The score (after dupes): 1442 x 78 = 224,952.
The band breakdown:
80 - 130 40 - 1010 20 - 272 15 - 30
Yup - over 1000 on 40!
Off times taken (did I take enough this time?):
21:29 - 21:59 (Yes - that is in the first hour...)
08:58 - 13:58 (Five - count them FIVE hours!).
22:08 - 22:38 (Saving it in case of a failure).
That off time in the first hour was taken because of a problem with the 20
meter feedline. Signals were going away a second or two after xmiting. We
swapped amplifiers thinking it might be the TR relay. We also cleaned a
bunch of PL-259 connectors in case that was the problem.
The actual problem didn't get fixed until Sunday morning when I noticed a
tee connector was getting very warm. Replaced it and the problem was gone.
After my break, I decided to go to 40 meters (I had little confidence in my
20 meter signal at that point) and 40 just played and played. Between 2200
and 0500Z, I averaged over 90 an hour sitting on 7046 kHz. At one point, I
felt like the band was going to go long on me, but it hung in there!
I was also very surprised at how productive 40 was in the morning. I think
with 15 taking its time to open for the west coast, 20 just was over
crowded and lots of people stayed down on 40. I waited until the 6's moved
to 15 before trying to CQ on 20. After I fixed the bad tee connector, I
finally felt "loud" on 20.
Worked NA7R on 80 (second radio) saturday night. Last two mults were KP2
and KP4. KP4 was very easy to find on 15 Sunday morning with the
south-east quad (also KP2 if I had still needed it). I heard K8HVT S&Ping
on 40 meters late Saturday, but couldn't get him to come back to me. Got
him on 20 the next morning.
Best moment came while on 40. I finished a CQ, and heard a weak signal,
then after a second, a loud guy calling me. I came back to the loud guy.
While I was sending the exchange, I thought about the weak signal and it
was a VE6. I told Pat (who was listening in at the time) that I think I am
being called by VE6SH/VE8. Sure enough! It was tough to pull Tim through
as he was pretty weak. Later, VY1JA would answer my FIRST CQ on 80 meters
with a great signal.
I would also like to thank W5XX who hung around for my first QSO in the
contest from sometimes hard to work (at least on the high bands) section of
Mississippi. The reason this is note-worthy is that Mal was also my first
QSO last year!!
I made one QSO while using two radios on the same band (20 meters). I was
CQing up around 14065 kHz and could search and pounce up to 055 without any
interference. This was done with a tribander at one end of the property
and a 500 watt amplifier. One QSO may not seem like much, but if I hadn't
have worked Wyoming the night before, N7NG would have been a life saver!!
It just didn't seem like there was much "new meat" out there to find on
Sunday. Made the two radio stuff a lot of work. I think maybe two radio
with Q power might be more fun as there will be a lot more QSOs made with
it...
I didn't use the second radio in the first few hours like I have before.
However, I still came up with 92 second radio QSOs.
Near the end, before setttling down on 80 meters, I spent some time up in
the 40 meter novice band. Had a nice little pileup there and it was good
for about 10 QSOs at a time I was struggling to get 30/hour.
1996 ARRL CW SWEEPSTAKES W5WMU (N6TR opr)
HOUR 80CW 40CW 20CW 15CW TOTAL ACCUM
---- ------ ------ ------ ------ ----- -----
21 0 1 27 14 42 42
22 0 88 0 3 91 133
23 0 104 0 1 105 238
0 1 85 0 0 86 324
1 3 84 0 0 87 411
2 0 81 0 0 81 492
3 0 90 0 0 90 582
4 0 91 0 0 91 673
5 8 68 0 0 76 749
6 9 54 0 0 63 812
7 7 53 0 0 60 872
8 27 20 0 0 47 919
9 0 0 0 0 0 919
10 0 0 0 0 0 919
11 0 0 0 0 0 919
12 0 0 0 0 0 919
13 0 1 0 0 1 920
14 0 54 6 0 60 980
15 0 37 14 0 51 1031
16 0 39 9 0 48 1079
17 0 26 9 0 35 1114
18 0 1 35 1 37 1151
19 0 0 40 7 47 1198
20 0 0 48 2 50 1248
21 0 6 34 0 40 1288
22 0 2 22 2 26 1314
23 0 2 27 0 29 1343
0 5 23 1 0 29 1372
1 37 0 0 0 37 1409
2 33 0 0 0 33 1442
TOTAL 130 1010 272 30
N5RZ and I operated totally different contests and came within 11 QSOs of
each other! Our band breakdowns are VERY different, as are the off-times.
He was obviously ahead of me after the first hour, then I was ahead of him
before I went to bed after the fun I had on 40. Then he got up early and
got ahead of me again. He finished the contest with over an hour of off
time to take while I kept plugging along.
I am totally amazed at the KR0Y score. Sure am glad he didn't turn on his
amplifier! Anxious to hear more about the W0SD score. I guess we have to
wait until April to find out who won this thing. I am just happy I was
able to overcome the problems and still put together a competitive entry.
I took pictures this time. I will be putting a station tour on the web.
Maybe that will help me remember which antennas I used so I can setup
quicker next year (did I say next year??).
73 Tree N6TR
tree@contesting.com
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