[SMCARA] November Sweepstakes (CW)

[Tom Shelton]

The contest is over, the log is submitted, and I’m getting ready for the phone portion of the contest coming up November 19 & 21st.

Here’s how the CW contest went for me.  On Friday night (before the contest) I gave the station a work-out, making sure that everything was connected properly, the macros were working, and that the logging program was logging.  Saturday morning I adjusted my 80M dipole to the CW portion of the band.  Saturday afternoon I took a couple hour nap.  At 4:30 on Saturday I fired up the shack and made a few CW contacts, waiting for the 5:00 start time.  

At 5:00 I was already on 20 meters and began sweeping the band.  I worked for about 2 hours, then took a 10 minute break to grab a diet pepsi and a smoke, then back to it for another 2 hours.  I repeated this until 2 AM Sunday morning.  I had spent most of the evening on 40 and 80 meters.  That was 9 hours of operating time and it was time for a nap.

I set the alarm clock for 7 AM, when I got up, grabbed a cup of coffee, had a little snack, took a shower, and was in the shack and operating.  I worked 40M, then 20M, then 15 and 10 meters.  At 2:30 PM, I took a break and napped for a couple of hours.  Back to operating again around 5:00 and worked until about 8 (mostly on 40 and 80M).  For those of you keeping track, that totals about 18 hours of operating time.

Here’s my final summary.

Call: AB3IC
Operator(s): AB3IC
Station: AB3IC
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: Leonardtown, MD
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:Band QSOs 
------------ 
160: 
80: 77 
40: 74 
20: 104 
15: 32 
10: 33 
------------
Total: 320 Sections = 73 Total Score = 46,720
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments: SOLP, Non-Assisted, Kenwood TS-2000, GAP Challenger DX (40, 20, 15, 10), Low (25 ft.) Dipole for 80.Using GenLog logging software and HRD/DM780 for CW ops (cut and paste between the two).  Around 18 hours BIC

Last years score was 189 Q's, 65 mults, total: 24,570 (13 hrs BIC) - so a pretty good improvement. Hope to improve even more by next year.   

For anyone interested in contesting, I strongly encourage you to check out the Potomac Valley Radio Club (www.pvrc.org).

Tom Shelton, AB3IC

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