TRUTH: I sure do love contesting!!!!
Co-Truth: I sure do dislike phone!
Outline:
I. Blah, blah, blah
II. Rigs/antennas
III. Potentially interesting Stats.
IV. Heard on the bands
IV.3. Oh no, not THAT again.
I. Blah, blah, blah.
(To see some possible interesting numbers, scroll down to the bottom)
1. Not having done SS SSB before (not more than 100 or so Q's), I have a
reasonable amount
yet to learn about this event. It is rather frustrating to me to spend about 6
more hours on
ssb than on cw and come out with a (marginally) smaller score. Is that normal
in SS? I would
think that in general, ssb scores would be bigger.
2. Some very strange "spot" openings, especially on 15m. Had one time where
the band was
"dead" except for W6...and then mostly SCV to boot (see analysis below).
3. On CW, I felt "loud" despite be qrp. On SSB, I did not feel loud. That
negatively impacts
my drive.
4. As usual, I ended up doing antenna work all day Saturday until (after) the
start of the
contest.
First, I wanted to re-cable the steel "crank up cable" on the back tower (not
the one that
crushed my hand last month or so ago). That went pretty smoothly and no
crushed parts, but
did take a fair amount of time and climbing, including measuring and installing
nicopress
sleeves, etc. Stringing cable when the tower is vertical (and making sure it
doesn't slip and
fall) and being sure to weave it in/out of the wrong sections take a fair
amount of
concentration (too many zigzags) and belting and re-belting as you climb
(climbing belt, that
is). With that done, I was confident that when I cranked 'er up, it would stay
up. Original
cable was badly rusted and I just knew that if I "took a chance" that today
would be the day it
crashed.
Figured it would be important to have an antenna on 80m (which I did not have
for CW), so
spent hours untangling about 500 feet of solid copperweld (I should get a
reward for that...did
not have to cut anything and I didn't poke my eyes out) and putting together a
"sophisticated"
antenna...aka an inverted V.
OH yeah...now I have to feed it. Hmmm. I looked around and found about 100
feet of RG58
from my (can you believe it) Novice days. It has been nicely coiled up all
these decades and
unrolled with ease (finally...a break). It even had a PL259 already installed
on one end. Okay,
so it's 100' of pretty lossy cable and I'm qrp - Who cares...time is running
out (the sun is
setting). Unfortunately, it did NOT start to snow, so I know that the antenna
would NOT
perform as well as possible.
Got back inside after the start and was pooped. Sat around catching my breath
and decided
to start at 23:00, after some food (had not eaten all day, though I do carry
plenty of reserve
with me at all times). At 22:20, I got antsy and bolted to rig, having caught
my breath, but
not eaten anything yet.
5. Being clueless about SS, I started on 15...tuned around, made 2 Q's and
went to 20 and did
the same. I ended up on 40m within 10 minutes of turning the rig on. Then it
was a band
changing about every 10 or 20 minutes, trying to keep the Q's flowing. Live
and learn.
6. Gosh, but I hate phone; took aspirin after an hour of the "noise" on ssb.
Had to take more
on day 2.
II.
RIG: FT817, MFJ-434 voice key (which is much bigger dimensionally than the
rig!). Plus:
Datong external RF clipper (audio to RF to audio) - an ancient gem.
Antennas:
Optibeam OB11-3 @ 72' fed with RG217
Cush 402 CD @ 80’ fed with RG217
80m inverted Vee @ 55' fed with 100' RG58
Still using CT989 DOS on Pentium (1) computer (pretty old)
I did not use my Elecraft K2 as it has no SSB module.
END OF BLAH BLAH BLAH
SOME POTENTIALLY "INTERESTING" STATS FROM MY LOG:
Who do QRPers (me) work?
MDC 45 QSO's 8.3% of total contacts mostly on 80
VA 38 QSO's 7.1% of total contacts split between 80 and 40
SCV 27 QSO's 5.0% of total contacts mostly on 15
Ø Qso sections: BC, MS, NT.
1 QSO sections: MB, PAC, VI
2 QSO sections: AB, DE, ID, KY, ND, NL, NNY, ORG, PR, QC, SB, SC, and SD.
Last "new" section worked: SB @ 22:58 Sunday (was also my "last" new section
on CW)
Best "10 QSO rate": 146.9 (40 meters, running) - WOW...even I'm impressed (pure
luck)
Best "100 QSO rate": 41.5 (ending 17:39 - S+P)
HEARD ON THE BANDS:
1. Most common remark received:
"You're QRP? What a big signal!" (sometimes accompanied by laughter).
It's all in the propagation...I'm not going to call you if YOU are weak here.
If you're 40 or more over S9 here, why would you think that I should be well
below S-9 there?
Do the math.
For every guy that tells me that I'm "too loud," there are 10 more who ask me
for multiple
repeats. Tell THEM that I'm too loud for QRP.
2. Most illogical comment heard:
Overhearing (many times) exchanges (qrp guy to a HP guy) and when finally
successful, the HP
guy thanks the QRP guy for "hanging in here" to complete the exchange.
Shouldn't it be the qrp guy thanking the HP guy for "hanging in there?"
No matter what, though, "thanking folks" if nice to hear any time!
3. Greatest Epiphany: Realizing just how much entrants/participants use SCP
(I never use it).
I overheard one conversation where station A was debating with station B (who
station A was
working) about what Section station B was in. B kept telling him one thing but
A kept citing
what was "loaded in the computer." B stated over and over, I was there LAST
YEAR, now I'm
"here." Station A seemed unwilling to doubt SCP.
Then I had someone else tell me how long ago it was since "we worked" (a long
time) in SS.
Now I finally figured why so many guys only want YOUR NUMBER, YOUR NUMBER and
nothing
else...it's all there for them already. How disappointing...a long exchange to
"test" skill made
meaningless by so-called technology. Sort of defeats the whole point, no
(unless your point
is to just "score big" or "win")?
de Doug KR2Q
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