YEASU FT-1F. RGv RainGutter Ver. 5 Antenna. LDG RT-RC-100 Remote
ATU. N1MM.

Anytime I operate a SSB contest it is grueling for two reasons. My hearing is not what it used to be
and SSB is much harder to copy correctly than CW and I simply enjoy CW more. No talking and much
more relaxing contest atmosphere, in my opinion. 

This was my first "serious" SSB effort since my return from a 20 year hiatus from ham radio. I
didn't have any pre-contest goals but wanted to test my ability to compete with very compromised
antennas. This contest sets up well for me as I have only one band that is what I consider "good",
not great but good. 

My hexbeam's 20 meter element sits at approximately 30' and plays really well to both coast. I have
no clue why as I didn't use any modeling software prior to installation. I put it up where I could
and it works! Although not impressive to the really good op's, I had 100 QSO first hours in both CW
and SSB Sweepstakes. Here is a breakdown of my QSO's per band:

         Band   QSOs     Pts  Sec  Pt/Q
         3.5       4       8    0   2.0
           7      57     114    6   2.0
          14     497     994   59   2.0
          21     143     286   16   2.0
          28      52     104    4   2.0
       Total     753    1506   85   2.0

The beam also works reasonably well on 10m and 15m but really shines on 20. Low bands are horrible
for me but in this contest that is not a killer. (really hurts me in NAQP) 

I began with the idea to work all 24 hours and would more than likely have done so but after 20
meters went down Saturday evening I found 40 and 80 to absolutely suck! I decided sleep was more
important than the minimal QSO's I would get over night so off to bed I went. I checked the bands 2
or 3 times during the night when I would wake up and activity was so poor that I went back to bed! I
slept in Sunday morning and the bands were just starting to open when I started operating around
14:30z. Sunday was a typical SS in that it was plodding along with a few hours at or near 60 Q's and
more S&P than desired.

A few interesting and unexpected things occurred. WMA and SB were very rare, at least early to mid
contest. At 18:26z I was missing WMA, SB, VI and NL. Operating assisted allowed me to use spots so I
began trying to work those for the sweep. I found NE1C in WMA on 10m and he had a huge pile-up.
Other op's were telling him that he was their first WMA. I finally got him and then worked KP2M one
minute later on the same band! 

Finishing the sweep, while calling CQ on 10 meters some 2 hours later, WA6NQK called in giving me SB
and 30 minutes later I saw a spot for VO1KVT on 15m and quickly worked him for the sweep!

As an aside: I really like the Online Scoreboard. It kept me motivated as I watched my climb from
15th place to 3rd place occur over the day Sunday. I fear I would have stopped earlier if not for
the scoreboard motivation.

Final claimed score: 128,010 - 753 Q's - and 85 mults with 16:30 hours of operating. Very happy with
these results considering my compromised station, very rusty operating skills (at least early on)
and frankly, not a highly skilled op.

Thanks to all the ops who were patient with me asking for repeats. I'm telling you hearing loss
SUCKS! This coming from someone who has been in hearing health care for 40 years and wears the
absolute best hearing aids available today! It still sucks. Thank God for CW and RTTY.

73, Jerry, AB5SE

I learned two things from running the Sweepstakes for the first time. 1) I don't have a good 20m
antenna and 2) what a big advantage it is to have a modern radio that talks to your computer.  I
forgot to switch the band I was logging on numerous times.  In the past, I only ran single band
contests where that isn't an issue.  Running the SS was a good learning experience for sure.

Spent all day Saturday dedicated to yard work then
Sunday afternoon got on and played radio.  Lots
of fun as always with Sweepstakes, enjoyed making
all the contacts I did Sunday afternoon.  Lots of
great operators all around helping out newcomers
and encouraging them on, that is good to hear on the
bands.  Always great hearing an operator tell someone
"thanks for number 1".  I appreciate everyone involved
in making this contest possible and all the excellent.
operators out there this weekend.  See ya next year!

We three operattors havve been friends since Junior High School
and try to get together for Sweepstakes wheneever possible.  We
were operating a Flex 6400 1 kW station owned by AD8EI.  We've
come a long way since we operated SS with a Heathkit DX100
running 100 watts AM that made the lights blink and we used paper
logbooks. There is one constant - the pizza! The beverages
changed, but not the pizza!

Clean Sweep with 85 contacts  unassisted,

Managed to squeeze in 4 hours operating time and accumulated 138
contacts and 76 sections. All S&P and had a pretty good time as
well!

