KC5YKX

Reid Hill   1042 Burkshire Dr   Corpus Christi   Texas   78412

Nueces County   EL17HR   CQ Zone 04   ITU Zone 07

kc5ykx at swbell.net

Final Results: 10th place Low Power!

ARRL Sweep Stakes phone was a blast this year. I once again got the chance to operate from N5TW's in Georgetown, Texas. This time it was all bands and got to use the entire station.  Tom's station is as follows for all bands:

10 meters 5/5/5 w/ fixed 3 on SE (30/20/10M high)

15 meters 6/6/6 w/ fixed 3 on SE (33/22/11M high)

20 meters 5/5/5 w/ fixed 3 on SE (40/26/13M high)

40 meters 2/2 (40/24M high)

80 meters K8UR style 4 square

160 meters 4 square with 17m high inverted Ls w/ omni mode

4 bi directional beverage antennas

All the yagis sans the fixed ones can rotate independently of each other in the stack. This means I could cover the US without turning a single antenna. I operated in this "spray array' mode for the entire contest. I worked very well. If I had problems hearing a weak station in a certain direction all I had to do was turn off the antennas not in the weak stations direction and vola he would increase in strength. Can't get that kind of performance from home!  

I started this endeavor by soliciting the comments from other CTDXCCers from the email reflector about best to approach this contest. K5TR, WM5R, KI5DR, N3BB, K5PI and others had very helpful advice. George, K5TR, let me know how best to put the antennas for max spray array. Everybody had something helpful and the biggest was RUN. And run I did.

I opened the test on 15 meters and had good rate on this band. I move to 20 a little late and had a hard time finding a spot to run so I S&Ped till I found one. Ran 20 for a bit and then moved to 40 meters. I did not try to run due to thinking that low power stands no chance on 40 to run. (more on this later) I S&Ped till all I heard on 40 where worked and the BC stations became to much. I moved to 80 meters knowing full well I could not hold a freq there due to the directional properties of the 4 square. This panned out to be true 80 was not my best band at all. Moved back to 40 to S&P a little more before calling it a night around 11:30 or so. I was beat as I got up at 5:00am to make the drive to Austin from Corpus Christi. About 4 hrs on the road with Austin traffic will wear a guy out. 

The next morning I did not leave a wake up call at the front desk and Tom did not get me up early. I sprung from the bed at almost 7:00am. Wow I missed at least 1.5 to 2 hours of good morning low bands. Plus the 1.5 to 2 hrs I shut down early meant I had to make up lost QSOs in a bad way. Got on the low bands and S&Ped tiled I felt 20 was open and made the move. I did it at the right time because I found a spot and the rate meter was moving. Made my move to 15 later and made more rate. I moved between 15 and 20 for the rest of the day light running and S&Ping till 40 opened. Made the move to 40 and started S&Ping. I thought about it for a bit and said what the hell, I am not making enough Qs doing it this way and found a spot and started calling CQ. Well I learned my lesson, the station is LOUD on 40 and I can run! DUH! With 2 hours left I started hammering out the QSOs. I picked a freq that was right up against the BC stuff coming in and it worked well as it kept people from trying to get above me. The BBC fired up the pre show music with about 10 mins left and I was CQing and working stations with an elevator type music playing in the background. At 9:00pm the BBC went full and I QRTed with a great contest in log.

Here are the results of my SS efforts at N5TW's:

160       80        40        20        15        10

                                                                                0          51      225     402      505         0

Total Qs = 1181        Multipliers = 77

Claimed Score = 181,874

Other Equipment used: FT-1000D and WriteLog. 

I am sure I will loose a few in log checking but as of now I am holding down the 10th place overall LP score according to the ARRL logs received list with claimed scores. Not to bad. Here are a few pics of Tom's place and me oping the contest.

Thanks Tom!!!!!!!!

                  The 40 , 10 and 20 meter towers at N5TW                                The 15 meter stack and the house at N5T W

Me operating Sweep Stakes at N5TW. In the first pic you will notice the 11 rotator control boxes and the 4 stack match boxes to control the antenna selection in the stack. Also there are 3 ICE band pass filters, 2 Comtek 4 square controllers, 2 band decoders and the 6 pack band selector. The rig was an FT-1000D and I was using WriteLog. In the second picture you can see the beverage controller under the serial port divider boxes.