ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW - 2022
Call: N3QE
Operator(s): N3QE
Station: N3QE
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 9
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80: 283
40: 214
20: 137
15: 6
10:
------------
Total: 640 Sections = 83 Total Score = 106,240
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
This year I upped the game with Ken KE3X's and Eric W3DQ/NW3DC's help! Thanks so
much to Ken and Eric for letting me have all the fun!
This was my most-planned-yet Highly Motivated Operator sweepstakes operation.
What's HMO? That's where one operator, who is a bit dissatisfied with the
falling rates in late hours of a sweepstakes operation, decides to operate SS at
2 or 3, or (in K8MR's case), 4 to 6 stations.
N3QE@N3QE (9 hours): Started on 20 with huge signals from near in especially
midwest and south. Did just a little mult-hunting as several California sections
were on 15, not 20, at the start. Went to 40, then when 40 was obviously
"gone long" went to 80. Worked every mult except LAX.
Got about 4 hours of sleep, spent just 3 minutes picking off some easy 80M QSOs
at home, then got in the car and drove to Ken's. Ken had set everything up for
me before his trip so I got to start within a few minutes of arriving.
N3QE@KE3X (about 7.6 hours): Started as fresh meat on 80M just before sunrise
and was there over an hour, the "fresh meat" effect giving me high run
rates the whole time. Then switched to 40M while I was still fresh meat. Around
150 Qs in I was no longer fresh meat and rate began to slow a little. Soon went
to 20 to run and then search and pounce. Did some mult hunting of far west coast
sections on 15 and 10 (working around some Dunestar filter problem). Got every
mult! I was called by a LAX station.
Made the trip to Eric's. Again Eric had done all the setup for me so it was sit
down and start operating!
N3QE@W3DQ as NW3DC: Huge fresh meat effect for for at least first 200 Qs on 20.
Again a little S&P on 15 and 10 on west coast mults. 40 seemed to go long
super early and was difficult. Bounced back to 20 occasionally, some running,
some working mults - got WA6URY and his slow remote code for the LAX mult. Had
to run out the clock on 40 because Eric doesn't have an 80M antenna. Things got
slow, then fast again around 2300Z; I wonder if that was propagation, or if that
was when the World Series game ended 🙂. Operated until the end. Only mult
missed was QC, believe it or not.
I had set a ballpark goal of 1500+ Q's because some early research into K8MR's
HMO's was that he had totals around 240,000 points. 1500*83 would give me
250,000 points. Note that this is not exactly apples to apples - K8MR was
unassisted, I was assisted. Also in 2006 there weren't 84 sections.
So my claimed Q, mult, and points per leg:
N3QE: 640Qs 83 sections 106240 points.
KE3X: 490Qs 84 sections 82320 points
NW3DC: 454Qs 83 sections 75364 points
Total: 1584Qs 263924 points claimed before logchecking.
Now further research on Monday into K8MR's HMO operations show he did a 4-way in
2006 with a total of 268492 points (that's after log-checking), which I think
may be the record for SS HMO. Next year I hope to optimize my time, do some work
at W3DQ to get him a 80 meter antenna, sleep less, and maybe turn in an even
bigger total than Jim K8MR!
Below is a composite graph of Qs per hour at each of the 3 stations taken from
the online scoreboard. With my strong 80M antenna at home, I was productive
right through 0600Z. Note that some of the evening Q counts per hour at W3DQ
fall in the wrong hour bin because while running on 40M at full power I was
reliably knocking out Eric's internet, so many of those Qs appear in the wrong
hour's bin on the scoreboard.
Thanks Eric and Ken for the hospitality and use of your stations! And thanks to
all the PVRC'ers that I worked three times this weekend!
Tim N3QE
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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