Great contest every time!

Great contest...the pileups were so large with NP4Z, I did not have time to get through..I missed
PR..Good band conditions on Saturday. Tnx for contacts!

Elecraft K1's and ts-130V; all wire antennas at 28-39 Ft.
AGL/5430 Ft. MSL/DN35, QRP Entry.

My logging software sent serial #1 for my first two contacts while running.

This was my first time ever using CW on the air! The
sweepstakes made an excellent excuse. It's amazing to see
just how far you can talk with 5 watts using CW. It was a bit
fast-paced, but I expect to be a little better equiped next
time.

Operated from home for the first time since 2016.  All of
my contest operations during the past 18 months have been
portable from one park or another.  Despite having the amp
and AC power to spare, I decided to stick with QRP to
avoid dealing with RFI issues.  A lot of requests for fills
of my check: 14.  Only two checks were even close to mine,
and both were contest club calls.  All contacts were S&P,
as I got no action from running.  Antennas were dipoles
for 80M, 40M, and 20M.  Radio was an Elecraft KX3 and PX3.

Thanks for the QSOs.  73 de AI6DO.

My Writelog ver does not support
the 4 new ON sections but I did work them.
Thanks

( 938 * 2 ) * 82 = 153,832 IN 21:44
HESSTON COLLEGE ARC

300 qsos   x   2 pts/qso   x   76 secs   =   45600

CHECK LOG

I have to admit that this was the first SS in which I participated with   any real interest in 41
years as a ham.  For some portion of that time,   the exchange and speed were really intimidating,
and for half of it I   was living in foreign countries. This was a blast!   Despite my measly  
couple hundred QSOs due to family commitments, I came within less than   10 QSOs of a sweep, and I
absolutely loved the challenge of copying the   exchange.   I even had multiple pileups going
several times.  You can   bet I will be back next year.

K3CCR is the club station at the Collington continuing-care
retirement community at FM 18OW in MD, just east of DC. N3UM and
W3GB operated M1 HP in 2018 SS CW. We both had non-ham
obligations, but we got on for 16.7 hrs. N3UM ran on 20 m. to
start. Rate was slow; only 39 Qs 2100-2230Z vs 84 last year on
20 m. with same op and same gear. SFI was minimal, just 67. Skip
was long, sigs from W7, W6, and beyond very loud. In the first
1.5 hr. on 20 we got 29 mults including 7 of 9 W7 sects, 5 of 9
CA sects, plus VI, AK, PAC, QC, ONN, MB, SK, BC, and NT(!) Rates
on 40 m. after 2230 were also slow and skip long. W3GB worked 80
m. after 0030 and filled in many closer sections. Sun. 12-16Z
skip was more like normal; N3UM got 126 Qs and quit 4 sections
short of a sweep. After 16Z W3GB got more Qs plus NNY, ONE, and
on 15m PR, but we never heard NE!  We ran for 55 Qs on 40 and 80
m. in the last hour, lots of fresh meat with numbers under 200.
We were pleased to get 60 more Qs and 3 more sections than last
year when SFI was 72, but it took us 16.7 vs 11 hrs. to do it.

"Band conditions were good for QRP (5 watts output)."

859 minutes of operation.

Finished my 40 meter CW WAS.

What a slog on Sunday.  Nothing to do but call CQ
and wait for new people to join the game.
My 42nd consecutive SS CW with more than 1000 QSOs!

Wow, that was fun, frustrating, and fantastic in that order.
Stocked up on Chinese take-out and was ready to go. But the first
day my poor little station just couldn't get any traction (except
for a brief period during gray line on 40) so had to resort to
S&P with the missed jump balls, etc.  As I watched the other
stations' SNs leave me in the dust, I focused on mults, but by
midnight, still needed quite a few. Given the state of things,
decided to get a full night sleep.
a different story... I was able to run for hours and hours...that
was more like it!   Why was it so much better?  Maybe the number
of stations thinned out enough that I could find a spot where I
wouldn't be stepped on.  Or maybe I was "fresh meat".
Unfortunately, my good fortune didn't carry over to 40 on Sun.
evening as things slowed down again.   Got all the mults but
two:  VI (was anyone even on from there?) and NL (I saw them
spotted numerous times, but I just couldn't hear any of them
here.)  Did a fair amount of SO2V, but stepped on myself many
times.  I *really* need to get or make a switch so I can quickly
put the signal in both ears... much harder for me to copy out of
one ear.  I like the complex exchange, though picking out some of
the QRPers was painful. But anyway, it was a blast making all
those Qs.  Reminded me of FD.

