[PVRCNC] K4WES ARRL SS Phone SO LP AB

[Wes Quinn]

ARRL SWEEPSTAKES -- 2007
Call:      K4WES
Category:  Single Operator
Power:     Low Power
Band:      All Band
Mode:      SSB
Section:   NC

BAND     QSO    QSO PTS   SECTIONS
      160        0        0        -
       80       78      156        -
       40       78      156        -
       20       40       80        -
       15       42       84        -
       10        0        0        -
-----------------------------------
Totals    238      476       67
Score:  31,892

It was great to hear so many PVRC members on the air!  I heard someone in the Midwest say to me that there were so many of you on the air (as in meaning so many NC stations), what about SC?  :-D  It was great to hear 15m open to CA at the start of the contest.  In the first 15 minutes I worked quite a few in the sections SCV and SJV.  One guy said, after I worked him, QRZ Field Day.  I thought that was funny.  :-D  It looks like NCCC was even recruiting their FD gang this year?  :-D


Does anyone know all of the ARRL sections the NCCC members are in?  I know SCV, EB, and SJV are 3 of them, since I worked K6MM, N6BV, and WK6I respectively.  I know they extend partially into NV too, according to their web site.


It is incredible to see all of the scores being posted and I just can’t get anywhere near those rates.  My runs only lasted 5 minutes or less and I couldn’t get people to come to me.  I should have mentioned this before the contest, but it would be great if someone could record and show others how they were running their station to get such great run rates.  I guess having a great location with high antennas helps out a lot.  Using low power and low antennas is probably the first two strikes against me.

It would also be great to see/hear more descriptions/details of good antennas to use on 80m and 160m in a summary form somewhere, so we don't have to pick it out of hundreds of emails on what types of antennas in the NC area are useful for ARRL SS.

I didn’t have too much of a problem finding a clear area to run, but I did get kicked out after a short while.  It appeared to me like the turn out, over the entire country and even Canada, that there weren’t as many participants as the last few years.  Anyone else notice that or was it just me?
 
I had a few stations on the west coast say that I have a strong signal on 15m and 20m, but somehow I have a feeling I don’t.  It could have been the way the skip or propagation was at that time, but I just I couldn’t get as many mid-westerners as I had hoped.  Getting into the Caribbean can sometimes be a chore for me for some reason and I usually use my lower wire antenna for that and that didn’t help much either.
 
I did do so much better than last year with less interruptions and not being sick, so I was happy with that.  I just need to work on my 80m and 160m antenna for next year, besides getting an amp.   ;-)
 
I'll be uploading my logs to LoTW soon, in case anyone needs a QSL from NC.  :-D



Thanks for the QSOs and I wish y’all a great Thanksgiving.  Good luck in the contests and best wishes for the holidays coming up.

73,
Wes K4WES