ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: P40A
Operator(s): KK9A
Station: P40A
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 194 44
80: 491 54
40: 702 58
20: 1551 59
15: 2038 59
10: 279 40
-------------------
Total: 5255 314 Total Score = 4,950,210
Club:
Comments:
I arrived in Aruba a few days before the contest and I quickly set up my
station. I had not been there since November and I was happy to find that
everything was still working. I had time to enjoy the beach for two days and I
also had a nice pre-contest dinner with P40W. I started the contest on 20m and
after 40 minutes the band quickly went dead forcing me to go to 40m earlier than
I would have liked to. The low bands were very quiet so I stayed up all night
switching between 40m, 80m and 160m averaging a little over 100 contacts and
hour. When the sun came up I switched to 20m where I enjoyed faster runs.
About an hour later I switched to 15m, where I stayed most of the day. I knew
that getting multipliers on 10m would be challenging so I kept my second radio
tuned to that band. Finally around 19:00Z I heard P49MR working stations on
this band so I switched bands and called CQ. I got some responses, but the
rates were horrible. I didn?t know if the opening would get better or worse so
I toughed it out, although I did make a few jumps to 20m at times just for some
rate excitement. Finally at 2145Z I left 10m and cycled between 15m and 20m
working stations at a somewhat rapid rate until 20m closed around 0050Z. I had
less success on the low bands during the second night, probably because I worked
so many of the bigger stations during the first night. Eventually, I could not
stay awake with these slow rates so I took a long four hour nap, hoping that
things would pick up when the sun came out. On Sunday I again alternated
between 20m and 15m and kept one ear on 10m. 15m was in fantastic shape on both
days and I received excellent signal reports and pretty good rates, however P40W
who is further inland apparently did not have the same success on this band for
some strange reason. I switched to 10m around 2000Z and the band was open to
different areas than on Saturday, which helped me with some missing multipliers.
On 10m, signals were not strong and many times I had to repeat my exchange
several times, however finding new multipliers near the end of the contest was
exciting. I finished up the contest on a very crowded 20m band. I never had
any super fast rates, my best 60 minutes occurred on 15m Saturday morning when
I worked 234 stations. I was not close to K9PG?s (WP3R) 6,028,056 point
record that he set two years ago, however at this point in the sun spot cycle I
am happy with the outcome and I had a lot of fun. P43JB had a nice post
contest party at his home where many local and visiting hams attended. After
the contest, it was time to work on the station and house. Fortunately, my QSL
manager, WD9DZV / P40D, volunteered to fly to Aruba and help for a week. We
removed most of the antennas and installed a new 40m 2 element beam and then
reinstalled the 20m beam after doing some maintenance on it. We also
installed the base and first three sections of a second tower and made a few
repairs around the house before going back home. Thanks to everyone for the
QSO?s, especially the 43 stations who worked me on all six bands. QSL via
WD9DZV.
73,
John KK9A / P40A
p40a@iguanavilla.com
http://www.qrz.com/p40a
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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