ARRL NA Sweepstakes SSB 2011 – Another Clean Sweep!
Oh, it is contest season! Having wrung out all the problems in my shack during the CQ WW DX contest, I was really ready for this one. And, it has become one of my favorite contests. I even passed on one of the better hamfests of the year and on participating in a public service event, just to stay home for the contest! Amazingly, everything wasn’t ready. I thought I had it all set, but no. It wasn’t quite right. The short version? It took me about 20 minutes into the contest to get all the voice files right and speakers connected where needed. Despite the setback, I was off and running earlier than I have been in past contests.
Contacts came fast and furious. With the upper bands opening up, the start of the contest was different from recent years. I immediately started getting contacts west of the Mississippi. Way west! Early contacts included AZ, WY, NM, SV, ID, NM, SCV, WWA, SF, BC, EB, PAC, AK. Within three hours, I also had ND, WY, MB, NT, OR and NL.
Wow, Pacific, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and even both Dakotas early on! This is going to be another clean sweep! Search and pounce was the order of the day. I scored section after section quickly. In fact, I had well over 60 sections in a few hours. By the time I knocked off at 3:00 EST to get some sleep, I had about 72 of 80 sections in the bag. Read more…
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