2004 ARRL November Sweepstakes (CW)
12/04/2004 |
KQ6Q
CW SS 2004 - Wow!
1st weekend of November CW SS time again the highlight of my year in hamming, ever since K6QIP, my high school classmate Elmer, invited me to participate with his neighbor K6IYI, for a multi-op entry, using a DX-100, an S-20R, a 40 meter vertical and a 20 meter dipole. I dont remember what our score was, but the intense excitement and teamwork of taking turns and staying on the air for 24+ hours has turned me on to CW SS for life! We used pencils rather than computers for logging, and no memory keyers we did have a Vibroplex Blue Racer bug which we got quite good with!.
But that was back in 1958- in 1959 I worked SS from home, worked W1AW, sent in a QSL card, got one back (Chuck Bender, W1WPR, opr), and the QST article with SS results included a photo of cards W1AW had received from SS contacts - and my K6VVD card was visible and readable totally cool! Fast forward to 2004 Ive had time to get to know my new IC-746Pro, figured out how to use the sequence number feature in the internal memory keyer, added some counterpoise radials to my pair of triple-resonator Hustlers mag-mounted on the roof, and N3FJPs Nov Sweeps logging software is ready for another run on my IBM Thinkpad Ive discovered program features that I wasnt aware of earlier.
The PC clock is been syncd with WWV, everything seems to work, its 2100Z, here come the signals.. woops has it been THAT long since Ive done CW those fists are awfully fast. I listen closely to a few other QSO exchanges, then my ear/brain connection get syncd up, and since Im logging on the PC, I just have to press a key for a letter, not try to use a pencil to make a legible symbol Ill need to recopy later PC logging is the way to go dup checking is covered, you can see what sections you need answer some CQs away we go! This is 1 in the afternoon 10 meters is very sparse, but 15 is alive every QSO is a new section when youre starting her comes NTX, Saskatchewan, Delaware (my first ever!) Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, MDC, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Virginia, East Pennsylvania, Wisconsin (again), Illinois,. Bands a bit squishy, propagations changing. Pushbutton band change 28 Mhz, hit the Tuner button, SWR is great, here comes Ohio, Wisonsin, 2 more Illinois, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, two more Ilinois, and another Ohio. Time to take a break! Just under 2 hours 23 QSOs. The logging software tracks my rate, QSOs/hr for the last 20 and last 60 minutes a nice how goes it when your rate drops, its time to either change bands or take a break and relax and unwind walk the dogs, acknowledge the world!
As Saturday unfurls I fit in several more sessions half an hour on 40 and 80 after supper interesting skip Virginia, Connecticut, Western Washington (2 in a row!), Oklahoma, a neighbor in Orange County, Wisconsin, and Nevada the last 3 on 80 meters not bad for just a mobile antenna on the roof! Another half-hour break, then New Mexico, Arizona, Sacramento Valley on 80 meters, then up to 40 for Northern New Jersey, Illinois, and West Virginia the magic and vagaries of propagation are still a thrill!
Its after 9 Saturday evening some stations are really getting up in their sequence numbers 40 meters is cooking love the filtering in the radio Noise Reduction helps a lot too just focus on copying the exchanges my auto sequencing has to have 3 digits, so my exchanges have a leading zero while my count is still less than 100 humbling as I run New Hampshire (his 370 my number 38!), Colorado (293 to my 40!) oops, here comes some man-machine interface problems the keyer control on the 746 is via the little function keys below the screen theyre not really designed for heavy duty use, and Im having to really push IN just right to get the contest sequence to trigger. I pushed and held a bit, and the memory repeated, and the sequence counter incremented twice! I pushed again and it stopped, but I ran another contact or two before I realized that the Sequence NR I was sending was off by one from what the logging software was entering. Made a quick note that Id have to edit the log file, then while mousing around, discovered that and Edit Entry feature was right under my mouse, I hope I got the entries corrected (the Contest Branch will null out those entries if I busted the exchange or theyll null out the entries of the guys I sent one number to and logged a different one oops!) I did my best to figure out what happened, well be more careful now
My operating style is mainly hunt and pounce my antennas are the HF equivalent of a rubber duck on an HT, so my signal isnt exactly commanding. Once or twice I get answers to CQs, but my best results come from answering other stations CQs.
For me, contesting is about improving your technique not just your copying abilities, but your personal operating style, and finding the weak points in your procedures and your equipment. In the case of the equipment, the manual for my 746Pro points out that you can trigger the memories not only with the F keys on the front panel, but also with a setup of pushbuttons and resistors connected across certain terminals on the mike jack theres even a ready made accessory (the iMate, advertised in QST) that does it exactly that. By next year, Ill either have an iMate, or build something similar - I need to finish getting hooked up for PSK31 on this radio anway time for a construction project indoors soon!