Always enjoy CW Sweep Stakes, Great Fun!

Spent my available time chasing a clean sweep. Still have the next one to get it done.

NO 40 METERS AS ANTENNA IS ON THE GROUND DUE TO ISSUES
WITH NEW M2 KT34M2 ANTENNAS.

SS CW never disappoints in the awesome challenge it offers.
SWEEP!!!!!!!!!! Worked KP4 loud on 40M w/15mins left in the event
What a weekend! I felt way above average all weekend (I am
disabled and often in alot of pain) but the stars aligned and I
was able to keep fat old butt in the chair over 18 hours! A
personal best since the car crash in 2008 slowed me way down. The
new to me Flex3000 performed pretty well. I occasionally hit some
key wrong and would QSY to limbo but always found my way back.
Lots of activity from 80 thru 15 Meters. Never a peep on 10M and
I looked believe me... I MISS THAT BAND! Still one of my better
efforts ever in SS CW. Thanks to all who worked to put me in the
log. At the beginning I was way out of practice and struggled
alot but after 10 minutes of so it was coming together well.
First time with a Flex SDR xcvr and I will say even though all
you need do is click the band-map to pop around, I MISS A VFO
KNOB! Thanks to Carl K5HK who loaned me the rig. it may be 10yrs
old but can still hold its own! as SS certainly will let you know
just how good your reciever is. Lets see - Antennas 80M/40M Dual
Band Fan Inv Vee @ 38 ft, 3ele wide spaced 20M Mono bander @
43ft, 3ele 15M Mono bander at 28ft, 4ele 10M Mono bander @ 24 ft.
Station: Flex3000 with a I5 HP SFF BIZ PC, Timewave ANC-4 Noise
Canceller, AL-80B Amp at 800W out. 32 inch Wide Screen TV
watching football muted all weekend. Thanks to all who put me in
your log.
weekend! KB!

Propagation was excellent from western NC.  20 meters was as
crowded as 40 here.

I went into this contest thinking that it would be a part-time
effort because we celebrated my Mom's 80th birthday with a
Saturday family lunch. I wasn't sure how long that event would
last and thought I would miss the start of contest. Given my
expectation of being late to the show, yet still wanting to be
competitive, I decided to try something different. Every time
I've run this contest I've entered in the SOULP (single-op
unlimited low-power) category and I've won the GL division the
past two years. I wasn't sure I could 3-peat in that category so
I looked for alternatives.
I've always believed in the saying that "life is too short for
QRP". So how did I choose to compete in the SOQRP category? I
charted the results for the GL Division going back to the bottom
of the last solar cycle and beyond. Wow, KT8K won four times,
K8MM won three times (and set a record!), and the remainder of
the winners are familiar calls, too; K9TM, N5EE, K8DD, N8BB,and
W8TM. I particularly focused on the 2007 results - the bottom of
the last cycle, where Hank, K8DD, won the division with 507 Q's
and 77 Mults for a score of 78,386. Hank provided the inspiration
I needed and I found great motivation in competing with Hank's
legacy. I set my goal for 508 Q's, or to best his score on a year
with similar conditions.
party disbursed early - octogenarians like to get home early - go
figure. That put me home within an hour of start time. I even had
time to lie down and close my eyes for 15 minutes. I was on the
air at 5pm local ready to go. Well, not really. I should have
heeded W8CAR's suggestion to test my macros because they were all
screwed up. I was in a panic now, and I couldn't remember the
macro character to send my serial number. I blew the first 10-15
minutes farting around with the programming. Total rookie move!

