[PVRCNC] ARRL SS CW KA1ARB SO Unlimited

[Robert Katz]

    CallSign Used : KA1ARB
      Operator(s) : KA1ARB
Operator Category : SINGLE-OP-ASSISTED

   Operating Time : 20 hours

        Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec
         3.5     272     544   19
           7     309     618   27
          14     178     356   33
          21       5      10    1
       Total     764    1528   80

            Score : 122,240

Wow, a contest of firsts and extremes.  I made over triple the number of CW
Q¹s I¹ve ever made in a contest, and I was by far the biggest lid that I¹ve
ever been too!  

Alan, AA4FU, sat beside me as we ran separate radios (separate score
entries).  His CW mojo must have been infectious because after I warmed up
S&P for the first couple of hours, I spent the rest of the weekend running.
I decided early on that I was going to have fun and not worry too much about
errors, so I started at CQ¹ing at 22 WPM and went up to 24 WPM on Sunday ­
my max rate was 110.  Not bad for a phone op!  My error rate is going to be
horrendous, but hopefully I made up for it with quantity.  I think I bugled
my contact with VY1EI (who called me!), so while I worked a sweep, I¹m not
sure that I¹ll end up with a sweep.  I had to wait until Sunday afternoon
for NP4Z to slow down enough for me to copy him.  I asked for a repeat to
confirm, but I did get it right.

I apologize for all my lid¹ish behavior.  When people sent faster than me, I
often struggled.  If you asked for fills, I couldn¹t always understand - or,
worse, if you tried to ³talk² to me, it was game-over.  I was also
learning/practicing using ESM in N1MM, and it kept doing weird stuff like
sending ³AGN² when I was trying to complete a QSO.  Basically, I spent the
weekend practicing on all of you.  Sorry.

Notes and lessons from the weekend.  1) Cut numbers throw me for a loop, and
I usually had to ask for a repeat.  I guess I¹ll get better with them, but
I¹m not going to use them unless I know for sure that the other op can
handle them.  2) When people sent ³NR² at the start of the exchange, it made
it soooo much easier to copy.  I even changed to start using it.  3) When I
S&P¹d faster CQ¹s, some people slowed down for me and some didn¹t.  I
usually had to ask for fills or a repeat when they didn¹t slow down, often
multiple times.  Very few ops (N2IC comes to mind) slowed down for the
repeat to me.  The few times someone did slow down, I got it on the first
try and ended up saving them lots of time.  4) It¹s important to learn about
my logging program, and not try to figure things out on the fly.  5) The
Reverse Beacon Network is cool!  Except when it goes down.  6) It still
takes a lot of energy and work for me to copy CW.  I went through periods
where I¹d space out and forget to listen to a caller¹s report, so I had a
ask for repeats.  But I noticed how sleep makes a big difference ­ I was a
bit better on Sunday after getting some sleep.

Equipment report: About two hours into the contest, my tribander¹s rotator
stopped turning.  Of course, it was after I turned it NE to work a VO1!  So
it was stuck on NE all night.  I did my first ³in-contest² tower climb on
Sunday morning to swap in another rotator, and it had the same problem.  A
control box swap didn¹t fix it either, so I¹m guessing (hoping?) something
is wrong at the splice of the control cable.  I finally lashed it down
pointing NW late Sunday morning.  Alan come over early to help convert the
80m dipole for CW ­ it is strung through a 40m wire yagi, so it takes some
doing.  The copperweld wire actually broke coming down, but fortunately it
broke about a foot from the end, so I didn¹t do any repairs on it.  Alan
also helped me get back up the driven element for a 40m delta loop beam that
blew down this year.  We ended up with two of the three delta elements for a
NE/SW beam, but it was only marginally effective.  I also added my first
coax stub to reduce interference when on 40m.  That worked well when the
other op was on 20m, but running my TS-850 on 80m with my TL-922 amp
completely clobbered Alan¹s K3 on 40m.  It didn¹t happen in the reverse, so
I think it might be something in my setup.  Lot¹s of work to do to prepare
for SS SSB!

Thank you for all your Q¹s and patience.  I had a great time!

73,
   Rob, KA1ARB

-- 
Rob Katz, Director
Legacy Center, Inc.
(919) 678-6000 x106   (919) 678-6015 fax
www.TheLegacyCenter.com
Whose life have you touched today?