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[3830] WPX CW PJ2T(WI9WI) SOAB LP

To: 3830@contesting.com, jhfitzpa@wisc.edu
Subject: [3830] WPX CW PJ2T(WI9WI) SOAB LP
From: webform@b4h.net
Reply-to: jhfitzpa@wisc.edu
Date: Tue, 27 May 2014 13:08:24 +0000
List-post: <3830@contesting.com">mailto:3830@contesting.com>
                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): WI9WI
Station: PJ2T

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Signal Point Curacao
Operating Time (hrs): 35.6

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:    0
   40:  685
   20:  468
   15: 1020
   10:  628
------------
Total: 2801  Prefixes = 931  Total Score = 9,643,298

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

This was the 11th year of the past 12 that I have operated WPX CW from the PJ2T
station. The first seven years I did SOABHP with some success. It got boring
doing the same thing year after year,  so each of the last five years I've done
something different. Last year it was SOABQRP. The choices this year were SOAB
QRP again,  SOAB LP, or a single band effort. I couldn't see wasting what may
be the best high point in the sun spot cycle for the next who knows how many
years on a single band effort, so I chose to do LP. The station was in good
shape with a couple of exceptions. The 40 meter beam has been stuck on Europe
for months due to a rusted and frozen thrust bearing. Needless to say this
hurts our signal into and reception from the US and JA. Also there is high
noise on all of the antennas pointed at the US/JA due to some arcing in the
power lines to the west of the station. There has been little rain here for
months so the noise is pretty bad. This noise ranges from 5 to 12 dB more than
that on the European ridge antenna and makes it impossible to copy some of the
weaker signals from the US/JA. I spent a lot of time working the US on the
European antennas when the bands were open in both directions due to better
copy on them.

The contest went very well. I opted to start on 15 because I knew I could get
my best rates there, and indeed my first hour was the best of the contest with
133 QSOs in the log. The next best hour was 127 on 10 meters and I had 6 other
hours in the low 100s. After 90 minutes I went to 40 to work as many 6 pointers
as I could the first night. I have found over the years that there seems to be
much better activity on 40 the first night than the second and again this was
the case. Forty was very noisy from the usual May Caribbean thunderstorms, with
noise levels of S 7 to S 9 most of the night. I had to ask for lots and lots of
repeats. The beverages helped a lot, but some signals would disappear
completely when I switched to them. At the end of night one I had almost 500 6
pointers in the log. The second night yielded about 200 more, even though the
noise levels were a bit less, but the reduced activity had me on 20 meters a
good deal of the night. The past few years I have used an SDR radio (a Flex
1500) to monitor activity on other bands with my laptop. This gives me a good
idea of when it is time to switch bands. PJ2T is not really set up for SO2R, so
I used one radio the entire contest. Twenty was open 24 hours a day, as was 15,
though there was a lot less activity on 15 during the night. During the early
morning hours after midnight, 20 was open to all areas of the world at the same
time with very strong signals. Ten meters gave good openings to Europe and the
US, particularly in the mid afternoon. High summer noise levels in the
Caribbean and low activity lead me to completely ignore 80 and 160 in this
contest from here.

Congratulations to John, W2GD at P44W across the way on Aruba for what looks to
be the winning score. We never worked, and I never heard him during the entire
contest. Every QSO I made was running. There was not a single S&P QSO in
the log. My strategy when operating low power or QRP is to operate high in the
band, mostly above 060. There is more space up there and you are much less
likely to be run off your frequency, even on 40 meters. In fact I really only
lost one frequency battle the entire contest. I think that the skimmer and the
cluster networks have changed the game for low power stations. If you are CQing
on a relatively clear frequency the skimmers will pick you up, and the masses
will find you, even high in the band where stations wouldn't even tune in days
past. It is no longer necessary to sit low in the band in kilowatt alley and
fight and wait for S&P stations to find you.

Thanks to everyone for the QSOs (and all the fills), and hopefully I'll see you
next year.


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