ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: VE6SV
Operator(s): VE4GV
Station: VE6SV
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: AB
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 199
40: 247
20: 941
15: 406
10:
------------
Total: 1793 Sections = 83 Total Score = 297,638
Club: Radiosport Manitoba
Comments:
Out to VE6SV again for SS SSB. It’s a wonderful feeling to strap yourself into
a “Ferrari” after driving my “Nissan” VE4GV home station.
Things were going well until my plane was delayed 3 hours. That caused a bit of
panic. I pick up rental car, quick stop for groceries and then 45 minute drive
to VE6SV. Gord greets me at the door and after a few minutes of chat, I grab a
seat in front of the FTDX 5000/FT1000 Mark V combo to see what the bands sounds
like from VE6 land. I figure I’ve got an hour or so to check out the bands
and get my game face on. I tune around the bands for 90 seconds and he
announces “Sweepstakes starts in 4 minutes”. What!!? Panic! (With the
plane delay and confusion, I forgot to factor in the 1 hour time change).
I’m into the fray immediately.
Having been at VE6SV the week before (for CQ WW SSB) I knew that conditions
were very poor. Nevertheless, this is a domestic contest so that isn’t as
much of a factor. The big question from here is: DO you start on 15 m and try
to sustain a rate before going to the madhouse on 20 or do you go right to 20 m
and dive in with both feet? I park on 14177 and start running. I'll move up the
band later.
No point in checking 15m at this point because with VE6SV’s monster signal,
we can punch a hole on 20m and keep the freq. It’s all about pileup
management and making sure that if you are NOT transmitting, the people calling
you should be loud and brief that it discourages others from crowing you
out…allowing you to punctuate the frequency with YOUR signal. This is
especially tough in SS SSB with long exchanges. I also make it a policy to ID
after EACH QSO. This may seem counter intuitive because it takes time…BUT it
actually helps you keep the frequency by dissuading others AND it also makes it
easy for those tuning by to know what your call happens to be. There is nothing
more frustrating (in other tests, with NO packet spotting) than listening to a
station work station after station only to find out that you have already
worked them and wasted the time.
At least with SS, the message SHOULD technically contain the station callsign
in the exchange message format. I think using a "fill format" (xxx B
72 AB) without your call shouldn't be allowed unless you have already sent it
once properly. Sending your call after each Q is a trick I learned from running
LP from VE4, where having a rarer prefix is an asset �" When running LP,
ID often to “sound loud”.
Looking at the band QSO breakdowns, it became clear that moving to 40 m from
VE6 simply did not produce the way it did for people like K5TR. I simply could
not match his 5 hour 40 m 100+ QSO runs from 0000 to 05000. I was hoping for
1000 qs before taking a sleep break but that was a pipe dream. I never hit
1000 qs until 1600 UTC which, by then, put me totally out of contention.
Another mistake was waiting until sunrise to move to20 m from 80 and 40. By
the time I did move to 20 to get the 100/hr rate I needed, it was over. I
should have moved earlier. That showed my lack of experience understanding
domestic propagation from more northerly VE6 latitudes.
I played a bit with SO2R but without packet spotting (which is an ABSURD
CONCEPT for SS) the long exchanges and only 1 Q allowed for the test, I
didn’t use it much.
To sum up, band changes continue to be a problem area for me and even with
VE6SV’s formidable signal, it was tough gaining traction and deciding when to
move. I was hoping for a 300 K score but just missed it.
Congratulations to those with better scores, it was an interesting (if not
humbling) experience running with the “big dogs” for someone who has been
used to doing SS LP from VE4 for so many years. Man, those upper echelon guys
are good!
73
Rob VE4GV@ VE6SV ARRL SS SSB 2016
QSO/Sec by hour and band
Hour 80 40 20 15 Total Cumm OffTime
D1-2100Z - - 158/48 - 158/48 158/48
D1-2200Z - - 141/16 - 141/16 299/64
D1-2300Z - - 135/9 - 135/9 434/73
D2-0000Z --+-- 15/0 68/3 --+-- 83/3 517/76
D2-0100Z - 94/3 - - 94/3 611/79
D2-0200Z 36/3 25/0 - - 61/3 672/82
D2-0300Z 43/0 4/0 - - 47/0 719/82
D2-0400Z 38/0 8/0 - - 46/0 765/82
D2-0500Z 3/0 - - - 3/0 768/82 36
D2-0600Z - - - - 0/0 768/82 60
D2-0700Z - - - - 0/0 768/82 60
D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 768/82 60
D2-0900Z - - - - 0/0 768/82 60
D2-1000Z - - - - 0/0 768/82 60
D2-1100Z - - - - 0/0 768/82 60
D2-1200Z 40/1 - - - 40/1 808/83 8
D2-1300Z 5/0 5/0 - - 10/0 818/83 30
D2-1400Z 3/0 8/0 57/0 - 68/0 886/83
D2-1500Z - - 100/0 - 100/0 986/83
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- 97/0 --+-- 97/0 1083/83
D2-1700Z - - 6/0 85/0 91/0 1174/83
D2-1800Z - - - 90/0 90/0 1264/83
D2-1900Z - - - 101/0 101/0 1365/83
D2-2000Z - - - 82/0 82/0 1447/83
D2-2100Z - - 8/0 48/0 56/0 1503/83
D2-2200Z - - 100/0 - 100/0 1603/83
D2-2300Z - - 63/0 - 63/0 1666/83
D3-0000Z --+-- 52/0 8/0 --+-- 60/0 1726/83
D3-0100Z 8/0 34/0 - - 42/0 1768/83
D3-0200Z 23/0 2/0 - - 25/0 1793/83
Total: 199/4 247/3 941/76 406/0
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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