NOISE MADE MORE CHALLENGING..HEARD MANY PATIENT OPERATORS HELPING THOSE CONTESTING FOR FIRST TIME!
FINE BUSINESS!

Had a great time, I just wish the threshold for participation
pins was a little lower, even just for new hams (within the past
3 yrs, e.g.).

( 1544 * 2 ) * 85 = 262,480 IN 23:51
SWEEP AT 1430Z ON SUNDAY WITH VE1BSM IN NS
HESSTON COLLEGE AMATEUR RADIO CLUB
ONE UNLICENSED FACULTY OPERATOR - CASSIE
ONE UNLICENSED STUDENT OPERATOR - AIDEN
Submitted 18 Nov 2025

This was my first time participating in Sweepstakes and I only had a couple of hours to work
stations but had a great time! As a new ham this was good practice for copying down information and
working through the bands to find other operators.

I have not been interested in contests before except for straight key nite, but the SSB Sweeps for
2025 was an opportunity to check out some updates I have made in my equipment, notably a Collins
SLine pair operating in tranceive mode at  100W out, and an old Yaesu Ftdx560 from 1971 running
about 250W out.  After I figured out what all the exchanges meant, I realized during operating that
it wasn't as difficult as I expected.  My equipment ran great.

More importantly I was very impressed with the courteous, patient and professional conduct I heard
from all the participants, something to be proud of in our hobby.

I got a charge out of several questions if my Chk59 exchange was accurate.  I received my novice
license in 1959.  So I had to say several times that yes I am really that old and been licensed that
long.

73's
Carl K1LNL

I've really come to enjoy the SS challenge, more so than the VAQP, which has been my primary contest
effort since 2010.  The exchange is tough to receive, and tougher still for the other Op if you are
weak to them, as you often are, QRP. It also forces concentration.  For the first time this year, I
put the repeatable part of my exchange into a recordable voice memory, which I could invoke from
N1MM.  Oddly, I never felt quite right using it much of the time - maybe saying the exchange in real
time feels more authentic.

In addition, it was fun to frequently get a surprised response when I sent that "Q" in my exchange,
with several commenting on the strength, or asking about my antennas (which are not, btw, that good,
although my location atop a ridge is excellent).  Not surprising, considering 5W is only 2 S-Units
down from S9.

Also, as I get older, I find I have less natural body cushioning, and will have to invest in a chair
upgrade so I can go the distance!  This contest left me a bit sore, but completely worth it.

Finally, thanks also to plaque-sponsor ICOM for their superb IC-705, which I use almost exclusively
in lieu of my other rigs in contests.  It's a fantastic contest rig, and tremendously enjoyable to
use.

73
Harv, K2PI

K3CCR is the club station at the Collington continuing-care
retirement community at FM 18OW in MD, just east of DC. N3UM and
W5MPB did Multi-1 HP in the 2025 SSB sweeps, as in 2024. N3UM ran
for 2/3 of his Qs. W5MPB clicked spots for mults & always-CQ ops.
We hoped to beat our 2024 claim. Nope; SFI of 130 vs 145 in 2024 &
Kp ~3-4 held us to 0.78 X our 2024 claim. We did get a sweep agn.
We took turns QRV; N3UM went first. On 20 M he got 85 Qs 2100-
2244Z, 65 of them in a run at 63/hr. Next 2254-2321Z he got 13
15-M Qs & 4 20-M Qs. Then on 40 M 2335Z to QRT at 0127Z, he got 94
Qs, 66 in 2 runs at 54 & 62/hr. W5MPB 0130-0201Z got 17 20-M Qs.
Then 0202-0601Z QRT he band-hopped for 48 40-M Qs & 51 80 M Qs, as
bandmaps cleared and refilled. At QRT we had 310 total Qs vs 357
in 2024, & 78 sections. Back on 1236-1332Z N3UM got 41 40-M Qs, 27
of them running at 53/hr. Next 1340-1445Z he clicked for 15 20-M
Qs & 8 40-M Qs, and ran agn for 17 Qs on 40 M 1500-1520Z at 54/hr.
Rate died. From 1521Z he band-hopped for 27 Qs; 1 40-M, 14 20-M, &
12 15-M by 1630Z & quit to eat. On 1708-1749Z W5MPB got 13 10-M Qs
and 5 15-M Qs. Next 1805-1843Z he got 11 15-M Qs & 2 10-M Qs. A
break, then 1910-1924Z he got 3 10-M Qs & 2 15-M Qs. On 15 M 1932-
2013Z N3UM got 20 15-M Qs, 17 a run at 39/hr. Then 2020-2136Z he
got 44 20-M Qs, 38 a run at 48/hr. W5MPB 2135-2353Z band-hopped
for 40 Qs; 16 15-M, 5 20-M, & 19 40-M. And, at 2246Z he got our
85th sect, SB. Then in ~1.7 hrs 0100Z to 0240Z QRT he got just 14
QS; 11 80-M & 3 40-M. By 0240Z ~all readable signals were dupes.

