11/25/2004 | KU4UV Well, this was probably my first real amateur radio contest, and I had a lot of fun. I participated with my brother in Field Day this year, but this was my first attempt at Sweeps. I have what you might call a "little pistol" station, consisting of an Icom 730 and several dipoles up about 20 feet in the attic of my apartment. I didn't have a way to get on 80 meters due to my space limitations, so that no doubt hurt me in getting some contacts, but I was able to make contacts on all the other bands with the exception of 160. I decided to start the contest on 15 meters, since the band had been pretty hot lately, and I figured it wouldn't be nearly as crowded as 20. 15 meters had quite a bit of activity, and I made a lot of my contacts there. I primarily ran 15 and 20 meters during the daylight hours, and 40 during the hours of darkness. Probably the highlight of the contest at least for me was hearing W1AW on 20 meters early on Sunday morning. Unfortunately they seemed to be having some problems with their logging computer and they changed frequency before I could try to contact them. I managed to operate 12 of the 24 hours of the contest, but I had a great time. Thanks to Scott, N3FJP for his awesome logging software! If it wasn't for his software and its ease of use, I probably wouldn't have given the contest a shot. I managed to snag 107 contacts and 51 sections. Next year I am hoping to operate from one of the farms that my family owns in southern Kentucky, and hopefully get some better equipment and antennae up. I would love to get a sweep next year! I didn't set any records this year, but I had a great time in the contest, and hopefully I gave some of you guys Kentucky for a needed section. Thanks to all of you who worked me and tried to pull KU4UV out of the QRM and pileups. I can't wait until next year and hopefully some better equipment for the contest. See you in December for the 10 meter contest. Hopefully the solar gods will be with us and 10 will be open during the contest. 73 and God bless gang!

Mike KU4UV
Lexington, KY. -- KU4UV