Call: P40W (W2GD) Country: Aruba - Zone 11
(QSL via N2MM) Category: IARU CW Only, SOHP
BAND QSO QSO-PTS PTS/Q ZONES HQ STNS Antenna
160 54 238 4.41 12 3 InvV @ 65?
80 245 1137 4.64 21 10 InvV @ 67?
40 588 2810 4.78 33 18 2 el @ 71?
20 1263 6207 4.91 31 13 4 el @ 71?
15 281 1309 4.66 23 15 5 el @ 84?
10 19 79 4.16 5 3 5 el @ 77?
---------------------------------------------------
Totals 2450 11780 4.81 125 62
Score: 2,202,860 points
Operating time: 23.5 hours
Equipment Description: TS930S, Alpha 87A, Beverages to Eu and NA
************************************************************
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults P40W IARU HF CW Only Single Operator HP
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
12 ..... ..... ..... 114/16 42/13 ..... 156/29 156/29
13 . . . 87/4 29/2 . 116/6 272/35
14 . . . 87/2 24/0 . 111/2 383/37
15 . . . 54/5 42/3 . 96/8 479/45
16 . . . 52/1 17/6 . 69/7 548/52
17 . . . 67/1 21/0 . 88/1 636/53
18 . . . 113/1 4/2 . 117/3 753/56
19 . . . 143/2 5/0 . 148/2 901/58
20 ..... ..... ..... 120/1 7/2 ..... 127/3 1028/61
21 . . . 172/1 . . 172/1 1200/62
22 . . . 16/0 66/8 16/8 98/16 1298/78
23 . . 30/18 1/0 23/1 3/0 57/19 1355/97
00 . 43/13 1/0 57/4 . . 101/17 1456/114
01 20/8 36/3 13/2 14/0 . . 83/13 1539/127
02 5/1 1/0 40/2 27/1 1/1 . 74/5 1613/132
03 15/3 54/4 70/6 . . . 139/13 1752/145
04 12/1 ..... 147/6 ..... ..... ..... 159/7 1911/152
05 1/1 29/1 50/7 . . . 80/9 1991/161
06 . 15/0 70/1 3/0 . . 88/1 2079/162
07 1/1 34/6 23/2 . . . 58/9 2137/171
08 . 16/3 14/0 1/1 . . 31/4 2168/175
09 . 17/1 26/3 . . . 43/4 2211/179
10 . 104/4 . . . 104/4 2315/183
11 . . . 135/4 . . 135/4 2450/187
********************************************************************
Continent Statistics
P40W IARU HF Championship CW Single Operator HP
160 80 40 20 15 10 ALL Percent
North America 36 164 318 474 159 14 1165 47.6
South America 8 18 20 14 16 3 79 3.2
Europe 9 58 172 662 101 2 1004 41.0
Asia 0 0 66 106 2 0 174 7.1
Africa 1 0 1 2 2 0 6 0.2
Oceania 0 5 11 5 1 0 22 0.9
*****************************************************************
Long Story:
This turned out to be a nice vacation and contest all in one. My YL
Elaine (KB2ERI) and I only made the decision to celebrate my 48th
birthday on Aruba only 10 days before the contest. Fortunately there
were airline seats available and my travel agent, AB2E/V26E, found us a
delux hotel at a discounted rate.
Arrived on Aruba about 1 p.m. on the Wednesday afternoon before the
contest. After clearing customs, we immediately drove over to the
station to check out the condition of the antennas and rotor, to put up
the 600' beverage for Europe, and check out the TS930S and Alpha 87A to
make sure they survived the trip. At first both the xcvr and amplifier
did not want to work and the rotator was turning but showed no
indication of direction. On an expedition I was experiencing my your
worst fears - broken radios and antennas! At least Murphy was hitting
before the contest leaving time to recover. I never figured out what
was wrong with the rigs except that possibly they got some moisture or a
connector inside came loose during the trip down. After many false
starts they both eventually they came on and stayed on. The 87A in
particular wanted to fault everytime I tried it. Decided to let them
both "cook" out the problems by leaving them turned on for the next 24
hours. That seemed to do the trick. Ran some RF into the antennas and
found the swr on 20M was a bit high and changed from time to time. I
guess some moisture had gotten into the coax. My host told me Aruba had
been having daily showers all week before we arrived, and the island had
gotten very green since my visit for WPX only six weeks before. The SWR
seemed to stabilize after running the KW through it for a while. We
left the rotor problem for the next day and proceeded to the local
government office to pick up my special callsign authorization.
Checked into the hotel about 5 p.m. and found the accomodations on the
13th floor very nice with a great view of the beach. After a few hours
of rest (Elaine and I had to leave for the airport at 5:45 a.m. that
morning) we headed out for some dinner and a stop by the station to
check conditions.
Early Thursday morning (my birthday) I went back to the station alone
for a few hours to put up the other beverage and again check conditions.
The bands sounded terrible! Heard just a handful of signals on 20, all
weak, and nothing on 15 or 10. I was getting worried this might be a
very long contest if things didn't improve. Still no indication on the
rotor. Checking the resistence of the various cable combinations made
me think there was a broke connection. Left it till later. Went back
to the hotel, picked up Elaine, and went sightseeing until late that
afternoon. Even the heavy showers (like 2 inches of rain in 30 minutes
- - flooded roads everywhere) didn't prevent us from seeing the sights.