others have noted, the impending doom of the geomagnetic storm
let loose by a coronal hole never really materialized - well more
on that later. However, the forecast of the storm did alter my
strategy a bit. I started out on 40 because I wanted to work the
regional and local stuff before the band went long. After beating
that horse I went to 20 where I collected many western mults
before the band died. I went also went to 80 early because in the
days prior to the contest, 80 was going long early in the evening
to the point that I often couldn't copy most of the folks
checking into QMN. I was pleasantly surprised that 40 and 80 were
both great well into the night. I stayed up a bit later than past
years milking 80 because I thought Sunday might be a bust from
the solar storm. Like many "forecasters", they got this one wrong
and the flare didn't hit until very late Sunday. Conditions were
great on Sunday as well - even 15 opened up for a bit We all
benefited from great conditions this weekend.
never operated QRP so my expectation was that this was going to
be a very frustrating weekend with nobody hearing me or having to
provide fills for every Q. I was so wrong. Hank, N8XX, said it -
and I'm paraphrasing, but something like "you'll be amazed at
what you can do with 5w or less". How true, Hank, how true. Given
a clear frequency and no pileup, I got through on the first call
most times and didn't get many fill requests. I also thought that
the contest would be 100% S&P. However, I found a good deal of
success at picking away at the band edges. I found if I ran in
the Extra portion (lower 25Kc) or at the high end of the band, I
could run and keep a frequency... for a while anyway. I couldn't
"defend" my run frequency, but I had numerous good runs. Running
is also a great way for a QRP guy to get mults, because there's
little chance of breaking a pileup on a rare one. Now having said
all that, it's no peaches and cream. Yes, many call CQ in your
face. Yes, many send "AGN" or only get parts of your call, or ask
you to step through each element of the exchange. Conclusion: QRP
is not about the rate. All the fills really slow you down.
However, with good techniques, QRP wasn't as bad as I expected.
I'd even go as far as so say I was AMAZED at how well I did with
5W.
fair Hank, you normally turn in a "just for fun" log. I didn't
know the plans of any other members for QRP and I never worked
any other club member in the QRP category. So, I was really
competing with Hank's 2007 score - 500 Q's basically. BUT, I did
register for the online contest scoring web site and there I was
competing against N5EE who fortunately lives in AR now (he won
the GL div QRP in 2011). We were running neck and neck the entire
contest with the lead changing many times, until late Sunday
evening, when Ken kicked it into gear and left me in his dust. He
bested me by 50 Q's I think. I don't know where he found them. I
was thinking that I might actually be able to WIN this thing
outright until I finally worked a couple of other "Q's" (QRP)
with a higher serial number than me. One of the highlights of the
weekend was to work Jerry, WB9Z, (also running QRP) late Sunday
and I had 25 more Q's than him, and he's got an antenna farm!
Once I got past my goal of 500 Q's, I wanted to make sure that
log checking wouldn't negate that so I kept going. Then I looked
at the other results for the last 15 years and I set my sights at
beating all but the top entries made by K9TM and K8MM (in the
700-900 Q range). I ended up with a higher score than the last
four years division winners, and many prior years.

like using N1MM with the band map and spotting and being able to
use the tools to find mults and Q's. In the QRP category that was
off limits. It was a bit "old school" to manually tune up and
down the band looking for Q's. I did a lot of typing to check
dupes. I did find a good way to use the bandmap even without
"assistance". As I tuned and found a new station or mult, I
entered the call in the logging window and then if the pileup was
too hard to crack, I tuned off frequency which put my own "spot"
on the band map, essentially putting that call in "memory" so I
could come back to it later. I'd scan up and down the band and
occasionally click back to that freq to see how the pileup was
doing, then pounced when the time was right. I was lucky that
many of my mults called me on runs and that I didn't have to
battle it out very much. The exception was NP4Z. It took me a
long time to break that pileup.
and NT. The last two I worked were UT and QC. I heard both EWA
and NT but they were working a running station. I tried CQing off
frequency but you never know if a guy is going up the band or
down the band, or maybe just clicking randomly!
where N8BB and KT8K were this year. Never heard them. Thanks to
both for providing another source of motivation to stick it out
and compete against past results.
Sweepstakes. My favorite contest on the calendar, not because of
the rate or the excitement, but for the way it is. Don't change
it. This contest combines two of my interests; contesting and
traffic.
River Radio Club. RIP Hank.
50'

Great bands

Only Sunday afternoon evening.  Wire and 500 Watts.

I was sending my Prec as B, but should have been U

Momongalia Wireless Association (MVA)

Not much time this year but enjoyed a couple of hours.
conditions good for QRP.

Nice to see 3B8CW RBN picked up me up near the end of the test on 40m!

K7JOE, op

18.13 ARSSCW.
delete the 34 test Qs before the start.

@ WA7U

This was my first go at a contest (First licensed in 2017, I upgraded to
general
about 3 weeks ago). It was also my first go with the Bencher Iambic Paddle, so
it was challenging, but fun.

