W4KAZ

That was hard to get excited about. Too many distractions on Saturday. By the time the butt hit the chair in the shack on Saturday evening, 80m was slam full. It was difficult to find a spot to establish a run. Heard a W6 down at the bottom of the SSB segment at 0030z-unusual because it was still early. Once I found a hole in the QRM, the 80m run was very good for low-power-low-dipoles. Bailed out early.

Sleeping later than I planned Sunday morning led me to try running on 40m. That worked very well for almost two hours, as I landed on a cherry spot, and ran stations on 7150 for the bulk of the 40m Q’s. When the 40m rates slowed to rates normal for S&P here, it seemed like a good time to hunt mults. That provided some fun, and a bit of frustration for the ones that got away. The AB and SK stations I worked were just BOOOMING into central NC around 1800z on 15m. I never noticed that 10m opened, but I never looked. Opportunities lost.

Sweep- NOT! Heard SB and NT, but they never heard the tin-whistle from the KazShack. Never heard OK, or NE, or ND. Found SD by blind luck, after the pull-the-plug fever had set in, but before the fever manifested in turning switches to the off position.

Highlights of the test included being called by N3ND/M for his QSO #0001. Dan was driving from SC to WCF, and […]

Continue reading 2010 ARRL SSB Sweeps

That was interesting.

Operating conditions this year seemed very good – at least in comparison to the last few years. The noise levels on 80m and 40m seemed low, very comfortable. 15m and 10m remained mostly useless. Nothing heard on 10m, and the west coast stations heard on 15m were having a tough time copying the 100w signal from the KazShack. 15m did produce several section mults, so it was well worth the S&P sweeps in between trying to establish runs. Also dropped back to plain old low power, no packet.

It seemed that my copy at higher speeds was a bit better, but that could just be self delusion. The log checking report will again be the arbiter of success. The goal was to cut the error rate in half. When it becomes available the LCR will tell the sordid tale.

The game plan was to operate low power with no packet spots, and get some more time playing “S&P2R”. The idea of using packet and connecting to some of the skimmers had some appeal, but in the end decided to enjoy the manual S&P.

80m was the place to be. I had better luck attracting callers there. I missed the first three hours. (LSU 24-Bama 21!!) When I got on the air at 0100z I soon set up camp in the upper portion of the 80m CW band and ran. And ran. And ran. The rate was steady from 0116 through 0600z. Not Bigg-Gunn level rates, but a […]

Continue reading ARRL SS CW-2010