And the Brit?

Didn't work the Brit.
I may, but haven't.

Well, I'm in the woods the rest of this week so I'm guessing
CT is a non contact ( again ). A quick spin thru 40 meters just now:
RI, GA, NJ, MA, NY & WM3 - no waiting, step right up.

Edit
Thanks to all that contribute to this event every year.

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Can't hear any of them.  Couldn't hear anyone on the digital net, either.

K2D is wading through a nice pileup on 3840.00 right now.

Got a wild hair this morning and decided to give all QRP a try.  Just wrapped up a clean sweep by nabbing K2C on SSB, including the WM3PEN bonus station.  I doubt I'll even try for the GB station.  Most of them were pretty quick this morning on SSB.  I think there were three on CW.  All on battery power, SSB on the IC-703 and CW on the QCX.  Antenna is a linked dipole up at 35'.

Clean Sweep + WM3PEN

Good grief. I got GB13COL but K2D is still a disaster. He was going by numbers but then he stopped and it became a free-for-all again. I'm either going to stay up late or try again tomorrow.

Got through the epic 80M K2D pile-up, made worse by him chatting up every other station. Almost thought I was going to have to wait for the second round of my number. Or never.

Done, plus both bonuses. I can't ever remember being this pissed during a 13 Colonies event. The level of ass-hatery by the K2D operation, with K2K right behind them this year, will go in the books as legendary. This time last year we had a whole bunch of Clean Sweeps. This year just two or three of us so far.

It almost wasn't fun this year

Got him! He finally went back to numbers.

Clean sweep plus both bonus stations.

Much more of a pain this year than last.

One comment for what it’s worth.

In the past, I always worked all the stations on CW. And every operator was a total pro. Each QSO took about 10 seconds. The stations I worked this year were just as good although in my opinion they should have been working split.

This year, I worked many of them on SSB and it was a complete zoo for most of them. Including a number of these stations identifying as QRP. These guys are volunteers and I appreciate their efforts in putting this event on, but, seriously? A special event this popular running SSB QRP ? But, at least they were there making this event possible.

I work a couple on digital. FT8. Which is an OK way to do this other than the slow QSO rate. You could seriously work a half dozen CW QSOs in the time it takes to do one FT8 QSO. But, again, it was fun and different; and I appreciate the fact that that operator was there putting the event on the air.

The problem on phone is not primary how good the op is, but mostly where and how often they work. 13 stations in two days for me without trying too hard tells you that those guys were working hard and rotating though the bands on an hourly basis or less. Plus they were working multiple modes from multiple stations. But K2K and K2D would work only a few bands, none suitable for many colony states, and K2D did not work a lot of hours and did not work a lot of phone. 3 or 4 days to get each station is just silly. And then, because they ignored a major subset of people looking to work them you get massive pile ups instead of the load being spread out over the first few days when people are not panicking yet.

You would think that after doing this for quite a few years they would have some highly optimized rules, skeds and guidelines for the special event stations.

Or maybe it's supposed to be difficult

I think I've tried this event 5 or 6 times now, and none of them have been fun.  I did get a clean sweep about 4 years ago, but it was a hell of a lot of hard work. In the other ones, I wasn't able to hear all of the stations, so they were nothing more than an exercise in frustration.  This year is shaping up to be the same.

In this event, you either get them all, or you lose.  And you can't get them all if you can't hear them.

It's interesting that this event has become a challenge, not in finding the stations, but rather in dealing with poor pileup management and LID participants that don't listen to instructions.

Last year I was in the middle of moving, so my shack was torn down.  I operated completely from my truck.  This year, all QRP from the patio on batteries and portable antenna.  What next year...?

The first year I didn't get a clean sweep or either bonus and it did feel like a loss. Since then, I've got all 13 plus the Philly bonus.  K2D has been such a mess this year that I don't know if I'll get him. I keep going back and forth between "this guy's a shit operator" and "gosh, I feel sorry for him having to work this mess, he's doing his best." Maybe it was different operators, or maybe it was just my mood.

It's very frustrating but I still have fun. I wasn't going to play at all but I got on a roll and almost got them all on the first day of trying. I like to imagine what difference it would have made if one guy could have contacted another guy from each of the other 13 colonies (and across the Atlantic) and exchanged information in just a matter of hours. These kinds of events are fun little exercises.

K2D finally showed up on 20. Got right through with only 3 or 4 people ahead of me.

