[TAC] K8MM SS score - long

[Ian Hill]

ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW

Call: K8MM
Operator(s): K8MM
Station: K8MM

Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: MI
Operating Time (hrs): 21.5

Summary:
Band  QSOs
------------
 160:    0
  80:  328
  40:  202
  20:  116
  15:   44
  10:    0
------------
Total:  690  Sections = 79  Total Score = 109,202

Club: Mad River Radio Club

Comments:

Station:
A pair of K2/100'S
80M - dipole at 60'
80M - two 1/4 wave verticals beaming E/W
40M - dipole at 60'
20M-10M a stack of Cushcraft A3 tribanders at 48 and 22 feet.
800' unterminated beverage running E/W.

It seemed like there were a lot more stations on the air this year 
compared to last.

The first two hours I had 60 hour rate by S&Ping on both radios. One on 
20 & 15 and the other on 40. I started at the bottom of each band and 
called everyone I came across before typing their call , since 
practically none of them were going to be dupes. I went to 80 early and 
called CQ and was able to hold a frequency and had a good 3 hour long 
run there, while S&P'ing on 40 with the other rig. Forty seemed to go 
long early Saturday night and I had trouble getting guys to answer me, 
but the opposite was true Sunday night and I was able to hold a 40M 
frequency about an hour at a time before someone would eventually take 
it over. Quite a few guys said I had a loud QRP signal, and the same 
thing happened to me last year as well, so I think my antennas must be 
the right height for a W/VE contest.

I missed NL for the sweep. I heard VY1EI many times on 20M, but he was 
doing S&P like me and not calling cq. I turned my top beam his way, 
found a hole around 14080 and called cq for an hour trying to get his 
attention but I didn't have any luck, however I did pick up my only KL7 
five minutes into calling cq. I never heard the VE8 or VY1JA. I don't 
know if Jay was on this year or not. It would have been nice to have a 
shot at trying to work NL in a pile-up instead of trying to rely on him 
calling you.

I didn't work VE4 until the last hour of the contest when I heard a /VE4 
working his way up the band on 80M. I did the best I could trying to 
find a hole by squeezing my way in between a couple of guys and CQ'ed 
like crazy and he called me about a minute later. The VO1HP pile up 
Sunday morning was a real lidfest! He would get frustrated and qsy 
somewhere else until the pile was full of lids continuously calling and 
then he'd move again. I chased him around for an hour until I finally 
got him.



A couple hours after I went to bed last night things got pretty hectic 
around here.

I almost came to an early end last night. Upon being woken up by the 
sound of thunder way off in the distance I came down into the shack in 
the middle of the night to disconnect my radio gear. After getting that 
task completed I decided to check my email and I sat at my radio desk 
for a few minutes while doing so. The only thing happening outside was a 
mild rain and the thunder was still a muffled rumble way off in the 
distance. All of a sudden I heard the unmistakable sound of a high 
voltage arc snapping where my feed lines enter the shack, along with a 
blinding flash of light accompanied by the loudest thunder I've ever 
heard, a microsecond later. The HV arc was as loud as someone cracking a 
yard stick on a desk top and the thunder shook the house so much that 
pictures fell off the walls. I jumped up out of my office chair, my wife 
jumped out of bed and my dog ran down into the basement and hid in her 
crate.
 
I always though I'd have a few seconds warning before a strike would 
happen, but this happened in milliseconds. The feed lines come into my 
house about six feet away from where my head is when I'm sitting in my 
shack and then they run to my desk and sit a foot away from my keyboard, 
which is where my hands were at the time! I didn't find where the 
lightning hit in the neighborhood, but I lost a router for my computer 
and its power supply. The cable system in the area was out and they 
finally repaired this evening.

After an adrenaline rush like that I couldn't fall back to sleep! I'm 
sure my underwear is going to be a total loss........