2017 ARRL Sweepstakes CW K5ZD
ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: Single Op HP QTH: W1 Operating Time (hrs): 22.8 Radios: SO2R Summary: Band QSOs ------------ 160: 0 80: 159 40: 491 20: 523 15: 43 10: 0 ------------ Total: 1216 Sections = 82 Total Score = 199,424 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
Did the CQ WW, then 2 days with no electricity, then a one day trip out and back to Seattle. If it wasn’t one of my favorite contests I might have skipped.
Got off to my best start ever. I don’t think I have ever had more than 3-4 hours over 100 in 40+ years of SS. It was incredible how short the skip was on 20m.
Stayed in the chair for first 9 hours straight. By then it was starting to get slow and the real SS CW showed up. Nothing to do but keep calling CQ and tuning the second radio.
Had NP3A call me on 40 early Sunday morning. Figured K9VV would make an appearance from KP2 on 15 on Sunday afternoon – just had to find him. I kept tuning the band listening for a wild pileup. Worked more than 2 of every section except only one VI and no NNY.
I was mentally ready to quit after about 18 hours, but kept pushing while watching football on TV and reading the NCJ. I kept hoping an NNY station would show up on 80 near the end. With 1 hour to go, I packed it in. (Where were the K2NNY guys this year? We missed you!)
This was my 41st consecutive year with more than 1000 QSOs in SS CW. I love many things about the contest, but low activity levels are concerning.
QSO/Sec by hour and band Hour 80 40 20 15 Total Cumm Off D1-2100Z - - 83/35 17/10 100/45 100/45 D1-2200Z - 8/0 91/13 9/0 108/13 208/58 D1-2300Z - 12/1 90/10 - 102/11 310/69 D2-0000Z --+-- 15/4 84/3 --+-- 99/7 409/76 D2-0100Z 6/0 62/2 19/0 - 87/2 496/78 D2-0200Z 37/0 34/0 - - 71/0 567/78 D2-0300Z 16/1 56/0 - - 72/1 639/79 D2-0400Z 10/0 48/0 - - 58/0 697/79 D2-0500Z 17/0 33/1 - - 50/1 747/80 D2-0600Z 18/0 10/0 - - 28/0 775/80 D2-0700Z 3/0 - - - 3/0 778/80 54 D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 778/80 60 D2-0900Z - - - - 0/0 778/80 60 D2-1000Z - - - - 0/0 778/80 60 D2-1100Z 14/0 12/0 - - 26/0 804/80 24 D2-1200Z 7/0 26/1 3/0 - 36/1 840/81 D2-1300Z - 29/0 13/0 - 42/0 882/81 D2-1400Z - 23/0 19/0 - 42/0 924/81 D2-1500Z - 19/0 15/0 - 34/0 958/81 D2-1600Z --+-- 12/0 15/0 2/0 29/0 987/81 D2-1700Z - 2/0 17/0 8/1 27/1 1014/82 D2-1800Z - 5/0 16/0 - 21/0 1035/82 31 D2-1900Z - - 4/0 3/0 7/0 1042/82 43 D2-2000Z - 13/0 15/0 4/0 32/0 1074/82 5 D2-2100Z - 15/0 20/0 - 35/0 1109/82 D2-2200Z 4/0 6/0 15/0 - 25/0 1134/82 D2-2300Z 6/0 5/0 4/0 - 15/0 1149/82 38 D3-0000Z 14/0 18/0 --+-- --+-- 32/0 1181/82 D3-0100Z 7/0 28/0 - - 35/0 1216/82 D3-0200Z - - - - 0/0 778/80 60 Total: 159/1 491/9 523/61 43/11