CLEAN SWEEP + WM3PEN

[darth]Impressive![/darth]

I didn't have the patience for K2K and K2D, I definitely know my limitations when it comes to QRP!

Did it seem to anyone to be more lightly attended this year? It did to me. It could be conditions, or it could be the shine has worn off.

Most seemed fairly quick to get through yesterday.  I actually only picked up three on CW, K2B, K2D, and K2M.  My CW still isn't good enough for a conversation, but I can muddle my way through a contest exchange.  I think it seemed a lot more chaotic this year on specific stations, but that was probably due more in part to me working them QRP, and having to wait things out longer.  Listening to the chaos makes it seem worse when you're waiting in line for the band conditions to get better, or the herd to thin out.

Well, I got all 13 colonies and the PEN bonus station the first day, but some of them were on FT8, which felt sorta like cheating.  So over the last couple of days I worked all the FT8 contacts again on either CW or SSB.  Can't seem to ever catch K2K or K2M on CW.

The Brit?  I dunno.  In four years of doing this event I have never heard him above the barely perceptible level.  He's just not making it into my area of Central Texas to my modest 40m OCFD at 20'.

I probably won't even send in for the certificate this year, but I know I got them.

Finally got the clean sweep + both bonus stations.
Wow what a frustrating year.
Last year I had a clean sweep in less than 3 hours, then went back and worked them all QRP.
I've spent the past 2 days waiting for K2D, and finally got him on 75 meters last night.

Refused to use FT8 for the exact reason you specify.

I'm also totally with you on not bothering with a certificate. I've got my log sheet, I know I did it

Whew. That was much tougher than last year. The bands were really funky. Lots of guys out west weren't being heard.

Had the most trouble getting Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

But got 'em all, with both bonus stations.

Count me in for the Clean Sweep ++.

Thanks again, aa777888-2!

Mine, for the 8th or 9th year, was only Clean Sweep +Wm Penn, all phone. That Brit was spotted all over the bands but think I could hear him...NOPE! Ever since he started participating I've never heard him!
Oh well maybe next year.
Sarge

Well, after reading a bunch of 444's posts re: CW, I finally got the huevos to give this Morse Code thing a try.

I was wandering down low in the 20m band, and heard K2H repeatedly calling CQ. Took me a bit to verify his call, he was going pretty fast for my poor copy.

So I did it. I sent my call. I was really sketchy. I ~think~ I sent it right, and I ~think~ I heard it right. Managed to pound a 5NN in CO back to him, I think he sent a 5NN back (too fast haha). Before I could send a 73, he was back to CQ's. I'm calling it good. Besides, I got 'em PSK earlier anyway.

So there it was, my first CW contact! In a contest no less. Bwahahaha

Damn this is fun.

Thanks for blindly giving me the nudge, 444.

Last year, I got really irritated at one 13 colonies operator - it may have been the same guy - who was acting like it was a rag chew instead of a contest station.  He would want to have a lengthy QSO with every station that called him.

It drove me up a wall since I couldn't break through the "pileup" that the colonies station operator had created himself!  I finally did and then moved on to the other colonies stations that were acting like contest stations.

I didn't even get a chance to work any stations this year.  Just way too busy over the holiday week and I didn't take any time off from work.

Got all thirteen plus the Wm3pen bonus on CW this year, never even heard the Brit station.

And that my friend, is all there is to it.

Congrats

It's nice to know I might have helped someone out.

Finally!  All 13 plus WM3PEN. Just barely heard the GB station. Never at a level at which I could work them cleanly. All SSB, six stations with 450W and the other eight with 100W all on 20m or 40m with a multiband vertical.

I'd echo much of the sentiment of the thread. Much harder this year than in the past. Propagation sure wasn't helping plus someone left the door of the Lid Asylum open, handed them mics, and pointed them at the DX clusters. I've not felt the need to administer the Wouff-Hong so badly to so many in a long time. Maybe they need to add a question to the General and Extra test. Can you count from 0 to 9 and identify each correctly when spoken in plain English? And the follow on question "What does by the numbers mean?" And re-test a lot of current licensees.

73

Why don't you give SKCC a try? The exchange is more detailed, but we'lll slow down to a speed you're comfortable with.

You'll be surprised at how fast your speed will increase when you're involved in real-world QSOs.

