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

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 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.

A bit of a half-hearted effort.

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

fun contest

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

10M single band

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

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

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.

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)

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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

I hope to get at least 100 contacts.

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.