After all these years I am still impressed by the colors of the sea and
the flowering desert. So beautiful.
Later that afternoon, climbed the tower and found two broken wires at
the rotor. The salt air and constant trade winds had finally done their
work, even though everything had been well protected with "cork tape", a
black goooy product that comes on 2 inch wide roles that has proven to
be very effective keeping out the elements over the years, far better
than electrical tape. Got things haywired and working again. After a
nice walk on the beach back at the hotel, we celebrated my birthday with
a great seafood dinner.
Friday morning we visited Rodgers and Baby Beaches at the far end of the
island. As usual the water was warm and crystal clear. Then returned
to the hotel for a few hours relaxing by the pool before going out for
the traditional pre-contest pasta dinner and a final trip over to the
station to get the computer loaded and another check of band conditions.
20m sounded much better this evening and even worked a few Europeans on
80 and 160. Unfortunately I didn't check the 40m antenna very carefully
(more on this later).
After a fitful night's sleep, got on the road about 6:45 a.m Saturday
morning. Elaine was left to enjoy the beach and the hotel's room
service. Upon arrival at the station I found the wind had broken the
Eur. beverage. A quick slice had things quickly repaired. Everything
else seemed to be working. Checked 40/20/15/10 and nothing sounded very
good. I was beginning to wonder if my pre-contest goals of 2,000
contacts and 200 multipliers were realistic.
Decided to start on 20m. The rate was just "OK", nowhere near as
furious as CQWW or ARRL DX. Went to 15, did a quick S&P for HQ stations
and then found a clear frequency to call CQ. The first ten hours were
all about the same, alternating between 20 and 15, checking 10M twice an
hour, doing a few minutes of S&P to catch HQ stations on each band.
Predictably 20M got hot between 19-21 UTC. Had a 172 hour between
21-22Z which was my best of the contest, mostly a mix of Eu/US. After
the first 10 hours the average rate was 120/hr.
Just after 22z worked HQ station YV30T on 15m and moved them to 10m.
Also worked WD4AHZ and LU8HSO on ten but another few minutes of CQing
went unanswered. About 40 minutes later N6ZZ asked me to QSY to 10.
This time there were a few more stations, NU1AW being the loudest and
also managed to make 3 European contacts and several other W's. Moving
the beam from east to northwest didn't seem to change signal strengths
very much. End of 10m story! I'll never know if an opening was missed
at 11:30Z the following morning, I never listened.
As sundown approached (23z), made a sweep of 40 to catch the opening to
Africa and Asia as well as to work the loud European HQ stations. I
noticed the Alpha had tripped when I was running full power. After
several resets the same thing. Something was arcing whenever output
exceeded about 550 watts. Murphy strikes again! I "felt" weak and
repeated CQs at the reduced power level went unanswered. Went back to
20m and then 80m contemplating what to do (actually I was avoiding the
issue). Should I climb the tower and check the antenna, switch to the
80 or 160M antennas through a tuner, build a new antenna? Finally
decided at 0030z to climb the tower and replace a barrel connector that
had given me problems on prior trips. It was very spooky climbing in the
dark and with the wind blowing at 30+ knots. Well, replacement of the
barrel didn't fix it. Decided to tough it out at 500 watts.
Ironically, 40m later produced the best QSO rates and the most mults.
Tried to go to 160m on the hour. Was surprised when EA8/OH4NL/P called
in (how would you like that call) with a 20 over 9 signal. Manged to
work 9 Eu, many LU and PY, and even EM1HO who was very loud. Thanks to
W1AW/7 for calling. The static level was so low (S9) I could even hear
stations on the xmit antenna!
Through the "deep" night just kept moving between bands. Moved VK4EMM
from 20 to 15 at 0217Z for a new mult. I'm always amazed at how 15M
sounds so dead that time of day yet the path to Oc is almost always
open. Eventualy a number of other VK/ZL stations called in on 80 and
40. Thanks to VK6HD for sticking with it on 80m and then the QSY to 40
for a double. Never heard a JA on 80m but about sunrise (10:30z) 40
came alive with YB, UA0, and a nice run of JA. Finished the contest
with a 134 hour on 20m, primarily to OC/AS. Signals from JA were pretty
good and I was pleasantly surprised when called by BV7WB for zone 44 and
numerous UA0's in 33 and 34 for new mults. At the end, my score
exceeding what I hoped. The Europeans have the big advantage of working
more HQ stations for multipliers on more bands, but from South America,
almost all of the contacts are 5 pointers. It was interesting to note
that QSO totals were about evenly split between Europe and North
America, which shows how popular this contest is in Europe.
At 12:01 UTC the rigs were turned off, the log saved to diskette, and I
got to work dismantling and packing for the return trip late that
afternoon. It really felt good to get back on the beach for a much
needed rest some 3 hours later.
This contest has a little bit of everything. The 24 hour format is
civilized and conditions could have been worse. I hope everyone had as
much fun as I did.
73, John W2GD
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