ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: AE0EE
Operator(s): AE0EE
Station: AE0EE
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: SD
Operating Time (hrs): 19
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 101
40: 170
20: 74
15: 182
10:
------------
Total: 527 Sections = 79 Total Score = 83,266
Club: Minnesota Wireless Assn
Comments:
What an adventure! Many thanks to K0BBC and K6JEB for saving the AE0EE
operation!
Unlike SS CW earlier this month, there was snow on the ground and the
temperatures were well below freezing when I arrived at the cabin Friday
afternoon. I put up two of the dipoles (15/40m and 80m) before dark, then
spent a few hours trying to warm back up. Friday night, after tuning up with
my CW paddle and making some digital contacts, I tried a few phone contacts.
But Murphy had come to join me---there was no modulation. The hand-mic keyed
up, the buttons worked, but no modulation. No internet is available in the
cabin, and it was too late to call any of the MWAers who might be able to help.
I called my Elmer, K6JEB, who made sure I'd done all the troubleshooting I
could, and then sent an email to a few Minnesota people to ask them to get in
touch with me if they could help (I was glad the cell phone worked inside the
cabin!). I suspected the microphone was bad, but without being certain, a
spare rig was likely called for.
Saturday morning, K0BBC came to the rescue with his portable station, which
fortunately included a Yaesu FT-857d, so I would be operating a familiar rig.
He checked the weather and road conditions (it would be snowy for both of us,
but not awful). We then drove to central MN, had lunch and transferred the
station, and then returned to our previously scheduled contest operations. All
the driving meant I didn't get on the air until 0000z. With little sleep and
several hours of winter driving (I'm recently moved from California where there
was no such thing) I had to take a nap before really starting the contest in
earnest.
In the commotion of not having a working SSB setup, I had lost much of the time
allocated for putting up antennas, and the 10 m antenna had not gone up. With
the contest underway and the weather cold and windy, I opted to abandon 10 m
altogether.
When I started in earnest after my nap, things started offf well. During SS CW
I had missed ND, but my second contact and got ND out of the way. That was
followed immediately by ONN. Soon I found myself with a running frequency and
an occasional pileup as spots were posted. Thank you to all the folks who
spotted me!
Sunday went smoothly, to my great relief. I was glad to have NT and QC call
in, and to work MAR in the last half-hour. I missed four sections: PAC, VI,
PR, and NL. I never heard PAC, and couldn't break the huge spot-induced
pileups on PR and VI.
Monday was tear-down day, and with 10-14 F temperatures and 20-30 mph winds, I
was glad I only had three antennas to wrangle onto their storage devices [ed:
wires can get fairly stiff in those temperatures]. The drive home was also an
exciting challenge: for the first 75-100 miles, there was a lot of snow blowing
over the roadway, but fortunately very little drifting.
100 W into dipoles up 20-23'. Many thanks to Matt, K0BBC, for the use of his
portable station this weekend. His great support kept Murphy from getting a
clean sweep on me.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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