ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: N8II
Operator(s): N8II
Station: N8II
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: WV
Operating Time (hrs): 17.5
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 374
40: 203
20: 202
15: 56
10: 0
------------
Total: 835 Sections = 77 Total Score = 128,590
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
Actual operating time: 15 hours
Soapbox Comments
________________
Nuttin' to brag about so I'll be briefer than usual.
The good: I had some good runs on 75 and for about 90 minutes during the
daytime on 40. It was nice to say hello to many of the veteran SS ops
and PVRC members and recognize their names/faces. I didn't have any fights
with the 75 meter crowd. One inventive ragchew group switched to USB and
we shared the freq, I shifted down slightly; they talked forever but they
were weak enough to be no problemo! I sporadically had some nice rates
00Z - 101, 16Z - 100, 00Z - 71, 01Z - 65 Q's.
The bad: 20 was a sea of QRM virtually all day Sunday, I couldn't run well
all day until a brief great spurt around 2130Z ended by an East Coast station
stealing the freq. I had a choice of 3 antennas for 40 which worked out
pretty well during the daytime, but really sucked at night, really need
a yagi to west. The lack of solar activity really hurts LP efforts with
most everyone on 20 during the day and 75 at night. Once the skip zone
started lengthening on 75 at 0115Z, I was dead in the water for running;
some HP guy in the skip zone always slides on top of me.
The ugly: I didn't sleep well Friday night and then the XYL needed to
make a "DXpedition" to the grocery store. It was 5.5 hours after we left
at 22Z before I was able to get to the radio. You wonder how it could
take so long ? 45 minutes each way (yes, there is a store 5 minutes away),
stop for lunch, farm market, meat market, supermarket, 1/2 hour to carry
it all into the house and help put it away. I don't know why I just
didn't turn on the amp and help the club a bit more other than that's
not what I was planning originally. So with exhaustion and not being able
to run plus a hurting neck I shut it down at 0155Z. WA8WV was 60 Q's
ahead of me at about 0030Z Mon.; congrats to him and whoever had the
intestinal fortitude to stick it out full time and win the division.
I never heard NL, AK, or NT. I made a conscious decision not the hurt
the rate by looking for NL on 20, but I did look for the other two mostly
on the high and low ends of 20 reasoning that they would be buried in
the QRM in the middle, wrong!
Thanks for all the Q's and warm greetings. Unless condx improve, look for
B precedence from me next year.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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