CW Sweepstakes scores can be posted here. This year’s event seemed to go real well with very good upper band condx, although low bands were plagued with heavy thunderstorm QRN. 83 total mults kept things interesting.
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I got going very late in this one. Had only 177 QSOs after sunrise Sunday AM with much time off for other things. Made up for it with focus on ‘running’ almost exclusively until I needed just the last few mults. Got the Sweep with K0S in NE about 3 PM…operating *without* any spotting network/internet.
Overall goal was to maintain minimum 40 QSO/hr average for entire contest. The late Sunday doldrums where you find many fewer stns to work took its toll…ended closer to 36/hour final average yet had a good time. My best success ever with the N1MM Logger Sweepstakes ‘exchange window’…thanks Ken!
Nice to work Ken K3IU and Mike K1DM…only 3 other RI stns in my log — Ken, as well as K1VSJ and WB4SON. CW Sweepstakes is a special contest event with a unique and challenging exchange and FB CW ops!
A larger event recap below…
Call: W1WBB
Operator(s): W1WBB
Station: W1WBB
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: RI
Operating Time (hrs): 17.5
Summary:
Band QSOs
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160: 0
80: 117
40: 231
20: 173
15: 102
10: 10
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Total: 633 Sections = 83 Total Score = 105,078
Club: CT RI Contest Group
Comments:
There’s nothing quite like the unique rhythms of CW Sweepstakes across the HF
bands for 27 hours each year!
Excellent band conditions on 20m and 15m. Signals were very strong mid-day and
afternoon Sunday on 15m from upper Midwest region and later from the West into
W1. 20m remained strong for much of Sunday. 80m was brutal with heavy
thunderstorm QRN both days, S8-9 at times, esp. Sunday…made even regional
QSOs difficult. 40m went long early with the West seeming fairly strong,
overcoming much of the storm QRN and remaining the workhorse band.
While the Sweep was luckily worked as a *non-assisted* op. (SOLP), not sure how
it will hold up as surprisingly 11 different sections were worked only once
throughout the contest…and lowband QRN as well as contest QRM made copy quite
difficult at times. Was enjoyable focusing mostly on ‘running’ and NOT chasing
cluster spots.
K0S in NE was the final mult…found on low end of 20m near 2000z Sunday after
about 12 hrs op time…unable to work him earlier on 40m well after my sunrise
as his CQs went unanswered — knew even then NE would be tough to work (and no
other NE but K0S was ever heard).
Good sigs Sunday from KL7 and the VY1-M/op. VY1 was 2nd to last mult worked…
then later, twice heard VY1 on 15m and then 20m with good sigs and many
unanswered CQs! ND, SK and PAC were in last 5 mults worked; AB, VI, EWA, PR
and MB in last ten. Worked only one AB, DE, MB, ND, NE, NL, NT, PAC, SF, UT
and VT in 630+ QSOs.
Enjoyed working the new Ontario sections…good pileups were heard on ONN
throughout.
Overall story in *this* year’s event seems to be great HF condx, nasty lowband
QRN limiting Q’s there…and fun finding the new total of 83 mults.
Thanks to all for the fine CW activity, Q’s and mults, and enjoyable radio
operating…already looking forward to next year’s sounds of CW Sweeps!
–Icom 737 @ 100w; 5 band (10m-20m) Hexbeam up 32′; 88′ doublet @ 40′ for 40m;
132′ OCF dipole at < 30' on 80m; N1MM Logger + Vibroplex paddle.
73, Bill W1WBB
WOW! Another CLEAN SWEEP! That’s three in a row. wow! I wasn’t sure it was gonna happen this year ‘cuz by 11:00 local on Sunday I had 82 sections but Delaware was remaining. I took a break late morning and when I came back AA1K had been spotted on 40, however, he was long gone. At 6:30PM local I saw him spotted on 20 and was able to work him then. Then just after 8:30PM on Sunday I worked N3DXX from Wilmington on 80. Bill mentioned K0S in Nebraska… I called him unsuccessfully on 80 and then finally snagged him on 40 on Sunday morning. He is the only NE I worked or heard.
