1998 ARRL SWEEPSTAKES - Phone

Hoot all!

Hope all who participated had a great time.

Here are our results from the SS, for posting and perusal.

1998 ARRL PHONE SWEEPSTAKES - K2KV Multi-single
Ops WM2V & K2KV
-------------------------------------------
Band     QSO        Pts        Sect

80       191        382
40       629       1258
20       261        522
15       128        256
10        33         66
-------------------------------------------
QSO     1242       2484    x    79 = TOT 196,236

The most interesting thing we learned is that the 252-ft Carolina Windom
which runs broadside to the US is one damn powerful domestic antenna!! While
seemingly only a modest dx performer, it enabled us to easily one-call-bust
EVERY single pileup we entered, and run at rates above 100/hr whenever we
tried. Very impressive, indeed.

40 was our money band, open most of the time with less noise than 10/15/20.

We got our clean sweep late Saturday night, with KH7R (PAC) answering our
CQ.

Our usual 40m-crash-the-computer problem was TOTALLY ABSENT from this
effort, leading us to believe the problem is the result of one of the
following:
1. The second station computer which we normally connect to the network in
multi-op efforts was not, of course, in use this weekend, and is therefore
suspect.

2. Our 40m beam was pointed west, or somewhat northwest/southwest the entire
weekend. During our dx excursions, it is usually pointed east to Europe.
Although very unlikely, it is possible that this specific configuration is
causing the problem.

2. George N2GA, who experiences these computer shutdowns EVERY time he gets
on 40m phone from here, was NOT present in the shack this weekend, and we
suspect that his abundant presence alone during dx contests might create
some esoteric absorptive/reflective component which causes the main computer
to continuously go crashing into "stack overflow." We will look into the
possibility of having a copper-shielded "Hannibal" operating position built
for him before the next big one. ;-)

73/Jeff K2KV

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