This is the first time I have participated in a contest other than the PA QSO Party.  N3FJP software
made logging easy.  Thanks to all my contacts who were patient and friendly.  I had a lot of fun and
will participate in other contests now.

"It was great to have all 85 Sections very active on several bands!"

I decided at the last minute to operate QRP. Thinking about my
experience in the recent CQ DX SSB contest where I used 100W and
had fairly good reception in EU, Japan and SA, I don't know how I
would succeed QRP in a WW SSB contest. Since Sweepstakes is NA
only, I thought that this would be a good chance to try out QRP
and see how hard it is to operate without a high gain antenna.

settled in Saturday afternoon for the start. Given that the
higher bands were active at the start, I went to my favorite 15m
comfort zone where I did the majority of my damage on CQ DX SSB
recently. I looked around for a bit and found found a station
that was calling CQ with no response so I threw out my callsign
and was surprised to be picked up quickly. After stumbling
through the exchange, I made my first contact.
about 10 more in 30 minutes and got into the flow. Placing in the
top 10 might not be a pipe dream after all! I jumped over to 10m
and hit a wall where I wasn't being heard much. I learned that if
there was a pileup or I was not heard after three calls when no
other station was around, move on.
had some success, but it was slow compared to 15m. As the sun
went down, I tried 40m and 80m. Very little success. The noise
level on 40m was a bit high for me, but there was lots of
competition and I couldn't really break through at 5w. 80m was a
desert so I decided to call it a night and start fresh on Sunday
morning with 27 QSOs in the log.
was able to work a few 80m and a couple 40m before 20m opened up
for a nice run. Then 15m opened up around 9 am and it was back to
the good times. Like CQ DX SSB, 15m was performing excellent for
me so I parked there for a long time until I worked everyone I
could. I then tried 10m and had some luck, but it was slow. Went
back to 20m to finish up as the afternoon dragged on. By this
time, I knew I was going to fall short of what 10th place got
last year, but I was really pleased with 107 QSOs!

QRP and congratulate me for so many QSOs operating QRP. Made me
feel pretty good for the decision and something that I will
likely continue in this contest since it's just NA. Got Hawaii to
Washington state, LAX to SFL up to ME/VY/NH/DE.
afternoon to New England was excellent. Also easily got IL, WI,
MN on all bands. Picked up WTX/NTX on 80m. AZ/NE/GA/FL were all
easy pickings. Struggled to get CA/OR/CO.

Only operated 10. 15 & 20 m but srtill fpgto a sweep i fewer than
13 hours - 769 minutes to be exact.

Lots of very good and very patient operators.

Was going to operate Saturday evening and a
thunderstorm rolled through.  Didn't get to start
until Sunday morning.Some great pileups being
fresh meat.

A bit of a half-hearted effort.

I spent a little over 8 hours in the contest. I got the majority
of my QSOs during a couple of great runs. They were fun, but tiring,

I was "unlimited" and was trying for a clean sweep to make up for the
CW contest where I got all the sections except for Newfoundland. I
got a couple of NL on SSB but California was a problem. I spent
most of my time on 40 Saturday evening looking for CA stations, but
conditions were very odd and the ones I heard were weak. My local
noise didn't help matters. 80 meters was worse.

As of Sunday morning I was missing MS, UT, SDG, SF and SB. MS and UT
were not hard, but it was tough breaking the pileup on the
couple of SF stations I heard. I did get through finally. The only
SB I heard was N6MW on 15 and I could not break that pileup with
puny ground wave propagation (SB is about 150 miles west of me).

It was nice hearing the voices of my fellow CW Ops and
saying hi to old friends. Thanks for the QSOs everyone.

This is a last minute operaton from K6QLF.
Just for the heckuvit, I put K6QLF (club call for the Amateur Radio Club
of Alameda) on the air - just to say that I did.
LooK for a write-up on this at: http://WQ6X.Blogspot.com

Fun s&p plus a few small runs. Limited antenna's low power

Got home from vacation at 1 am Sunday so only had small amount of
time to operate contest.  Amplifier still out for repair so low
power.