Another break to clear the brain and have some dessert (copying high speed CW takes energy!) And now Im sending AND copying faster that what whizzed by me at the start. Continuing on 40 South Texas, Connecticut, West Mass, another Orange County (weird quavery quality to these local ground wave contacts), Wisconsin, New Hampshire, South New Jersey, South Texas, Puerto Rico (had to take my turn and keep trying on that one!), South Texas, and a weird callsign, listen to a couple of his exchanges, yes, its VY2/AJ6V, another Maritime Province section, then North Texas with N5QQ (wonder if hes chuckling too, we both have two Qs in our call, takes longer to send, but its got panache!), now comes West Virginia and Colorado.
Time for another break! Take the dogs out, let them log some lap time, check the news on TV now its 2230 local, 40 meters is still cooking, back on for another round -here comes South Texas, Oregon, 2 more South Texas, Maritime Provinces (VE1JF), North Carolina, North Jersey, running out of new material, drop down to 80 meters for Iowa and South Dakota -2 new sections in a row. Time for some sleep a busy day scheduled for Sunday, but I WILL fit some more time in Ive never gotten all sections, but since Ive adopted logging software, I always manage at least 100 contacts.
Sunday morning, up at 7AM, a quick protein breakfast shirred egg, sausage patty, raisin bagel, juice and milk get the brain up to speed its daylight, but 10 meters is dead, 15 is hopping the copying skills are fresh, here goes North Florida, South Florida, New Hampshire, San Bernardino, North Texas, Western Washington, Illinois, Rhode Island (another first ever!), Tennessee (W4PA that call rings a bell his byline is on the CW DX Contest results article in September QST), East New York, Manitoba (VE4VV gotta have total control of the keyer to send THAT call right, about as tricky as my old call W7HSS), West Central Florida (new section, more ways than one!), band is going out, signals just disappear 10 meters isnt open yet, how about 20 meters yes! Oregon, Sacramento Valley. Time to rest the brain, take the pups out, read the funnies and Parade magazine, get cleaned up and dressed.
0930 Local Sunday time for another run have to leave by 10:30 to join my Sax Quartet to play for lunch at my Dads convalescent home, but 10 meters IS open now (my favorite band my first years hamming were in 57-58-59, and my adult Elmer K6QYL gave me his 3 element 10 meter beam when he upgraded to a tribander, and I worked the world on 10m with that beam and my Knight T-50 and WRL screen modulator!) Here come the contacts - East Pennsylvania, Georgia (new section) , Ohio, Indiana, a quavery ground wave with N6GL next door in Los Angeles, Tennessee, Virgin Islands (way cool!), West Central Florida, Maryland District of Columbia (2nd one), Montana, North Dakota (both new scarce sections too!), South Dakota, and New Hampshire. My ride just phoned to confirm directions to my QTH -told him to look for antennas! were car pooling into LA so we can use the Diamond Lanes on the freeway.
Fabulous time with the music we read some really tricky quartet parts some holiday music (Let it Snow, several Christmas Jazz numbers), some classical (Bach Sarabande and Badinerie, Childrens Prayer from Hansel and Gretel by Humperdink), a jazzy Jericho chart, sight read through the Theme from the Munsters (an absolute HOOT - very tricky feature for my baritone sax!) , a really fun ragtime arrangement Maple Leaf rag I think my musical rhythm and sight processing of the notes was better for the hours of CW leading up to the musical event nice side effect). We enjoyed some social time after a 90 minute rehearsal/performance, then back home, try a few ragtime and blues duets, them gracefully end the musical interlude, and GET BACK ON THE AIR!
Not a whole lot of time have to visit my daughter and her fiancfor dinner, but the bands are still open, I can fit in maybe another hour boy do I get a run here! 15 meters is cooking EPA, WWA, SD, ENY, MDC, CO, MT, BC (new section!), CT, NTX, MI (first Michigan, my native state), STX, MO, VA, East Bay (first one), SV, BC, WWA, OK, West Texas, Sacramento Valley (new sections come less frequently now), SV, and NC. 113 total contacts, I finally got past that leading Zero in my memory keyer.
The stats from N3FJPs software show 7 hours and one minute of operating time its been a blast. Off to my daughters for dinner, and review and print the logs the next day. Export the Cabrillo format file, rename it, email it in oops, a bounce, need my callsign in the subject line. Done, resubmitted. This was a blast. Hope to work you on SKN. See you in CW SS next year for sure! Ill see if I can get closer to that clean sweep!
