On Saturday, November 18th at 3pm CT the ARRL Sweepstakes Phone contest kicked off.
W5RRR was at the start line ready to take off with the rest of the pack.
We had several folks come out to operate, log, and just exchange in some conversation. We worked until around 2am on Sunday morning before deciding to shut down. There were a few waves of operators on Sunday before the event came to a close.
Our claimed stats are: 725 QSOs and 81 different sections for a total score of 117,450. We had a bonus goal to complete the “clean sweep” or work all the sections (83 total); however, given the current situation in Puerto Rico we knew that task was going to be difficult. We weren’t able to make a QSO with PR or NNY but we certainly tried. As the old saying goes, there’s always next year!
Interestingly enough, we actually had a difficult time knocking out most of 5 land until late Saturday night.
All in all it was a very successful event and I had a lot of fun operating, logging, and just talking radio.
Supporting the event were: John Maca (AB5SS), Dave Lee (W5OC), Jeff Harbour (AB4ME), and Tanner Jones (W9TWJ).
Special thanks to Dave Lee (W5OC) as he provided an excellent delivery service (Wendy’s) around 11pm for John and I – it was much needed fuel to recharge the batteries!
If you weren’t able to make it out, there are other contesting events coming up and be sure to make plans to join us next year for sweepstakes!