I split my time about 70/30 between CQing / S&P. That worked well for me but late on Sunday afternoon it gets REALLY boring trying to find someone you haven’t worked or trolling for QSOs with the keyer on auto.
I worked K1DM, W1WBB and a couple of other RI stations (NB1U, K1VSJ, N8ZFH – a Raytheon guy on temporary duty in Portsmouth). It was obvious, though, that there weren’t many RI stations on the air, ‘cuz every time I got spotted, it took about a half hour to clear the pileup. 🙂
I put in about 18 hours with BIC. Without going through the files, I believe that this is the best ever score for me. Needless to say, I am pleased!
I almost forgot to say that, once again, my results show that there are really only 2 bands to work in this contest… 40 meter and all the others!
73,
Ken K3IU
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Hey Gang;
If you used N1MM Logger for Sweepstakes, be sure to check your CABRILLO file before you upload it to the league. My file, created by the latest and greatest version of N1MM, had a bunch of errors in the formatting. So much so that callsigns of the station worked were polluted. I was able to correct things using a text editor. The generic text file of the log was also buggy, and the ADIF file has some errors that I have to edit as well. VERY STRANGE. Maybe my computer was the problem (RTTY Meister II), but please be careful. If your log is rejected, double check. If you need some help fixing it, shoot me an e-mail. Maybe we can fix logs after Saturday’s meeting!
Thanks for playing this weekend. I will get my results together and post them here. No clean sweep!:( 73, Mike, K1DM
That’s strange!
I made no changes to my Cabrillo file and it was accepted by the robot with no problems. I am running ver 12.10.3. I sent exactly what was generated by the Logger. You didn’t attempt to make any changes using Microsoft Access did you? Make sure that you have the info on the Open Log in Database window filled in correctly… and the info on the Station Information page… particularly the section info. What ever the problem is, I know that N1MM correctly generates the Cabrillo file provided it has all the correct information.
I used the RM II for this contest without a hiccup… worked perfectly.
Please keep me posted…
Ken
Hi guys, I didn’t play in this one. Repair work to the barn roof Saturday drained the energy out of my system for the weekend. Mike, the setup for the exchange in N1MM may have caused the cabrillo file to not be accepted. I’ve seen this before. Extra character from the exchange can make the cabrillo conversion put items in the wrong place.
BTW, Nice scores!
John W1AN
Ken – Congrats on getting another Sweep…excellent effort on your part! You were really carrying the load for the RI mult Friday night and early Saturday, esp. as an HP entrant, as I was partly MIA then. Along with a couple of conflicts Friday eve Murphy suddenly visited the shack…major intermittent loss of power out and incoming signals
Coax jumpers and in-line RF choke between rig and external tuner indicated a short when moved around. Further investigation showed issue existed around rig SO-239 coax jack for antenna 1…strange! Moved replacement jumpers to unused antenna 2 jack and all appeared OK. Finished the contest without further problems.
I’m concerned that when quickly going to my 88′ doublet for 40m use and rapidly tuning via the internal rig tuner *without first reducing power from 100w* (which has often been my practice in ‘the heat of battle’) the initial severe unmatched condition that exists between rig and antenna may have eventually caused an in-line short. Now will tune at min power as best practice.
Further review of my SS CW log showed 74% of my first 530 QSOs were made running. The last 100 Qs were painfully slow…only managed 27 more ‘running’ QSOs dropping my final run QSO percentage to 66%! But the 100k pt total was within reach so I kept at it.
Nice to work Norm W1BYH too, our CTRI guy in WMA…great to hear you on OM.
How many folks plan on Sweepstakes Phone in 2 weeks??
Bill W1WBB
Ken has shamed me into posting my SS CW results, so I’d better get it done. As I said at the meeting, I continued my perfect record of NEVER completing a clean sweep. One of these years, I may just surprise everyone and get one by mistake.
N1MM recorede 11.2 hours BIC
So there you have it. Mike, K1DM