MY TOWER AND 5-BAND TRAP VERTICAL DESTROYED IN HIGH WINDS FRI NITE BUT REPAIRED AND REDEPLOYED IN
TIME FOR CONTEST!

K3/10 at 5 watts to a pair of 90' inverted ells fed in or out of phase.  Enjoyed surprisingly good
condx on Sunday on 20 and 15 M.  Saw some big QSO numbers in all power classes during the contest,
and I always enjoy the actvity.  Thanks for your copy of my QRP sigs on your end.  C U next time,
73, Dan  ke0tt

Missed VI, PR, and QC -  heard QC several times but could not
break the pileup. Is there only one ham in CQ? Normally, VI and
PR are easy from here, but I could not hear them when they were
spotted. Maybe in SSB?

2018 ARRL SS CW CONTEST

Got my fill of CW a few times but I kept going back.  I had additional commitments that did not
allow me to put in a full effort but I am sharpening my CW skills.

Missed North Dakota! Doh!

QRP 5W to end-fed wire

Band conditions better than I expected, but never heard a soul on ten meters.

Wow! Where did all those huge signals come from all of a sudden.
20 was full of loud stations all day but died out earlier than expected.
Missed some of the contest due to Murphy making me repair coax connectors
on patch cords that showed up on Sat., natch!

With a mag loop in the attic, this was basically a two band
contest for me.  40 meters was the big money band for me.  20
wasn't much and I never bothered to check 15 (it takes quite
awhile to change bands with this setup).  Regardless, I had a
bunch of fun.  Never heard any sign of the 5 mults that I missed.
No antenna for 80 meters yet but I have an idea.  That would
have helped for ONS and NNY I'm sure.  See you all next year and
thanks for all the Q's.  73 - tom
Watts

Decided to use a check of 49 in honor of W0AIH's unfortunate
demise a few days before Sweepstakes.  Rest easy, Paul...

Operated high in the CW segment at a relatively low speed, but too
many stations did not QRS.  Got burned out rather quickly as the
strings of numbers still put me on overload!

Slow going at times but always fun!

See 3830 comments

Thank you Lisa!  You make all my contests possible!

2018 ARRL Sweepstakes CW

I couldn't even find Nebraska, let alone NT, PR VI. Fun contest with decent conditions.

Enjoyed a brief 80 meter effort! Great signals from the few I worked! Look
forward to doing it again next year!

THANKS TO ALL WHO MADE ANOTHER SS. IT WAS FUN AND LOTS OF ACTIVITY.

Decided to just hunt sections - one QSO per section - QRP with a choice of two dipole antennas

Forgot to change CW messages from B to U until 6th QSO

Remote from NNY

Ran QRP, ONE HALF WATT to a 20 Foot End Fed Wire.
Band conditions were ... let's say ... as expected ...
but I was glad to snag even a few 15m SS contacts!
I set a new SS record for myself: 98 QSOs with 1/2W,
(which is my normal SS power level) My hearty congrats
and THANKS to all for your patience. Most of you copied
the exchange perfectly on the first go, with repeats
very rare, a testament to your stations and your skills!
There's NO Contest like a CW Contest! Pure radio fun!
GO ARIZONA OUTLAWS!  73 John N6HI

124 ft end-fed wire flat on roof. heard plenty but not heard for
the most part

Fun to return to CW SS after 30 years.  Win-Test sure beats pencils
and paper dupe sheets!  Glad to hear K4BAI and K9UIY still in the
fray.  Very sorry W0AIH is now SK.

lightning over nite - K3, K3s in service

Starting fresh every six hours is definitely the way to have fun in CW SS!

Who needs sunspots?

Glad to give out NNY. Only worked 1 neighbor until late on
Sunday.

VI was super hard to snag this year!

One pass through 20m, nice to work familiar calls.

NN7SS Burt WA (K6UFO op)

20m: GXP 3 element yagi at 72 feet
Elecraft K3 turned down to 5 watts
K3/0-Mini control head, RemoteHamRadio.com
Writelog

my QSO #1 - my PREC sent (A) was incorrect and changed to B
thereafter

Thank you for digging me out

SO LITTLE TIME THIS YEAR - BUT SO MUCH FUN

Fought some computer and amp faults but overall, other than
missing NL, a great contest!

FT-950, AT2K, AL-811H, DIGIkeyer II

The last Serial Number digit at my Serial Number 51 is uncertain (QRM).  There
did not appear to be as many competitors as in past years.  I was able to add
80
meters to my band options this time, and it proved very useful.

