So this weekend was the ARRL’s November Sweepstakes (Phone). Now, it’s been at least a decade since I’ve done a ham radio contest, but what with the newly purchased FT-817ND rig and an surprisingly unscheduled weekend, I thought I’d give it a go.
Now the rules to Sweepstakes are simple. For the Zulu impaired, it took place between 4PM EST Saturday and 10PM Sunday. During that period you are only allowed to operate for a total of 24 hours. It’s the phone contest, so on the HF bands that means SSB. You can operate on any combination of HF bands, but can contact another operator only once per band.
A brief word about radio contacts. America is a big place, and even in these days of cell phones and the internet, it is full of hams… generally old hams, but hams none-the-less… So when cruising the airwaves, there’s really nothing special about contacting an American… start transmitting in another country, and you will soon be swamped with eager Americans waiting to say ‘Hi’. You get the picture? We don’t even have to visit the foreign country to be considered loud and annoying.
But sweepstakes changes that… the only stations that count for points are North American Ones! We are the targets!
It’s a beautiful thing.
So, North American is divided into 83 sections, and the goal is to work as many people in as many sections as possible. Simple, right?
Now, as with any good sport, their are divisions. Are you a single operator or working as part of a team or school? What power are you using (from the microwatts to the kilowatts transmitted)? Are you working all the bands or operating just a single band? Which band? You get the idea.
I’m a renter and am not allowed to install antennas in my townhouse, so I had to come up with something very easy to put up and take down, but which would still, somehow, manage to be a decent radiator. What I ended up doing was getting a 6.5 foot tripod from Alpha Antennas and using it to mount a 17′ telescoping whip antenna that I had from MFJ. I then attached a few counterpoise wires and plopped that puppy on the patio. Below is an inexcusably blurry pic of the installation.
At 17′ the antenna is resonant on 20m. Since it’s a telescoping whip, I can reduce the height and make it resonant on any of the higher bands up to about 6m… or I can just use an antenna tuner, but resonant is always better. Going lower, I can tune it quite well on 40m, but probably need a proper radial set to tune it on 80m. It takes all of three minutes to set up, so I’m rather pleased with it… best antenna I’ve had in a long time.
So, sweepstakes… I ran single-band (2om), solo, QRP. Honestly, QRP is all I ever run anymore. I developed the habit back when I lived in California and was active in the Norcal QRP club. (QRP = 5W or less for our purposes.) The goal is to see how far you can work on how little power. This was a contest, though, so I cranked that dial all the way up to 5 whole watts!… and it worked pretty darn well…
I only operated for 13.5 hours as when that weekend storm rolled in, I pulled that antenna down as rapidly as possible (though did take a moment to snap that blurry pic). It was funny, the moment I grabbed that antenna to take it down, the rain hit HARD. I came in very wet, but laughing, so it’s okay…
Overall, I made 132 contacts in 51 (of 83) sections for a total of 13,464 points. I won’t win any prizes, but for a return to contesting using qrp phone into a wet noodle of an antenna, I was quite pleased. Oh, by prizes I mean certificates… maybe a plaque… I have one around here somewhere… surprised the heck out of me when it showed up… had no idea that I’d done well enough to win a section.
But I digress… I worked single-band 20m specifically because the band tends to close down around midnight which allows me to get some sleep. Still after 13 or so hours of operating from that stupid desk chair, I was surprised at how worn out and sore I ended up. Ham radio is not for the weak!
Oh and special kudos to N3FJP. I bought his logging software prior to the contest (rather than my usual paper logs), and it was great! Not only did it do its job and do it well, it was surprisingly motivating seeing your sections worked and contact numbers increase as the day went on. I highly recommend it.
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