ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: N7IR
Operator(s): N7IR
Station: N7IR
Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: AZ
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 19
40: 314
20: 188
15: 83
10:
------------
Total: 604 Sections = 79 Total Score = 95,432
Club: Central Arizona DX Association
Comments:
Finished reasonably well after my worst start in the last 12 years of CW Sweeps.
Ended the first night at 292/70! Sheesh! Fortunately 15 came to some sort of
life on Sunday and I was able to make up the lost ground pretty well by running
there.
The quest for my third consecutive sweep had a real surprise ending. After
knocking off all of the hard ones by late morning (ND, NL, NWT, QC and MB in
that order) I thought it was a done deal. After all how hard can it be to find
WPA, OK and EWA with more than 8 hours left to operate? After having not one
but three WPA stations in a row answer my CQs on 15 meters I was even more
positive. Then while two radio S&P I found K5CM on 20 before 2000Z and I was
SURE it's in the bag because I heard K7OX the night before on 20 and 40 but
couldn't break the pileups that Gary was entertaining then. That and WA7LT
and/or K7IR have been regulars in the CW sweepstakes for years. But I didn't
hear any of them over the next 7 hours! I heard a few weak S&P stations give
out EWA on 20 but none of them responded to my off-frequency calls or CQs.
Like someone else said "You can never tell which sections will elude you in a
given year." A big thank you to VY1EI and VO1HP for their operating skills
that enabled them to pick out the QRP guys from the pileups.
I used my K3 for the first time in a Sweepstakes. Made it the second radio
since I wanted to use its DSP noise blanker on 80 meters where a new digital
noise source has showed up in the neighborhood. It is an amazing piece of
equipment and works wonders on eliminating the crud. Unfortunately for some
reason 80 is a bad QRP band from here (a whopping 19 Qs!). The good old K2
held up just fine as the run radio though. Even running between N6EE and N2IC
on the low end of 40 didn't cause it problems. Although another new digital
noise source on 40 did. Hmmm, what can I sell to get a second K3?
Thanks for the fun and I hope to see some of you in the ARRL and Stew Perry 160
meter contests next month.
73
Gary, N7IR
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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