ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST -- 1998
Call: WP3R(KB3AFT op) Country: Puerto Rico
Mode: SSB Category: Single Operator High
Power
BAND QSO QSO PTS STATES/PROV
160 134 402 34
80 439 1317 57
40 887 2661 56
20 1662 4986 60
15 1303 3909 59
10 1090 3270 54
-----------------------------------
Totals 5515 16545 320 = 5,294,400
Soap-Box by WA3FET
Jim Spence, KB3AFT, flew down to Puerto Rico on Thursday and operated
the station which has just been built on a 12 acre farm of Jim Breakall,
WA3FET, near the Arecibo Observatory (home of the 1000 foot dish
antenna). This property has a mountaintop on it that is the highest
point around and which has a clear view of the ocean to the northwest
thru north around to the northeast. This past month WA3FET and others
planned and constructed the station. The top of the mountain was solid
rock and the tower base and anchors had to be dug out with a commercial
jack-hammer system which took 2 solid days for this tedious and
laborious job alone. The tower is 60 foot of Rohn 55 and the cement had
to be pumped up the mountain some 300 feet with a separate pump truck
connected to a cement truck. What a sight and job that was!!!!
Nathan Miller, NW3Z, optimized an interlace design of separate 6
element 20M and 6 element 15M OWA yagis all on a 48 foot 3 inch diameter
boom with separate feedlines. The elements are designed for 120 MPH
winds and the tower is Rohn 110 MPH design, hopefully to make it through
any closeby hurricanes in the future. This large antenna is turned with
an M^2 Orion 2800 rotator at the top of the tower. Below this antenna
is a separate 6 element 10M OWA yagi on a 24 foot boom that is turned
with a TIC Ring rotator around the tower. For 160M and 80M, combo
inverted-V's were used from the top of the tower both fed from the same
feedpoint. On 40M, we strung a catenary from the top of the tower to
another lower mountaintop some 500 feet away towards the states. From
this was hung a 3 element inverted-V wire beam which was optimized for
gain and bandwidth and which really performed. We also had a 500 foot
Beverage antenna towards the states for 160M and 80M which was crucial
for receiving on these bands.
Equipment used was an FT1000MP and an Ameritron AL-1500. We used 260
feet of 1- 5/8 inch Andrews Heliax to make the run up the mountain
to an Ameritron switchbox. ALL operations were run with a 10KW
generator since we didn't have enough time to get electricity installed
at the property yet.
We were fortunate that all equipment worked throughout the weekend.
We have 2 shelters, one for the operating position and one for the
generator and storage. Bathroom facilities were of the outdoor
variety with tropical decor called trees and jungle with various insects
and lizards. (Eat your hearts out N2RM operators!!!).
Speaking of bathrooms, Jim, lost quite a few hours with an attack of
diaharea (Montezuma's Revenge) on Saturday night. We are really happy
that he didn't quit and was able to pull himself through this horrible
experience. Other events that plagued us were really noisy conditions
on the low bands (Beverages were essential!!!) and some of the worst
rain downpours one could ever get here. Interesting in that it hasn't
rained at all for about 4 weeks and it opens up contest weekend. We
hope to get electricity in the future and WP3R and others here on the
Island are going to keep this station active. I hope that we can make
1 or 2 trips a year down here from the states and put some really big
efforts in the future.
I want to personally give thanks to Angel, WP3R, for all the invaluable
help
and effort he provided and the use of his call for this and future
contests,
Nathan, NW3Z, for getting all the materials and strenuous work he
did on getting this station built and his amazing antenna designs, Jim,
KB3AFT, "the Pepto Bismol kid", who did a bang-up job on operating and
getting thru his sickness and the first time of operating out of the
states and his first ever single-op all band high power effort, NP4A,
Pedrito, for all of his help and supply of needed items, KP4TG, Papo,
for 2 weeks of hard labor on the mountain, Harry, WP4LTS, for working
the jack-hammer and a lot of supplies from his hardware store, KP4AET,
Juanito, for his help and inspiration on building this station, and many
other KP4 friends and visitors we had this past weekend and month.
73 de Jim, WA3FET
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults WP3R ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST Single
Operator High Power
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM
TOT
0 ..... ..... ..... 350/54 ..... ..... 350/54
350/54
1 . . 75/31 145/0 . . 220/31
570/85
2 . . 171/16 . . . 171/16
741/101
3 . 51/21 127/7 . . . 178/28
919/129
4 . 151/27 . . . . 151/27
1070/156
5 34/18 5/2 114/0 . . . 153/20
1223/176
6 18/0 107/4 . . . . 125/4
1348/180
7 12/3 . 117/0 . . . 129/3
1477/183
8 17/4 39/1 24/0 ..... ..... ..... 80/5
1557/188
9 2/0 15/0 25/0 . . . 42/0
1599/188
10 2/0 8/0 36/1 5/0 . . 51/1
1650/189
11 . . 26/0 43/0 . . 69/0
1719/189
12 . . . 106/2 10/8 . 116/10
1835/199
13 . . . . 219/27 . 219/27
2054/226
14 . . . . 136/9 . 136/9
2190/235
15 . . . . 66/9 140/27 206/36
2396/271
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 279/13 279/13
2675/284
17 . . . . . 196/4 196/4
2871/288
18 . . . . 191/5 7/0 198/5
3069/293
19 . . . . 199/0 . 199/0
3268/293
20 . . . 1/1 195/1 . 196/2
3464/295
21 . . . 154/2 3/0 . 157/2
3621/297
22 . . . 116/0 . . 116/0
3737/297
23 . . . 28/0 . . 28/0
3765/297
0 ..... ..... 10/0 94/1 ..... ..... 104/1
3869/298
1 . . 33/0 97/0 . . 130/0
3999/298
2 24/4 12/0 4/1 35/0 . . 75/5
4074/303
3 8/1 1/1 38/0 31/0 . . 78/2
4152/305
4 4/3 7/0 48/0 . . . 59/3
4211/308
5 4/0 . . . . . 4/0
4215/308
6 . . . . . . .
4215/308
7 . . . . . . .
4215/308
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
4215/308
9 . 13/0 16/0 . . . 29/0
4244/308
10 6/1 30/1 15/0 . . . 51/2
4295/310
11 . . 8/0 30/0 . . 38/0
4333/310
12 . . . 23/0 19/0 . 42/0
4375/310
13 . . . 29/0 14/0 . 43/0
4418/310
14 . . . 3/0 56/0 . 59/0
4477/310
15 . . . . 54/0 11/0 65/0
4542/310
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 77/0 1/0 78/0
4620/310
17 . . . . 64/0 80/7 144/7
4764/317
18 . . . . . 170/0 170/0
4934/317
19 . . . . . 113/2 113/2
5047/319
20 . . . . . 76/1 76/1
5123/320
21 . . . 93/0 . 17/0 110/0
5233/320
22 . . . 154/0 . . 154/0
5387/320
23 3/0 . . 125/0 . . 128/0
5515/320
DAY1 85/25 376/55 715/55 948/59 1019/59 622/44 .....
3765/297
DAY2 49/9 63/2 172/1 714/1 284/0 468/10 .
1750/23
TOT 134/34 439/57 887/56 1662/60 1303/59 1090/54 .
5515/320
--
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