CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: P40A
Operator(s): KK9A
Station: P40A
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 80 8 19
80: 250 16 49
40: 550 22 73
20: 1900 29 103
15: 2250 33 101
10: 670 11 20
------------------------------
Total: 5700 119 365 Total Score = 8,000,000
Club:
Comments:
My wife and I arrived in Aruba about a week before the contest to enjoy our
wedding anniversary vacation. We did the usual tourist things such as dine out,
shop and visit the beaches. Just before the contest we brought some old bread
with during our snorkeling at Baby Beach. A large number of fish immediately
surrounded us once I opened the bag under water. I fed the fish and they became
quite aggressive, one even bit my finger. (Fortunately this didn?t impair my
typing in the contest!) It was quite a site and the other snorkels in the area
also seemed to enjoy the show. The weather in October is pretty warm (low 90?s
F, 33C) so being near the water is the best place to be. I did have to do a
little antenna maintenance as I noticed a hose clamp broke on my 20m beam. I
was able to loosen the antenna and tip the element toward the tower to repair
it. Unfortunately, I believe the antennas will need to come down soon since
corrosion will likely cause more of the clamps to break. Aruba is a wonder
place to vacation, however the climate is really harsh on antennas and towers.
I spent two long days scraping and painting the tower in March and it probably
should have been done again, however I chose not to work too much on this trip.
Our home is on a small lot and having efficient low band antennas is a
challenge. For CQ WW I put up a pennant and a very short beverage. On 160m the
pennant seems to work well, however on 80m the short beverage was better.
Aruba is very noisy so good low band receive antennas are a necessity. For CQWW
Phone, conditions were not as good as last year, which I operated in the 5 watts
QRP category, so I decided to jump up to the 100 watt LP category for this
year?s event. Just before the contest, the microphone arm fell off of my Heil
headset and the display quit working on one of my Yaesu FT1000MP Mark-V?s. For
a temporary fix I simply drilled a hole through the arm and used a bolt and nut
to secure the microphone arm. Three years ago the display also went out on my
Yaesu just before a CQWW Phone contest and I had to borrow a transceiver. This
time I was prepared (at least I thought so) and I had a spare inverter board
with me to repair the radio. Unfortunately early Saturday morning the display
on my second Yaesu FT1000MP Mark-V also quit working. I did not have a second
inverter board or the time to fix it, so most of my second radio QSO?s were done
in the dark. Writelog did show the approximate frequency, however it was
somewhat awkward to use. On Saturday night my pennant?s pre-amp quit working.
I later learned that connecting the beverage to the same input as the pennant
caused the RF choke on the power supply to fail, since the coax is used to
supply the 12 volts to the pre-amp. The pennant still worked somewhat so I just
ignored this problem and continued forward. On 10m, the band openings were in
very limited areas. I never worked the west coast of the U.S. or Europe. I did
have some very high rates on this band for short durations, including making
over 200 QSO?s in 30 minutes. 15m and 20m were in great shape and I?m very
pleased with my score on these bands. My quickest 60 minute period was
Saturday afternoon on 15m where I made 364 QSO?s. 40m also appeared to be in
excellent shape, however it was pretty crowded and I got bumped around a lot.
On 80m I worked whatever I could hear without too much difficulty, but certainly
a longer beverage would have helped me work more stations. On 160m I could hear
pretty well using the pennant, however my shortened vertical with a compromise
ground system just wasn?t efficient enough for many to hear me. It was
frustrating to hear a number of multipliers on this band, especially European
multipliers, who just kept calling CQ when I tried to work them. Even from a
small city lot, this contest is a lot of fun. In fact, it was so much fun I
really never got out of the chair for the first 28 hours. Then when I started
to struggle on the low bands Saturday night I decided to take a food break and a
nap. I was pretty refreshed on Sunday and things went pretty well so I?m glad
that I rested a little. After the contest I went outside, sat in the Jacuzzi,
sipped on a Balashi (beer brewed in Aruba) and dreamed of next year?s contest.
Thank you for all of the QSO?s, especially the 50 stations that worked me on 5
bands and the 17 stations that managed to work me on all six bands. Please QSL
via WD9DZV.
73,
John KK9A / P40A
p40a@iguanavilla.com
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|