2018 ARRL Sweepstakes CW K5ZD
ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, CW Call: K5ZD Operator(s): K5ZD Station: K5ZD Class: Single Op HP QTH: W1 Operating Time (hrs): 22.5 Summary: Band QSOs ------------ 160: 0 80: 347 40: 517 20: 308 15: 16 10: 0 ------------ Total: 1188 Sections = 83 Total Score = 197,208 Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments
My 42nd consecutive year with more than 1000 QSOs in SS CW!
Contest started OK. Not great, but rate was consistent. It really falls off around 0630z. I was trying to stay on, but the rate just got too slow. The time change always makes me have to think when to set the alarm to get back on in time.
We were having quite a wind storm on Sat afternoon and evening. Something in my 40m beam was intermittent, so had trouble copying a bunch of stations. Probably have a higher number of errors as a result. Made a bunch of QSOs using my 40m dipole that is up about 20′ hanging off of one tower (it fell a few months ago and procrastinated fixing it).
We had a short power failure on Sunday morning. N1MM answered my CQ and I was just sending the report when everything went dark. The UPS saved the computer, but the radios, amp, and switching all died. By the time it all powered up again, N1MM was gone so the QSO was lost.
Got awful slow on Sunday. Couldn’t stay in the chair for the full 24 hours. Fun (and motivating) to chase AA3B on contestonlinescore.com. He got me in the end.
80m was super quiet on Sat night. Was able to copy just about anyone who called on the first try. Weird to hear stations from across the country all morning on 40m. 15m was useless on Sat, but had some really strong signals on Sunday. N9RV was rock crushing for hours. Thought about listening on 160 a few times, but never made the effort.
Thanks to NP3X for the sweep! Nasty pileup but managed to sneak through. I think I worked 2 or more of every section except NT and VI.
Kind of packed it in once I got the sweep. Worked on some CQWW log checking and watched the Patriots. Was surprised to get on for last 18 minutes and worked 14 stations! I am sure once the final results come out, I will kick myself for not pushing to the end.
Nothing wrong with SS CW that another 1000 participants wouldn’t solve.
QSO/Sec by hour and band
Hour 80 40 20 15 Total Cumm OffTime D1-2100Z - 81/30 14/8 - 95/38 95/38 D1-2200Z - 29/1 56/19 - 85/20 180/58 D1-2300Z 21/4 13/1 48/7 - 82/12 262/70 D2-0000Z 78/2 11/0 --+-- --+-- 89/2 351/72 D2-0100Z 70/2 13/0 - - 83/2 434/74 D2-0200Z 32/2 47/2 - - 79/4 513/78 D2-0300Z 35/0 32/0 - - 67/0 580/78 D2-0400Z 11/0 52/2 - - 63/2 643/80 D2-0500Z 27/0 17/0 - - 44/0 687/80 D2-0600Z 23/0 7/1 - - 30/1 717/81 D2-0700Z 12/0 3/0 - - 15/0 732/81 35 D2-0800Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 0/0 732/81 60 D2-0900Z - - - - 0/0 732/81 60 D2-1000Z - - - - 0/0 732/81 60 D2-1100Z 8/0 21/0 - - 29/0 761/81 27 D2-1200Z 9/0 38/1 - - 47/1 808/82 D2-1300Z 9/0 36/0 - - 45/0 853/82 D2-1400Z - 9/0 5/0 - 14/0 867/82 32 D2-1500Z - 33/0 8/0 - 41/0 908/82 D2-1600Z --+-- 13/0 19/0 2/0 34/0 942/82 D2-1700Z - 5/0 34/0 5/0 44/0 986/82 D2-1800Z - - 27/0 6/0 33/0 1019/82 D2-1900Z - - 5/0 1/0 6/0 1025/82 50 D2-2000Z - 10/0 18/0 2/1 30/1 1055/83 13 D2-2100Z - 3/0 33/0 - 36/0 1091/83 D2-2200Z - 13/0 15/0 - 28/0 1119/83 D2-2300Z - 2/0 6/0 - 8/0 1127/83 52 D3-0000Z 1/0 9/0 20/0 --+-- 30/0 1157/83 D3-0100Z 8/0 9/0 - - 17/0 1174/83 20 D3-0200Z 3/0 11/0 - - 14/0 1188/83 40 Total: 347/10 517/38 308/34 16/1