I pulled out my Arrow dual bad yagi to listen to some satellites today and was suprised to have a quick contact with K2H on the AO-85 satellite, so now I can say I got to participate.

Wow!

Just another example of how great some of these 13 Colonies stations are. Unlike a couple of others...

Didn’t get to participate this year with my new baby boy.
But did win a 991-A in a raffle today.

Decided to pay it forward. There was a young kid there that talked about using his birthday money for the raffle. So I offered him a IC-706, LDG Tuner and a power supply for $20.

Outstanding

Shout out to the guys at K2H.

I had emailed them to thank them for taking the time to slow down for my 'funky fist' contact (especially late in the contest).

They sent me an MP3 of it! So now I've got a recording of my first CW QSO. Way cool of them.

Thanks, Frank. Y'know, I signed up and received my SKCC number, but have been working with a paddle (don't yet own a straight key) - so I figured that probably wouldn't be right...

At least I'm working with character speeds at 20WPM, its my word speed that's atrocious.

I finally got K2D Thursday night.  I was on battery power and using a 70 ft end fed antenna,
I sat through 3 rounds of his " by the numbers " with mini QSOs every other contact and
occasional request for logs with contacts in counties K2D was still chasing  

I was the last 2 he took on my fourth go around - I'm not sure if I would have stuck around for
another try.

I heard the Brit Friday night on the same set up operating a 40 meter split but he never heard me.

I'll throw my log and 10 bucks in an envelope just because for all my bitching this is still a favorite
contest of mine and it earns my support.  Thanks aa777888-2 for starting this thread again.

Clean Sweep + WM3PEN

Well, here's to putting another 13 Colonies special event in the record books! The seventh year for me. This year was TOUGH! IMHO, not because of band conditions, but because there were a couple of stations, and one in particular, that just didn't hold up their end of the bargain. This brought out the worst kind of pile-up behaviors in many of us, and I'll include myself in that doghouse as well.

As usual, CW op's had a better time of it, and the one bad-boy station did seem to work quite a bit of CW. I worked 100% phone and had no difficulties if a station was reasonably audible (but they had to be on the air to work ), and I only have 500W, a high dipole and an inverted-L, so nothing outlandish. GB13COL seemed to be on 20M and 40M for the entire contest and put in plenty of air time. Luckily I have a good 20M antenna for working the UK (it beams just a tad too North for really good work into mainland Europe).

Arfcom interest was definitely flagging this year (hah, a pun ), with the thread only going 2 pages instead of the 4 pages it did for the last two years, and not nearly so many "clean sweep" results. It seemed interest wasn't that high on the air, either, as the pile-ups for all but the bad-boy stations were not particularly spectacular.

FT8 played this year, although I did not bite into that apple. I did try to raise K2K on PSK31 but that was in a fit of desperation in the first 4 days when K2K forgot they were supposed to be working 80M (and 160M) for same state/adjacent states. Once they remembered that 80M existed I picked them up right away.

My proverbial hat is off to K2H. Working the sat's and recording people's first CW contact--incredible! I wish there was a 13 Colonies blog or mailing list or something where we could give them feedback.

Here are this year's arfcom results. Please post additions and corrections as required:

Honorable Mention

D_Man, for working K2H on the AO-85 satellite--WOW!

Clean Sweep + WM3PEN

weaponeer1911
444
Kvanderploeg
masfonos
SargeRN
dbjones59
Seldom_Seen_Smith
ROADFLARE
glockster

Clean Sweep + WM3PEN + GB13COL

Jester_MP
aa777888-2
planemaker
Dirtracer49
MyOtherGlock

From what I read, one of the k2's  got booted from the Facebook group for poor behavior.

Serious goodwill and an outstanding gesture.

Hmmm...didn't even know there was a FB group, not a big FB guy here. Let's see now...yes...DAMN, I should have been on the FB group during the event so I could have maximized my whining! Oh, such a wasted opportunity! I will be sure to be on that group next year

P.S. apparently it was K2H, who was the sat guy and the nice guy with the recording, being chastised for how he required a donation for a QSL card

One thing I found interesting about this year's "contest". When I was trying GB13COL, I'd throw out my callsign using the usual ICAO phonetics. Nada for 5-6 times. Then, I changed my last two from "uniform oscar" to "united ontario". Boom, first try. Thinking it was a fluke, I tried working K2D using the regular phonetics. Again, nada for 5-6 times. Threw out the funky version, boom, first shot.