QMX+ RADIO, 80M LOOP & HEXBEAM

Society of Midwest Contesters

Where was California

Lots of alligators out there, especially on Sunday.

fun contest

I had a great time working the contest, I wish I had more chair time.

Enjoyed the short time I had to work the contest, but what made it all worthwhile was a calling
station with a pileup, stop to pick up a young, newly licensed, YL that was barely making it, and
complete her qso. Good job man!! 73 KB2NCI

I dedicate my SSB sweepstake operation for 2025 to N1GNV (sk), who passed away last month.  John was
an excellent guide / elmer for the experienced and non-experienced amateur radio community.  He will
be greatly missed.

First ARRL SS! Rookie 2025, 100W + dipole + IC-735 from Athol, WMA. Precedence U. @Tech1Computers

Great Contest!

Had a great time wthis year.  Completely destroyed my score from last year despite only being able
to operate on just two bands.  Can't wait to see what next year brings.

This was my first ever contest and it was a blast!

Dropped in for an hour at the end of the contest.

W8ID Seneca Radio Club Tiffin OH

Special thanks to future hams Riley and Mike who came to see the
station and get on the air!

Ethyn KD9VHQ and Bryce KR4DZF had a great time operating for the first time in a contest. Bryce make
many of the contacts in this contest and wants to do more! YESSS!!!

HAMs who have the extra license have more benefits in calculating points because of bane ranges are
wider. There need to change a point calculation because of inequality or divide on 2 groups of HAMs.

ham rules state that power levels used to make a contact should be limited to only required power
levels to make a contact up to 1500 watts. i think that the rules need to be modified that limits
power levels to l000 watts or less during a contest.. Ham;s using 1500 watts create to much splatter
in the bands during a contest.

K3 and G5RV

n/a

I messed up.  I used A exchange but worked the contest assisted.
Should have used U.

just hunted multipliers

That's abot all the hone contestonig  can take,.

Fresh meat for a couple of hours.

9.5 hours

We are a new club at McCall Donnelly High School in Idaho. We had six students, two with tech
licenses, working under our two General licenses. KM6FEP and KK7ZKG. Student call signs KK7ZMC and
KK7ZMD.

Not sure the form was submitted correctly. I did not see the "S" designation for student. 

Open to instruction. 

Phil

Hadn't planned to participate, but wound up with a somewhat respectable showing - I think!

Limited antennas overlay

My first time entering a contest log.  Really enjoyed the
sweepstakes and the opportunity to test my rig's reach.

The condx were awful but there were some surprises that made up for it.
I usually have to hunt for MB and AB but in this one 5 guys in MB and one
in AB called me. Also wrkd PAC as my #1 qso again and had VI and PR
in the log by my 21st qso. I mean those things just don't happen but with
all that fell 10 short of a clean sweep which is more than usual, too!

Operating from the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge TN

From Deer camp!

All the operators were patient with me, helping me out.  40 was great the final evening.

New to contesting.  Had fun trying it out.  A lot more to it than I thought and until the brain is
trained.  Sure, I only uploaded ~5 contacts, but they were solid.  :)

Thank you ARRL for another great sweeps!

Yaesu FT DX - 10 @ 5 watts, 10 - 40 meter EFHW (would not load on 20 meters) @ 15 feet, N3FJP
software.

Lots of fun but brutal with QRP and a marginal antenna.  Surprised that the antenna wouldn’t match
on 20 meters and that undoubtedly hurt my score.

N4FWF Sweepstakes 2025

I had fun, but it seemed a little harder this year for some reason. Finally worked VI and TER near
the end. Never heard AK, NM or NS, although I usually work AK and NM. Late in the test, it was
nearly impossible to find a run frequency on 40m and almost everyone I could hear was a dupe, so
rate dropped to almost nothing. Lots of first-timers this year where I had to explain the exchange,
but that's perhaps a good sign. I had to shut down on Sunday afternoon for about 1/2 hour due to
extreme static discharge on all antennas as a storm front moved through, although no actual
lightning was within 30-40 miles. Haven't seen that before, but we are near 7000 feet elevation.
Thanks to all that participated. Looking forward to the next one! 73 de N5LFE

10M single band

Limited effort with my limited antenna this year, but I had a lot of fun.

