ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: 6Y1V
Operator(s): WE9V K9NW W8MP 6Y5NW KY1V
Station: 6Y1V
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Jamaica
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
--------------------
160: 553 56
80: 1283 58
40: 2425 60
20: 3823 61
15: 2208 60
10: 27 2
--------------------
Total: 10319 297 Total Score = 9,191,556
Club:
Comments:
First I would like to thank Chad WE9V and Mike K9NW for returning to 6Y1V for
another contest. Mike, K9NW was instrumental to our 2008 ARRL DX SSB M/2
victory and Chad WE9V to our 2008 CQ WPX SSB victory and new NA record.
Both of these guys are excellent operators [machines] and kept their butts in
the chair even during the wee hours of the morning. It was kind of funny
showing up in the morning and watching them press the button in a synchronized
fashion with a head-bob, then springing to life when someone responded.
Originally planned to be a 3 man operation, we were surprised to have two guest
ops join us at the last minute. Just before the contest started, I received a
call from Mark Pinsky W8MP, whom I had previously met at the Dayton Contest
Dinner, to inform me he could hop a Northwest flight from Detroit to Jamaica on
Saturday (Mark's a Northwest Airbus Pilot) to join us for about 20 hours of the
contest.
On Saturday, my friend Nyron 6Y5NW showed up and after a little prodding I was
able to get him to take over the 15 meter station. Nyron has never contested
(at least not during his multiple visits to 6Y1V) before and although
unfamiliar with the software, equipment and the exchange, fell into his own
after a dozen or so Q's. Nyron was able to quickly master the art of running
small burst pileups and operated for several hours Saturday afternoon. Of
particular interest was Nyrons remarkable ability to operate an SSB contest
without raising his voice in excitement when the pileup grew.
Overall, we were blessed this contest. The station was in excellent working
order when we arrived and no major repairs were needed. I brought brand new
Heil ear pads for the headsets and a couple of Diawa coax switches for the new
160 meter antennas and that's it.
On 160, we had a new Delta Loop that my partner Krassy installed two weeks
earlier for the ARRL CW contest. It performed well, although we discovered it
was only slightly stronger than the NW sloper to most of the US. For working
Europe, it is a significant improvement to the station.
Friday was an excellent night for us. Our first hour produced 521 Q's between
20 and 40 meters. We almost matched that rate during the same hour of day 2
with 480 Q's. 160 and 80 meters were a real treat to operate the first night
with no noise at all and the S meter resting on 0 when no signals were heard.
It was sort of surreal, almost like operating 10 meters. I managed a 211 hour
on 160 during the 3rd hour and a 280 hour on 80 meters during the 4th hour of
the contest.
During Chad's first two hours on 20 meters and my 2 hours split between 160 and
80, Mikey kept up a consistent 200+/hr pace on 40 meters for the first 5 hours
of the contest.
By the time I woke the next morning, we already had 5000 Q's in the log. If we
could have sustained those rates, we could have easily made over 15,000 Q's,
but it was not meant to be. In fact, with a 6Y1V record high of 3823 Q's on 20
meters, I am wondering if there was anyone we didn't work?
We managed to increase our Q counts on all bands except 40 (short about 200
from last year) and 10 meters which never really opened at our location. WE
have a 3rd radio on 10 meters around the clock and each time we saw activity on
the scope, it ended up being someone south of us working a US station which we
simply could not hear.
A single 10 meter Q on Saturday was all we could muster and a handful on Sunday
all coming from the same location, Texas. Even when everyone else experienced an
opening on Sunday, we could only hear the DX side of the contacts. Repeated CQ's
with the antennas sweeping the US 10 degrees at a time produced no results; I
can't wait for some sunspots.
Overall the station performed flawlessly, my guest operators were absolutely
fantastic and reports from the US were frequently "You're the loudest signal on
the band" which was realized by the constant flow of new stations to work.
It's certainly a more fun weekend when there is always someone calling you.
Thanks to everyone that is in our logs, we appreciate the contact.
QSL via OH3RB and please include a little something for his hard work answering
the tens of thousands of QSL requests annually.
David ~ KY1V
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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