Part time effort while in Alberta.

Rig: Elecraft K2 100W, Antenna: Parallel inverted vees for 20m and 40/80m

Remote operation from VE4EA's station in Winnipeg

Didn't get much time for the contest.

I had a lot of fun with Sweeps again this year I got the first 5
qsos with my vintage IC-720A and SpeedX hand key then I used a
FT-897D and Classic IC-751A to close the contest. 73 Gerry

Operated my station remotely from my mountain house 120 miles
southwest for the first time in a contest. Pretty happy with the
way it performed.

Always enjoy the c.w. SS!  Nice to see old faces and so many new ones. Never heard V.I., but the
rest came in fine.

Thank you for sponsoring the contest. Ahh, a CW sweep was not to be this year.

Never thought I'd enter SS this year.  Then, I figured, okay, I'll stop at 100
S&P Qs, but then I made it 150, then 200, then 250.  Till next year, though, I'm
done!

Better score than last year (though fewer hours); about the same
as two years ago. Conditions poor on 20 during first few hours.
Then moved to 40 and not good there, as well. Later to 80 and had
some very nice runs. Second day conditions were better. Tried 15
which was open, but little activity. 40 was pretty good later.

and did not stay for the pile-up. Never did hear NT or KP2.

for the Qs

Rig - Elecraft K3, P3, KPA1500
Antennas - SteppIR DB-18 @ 70 feet
80M half sloper, 80 dipole
160 meter "W3ZZ" antenna
Hi-Z 3-element steerable array

Section actually sent was MD instead of MDC

Station repair test.  Lots of broken antennas to test.  Some fixed.
Some not fixed.

*Tennessee Contest Group-Celebrating 25 years of contesting fun
in Tennessee!

Our 24th year from our Outer Banks locale.  Missed only KP2, which we never heard until just before
our time ran out.

My remote tuner went south during the contest . . . not the best way to get any results!

Second log submission with times corrected.

Precedence mistakenly sent was "U", but this actually was a non-assisted, low power entry.
Precedence sent should have been "A".

What a pleasure to have W6UE back on the air. Lots of work still to do.

Fueled by carbohydrates, I searched and pounced my way to the
finish line. I was only able to sustain one or two runs, where
the N1MM+ 10 minute counter was above 50. For those people with
Home Owner Associations, there is hope! I have dipoles in the
attic and two outside stealth dipoles. Propagation seemed poor on
Sunday morning, but that changed on Sunday afternoon. Stations on
the West Coast were S7-S8, which is 1-2 S-units above the noise
generated by my house. Unbelievably, they answered my calls on
the first try and copied my info without repeats! Amazing. Thanks
to all the stations for working my 5W trickling from my K3S!

Propagation not so bad this year. Nice to hear old familiar calls. Glad to be able to get to hear
them. Next year will be better. Take care All. 73, Rick

Was 60 ahead of last year at the start but ended up down about 13.
Last mult was NP3X (his #2). Many thanks to Tom K5RC and Midge K7AFO
for the outstanding hospitality.

good propagation despite poor reports on multiple websites

A lot of good CW ops always participate in this one.  There were also a good mix

assisted

ten tec orion II, 100 watts, ten tec 238C tuner, kt-34a @ 50
feet, bearing westish. 160 meter 1/4 wave inverted L, 57' V - 73'
H.

I decided to challenge myself this year and run QRP with my QRP
Labs QSX-20 transceiver. My antennas were in sad shape and I made
2 QSO's in the first hour. So, I deployed my homebrew end-fed
antenna and really got busy!

Had some grounding problems at the end.  Where was the Virgin Islands?

Operated remote from Tokyo, Japan

I'm always a better CW op after the contest.  Good Fun :-)

Great propagation on 20 m for East coast

Flex6300, Outbacker Ant, CW-Skimmer, 100w

Just needed a CW "fix" so did S & P on 40 meters.

First time CW Sweepstakes. Sorry right off the bat for my blown
exchanges. Boy is Nebraska popular! I had planned on running
power so I entered as Category B. But I ended up keeping it down
to 30W and made my receive bandwidth super narrow to keep the
pileups under control. Operated less than 4 hours but got like
over half of the sections. Flex with 500' loop. I'll be
back next year fer sure. I'll be better then. Promise.
Thanks.  Paul.

Tks!!!! Super Contest once again!

Where was everyone at 3am?