73 and happy contesting
Fred Wagner, KQ6Q, Cypress, California -- KQ6Q
1st weekend of November CW SS time again the highlight of my year in hamming, ever since K6QIP, my high school classmate Elmer, invited me to participate with his neighbor K6IYI, for a multi-op entry, using a DX-100, an S-20R, a 40 meter vertical and a 20 meter dipole. I dont remember what our score was, but the intense excitement and teamwork of taking turns and staying on the air for 24+ hours has turned me on to CW SS for life! We used pencils rather than computers for logging, and no memory keyers we did have a Vibroplex Blue Racer bug which we got quite good with!.
But that was back in 1958- in 1959 I worked SS from home, worked W1AW, sent in a QSL card, got one back (Chuck Bender, W1WPR, opr), and the QST article with SS results included a photo of cards W1AW had received from SS contacts - and my K6VVD card was visible and readable totally cool! Fast forward to 2004 Ive had time to get to know my new IC-746Pro, figured out how to use the sequence number feature in the internal memory keyer, added some counterpoise radials to my pair of triple-resonator Hustlers mag-mounted on the roof, and N3FJPs Nov Sweeps logging software is ready for another run on my IBM Thinkpad Ive discovered program features that I wasnt aware of earlier.
The PC clock is been syncd with WWV, everything seems to work, its 2100Z, here come the signals.. woops has it been THAT long since Ive done CW those fists are awfully fast. I listen closely to a few other QSO exchanges, then my ear/brain connection get syncd up, and since Im logging on the PC, I just have to press a key for a letter, not try to use a pencil to make a legible symbol Ill need to recopy later PC logging is the way to go dup checking is covered, you can see what sections you need answer some CQs away we go! This is 1 in the afternoon 10 meters is very sparse, but 15 is alive every QSO is a new section when youre starting her comes NTX, Saskatchewan, Delaware (my first ever!) Wisconsin, Indiana, Minnesota, MDC, New Hampshire, Nebraska, Virginia, East Pennsylvania, Wisconsin (again), Illinois,. Bands a bit squishy, propagations changing. Pushbutton band change 28 Mhz, hit the Tuner button, SWR is great, here comes Ohio, Wisonsin, 2 more Illinois, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, two more Ilinois, and another Ohio. Time to take a break! Just under 2 hours 23 QSOs. The logging software tracks my rate, QSOs/hr for the last 20 and last 60 minutes a nice how goes it when your rate drops, its time to either change bands or take a break and relax and unwind walk the dogs, acknowledge the world!
As Saturday unfurls I fit in several more sessions half an hour on 40 and 80 after supper interesting skip Virginia, Connecticut, Western Washington (2 in a row!), Oklahoma, a neighbor in Orange County, Wisconsin, and Nevada the last 3 on 80 meters not bad for just a mobile antenna on the roof! Another half-hour break, then New Mexico, Arizona, Sacramento Valley on 80 meters, then up to 40 for Northern New Jersey, Illinois, and West Virginia the magic and vagaries of propagation are still a thrill!
Its after 9 Saturday evening some stations are really getting up in their sequence numbers 40 meters is cooking love the filtering in the radio Noise Reduction helps a lot too just focus on copying the exchanges my auto sequencing has to have 3 digits, so my exchanges have a leading zero while my count is still less than 100 humbling as I run New Hampshire (his 370 my number 38!), Colorado (293 to my 40!) oops, here comes some man-machine interface problems the keyer control on the 746 is via the little function keys below the screen theyre not really designed for heavy duty use, and Im having to really push IN just right to get the contest sequence to trigger. I pushed and held a bit, and the memory repeated, and the sequence counter incremented twice! I pushed again and it stopped, but I ran another contact or two before I realized that the Sequence NR I was sending was off by one from what the logging software was entering. Made a quick note that Id have to edit the log file, then while mousing around, discovered that and Edit Entry feature was right under my mouse, I hope I got the entries corrected (the Contest Branch will null out those entries if I busted the exchange or theyll null out the entries of the guys I sent one number to and logged a different one oops!) I did my best to figure out what happened, well be more careful now
My operating style is mainly hunt and pounce my antennas are the HF equivalent of a rubber duck on an HT, so my signal isnt exactly commanding. Once or twice I get answers to CQs, but my best results come from answering other stations CQs.
For me, contesting is about improving your technique not just your copying abilities, but your personal operating style, and finding the weak points in your procedures and your equipment. In the case of the equipment, the manual for my 746Pro points out that you can trigger the memories not only with the F keys on the front panel, but also with a setup of pushbuttons and resistors connected across certain terminals on the mike jack theres even a ready made accessory (the iMate, advertised in QST) that does it exactly that. By next year, Ill either have an iMate, or build something similar - I need to finish getting hooked up for PSK31 on this radio anway time for a construction project indoors soon!