15M is always my contest "Magic Band" and it did not disappoint this weekend!  I'm glad NZ6Q, K5SML
& K6KDD got our 40M garden antenna back-up in tiime for Sunday afternoon and our clean sweep with
back-to-back QSOs with NV and SF

Portable from a hilltop west of the Rose Bowl. The first three
QSOs occurred while huddled under an umbrella trying to keep the
radio and log dry. Pen ink doesn't deposit well on damp paper. I
relented, left the antenna, then returned a few hours later after
the rain let up. Sorry some of you had to work so hard for our
QSO. Thanks for sticking with me! KX3 @5 watts, 44' doublet inv
vee with 18' apex. The view looking east across Pasadena was
beautiful. Our air isn't often this precipitation-scrubbed clear.
I am not sure I logged the band correctly for the first three QSOs.
72, David N6AN

ONE TENTH WATT to a 20-Ft End-Fed Wire.
Just for fun, I operated this one at 100mW.
This was a limited time operation, and I'm
pretty sure that I missed the best times!
Tnx for your patience and the QSOs.
Go Arizona Outlaws! -73- John N6HI

Are we having fun yet?!

Another patience-testing SS SSB weekend with poor low-band
conditions and limited participation. . . .
an annual IQ-test which we continue to flunk. 🤪

The bright spot was a bit of ten meter action at
the starting line and in dribbles on Sunday.

Unlike our previous M/2 effort in 2022, we made the clean
sweep: before noon on Sunday.  The final three Ms were
VY2TT (PE) Saturday evening, followed by VE1RM (NS) and VO1KVT
(NL) on Sunday morning.

Even so, our final score fell short of our 2022 result by
about 23% (and almost 370 Qs).

When I whined to Mitch about the Sunday afternoon slog, he
helped adjust my perspective: "SS is about how much
punishment you can take without cracking 🤣 -- it's the navy
seals training of ham radio 💪."

That made me feel much better 😉.

- 73, Tony (N7DX) with Mitch (K7RL)

Appears the only way to get a sweep this year is to use
assistance.  40 meters under performed and 80 meters was nearly a
wasteland.

IC-7300, Heil Pro-Micro Headset, Vectronics HFT-1500 Manual Tuner,
and a 90' ZS6BKW up 45 feet running N-S at 6,053 feet elevation.
I Missed NL, QC, and TER for the Sweep, and spent way too much time
looking for them when I should have been running! My first ever
Overall North American win last year in the SO Unlimited LP Phone
category, was not to be repeated in 2025...Hi-Hi, but perhaps Rocky
Mountain Division Plaque #14 in in my future Thanks for the Q's from
my "100 Watts and a Wire" Apartment QTH station. 73,
November Seven Many Zebras Walking.

This was the first time EVER doing a SSB contest. I setup and used one of the default voice models
from the N1MM Text-to-speech settings. This was mostly just to play around with it. If I have the
time and energy I may generate a voice model using my own voice.
 
There were a few changes I made along the way with regards to the text macros, but it seemed to work
out ok. Most people who got my measly 100w and wire AI voice were able to get copy no problem. I was
all S&P, no running.

After a late start Saturday, the conditions were a struggle for
most of the evening. Happily conditions were much better on
Sunday. Missed a clean sweep by 1 section (SB), but exceeded my
goal of 500 Q's by a significant margin. I was reminded about how
much I enjoy the SSB flavor of the SS contest, much more than the
CW version. Overall had a great time.

This is my first attempt at using this logging program.

6BTV ground mounted. Limited to 40m and up as 80m resonator tuned to bottom of band. 40m also
resonant in the CW portion, so my manual antenna tuner got a workout when operating there. Rough
sledding with 100 watts and trap vertical, mostly resonant low in the bands. Tough to break through
even the minimalist pile up, or find a clear enough freq without qrm to run and hold a freq. Tales
of the little pistol...
The high-light from this contest was working all VE sections! TER was my last VE. I checked VY1CO
run freq several times...shook my head...and kept spinning the dial. Pretty much the same for
VE8DAV, until late in the contest, when I clicked on a spot of him on 15m, and was surprised there
was NO pileup. I was able work him after two callers worked him. I listened for a few minutes on his
freq afterwards, and to my surprise it was orderly and not many callers.
I came this--- close to getting a sweep. Missed NV,SB, and of all sections in my bck yard not to
work KY!
Either the lines were to long when I clicked on a spot, I could not hear the station, or it was a
bad spot and no one was there.
Late Sunday morning I did find a slot on 20m to run and was able to put together 73 Qs in 65 minutes
(68/hr) before things dried up, and never got bumped off my freq!

