I had a great time this year with sweeps.  When the dust settled I had a very noticeable improvement in my score and section tally over last year.    I only needed two sections at the end of the contest to have a sweep.  I am not disappointed in missing the clean sweep, as 81 sections for a budget Q station is an awesome achievement in my book! 

After a great showing in the contest last year I was determined to continue my upward climb in score and section count.   I worked several months making improvements to the station in preparation for the contest.  I built a 6 band Hexbeam for the upper HF bands . I also replaced all my aging coax with new low loss LMR-400 on all the HF antennas.    When you are running a Q station you have to squeeze every db you can out.

A few weeks before the contest I had put up an experimental 160 L antenna to dabble with the top band this winter. It worked so good that I concluded that an 80 meter L might be a good addition to my Sweepstakes antenna tool belt.   I cut a 64 1/2 foot wire for the vertical section and attached twenty 33 foot radials to the ground side and I was in business.    To my surprise the 80 L did an incredible job over my too low 80 OCF and allowed me to snag at least 10 sections I couldn’t work on my OCF.     With the L on my side working stations on noisy 80 at Q level seemed like shooting fish in a barrel over last year!    

With the OCF I had NVIS capabilities that allowed me to snag the close in sections that due to the L’s pattern was skipped over and this rounded out 80 meters perfectly.   I also used the OCF on 40 where it was a good antenna for both close in and further out sections.    The OCF complimented the Hexbeam on 20, 15 and 10 for quickly working stations on the backside of the beam, thus saving the 40 second spin of the rotator.

The Hexbeam did a great job on 20, 15, and 10 meters.  I knew it was going to be a good contest when I snagged NT and AK on 10 meters during the first hour using the hex. Both sections I struggled with in past sweepstakes to get a Q signal into.   Having an antenna with directional gain allowed a big boost to my QRP signal and score.  Many big gun stations I worked gave the ultimate compliment of “Great Q signal” with their report.  Amazingly at times I was also able to work some stations on the backside of the hex and that attests to the band conditions during the contest.    

My little FT-817 that has been my QRP contest workhorse through past VHF and HF contests came to life with the band conditions and antenna improvements this year.  During a few hours of the contest I even switched over to my station’s back up batteries to give them a workout.  It is awesome to run heavy duty QRP contesting on emergency power!

One of the great things I find about contesting is it provides a good medium to continue to improve your station and operating skills from year to year.   I am already looking forward to next year’s contest with more antenna improvements and a possible retirement of the 817 planned.  See ya’ll next year!

73 Jory