ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: PJ4D
Operator(s): N0VD
Station: PJ4D
Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: Bonaiare
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 2623 59
15:
10:
-------------------
Total: 2623 59 Total Score = 463,917
Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado
Comments:
For the previous four years I have operated the CW leg of the ARRL DX contest
from PJ2T. Deciding it was time for something a little different and the fact I
wanted to return to Bonaire, I chose to skip the CW leg in favor of giving SSB a
go.
A recent addition to Bonaire is Steve, PJ4DX (ex: 9M6DXX). Steve lives in the
other half of the duplex that I had rented and he had indicated that he’d
like to also participate in the contest. Since I am not a 48 “BIC” kind of
guy, I had thought about doing some flavor of Multi with PJ4DX & PJ4NX, but
having recently sold the bulk of my Bonaire gear to W4PA, that option didn’t
seem very feasible. That and the fact that all of our antennas and equipment
are put up Field Day style, trying to organize and setup a big operation felt
like a lot more work than I wanted to tackle.
After some discussions, we decided on single band efforts �" Steve would
do 10M, I would take 15M - PJ4NX ultimately turned out to be off the island
during the contest. After getting my antenna in the air (a C3SS @ 30’) and
doing a little testing, we found it would be pretty difficult to run 10 and 15
together. We were interfering with each other and finding a solution was
unlikely. Plus the line noise on 15 was horrendous. Picking out any signals
below about S7-8 would have been a real challenge. What we did learn, however,
is that neither of us bothered each other when on 10 and 20 �" so that
became the new plan.
Having done multiple contests from PJ2 and PJ4, I knew 20M would be painful to
the states between about 11:00 �" 16:00 local so I anticipated having
plenty of time off. While Qs can be made, the rate is typically something in
the order of just a few per hour. Prior to our sunset and into the evening is
our prime time into the states and that proved to be true once again. I saw
nearly half of my Qs come in the first 6 hours of the contest.
The rest of the contest played out pretty much as expected. Holding a
frequency during the NA-EU openings often proved to be difficult, but
occasionally the little Field Day setup surprised me. Once EU propagation faded
and the stateside guys began looking south, the fun began.
In the end this little peanut whistle did surprisingly well ending with 2623
QSOs. I had hoped for 60 mults but apparently missed a couple as I see many of
the bigger stations found my missing ones. But as always, being able to come
to the Caribbean play a little radio, look at some fish, down a few liquid
beverages and generally enjoy “island time” is always well worth the trip.
Thanks again for allowing me to get into your log!
Kelly - N0VD / PJ4D
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