73, Gene N9TF

P.S. I vote NO rules changes for SS. The contest format is perfect the way it is. (from a little
pistol)

Had very little time to operate, but got on to play a bit.

Experimented with "piper" text-to-speech. It works, but misses the human element
that's part of the fun of SSB contesting.

I really wish there was more activity.  We need about 200-300 more operators.

First time Sweepstakes. Could not find a sample Log format.

IC-7300, AH-730, 80m Horizontal Loop at 45'

Great time!!

IC-7300 @ 50W into an N9SAB 20M Dipole

FT950

NICE TO CONTEST WITH FELLOW NORTHERN  AMERICAN.

SS is always on a busy weekend I managed a few hours for the
contest.

Had a grand time. First time using N1MM+. Spent about 18 mo on
and off trying to get it working here. Nice to have the Band map
with all it's benefits. Out in the car, with 1/4 wave mono-band
whips as is my wont, or situation. Really enjoyed the
friendliness exhibited by many ops. 73 All

Only had this ONE QSO,  KH6ZB had only station op that tried
to copy my very weak signal.. Other ops gave up or said sri too
weak.

Sweepstakes is great a great event for ARES members to utilize for EM communications training.  It
combines the urgency of a contest with accuracy with the long exchange.

What a fun contest! Lots of student participation, inclufing Fredrick, Duncan, Spencer, Richard,
Riley.

Bands were crappy. Sunspots killed me

My first contest as a new ham. I couldn’t operate long but had a great time and look forward to
doing more in the future.

Some equipment problems, resulting in having to swap out the radio I
was using.

Limited Antrenna - Doublet

Nice day to be operating portable!

14 hours / Clean Sweep!!

This was an attempt to run from Ramona again as a QRP entry.
There was limited time available from the KN6NBT station as it was being
used by a new operator getting exposed to Sweepstakes.
Nevertheless, it would seem I made a 1st-place from SDG section, which
as it turns out people were having trouble finding.  On Sunday afternoon
a dozen stations told me I was their first SDG station - Amazing.
I was amazed at who could hear the QRP signal.
LooK for a write-up on this at: http://WQ6X.Blogspot.com

Personal best score this century

W8EDU is the club station of Case Western Reserve University.  We had a very good November
Sweepstakes with 211 contacts in 73 of the North American 85 sectors.  The contacts included Alaska
and Hawaii; next year, we will get Yukon Territories!  Four students were able to exercise the
privileges of their new licenses; two more students visited and made contacts with their friends
acting as legal control operators of W8EDU. One faculty member and one university staff also
participated. One student's parents and an alumnus also visited and all were genuinely pleased to be
here with us.

After a ten year planning and fundraising effort, we have new towers and antennas and that certainly
made a difference.

Not a phone guy but gave it a try. Ran my FT-857 at 5 watts to gnd mnt vertical.  Tough going fer
this old CW man, but managed 32 QSOs and 27 sections in abt 4 hours operating time.  Can't wait fer
next yr !  73, W8GG

My first Sweepstakes, only worked a short time.

With only a few operators from Santa Barbara (SB) participating in the SSB sweepstakes, why is it
designated as a separate Section? Makes it very difficult for a low power operator to work a SB
station with everyone trying to work them during the very limited time they're on the air. I'd
suggest blending

NO COMMENTS

Had a busy weekend but at least got on in the final hour of ARRL SS SSB!

Missed out on Utah and ONE but heard them both with just my vertical!

wanted to do more, but got distracted by other matters... although 8 QSOs are still better than
none!

Nothing like putting up an EFLW during an Atmospheric River in the dark during the SS

band condx much better than expected

My first SS in 25 or 30 years, just getting back on air. Antenna
is inverted vee with apex at 9 feet hanging off back porch.

Rig: Kenwood TS-2000
exercising patience to pull out my weak signal :)

Under the weather this year and was only able to participate for about 16 hours, hopefully next year
will be better

I hope to get at least 100 contacts.

This is another WQ6X SS-Ssb operation from the East Bay (EB) Section.
While killing time in between shifts @NX6T, I put WQ6X on the air
from Concord, Ca. (EB Section) on 10-meters, playing around with the
3-el 10-m Long John yagi.
I was amazed at who could hear the signal.
LooK for a write-up on this at: http://WQ6X.Blogspot.com

I was watching my two toddlers while operating.  Appreciate the kind words of one op who could hear
them in the background. Lot of fun even if my operating time was limited.

I'm new to the SS, so I accidentally had been sending A the whole time when I should have been
sending U, since I used the spotting assistance. Should've read the rules more carefully. . .