2016 ARRL Sweepstakes CW K5ZD
ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: Single Op HP QTH: W1 Operating Time (hrs): 22.7 Radios: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs ------------ 160: 0 80: 389 40: 357 20: 402 15: 114 10: 0 ------------ Total: 1262 Sections = 83 Total Score = 209,492 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
My 40th consecutive year with over 1000 QSOs in SS CW!
(http://k5zd.com/scores/sweepstakes-cw-personal-records/)
Not very motivated to put in a full effort, but when I saw this was going to be the 40th year, I had to give it a run.
Have had an bad SWR on my 40m beam for over a year. Was motivated Sat morning to diagnose the problem. On trip #1, found a bad coax connector at the top of the tower. I strung together 400+ feet of extension cords and on trip #2, I carried up the soldering iron and put on a new connector. Nice to have 40 working again.
My best start ever. Great runs from the start of the contest until 06Z. Then it was like someone turned off the activity.
Stopped early and took most of my off time all at once. Have never done that before. Sure removes the pressure on Sunday since there is no escape except to keep CQing and tuning.
Sunday was never great for rates. Seemed to hover around 30-35 with a few hours in the 40s.
Now I know why I have tried to save offtime to avoid the Sunday evening 00z and 01z hours. Ugh. Almost quit it was so bad. 15 mins of CQing with no answer. Last hour was good.
Worked at least 2 of every section. My traditional difficult ones were out in plenty. Was nice to go to sleep with a sweep in hand. NE was the most difficult and last section.
Operating quality seemed to be better. Almost everyone seemed to send the right thing when I sent NR, PR, CK, SEC!
Way too many checks in the late 50s and early 60s, without enough in the last few years. The traffic handlers that make SS special for me are all getting old.
QSO/Sec by hour and band Hour 80 40 20 15 Total Cumm Off D1-2100Z - - 18/10 78/33 96/43 96/43 D1-2200Z - 1/0 77/15 16/2 94/17 190/60 D1-2300Z - 37/3 50/4 - 87/7 277/67 D2-0000Z 35/7 52/4 --+-- --+-- 87/11 364/78 D2-0100Z 72/2 6/0 - - 78/2 442/80 D2-0200Z 80/1 3/0 - - 83/1 525/81 D2-0300Z 70/1 8/0 - - 78/1 603/82 D2-0400Z 44/0 16/0 - - 60/0 663/82 D2-0500Z 24/0 25/1 - - 49/1 712/83 D2-0600Z 8/0 7/0 - - 15/0 727/83 36 D2-0700Z - - - - 0/0 727/83 60 D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 727/83 60 D2-0900Z - - - - 0/0 727/83 60 D2-1000Z - - - - 0/0 727/83 60 D2-1100Z 15/0 7/0 - - 22/0 749/83 28 D2-1200Z 15/0 25/0 - - 40/0 789/83 D2-1300Z 5/0 21/0 11/0 - 37/0 826/83 D2-1400Z - 17/0 27/0 - 44/0 870/83 D2-1500Z - 13/0 30/0 - 43/0 913/83 D2-1600Z --+-- 3/0 26/0 6/0 35/0 948/83 D2-1700Z - 23/0 33/0 - 56/0 1004/83 D2-1800Z - 5/0 5/0 - 10/0 1014/83 43 D2-1900Z - 2/0 32/0 5/0 39/0 1053/83 D2-2000Z - - 33/0 8/0 41/0 1094/83 D2-2100Z - 4/0 24/0 1/0 29/0 1123/83 D2-2200Z - 11/0 20/0 - 31/0 1154/83 37 D2-2300Z 2/0 13/0 14/0 - 29/0 1183/83 D3-0000Z 1/0 3/0 2/0 --+-- 6/0 1189/83 50 D3-0100Z 10/0 27/0 - - 37/0 1226/83 D3-0200Z 8/0 28/0 - - 36/0 1262/83 Total: 389/11 357/8 402/29 114/35