 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|
"The Rhino" on CW (RH1N0 - Rocky) |
Short summary. This is the first CW contest that I have ever entered. This contest has the first CW contacts that I have ever made.
I was struggling just to get my equipment to actually send CW before the start of the contest.
Almost an hour into the contest and I make my first contact (W2LC in WNY on 15m).
Overall, this was a great time. I need to work on my CW skills. I also need to work on my contesting skills.
Next year, I hope to double my score.
Home QTH 4ele 40m |
This also was my first contest, I had a great time, all contacts received were very polished and polite. Worked the contest all by hand. No computer logging. Also was installing a new beam that weekend, only worked 151 contacts and I think about 47 sections. It has given me a great appreciation for the 1000's of other hams who work very hard on all these contests and rack up the big scores. I oped "B" and used my home QTH. I hope to do it again next year and better my score.
73, Mike/W6YDE
 ANTENNAS |
Single-Op / Low Power
QTH: Port Jefferson, NY (NLI)
Unofficial Score: 768/78=119,808
...
4 Elements On 20m @ 61'
3 Element Tribander @ 22'
Delta Loop on 80m @ 70'
Delta Loop on 40m @ 45'
Happy Holidays To Everyone & See You Next Year!
73's
John
The W5ESE QTH in Big Bend National Park. The Chisos mountains are visible in the background. |
Closeup of the operating postion. The AT Sprint 3 is in the red mint tin. |
Other than a few guest op stints at VE7UF, this appears to have been my first contest in over a year due to other things in my life taking up all my available time. Boy, am I rusty. I expected to be able to take up where I left off and have all the skills available. Hah!
It didn't take long to realize that I'd better confine my activity to S&P for a while as I was unable to copy exchanges at more than about 22 wpm and get them right the first time. So I would pick a station and sit there until I got his exchange right and then call him. Felt like I was beginning all over. It was amazing to see how the slightest wavering of attention turned the remainder of the exchange into a stream of incomprehensible gibberish. The SS exchange is, of course, much harder to copy than endless strings of "59K". Don't get me wrong, though, I think the SS exchange should stay exactly as it is. Kinda' like the ham radio equivalent of an aerobic workout.
Well, thoughts of actually being competitive having been banished right from the start, I decided not to take it too seriously and turn the S&P exercise into an attempt at a sweep, having managed to do that only once before since I got back into ham radio. (I guess Serious would be 24 hours as opposed to the 21-3/4 hours I did.)
As I enjoy using spots, especially with the great spot handling of N1MM and the fantastic spot filtering program, VE7CC, when used with CC Cluster, I decided I'd enter the Unlimited category, LP. "Say, what category did you enter in SS?". "Oh, I was in the America's Cup Class." Gotta love it. It was only after the test that I realized that in the U category there are no power levels. Hm... could have run the MkV at 200W instead of the 150 I used. I wonder, how many more Qs does 1 dB gets you? It's gotta be some.
So, I started on 20, jumping from spot to spot. If I saw a spot for a mult I normally have difficulty with, I went there first. A bit before the start I heard WD0T so I parked there until 2100 and called him. I don't know if he was excited to have a VE7 as #1 in his log but I sure was to have SD as #1 in mine.
Once I'd worked all the spotted mults I could I then worked all the other spots that I could. If someone hadn't been spotted for half an hour, I spotted them. Following that, I tuned through the band to pick up non-spotted stations and spotted them as I worked them (or even if I didn't work them). I also re-spotted stations I'd previously spotted if their last spot was a while ago. By 0200Z I had managed to work 121 Qs and 58 sections, including SD, Wy, Vt, WMa, Ms (missed Ms for a sweep once), ND, WTx, NH, NWT.
Usually when I'm chasing spots I jump from one to the next to the next until I find one just finishing a Q and call him, rather than wait for an entire Q to run to completion and then calling. This doesn't work in SS due to the length of the exchange. You could run through the whole list a couple of times before finding one that was ready. This makes S&P even slower than in most other contests. However, I persevered as, while the rust flakes were falling away, I still didn't feel ready to run.
One thing I found in past SS efforts was that any western mults not worked by Sat night can be pretty hard to find on Sunday so I put a lot of emphasis on these during Sat evening. I went to bed happy, having bagged them all.
Back at it at 1530Z (0730 Local time). By 1641 I'd knocked off the remaining New England mults plus NL leaving me only On, WPa and Ne for the sweep. Imagine needing only VE3 and not getting it? Well, On was next, followed by WPa and, finally, Ne.
Felt pretty good to have the sweep relatively early (by my standards). Pretty easy, though, with spots and even a modest station such as mine. Certainly a much more significant accomplishment for those who can't maintain a run frequency for long periods and don't use spots.
Once my confidence was pretty much restored I made a few attempts at running. First one lasted 15 min, 2nd one 30 min, 3rd & 4th 60 min, and then starting around 2100Z on Sun a fabulous 3 hour run on 20 yielding 117 Qs. Well, fabulous for me. It wasn't the rate that was so great, in fact it was quite modest, but the fact that I could hold a frequency on 20 (14028) for that length of time.
One thing I found during this run that I wasn't used to was that I had to keep chasing people off the frequency. It was a particular problem when trying to work a QRP caller as, with the long SS exchange repeated several times, quite a while goes by when the frequency appears to not be in use. I finally realized that I couldn't afford to spend a lot of time with any one station if I wanted to keep my run frequency. Sorry guys, there were quite a few of you I could have pulled through with more time.
