ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB - 2023
Call: WX3B
Operator(s): WX3B
Station: WX3B
Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: MDC
Operating Time (hrs): 9
Remote Operation
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 100
40: 491
20: 11
15: 2
10: 0
------------
Total: 604 Sections = 81 Total Score = 97,848
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Comments:
This was the first non-trivial effort I have made operating remote in an SSB
event. It was FUN!!
My initial plan was to operate about 5 hours from my house - however that plan
changed and I decided to embrace the idea of being flexible, and getting on when
I could.
Life intervened at the beginning of the event and I had a minor car repair to
attend to that fortunately, was an easy fix. My plan to camp out at 3:30pm on a
20 meter run frequency was gone, so I decided to start on 40 instead. I had so
much fun on 40 that I almost made Sweepstakes a single-band effort the entire
weekend.
I'll bet someone could turn in a credible score spending 24 hours on 40!
All but one of my 81 sections were fished up with CQing - of course that was
after I had initially pounced on about 5 of them.
I made several lists of how to improve my remote experience - and most are
ergonomic and operational. Surprisingly, the biggest glaring error was
self-inflicted: I do not know N1MM+ well enough to mimic VFO style frequency
QSYs. This is very important when you want to keep your run frequency clear,
particularly for SSB.
Bottom line: I was delighted with the fun and near "on campus"
experience I had when operating remotely. It was particularly fun talking to
Bill, W3UL who I worked from both his home station then at K3AJ's remote (Tom:
Bill's audio was good!). I had zero operational issues with my station equipment
itself, and minimal distractions/glitches from the remote equipment.
In my operation of 9 hours, I went to 75 meters too early Saturday and tried to
make it work for about an hour. That failed, and I was rewarded with a better
rate at 8:30pm when I went back to 40 (that was probably about the time people
were moving to 80). 40 meters on Saturday evening was incredible, at one point
there was almost no skip zone, I could work all the close-in stations while
reaching all the way out to California.
The same thing repeated itself mid-morning on Sunday. I returned to the band at
10:30am, and was surprised to have coverage close-in, and out to the mid-west
and west coast. Atmospheric band noise was quite low on 40 all weekend.
I had a few European friends call me to say hello Sunday evening, and it was
great saying hello to so many PVRCers and friends around the US and Canada.
My best wishes to everyone for a nice Thanksgiving and enjoyable holiday season.
Next up: CQWW DX CW - which I'll be having some limited fun in as well.
73,
Jim WX3B
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