12/04/2005 | KC0INX In the November Sweepstakes last year, I could be heard as one of the K squared team using the call KS0P. This year it was just me because the other half of the K Squared team is in Europe. My name is Kristin, KC0INX, I'm 17 years old, and this was my sixth year to work the November Sweepstakes. It is by far my favorite contest. This year was the first year I didn't operate with at least one other person under the age of 17. This year I did most of the operating by myself except for about 20 contacts my Dad, KC0EFR made through out the contest. I ran as a multi-op station just because I could not do this contest without the technical help from my Dad. I used an Icom 706 MkIIG, a Mosley TA33Jr at30 feet using 600 watts on 15 m and 20m, a quarter wave vertical using 1200 watts on 40 m, and a full size 80 m horizontal loop at 25 feet using 1200 watts on 40m and 80m. My dad made sure all the equipment worked well together, and if something went wrong, he was always right there to fix it. All I did was operate, log for myself, and look up multipliers I needed on the DX Summit during the 20 hours I worked the contest. I called CQ most of the contest, except when a multiplier I needed came up or band conditions went bad. I worked Sweepstakes this year with my own callsign, KC0INX, which was a first. Unfortunately, I only have my General Class license. This caused some problems when I needed some of the multipliers that were outside of my General Class Privileges. This was probably why it was the first year I didn't get a clean sweep. I missed Newfoundland, Quebec and the Northwest Territories. I finished the contest with 807 contacts and a score of 124,278.
Although it was fun, and a great new experience to do most of the operating by myself, there were a few drawbacks. One of those was not being able to rest my voice. Our solution for this next year is to have a voice keyer. Another drawback was not being able to just get up and walk away from the radio for five minutes while another operator took over. The biggest drawback however, was definitely getting tired of sitting. As you can see in the picture, I found ways to get around that problem while I still continued to operate. One benefit of working alone was the fact that I knew I was the person who worked that certain multiplier we needed. This is what I woke up to at 6:50 am Sunday morning. My Dad was about to work a station when I got out to the radio, and when he saw me, he took off the headphones and handed them to me when I told him, "No, go ahead, you can work this one." His reply was, "You don't want to work Puerto Rico?" (A multiplier we still needed at the time). So, even though I was still half-asleep, I decide I wanted to make that contact, and I did. Thank you to everybody who worked me, I appreciate it! Hopefully we will work again in another November Sweepstakes down the road!

73's,
Kristin, KC0INX -- KC0EFR