my efforts on Sunday would focus on getting the sweep.

Back on at 1330z, a found a spot on 40m and immediately got rate of about 100/hr. I really should have gotten on earlier!

A little later I was on 14233.5 kHz running with good rate, despite someone transmitting white noise and other sounds. I ignored them. Eventually, someone calls in asking me to move up because I'm interfering with the SSTV frequency. I tell him that I'm 3.5 kHz from the SSTV frequency! He cut in with some profanity, and later the noise and weird sounds continues. Hmm.

Despite all the good runs on 40 and 20m, I still need mults. VO1MP was all by himself on 15m, and ONE found me during the runs. At 2000z, I found three AK stations on 15m. I'm beginning to wonder what happened to VI. Generally, VI stations show up strong on 15m in the early afternoon on Sunday. I even did a tune of 15m with the beam pointed to the Caribbean in case I missed something.

Finally found NP2X at 2230 on 20m handing out low serial numbers. That left only OK and MS. Where were these guys? While running, I would get excited whenever a 5-lander would call in -- but they seemed to be all TX stations. Finally, in frustration, I asked one guy - "Where the heck are the Oklahoma guys?" He said he worked one of them down on 80m last night.

Needing only MS and OK, I focus on running on 40m, trying to turn the 40m rotary dipole to favor that direction. No dice. By 0000z, back on 80m — found OK at 0047, and turned off the radio at 0116z. I never did hear a single MS stations all weekend.

All in all, I'm happy with this effort -- any time I can reach 100,000 in SS, that's good. Given the conditions (which were OK), and the station and operator prep (which was not), a good effort.

See you in a couple of weeks for the ARRL 160m!


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Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
           -- Wilbur Wright, 1901