2005 ARRL Sweepstakes CW K5ZD
ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: Single Op HP QTH: WMA Operating Time (hrs): 24 Radios: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs ------------ 160: 0 80: 162 40: 789 20: 240 15: 60 10: 6 ------------ Total: 1257 Sections = 80 Total Score = 201,120 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
*** My 29th consecutive year of SS CW with over 1000 QSOs! ***
Wasn’t mentally or physically ready for this one. Have had back problems for past 6 weeks and didn’t think I could make it through the whole contest. Wanted to see if I could last long enough to get over the 1K QSO mark.
Conditions seemed OK at the start, but activity was off. I had no problem finding and holding frequencies on 40m all Sat night. That’s not normal at all. When I compared to last year’s rate sheet, I was over 150 QSOs behind when I went to bed.
Again on Sunday, conditions were OK, but activity was not. I managed to catch up with some of the jack rabbits out West, but not enough. At one point N2NT was 100 ahead of me. Finally made it to 1000 QSOs at 1800z (about 3 hours later than expected).
Have never wanted to quit a contest so bad. My back was hurting on and off.
Decided that I would regret it if I quit and found later I could have won the Division or something. Also, once you are 18+ hours into the masochism that is SS CW on Sunday, might as well stick it out.
I thought the caliber of operating was better than ever this year. Almost everyone would provide the correct fills and seemed to know what PR? meant. The QRP crowd is awesome. They don’t send the fastest, but they do a great job of making QSOs.
My last QSO may have been past the 24 hour mark, but didn’t want to leave N0AX feeling ignored. 🙂
This was a great training run for CQ WW CW. See everyone then (and will have the live audio streaming going for that one).
Rates
Hour 80 40 20 15 10 Total Cumm Off D1-2100Z - 59/27 - 16/8 3/2 78/37 78/37 D1-2200Z - 69/6 3/2 12/2 - 84/10 162/47 D1-2300Z - 42/5 25/8 - - 67/13 229/60 D2-0000Z --+-- 40/3 26/6 --+-- --+-- 66/9 295/69 D2-0100Z 13/1 53/1 3/0 - - 69/2 364/71 D2-0200Z 13/0 58/1 - - - 71/1 435/72 D2-0300Z 16/0 41/0 - - - 57/0 492/72 D2-0400Z 22/1 38/0 - - - 60/1 552/73 D2-0500Z 18/0 35/0 - - - 53/0 605/73 D2-0600Z 21/0 31/0 - - - 52/0 657/73 D2-0700Z 13/0 26/2 - - - 39/2 696/75 D2-0800Z 6/0 3/0 --+-- --+-- --+-- 9/0 705/75 41 D2-0900Z - - - - - 0/0 705/75 60 D2-1000Z - - - - - 0/0 705/75 60 D2-1100Z - - - - - 0/0 705/75 60 D2-1200Z 13/0 26/1 - - - 39/1 744/76 18 D2-1300Z 14/0 35/0 3/0 - - 52/0 796/76 D2-1400Z - 21/0 31/2 - - 52/2 848/78 D2-1500Z - 31/0 19/1 - - 50/1 898/79 D2-1600Z --+-- 16/0 30/0 --+-- --+-- 46/0 944/79 D2-1700Z - 34/0 18/0 - - 52/0 996/79 D2-1800Z - 32/0 2/0 8/0 - 42/0 1038/79 D2-1900Z - 7/0 8/0 6/0 - 21/0 1059/79 30 D2-2000Z - 6/0 16/0 8/1 1/0 31/1 1090/80 D2-2100Z - 14/0 6/0 5/0 2/0 27/0 1117/80 D2-2200Z - 10/0 9/0 5/0 - 24/0 1141/80 31 D2-2300Z 4/0 8/0 28/0 - - 40/0 1181/80 D3-0000Z --+-- 9/0 8/0 --+-- --+-- 17/0 1198/80 30 D3-0100Z 4/0 29/0 5/0 - - 38/0 1236/80 D3-0200Z 5/0 16/0 - - - 21/0 1257/80 30 Total: 162/2 789/46 240/19 60/11 6/2