1997 ARRL NOVEMBER SWEEPSTAKES
Call used: K6LA Location: LAX
Category: Single Op All Band Mode: CW Power: 150W
Callsign of Operator: K6LA
Exchanged Information: nr A K6LA 65 LAX
Hours of Operation: 23:58
band QSOs points
160 0 0
80 134 268
40 258 516
20 419 838
15 287 574
10 2 4
TOTAL 1100 2200 X 79 multipliers = 173,800
Club or Team Name: SCCC
Comments:
I decided to go low power to try to get my name on the SCCC W6UQF Memorial
Trophy, awarded to the SCCC member with the highest combined score in low
power Sweepstakes CW and Phone. You'd think I'd be well on my way since my
score looks like a top 10. Not so, as new AD6DO (Dan, ex-KC6CNV), last year's
inaugural winner, beat me by 41 QSOs. Can I beat him by 41 in the phone
weekend? We'll see.
In reviewing all my post mortems from previous CW SS's, one comment stood on
all the lists, "start on 20 in the trenches." I did. I found a spot about
14027, didn't make a Q for 3 minutes (had 2 on 15 on the second radio.) So
after 10 minutes I moved to 15 and things took off. This year's comment is
"don't get so stuck on prior year's comments."
I had 4 great A power hours and then things went into the tank. An 02 hour of
only 30, the first of three straight less than 40 hours, put me in the hole.
Sunday afternoon I realized I couldn't make my goal of 1200 QSOs, so reset it
for 1100. With 5 minutes to go before running out of time, I needed 3 QSOs. I
moved low on 40 and started CQing. With 2 minutes to go I needed 1 more Q.
AA8KK called in, but the QRM made him ask for 2 repeats. I hit the enter key
2 seconds before the clock turned over to end it for me.
In the search for the sweep department, I had every section call me by 0510,
except for MAR, NL and VY1. I heard VO1GO on 15 Saturday afternoon with a
big pileup, but didn't even try. I picked up VE1 1st thing Sunday morning. I
found VY1JA for his #54 and got through 1st call, I guess before the madness.
After the contest, I checked for VY1JA spots, and I got through about 30
minutes before the first one. I found VO1MP on 15 at 1832 for the sweep. He
didn't even have a pileup. VO1GO called me later in the contest. All in all,
an easy sweep for me.
I wound up running out of time with 90 minutes to go, so I got to listen to
the contest finish. I was listening to N2IC and W5WMU go down to the wire
very close, but never heard the other top stations in the last 90 minutes.
No Murphy visits, except Tom, N0SS, reported I had a very bad signal on 20
Saturday afternoon. Anyone else notice any "musical" ripple on my signal at
any time?
I would like to publicly thank Dave, K8CC, for his dedication to software
support beyond the call of duty. There was a bug in NA10.23 that was
put out on Thursday that caused the program to crash when entering a dupe in
the new "alternate radio bandmap" feature. This was a feature that I pushed
Dave to do before the CW SS. I called Dave Saturday morning before SS at
about 10 am his time when I discovered the bug. He already had the fix and
version 10.24, having stayed up late Friday night to get it done. He was
unable to locate Tom the webmaster to make it downloadable, so Dave sent the
new version to me via a mail attachment. The program worked great. I had a
total of one computer hang for unknown reasons and a few "two radio
schizophrenic moments" due to operator error. When asked for fills on radio2
QSO's, if I had already pressed the enter key and NA was CQing again on
radio1
I had a problem getting back to radio2 for the fill. I'd move the CQ on top
of the guy who needed the fill who must have thought I was an A1 lid. The 2nd
radio definately put me in the top 10, assuming I made it there.
Once again, Dave, thank you very much for adding to my contesting pleasure.
73. Ken, K6LA - Ken Six Los Angeles, KWIDELITZ@DELPHI.COM
ex-AB6FO
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/3830faq.html
Submissions: 3830@contesting.com
Administrative requests: 3830-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-3830@contesting.com
|