CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2020
Call: P40W
Operator(s): W2GD
Station: P40W
Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 40
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 26 7 9
80: 452 19 53
40: 1152 27 81
20: 1698 28 92
15: 1774 29 97
10: 501 19 39
------------------------------
Total: 6503 129 371 Total Score = 8,171,500
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
Station Description:
K3S, MLA2500 @ 900W, Win-Test 4.28 Software on Laptop
160m Vertical Dipole and Inverted V,
80m Inverted V + 3 ele wire beam EU
40m F12 Delta 240 + 4 ele wire beam EU
20/15/10 - F12 C31XR + F12 C3S @ 60ft
Beverages NE, NW, E/W, N/S
Aruba closed its border to all outsiders just two days before my scheduled
flight down for RDXC and WPX PH. USA residents were once again allowed entry
beginning July 10th. Covid-19 forced cancellation of island visits planned for
WPX PH, RDXC, WPX CW, and IARU Radiosport over the last six months. It was
great to finally enjoy a contest from One Happy Island!
Without maintenance the past eight months nature took it's toll. The initial
assessment listed one failed rotator, three wire antenna center insulator
failures (all due to salt intrusion), two failed feed lines, a near failure of
the rope catenary supporting the 80/40 wire beams, the NW beverage broken in
three places, and 200 feet of wire completely missing a the far end of the NE
beverage. I never know what I'll find upon arrival. An most unusual all day
rain event on Tuesday compressed the prep schedule. But a marathon of repairs on
Wednesday relieved the anxiety. With help from AE6Y/P40Y the three hour task of
deploying the 80 and 40 wire beams was much more fun this year - TNX Andy!
This was the first high power CQWW Phone entry for me after many years of low
power operations. The generous donation of a thirty year old MLA2500B amplifier
by K3NM and it's restoration by W2NO proved to be a real winner. TNX to you
both!
Conditions at the start of the contest were terrible - it had my head shaking -
I didn't seem to have the patience needed to keep pressing the F1 button. Even
stations I called in S/P mode were a struggle. Fortunately things improved from
the forth hour onward. But 80 and 160 were very difficult with a locally solid
S9 noise level plus 20 db static crashes. The Carib, YV in particular, was full
of T-storms. Absorption was clearly a problem too with the K index at 4.
Several Carib stations on 160 that are normally 20 over were a miserable S7.
Enough said.
At sunrise the agony continued. The normal sunrise 20m opening was non-existent
- ultimately delayed more than an hour. Fortunately 15 meters to EU followed
shortly thereafter, producing good rates for many hours to EU. The transition to
20m was sweetened with 259 and 280 clock hours. Kept checking ten meters and
worked a random group of SA EU and US but never a real opening ... that would
come Sunday.
It didn't seem possible but 160m was even worse the second night ... the local
T-storms had abated but there simply were no signals to work due to absorption.
Not a single European was heard on 160 - for the first time in years. Absence
of the normal CQWW DXpeditions was strikngly evident too. It seems Covid-19
probably took off the table 60 to 80 routinely workable multipliers over the
weekend.
Ten meters finally broke open strong Sunday afternoon for just over two hours,
offering a smattering of EU, North AF, SA and 350 USA/VE stations coast to
coast.
Only seven stations were worked on six bands: P49Y, K3WW, NV9L AA1K, K3CT,
KC1XX and N9NB ... thank you! In a regular year this list would easily be 50 or
more stations long.
Late afternoon high rate runs to the USA/VE on 15 and 20 were the highlight
of the contest.
Finished the contest on a high note working four new mults in the last five
minutes.
Will hopefully return to Aruba again in four weeks for CQWW CW.
73,
John, W2GD
RATE by Band
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 0 0 56 13 0 0 69 69 1.2
0100 3 11 12 6 0 0 32 101 1.8
0200 1 7 53 1 1 1 64 165 2.9
0300 0 0 237 0 0 0 237 402 7.2
0400 3 12 65 0 0 0 80 482 8.6
0500 0 125 4 0 0 0 129 611 10.9
0600 10 36 27 0 0 0 73 684 12.2
0700 1 2 76 1 0 0 80 764 13.6
0800 0 12 22 2 0 0 36 800 14.3
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 800 14.3
1000 0 2 0 24 0 0 26 826 14.7
1100 0 0 0 74 49 0 123 949 16.9
1200 0 0 0 0 167 2 169 1118 20.0
1300 0 0 0 0 143 6 149 1267 22.6
1400 0 0 0 0 219 0 219 1486 26.5
1500 0 0 0 0 224 3 227 1713 30.6
1600 0 0 0 5 176 0 181 1894 33.8
1700 0 0 0 90 114 13 217 2111 37.7
1800 0 0 0 259 0 0 259 2370 42.3
1900 0 0 0 73 9 52 134 2504 44.7
2000 0 0 0 280 0 0 280 2784 49.7
2100 0 0 0 22 104 0 126 2910 51.9
2200 0 0 10 90 1 0 101 3011 53.7
2300 0 1 60 10 0 0 71 3082 55.0
0000 0 0 195 0 0 0 195 3277 58.5
0100 0 131 21 0 0 0 152 3429 61.2
0200 0 58 6 1 0 0 65 3494 62.4
0300 0 8 74 0 0 0 82 3576 63.8
0400 1 1 116 0 0 0 118 3694 65.9
0500 0 0 20 0 0 0 20 3714 66.3
0600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3714 66.3
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3714 66.3
0800 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 3719 66.4
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3719 66.4
1000 1 46 0 0 0 0 47 3766 67.2
1100 0 0 94 0 0 0 94 3860 68.9
1200 0 0 3 11 55 0 69 3929 70.1
1300 0 0 0 2 70 0 72 4001 71.4
1400 0 0 0 0 100 0 100 4101 73.2
1500 0 0 0 3 21 3 27 4128 73.7
1600 0 0 0 1 116 1 118 4246 75.8
1700 0 0 0 0 10 139 149 4395 78.4
1800 0 0 0 0 0 243 243 4638 82.8
1900 0 0 0 107 2 38 147 4785 85.4
2000 0 0 0 58 153 0 211 4996 89.2
2100 0 0 1 143 40 0 184 5180 92.5
2200 0 0 0 256 0 0 256 5436 97.0
2300 1 0 0 166 0 0 167 5603 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 26 452 1152 1698 1774 501 5603
----------------- C o n t i n e n t S u m m a r y -----------------
160 80 40 20 15 10 Total Pct
---------------------------------------------------------------------
North America 22 364 934 1266 1013 378 3977 71.0
South America 4 8 30 58 53 74 227 4.1
Europe 0 74 160 338 666 34 1272 22.7
Asia 0 1 15 23 17 0 56 1.0
Africa 0 2 4 9 17 12 44 0.8
Oceania 0 3 9 4 8 3 27 0.5
--------------------------------------------------------------
Total 26 452 1152 1698 1774 501 5603
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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