I'm thinking anything that can get the operator's attention in a subtle way works to your advantage when there's a pile-up. I only had 100W and an end-fed wire so I wasn't going to compete with the legal-limit amp guys with beam antennas. My end-fed worked really well on 40m (mostly 1.0-1.1 SWR) but wasn't that good on 20m (~2.2) or 80m (~2.6).

I did actually make contact with one of the k2x stations on 18Mhz. I was just spinning the dials and hitting the band buttons to see if some were hiding in other bands. I felt bad for the guy since there was virtually nobody up there. So, even tho I'd worked that one already, I responded to his QSO anyway.

Yes, doing something different to get the other stations attention is a good thing (within reason).
A common trick on CW is to tune just ever so slightly off frequency so that the tone of your signal is a few hundred htz different in pitch than everyone else.

I got sidetracked by the SKCC sprint, so only worked 9 colonies plus WM3PEN.

Using non-standard phonetics is a classic pile-up technique.

It's okay to work SKCC stations with paddles as long as you're not in a sprint or scoring them for your Centurion, Tribune, or Senator awards. Just get on and enjoy some QSOs.
You can find some usable sraight keys on eBay. As long as the contacts are not badly burned, they can usually be put back in working order. (Never file contasts; use a relay contact burnishing tool.)

A take home point on this subject:

This is how I got seriously into QRP.

Something similar happened to me. I was trying to work a station, and I did something a little different and he answered me. Shortly there after I stumbled upon a DX station who had just got on the air and I was the first one to work him. And at that point, I realized that these stations COULD hear me. It wasn't about the power, again, they could hear me. It was about being at the right place on your VFO where the other station is listening (when working split). And it is about getting noticed (not heard, but noticed). It isn't really about power, it is about operator skill.

Instead of just going toe to toe with everybody else and running more and more power to get to the top of the pileup, you use other techniques to get through the pileup by virtue of your wits. I guess it would be similar to  some big stout oaf vs a skilled and polished boxer. It's similar to some guy road hunting with a .338 Lapua vs a bow hunter who carefully scouted the area and knows where they deer are and when they are there.

And this is the reason I like to work stations that are operating split. Instead of just being a slug fest, it allows you to use your skills to work the station instead of just raw power. Even if they are operating simplex, you can try tail-ending; calling as soon as the two stations in QSO finish but before the guy calls CQ again. You can also try waiting in a pileup for a second or two so that you are the last guy calling after everybody else as made their call, you can use different phonetics or on CW call slightly off frequency......................But, when the desired station is operating simplex, your options are severely limited. His working split opens up a lot more possibilities and make a much more level playing field. With him working split, the name of the game is to figure out or predict where he is listening. No matter how much power you run or how big your antenna, if you arn't transmitting where he is listening; you are not going to be heard. On the other hand, if you are running five watts into a mag loop and you ARE transmitting right where he is listening; you are going to work him while the kalifornia kilowatt station continues to call on the wrong frequency.

Anyone else work all QRP?  I didn't think it was as bad as it could have been.  Especially considering I was working them all from the deck, on battery power, and a portable antenna setup.

I just got my General and a station setup back in April so this was my first year with this event. I hit everyone but K2C, K2H and the British station. I heard K2C but just couldn't get him. I don't know how many times I heard "Your on with Alan" and "I hope you had a great 4th". I REALLY wanted to get Alan but it was not meant to be. At one point I just got decimated by West coast guys who clearly had high powered beams just blasting into my headset. I never heard K2H or the British station good enough to even try a contact. I'm in central Iowa and either they didn't have beams or just never had them aimed my way when I was listening.

At the end of the event though I was very happy with my results and it was a lot of fun! It was good because the weather here was great this weekend so I would clean the garage some and go in and mess with the radio and get a contact or two and then go back out do some more work and then hit up the radio again. It was really fun and I sure do appreciate all the folks involved who planned everything and who worked the radios!

FYI, my radio is an Icom 706 MKII and the antenna is a well used Cushcraft R7 and they are connected with 200' of LMR-400 coax. I'm still hoping to get an Icom 7300 someday but the borrowed 706 is a good radio and the HF stuff has been waaaaaay more fun than I thought it would be!

aa777888-2, you can add me, SargeRN to the Clean Sweep + WM3PEN list.
Thanks,
Sarge

Sorry, disregard saw me on the up-dated list!