CW  (November 1-2 2003)

Station  Op     Category   QSOs    Mults   Score
-------  --     --------   ----    -----   -----
K5NA     K5NA   SO HP      1261     79     199,238
W5KFT    K5PI   SO HP      1225     80     196,000
W5RQ     W5RQ   SO HP       738     79     116,604
W5TA     W5TA   SO LP       614     77      94,556
KE5C     KE5C	SO LP       414     74      61,272
AC5AA    AC5AA  SO LP       263     70      36,820
W5JAW    W5JAW  SO LP       132     62      16,368
KG5U     KG5U   SO QP       758     79     119,764

"I can't remember the last time I entered this contest. If at all, it was back around 1975. I wanted to give it a shot this year. I have been working a bunch of QRP and FISTS contests lately, and I wanted to see how I'd make out in a contest for grown-ups. I had fun. I will have to try this again next year, hopefully with some improvements to both the station and the operator. " - W5TA

"Conditions were good except for a flare Sunday morning. I had a few technical glitches, but got past them all." - K5PI (@ W5KFT)

"My weekend and enthusiasm were shortened by station problems. I opened on 10 meters, then moved to 15 meters. Both stayed opened so long that I next went to 40 meters for closer-in multipliers. By the the time I got to 20 meters, the first night, most folks had already moved to 40 meters, however, it was worth the trip to pick up AK. On the second day, I had worked most of the CQing stations already on the other bands, and holding a frequency (that worked) was difficult on 20 meters, especially with my rig's intermittent operation. So, I spent much of my time in S&P mode until throwing in the towel. My dream goal was a sweep - next year ..." - KE5C

"I played in the contest, using the Ten-Tec Orion with stock factory filters. I was amazed at how well this receiver separated signals. That, and very smooth QSK and excellent noise reduction completely offset the few firmware glitches I discovered. I had not installed the lateset firmware because there was a report of distorted transmit audio - it turns out that it was only the audio monitor signal that had the problem, and I found that after installing the new firmware that a couple of the glitches I had found during the contest were already fixed. I enjoyed it a lot. I went trolling for sections, but could only muster 70 of them in the eleven hours I was able to put into the contest. All of my time was spent doing S&P, thus the low QSO total. I always enjoy Sweepstakes because it requires a bit more copy than the usual 599 STX exchange." - AC5AA

"Saturday arrived and I still had not acquired, much less learned how to use, a contest logging program. The bug to get on for a short stint prompted me to make a last minute effort to write my own program. It was more or less functional, so I jumped in the contest a couple of hours after the start. I soon realized a couple of things. First, there were deficiencies in my program, and boy, you can accumulate a lot of rust in 31 years! Neither should be considered a surprise." - W5JAW

"SS CW is still a great contest. I have enjoyed every one that I was able to get on for since my first one in 1958. The Sunday morning flare and radio blackout were interesting to observe as the bands went totally blank for a while. I missed NT for my last multiplier, even though I tuned a lot for it on the second radio. It seemed that there were a lot of newer hams active (based on checks received) that were doing very good CW. Maybe the mode won't die out after all." - K5NA

"Sunday morning, I was just needing NT and ND. Around 1900 UTC Sunday, I worked ND for mult number 79. He was also QRP. I never heard NT. Most all of Sunday, I had one radio CQing while scouring the other bands for additional QSOs. I never heard J. I even had a couple of people stop by Sunday afternoon while I was CQing to ask if I heard/worked NT, so I know I wasn't the only one missing him." - KG5U

"One of my objectives is to improve on my error rate as calculated by the ARRL log checking system. My error rate in this contest last year was 1.6%, which I guess is pretty good, but I still took a little more time this year to be sure the exchange was copied right (especially on the rarer mults, hi.)" - W5RQ