Another break to clear the brain and have some dessert (copying high speed CW takes energy!) And now Im sending AND copying faster that what whizzed by me at the start. Continuing on 40 South Texas, Connecticut, West Mass, another Orange County (weird quavery quality to these local ground wave contacts), Wisconsin, New Hampshire, South New Jersey, South Texas, Puerto Rico (had to take my turn and keep trying on that one!), South Texas, and a weird callsign, listen to a couple of his exchanges, yes, its VY2/AJ6V, another Maritime Province section, then North Texas with N5QQ (wonder if hes chuckling too, we both have two Qs in our call, takes longer to send, but its got panache!), now comes West Virginia and Colorado.
Time for another break! Take the dogs out, let them log some lap time, check the news on TV now its 2230 local, 40 meters is still cooking, back on for another round -here comes South Texas, Oregon, 2 more South Texas, Maritime Provinces (VE1JF), North Carolina, North Jersey, running out of new material, drop down to 80 meters for Iowa and South Dakota -2 new sections in a row. Time for some sleep a busy day scheduled for Sunday, but I WILL fit some more time in Ive never gotten all sections, but since Ive adopted logging software, I always manage at least 100 contacts.
Sunday morning, up at 7AM, a quick protein breakfast shirred egg, sausage patty, raisin bagel, juice and milk get the brain up to speed its daylight, but 10 meters is dead, 15 is hopping the copying skills are fresh, here goes North Florida, South Florida, New Hampshire, San Bernardino, North Texas, Western Washington, Illinois, Rhode Island (another first ever!), Tennessee (W4PA that call rings a bell his byline is on the CW DX Contest results article in September QST), East New York, Manitoba (VE4VV gotta have total control of the keyer to send THAT call right, about as tricky as my old call W7HSS), West Central Florida (new section, more ways than one!), band is going out, signals just disappear 10 meters isnt open yet, how about 20 meters yes! Oregon, Sacramento Valley. Time to rest the brain, take the pups out, read the funnies and Parade magazine, get cleaned up and dressed.
0930 Local Sunday time for another run have to leave by 10:30 to join my Sax Quartet to play for lunch at my Dads convalescent home, but 10 meters IS open now (my favorite band my first years hamming were in 57-58-59, and my adult Elmer K6QYL gave me his 3 element 10 meter beam when he upgraded to a tribander, and I worked the world on 10m with that beam and my Knight T-50 and WRL screen modulator!) Here come the contacts - East Pennsylvania, Georgia (new section) , Ohio, Indiana, a quavery ground wave with N6GL next door in Los Angeles, Tennessee, Virgin Islands (way cool!), West Central Florida, Maryland District of Columbia (2nd one), Montana, North Dakota (both new scarce sections too!), South Dakota, and New Hampshire. My ride just phoned to confirm directions to my QTH -told him to look for antennas! were car pooling into LA so we can use the Diamond Lanes on the freeway.
Fabulous time with the music we read some really tricky quartet parts some holiday music (Let it Snow, several Christmas Jazz numbers), some classical (Bach Sarabande and Badinerie, Childrens Prayer from Hansel and Gretel by Humperdink), a jazzy Jericho chart, sight read through the Theme from the Munsters (an absolute HOOT - very tricky feature for my baritone sax!) , a really fun ragtime arrangement Maple Leaf rag I think my musical rhythm and sight processing of the notes was better for the hours of CW leading up to the musical event nice side effect). We enjoyed some social time after a 90 minute rehearsal/performance, then back home, try a few ragtime and blues duets, them gracefully end the musical interlude, and GET BACK ON THE AIR!
Not a whole lot of time have to visit my daughter and her fiancfor dinner, but the bands are still open, I can fit in maybe another hour boy do I get a run here! 15 meters is cooking EPA, WWA, SD, ENY, MDC, CO, MT, BC (new section!), CT, NTX, MI (first Michigan, my native state), STX, MO, VA, East Bay (first one), SV, BC, WWA, OK, West Texas, Sacramento Valley (new sections come less frequently now), SV, and NC. 113 total contacts, I finally got past that leading Zero in my memory keyer.
The stats from N3FJPs software show 7 hours and one minute of operating time its been a blast. Off to my daughters for dinner, and review and print the logs the next day. Export the Cabrillo format file, rename it, email it in oops, a bounce, need my callsign in the subject line. Done, resubmitted. This was a blast. Hope to work you on SKN. See you in CW SS next year for sure! Ill see if I can get closer to that clean sweep!
73 and happy contesting
Fred Wagner, KQ6Q, Cypress, California -- KQ6Q
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