ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: NX4N
Operator(s): NX4N
Station: NX4N
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: WCF
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 32
40: 561
20: 139
15: 1
10: 0
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Total: 733 Sections = 76 Total Score = 111,416
Club: Florida Contest Group
Comments:
Hello SS Friends,
If you are would like an intriguing story regarding our favorite contest, read
on!
This year is about my 10th sweepstakes contest at the FB clubhouse of the Tampa
ARC; these terrific folks welcome me back each year and I am most grateful to be
part of this club. They are active in just about every type of ham activity –
just a super bunch of folks.
On Friday I began my efforts Friday to setup an SO2R station:
- Run station – K3 and SPE1.3K
- S&P station – IC-7600 (club) and KPA500
The antennas are a dream for any club-
- 1st tower – Force12 40m 2 el at 110ft, C31XR at 100ft, 80m Windom at
90ft
- 2nd tower – SteppIR DB11 at 70ft
- 3rd tower - XR5 at 50’
Setup went smoothly until 3pm, when a Huge storm came through complete with
tornado warnings, rain so hard it blew in under the elevated front door and loss
of power for 2 hours! I should have taken this a reminder that Murphy was afoot
this year.
Brief Sidebar:
If you think about it SS is actually a multi-course meal in reverse:
Saturday starts with Dessert! The sugar rush of fast rates is balanced by
‘meat and potato’ mults; that VE8 tastes just like a juicy ribeye. You go
to bed satiated and happy, and if you are lucky you even enjoy a fine liquor
that is your 83rd mult for an early sweep. Sweet dreams…
But then the sublime feelings of Sunday morning coffee and eagerness are
replaced with the dread of the next course – time for the Kale that is Sunday.
Veggies you must have and veggies you shall eat!
So we roam like cows grazing on a flowerless dry grass – dessert turns to
desert. A few meager QSO’s each hour, desperation setting in for the waters
of a new or final mult, and wishing there was an oasis of hidden new ops waiting
to be discovered but alas it’s only a mirage.
Bottom line – we enjoy the first day’s meal and put up with a 2nd day eating
rabbit food just to stay competitive.
Well this year was clearly a WW contest for me – Weight Watchers that is…
First hour starts and I’m jazzed – I have big goals set and I’m raring to
go! My buddies N4BP, K0LUZ, N4WW/N4KM, N4EEB, WO4O and more are all putting on
their on best Sunshine State efforts and we feed off each other’s competitive
juices.
But I just couldn’t get going – I lost my groove, mojo and jam all in that
first hour and it happened every hour after. Rates were well below my goals,
signals down. Ok, try switching bands – 40m is my best band and off I go, but
again with the same result. Each of my regular SOHP competitors are 40-100+
QSO’s ahead of me the first few hours- WHAT THE &!@#^$% ???
My heart sinks, I have a splitting headache but I keep telling myself I can turn
this around, perhaps catching up on – gulp – Sunday. Such weird conditions
– many signals in the mud with frequent repeats, but then I work a PY, I and
TI that call in so I know I’m making ions glow. Meanwhile I refocus on two
things – a much lower error rate than last year and having fun. I began to
think of QSO’s as emergency/priority traffic that must be copied for health
and welfare – at least my mental health at this point.
By 0700z I know the race is lost, throwing in the towel for the night and
falling total exhausted into bed. Maybe sleeping a few hours will rejuvenate my
enthusiasm. After waking I make a strong Field-Day coffee and get my butt back
in the chair. I am going to have a better day today! I’m dual cqing on
40m/80m and doing all I can to get in the groove, but the QSO rates are just
nowhere near what they have been in previous years – could conditions be this
ugly?? 80m provides some nice mini-runs while I re-check the other antenna and
equipment - SWR’s FB, no signs I have the 20db attenuators on – maybe I just
need to switch deodorants?
With just two hours into the morning ‘run’ I call it quits for good –
leaving the clubhouse and bad memories of SS ‘18 behind and seeking the
comfort of my wife’s company the remainder of the day.
At home I kept tabs of my FL buddies on RBN with wispful thoughts of what might
have been. Was there anything I could have done differently? Oh well, a problem
for another day…
About 7pm local a fuzzy thought started in the back of my brain, becoming more
well-defined and torturing my curiosity along the way. The clues are above, if
you want to figure it out on your own.
The next morning, I went back to the Tampa ARC clubhouse to dismantle my setup
and to test a theory – which confirmed my worry. And I started to laugh…
I wasn’t set up for SS, but rather the Work-All-Argentina-Provinces contest!
Yep, the run antennas were pointed south-southeast, 180 degrees off the rotator
indication – I was working hour after hour off the back of the antennas! And
I can confirm that N6BT has designed them to include nice F/B ratios too.
UGH!!!
When I think of all those QRP stations I dug out of the noise, no wonder I had a
headache…but I did manage a 93 hour (Long Path must have been open).
So now you know the rest of this humbling Wouff Hong story – one red-faced op
who will be back next year, with renewed hope and antennas pointed North
Huge thanks to my find TARC friends for allowing me to take over the clubhouse
for the weekend; I know our first order of antenna business!
Hope everyone enjoyed the fun – tnx for the QSO’s and see you in SSCW 2019!
Vy 73,
Chris, NX4N
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