ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW
Call: N3BB
Operator(s): N3BB
Station: N3BB
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Austin, TX
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 94
40: 745
20: 350
15: 222
10: 0
------------
Total: 1411 Sections = 80 Total Score = 225,760
Club: Central Texas DX and Contest Club
Comments:
It was difficult to get ready for this one mentally. We had house guests
(Diana's nephew and his wife)from Raleigh, NC and the pre-weekend and weekend
were crammed with running around. That, and my addiction to watching college
football on Saturdays, really made my promise to myself to hit the SS hard a
conflicted matter. Fortunately the "good guys" (Virginia Tech Hokies) beat the
"bad guys" (Miami Hurricanes) but I missed it all. Saturday was miserable for
me as I sat there all the way through Saturday night. Sunday was better from a
state-of-mind standpoint, even with the Saturday afternoon rate doldrums.
Conditons were better this year thanks to a few well placed and timed sunspots.
Thanks to the propagation gods for that.
I started on 15 meters after planning to start on 20 meters. But 15 sounded
really good and had a pretty broad footprint. So I did, and had a good first
hour with a 107. I started at 35 WPM which seemed about right for the frantic
pace. By 2230Z the rate was dropping, and I changed the run band to 20 meters
at 2250, probably twenty minutes later than I could/should have done.
Several people have commented about inserting a half space between key message
data. I agree, and inserted a half space between the S and the TX in STX. It
seemed to help a lot. By 0000Z I was on 40 meters as the run band, and found
lots of (for me) dreaded RTTY signals all the way down to 7032. It was dicey to
find any frequency above there that would stay RTTY-free, although there were
some holes. Finally, in desperation, trying to get below the RTTY and above the
Extra Class limit of 7025, I burrowed into the area between 7025 and 7032,
around 7028 or so. My friend N4GG complained that I was bothering him. I
apologized to Hal later on, but we all simply had to scrooch and dig in, and so
eventually we all more or less co-existed and made tiny litle moves to minimize
the signals to both sides. Thank heavens for those INRAD roofing filters on the
MPs, and for the W8JI de-clix mods, too.
By 0050Z I made a note in my log that the frequency was clear. The skip had
changed a bit and/or else others had found better frequencies. I had an 81
hour, so it was pretty good even with all the heavy QRM and goings-on.
One of the two occurences of intentional QRM happened around 0110Z, as a
"ditter" kept sending long strings of dits in his keyer. No, I don't think it
was a residual from the "40 meter wars," because he was weak, but strong enough
to lay down an S7 string that made it tough to copy some stations. I ignored
him, and after a while he went away. A second guy kept putting a carrier on my
frequency later. He went away too after a while.
Just as I was recovering from the ditter, I must have done something weird and
TR went into a strange state, and the cursor was stuck in the call field.
Nothing could dislodge it, and I lost five minutes rebooting. I logged VE3GHH
by hand, and entered it when the PC came back up.
One teeny digression here: KI4EGT at 0219Z gave me a 04 check and was sending
35 WPM perfect code (OK, his computer may have been doing it), but it was nice
to get that from a new ham. He copied everything the first time. Great CW!
By 0600Z, I was making around the same number of QSOs on 40 as on 80, and
managed to screw up a S&P QSO with W9IU on 80, where he was running. I deleted
the entire data on my screen, and had forgotten that there is a command that
will recapture it. Gotta go back and relearn that. Unfortunately, I had to ask
him to resend everything, and we both managed to mangle the contact for several
minutes. Sorry! That was my Lid Moment for sure.
By 0530Z, 32 WPM was better since the rate was slower and some less experienced
stations were worked, plus we all were on 40 and 80, with more noise.
I worked several of the big guys around 0630Z (WX0B, N2IC)and both had a
significant lead of around 50 QSOs on me.
I started running (that's a stretch)on 80 meters at 0700Z, and K5TR called me
at around 0730Z and was 60 QSOs ahead. Gator and the other two really were
smokin'.
I had planned to operate later after midnight, since the rates then may not be
great, but they are going to be better than on Sunday afternoon. K5NA did that
here and had good rates. But for some reason, for me, the rates dried up and I
stopped a little after 0730Z when I simply was not getting answers. I was back
on around 1200Z and had four straight hours of about 50 per hour. I probably
hurt myself by stopping at 0730Z, but the combination of my not-good mental
state and the difficulty getting answers got to me. Looking at the Sunday
afternoon rates, the decision to stop when I did seems to have been an error. I
only had one and a half hours of off time remaining on Sunday, so that meant
mostly operating all the time. I did take off an hour to say good-bye to our
guests, and apologize for my absence. They seemed to be OK with things.
At around 0300Z, VE4YU called in with a really low number, and then I had
worked every section except for NM, LA, WTX, and NWT. I was not worried about
NM or LA but was starting to worry about WTX, and of course one always worries
about NWT. NM5U called in from NM at 0330Z and WR5U from LA a few contacts
later, so by 0330Z, it was down to the last two. At around 0525Z I found my
friend N5DO running 'em on 80 and got Dave for #79 before I took the big break
for some rest.
I got up and started again on 40/80, and then started on 40/20 around 1400Z. I
started CQing on 20 at around 1440Z and was blown away when W8IVF called at
1450Z and kept sending a slant mark and the "VE8" after the portable sign. Wow!
VY1JA called me on 20 meters with an excellent "A" signal at around 1050A as
well. I called WP3R and N5DO as the only two mults. as I recall. Another WTX
called me later, but there were only two I called to get the mult.
My "rarest" sections were as follows:
3 QSOs- AB and MB
2 QSOs-WY, WTX, and NWT
1 QSO-PR and NL (thanks WP3R and VO1HE)
By 1700Z I was struggling in the Sunday blahs, and tried running 15, but the
footprint was too narrow. I went back to 20, and tried up the band at 14067,
but it was slim pickings. Back to 15...no, that was bad as well. So it was
mainly "running" (a stretch) on 20 and 2nd Radio-ing 15. I kept listening to
40, and there was stuff going on all afternoon, to the east. By 2200Z, 40 was
the place for the 2nd radio. By 2315Z, I started CQing again on 40 meters, and
was early enough there that I found a pretty good frequency around 7033.
Holding that frequency got to be quite a challenge as people moved to 40, and I
decided that no one was going to force me off there. Of course, having two yagis
there makes it posible for me to point one to the east and one to the west, so I
didn't have an "exposed flank!" To make a long story short, I stayed on 7033 for
over three consecutive hours, until I stopped at around 0230Z to take my last
thirty minutes of off time.
The last few hours (starting at 0100Z) on 7033 were spent at 29 WPM. I got all
the way down to 23 WPM for a couple of slow callers.
K5NA and K5PI (W5KFT) had a local "pizza bet" riding on this, and it's close as
usual. It will be a log checking contest with K5NA, who has a "nasty habit" of
making very few errors copying CW!
Congrats to the "big guns" for the usual fantastic scores. It's always a
pleasure to operate the high level CW contests and play ball with the experts.
Jim George N3BB
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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