Towards the end of the run the rate started falling off to 1 every 3 min and there were lots of unworked spots so went S&P. Rate still one every 3 min but more fun than listening to my CQs. Probably should have kept CQing as run rates do tend to go up and down.
Shut down an hour early as I was really tired. At one point I was wondering why I wasn't turning the VFO knob, given that I was trying to S&P. I then realized it was because my hand had fallen off the knob when I fell asleep.
All in all, I was reasonably pleased with this. Got the code speed pretty well back up. While I was chugging along at about 25 wpm I had no trouble with the odd caller doing 30.
Felt good to be back.
Thanks for all the Qs (and the patience during the early part).
73, Jim VE7FO
I was going to be away on a camping trip and decided to bring the FT900 and a dipole and make a few contacts. I could only get the antenna up about 6' in a bush and the battery didn't like full power so I operated QRP. It was just like Field Day with the radio sitting on the tailgate. Ended up making 50 QSOs.
it can get cold in the high arizona desert at night. |
just like Field Day |
Managed to get that 40 meter dipole up about 6 feet |
K7XC "Radio Central". TS930SAT (PIEXX), IC-746, IC-706mkIIg, Alpha 78. |
My First SS in a few years.I didn't do too bad even tho I didn't get a sweep,only worked 55 out of 80 sections.Was using my new Hygain 18AVS Vertical,which worked superbly!The propogation didn't seem too good also.I just want to know one thing,Where were all the Canadians?Only worked a VE3.Oh well,hope to do better next time!It was fun,regardless.C U next time!73's,Jim,W8JWA
Greetings from VY1. This was my first sweepstakes. VY1JA was also operating and he gave me a quick VY1 multiplier early into the contest.
I had some trepidation about being able to hold my log current during the pileups. I actually wasn't sure I'd be able to keep control, only putting out 100 watts. I've never been in a CW pileup before. The first one was chaotic with a mish-mash of dots and dashes, but by the third pileup I learned to assert control and it got manageable.
I've been a ham for under two years. I'm running an ICOM 756 Pro 3 into a Cushcraft three element tribander. No rotor at the moment. The Yagi is pointing towards Florida so I should have good coverage tothe eastern United States. I wasn't operating on 80 or 40 meters for the CW contest but I'll be putting up a dipole to run those night bands for the SSB contest. A rotor is in the plans so I should be able to better focus my signal on the west coast when that path is at its best.
I was surprised at the very heavy presence of CW veterans in this contest. Most of my QSOs were with hams who got their ticket in the 1950s and 1960s. One fellow got his ticket in 1941! Obviously this contest has a dedicated following.
I like to operate on the "28"s. So that would be 14028 CW, 14228 SSB. Its there's lot of QRM look for me between 14027 and 14028.
The contest was a hoot. I only got 55 sections but I hope to improve my score next year!
I've got pictures of my shack at http://www.vy1ei.ca
Eric
Being at/near the bottom of the sunspot cycle sure created a challenge this year. The band of note was 40-M this year. I was disappointed to see such poor turnout on 15M and 80m. Consistent with the last few years, I set up an Expedition station station in SB section using a 1x1 callsign (W6K) in the garage of a $1.7M house (yes Calif. real estate prices are still exorbitant - see the house at http://my-oakcrest.com) in the Ojai Valley. I love the location for urban campouts, but it is hardly the best radio location; especially with N6VR up the hill with monster antennas pointed in my direction. At least, it give y'all another shot at SB section.
This Year, W6K ran a portable station consisting of a loaded TS-50, running off the electrical system of my 99 Cougar as the rack-mount A.C. power supply I bought specially for the event couldn't produce enough current to even power the radio for receive.
The antenna this year I put the pair of Alpha Delta DX-CC antennas into a sloped broadside array, which made up for the barely 100 watts put out by the radio.
The big scare for me this year came an hour before the contest. This is the first SS I can recall wherein we began the contest in PDT and ended in PST. I am so used to the contest beginning at 13:00 local time that when I fired up ready to go (at 13:05 local time), I heard no SS QSOs. I thought maybe the CW weekend had been changed because of the change in Daylight Savings reversion, meaning I would have made the drive from Pacific Grove (Monterey area) to Ojai in vain. Luckily, a Montana Section OP squared me away, and my "shock" subsided.
Where were the "exotic" Canadians and NNY section this year? Argggghhhhhhh!!!!!
Look for a Multi-Single on SSB from the same location in this year's 2007 SS Phone. "Geraldine" (my alter-ego) will be on the air as well as a few visiting OPs.
CUL
Ron
WQ6X - Op for W6K
This is the Expedition Setup for W6K |
Ron, WQ6X at the Keyboard for W6K |
The Unique "power supply" for W6K - running off the electrical system of my Cougar, while a battery charger kept the battery alive. |
The WQ6X-design Multi-Band Sloped Broadside Array |
A view of Ojai valley from the W6K QTH. If you look carefully you can see the antenna farm of N6VR up the hill from me - breathing down my neck. Thank gawd for the Audio DSP unit to take his signal down a few DB in my headphones. |
Another look at the W6K operating position. |
The WQ6X "Crash Pad" Notice my deflated air mattress. Do you see the hardships I endure to give you guys access to SB Section? |
|
Responsibility for content of all posted material rests exclusively with the item author. ARRL staff assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, and accuracy of items appearing on this page. All questions and comments should be directed to the item author. |
