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[3830] CQWW 2000 - 8P6SH LP SOAB

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Subject: [3830] CQWW 2000 - 8P6SH LP SOAB
From: vision2000@sunbeach.net (Dean St. Hill)
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 17:20:41 -0400
                    CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 2000


      Call:      8P6SH
      Category:  Single Operator
      Power:     Low Power
      Band:      All Band
      Mode:      SSB
      Country:   Barbados
      Zone:      08

      BAND     QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/QSO   ZONES COUNTRIES


      160        1        0     0.00      1       1   HF2V
       80       27       59     2.19      6      18   HF2V, HF6V
       40      126      274     2.17     13      35   HF2V, HF6V
       20      664     1394     2.10     20      54   KT34XA, HF6V
       15      548     1162     2.12     24      58   KT34XA, HF6V
       10      682     1497     2.20     21      72   KT34XA, HF6V
     ---------------------------------------------------

     Totals   2048     4386     2.14     85     238  =>  1,416,678



All reports sent were 59(9), unless otherwise noted.

Equipment Description: TS 450s, ICOM 738 & Pentium Computer

Antennas: KT34XA, Butternut HF6V & HF2V

Comments: I dedicated this contest operation to my departed friend
Stephen,
          8P6CV and operated low power for the first time in a CQWW.
It was a
          bit better than I thought it would be, but called for a lot
of
          patience to work mults.

          Murphy first took control of the contest when the Prime
Minister
          presented the national budget on Tuesday - the debate
followed
          on Wednesday & Thursday - and as the announcer for live
radio
          coverage of that debate, there I was in the House of
Assembly
          until 11pm Thursday still with antennas to erect.

          But Murphy reserved his best for a few minutes into the
contest.
          The beam somehow got stuck beaming due west - USA is just
west
          of north and EU is just east of north - so west is about the
worst
          direction to have a stuck rotor. I finally managed to muscle
it
          around to north Sunday morning (after spending hours away
from
          the station shopping for fishing line and light rope).

          It's so funny - I was trying to get a line over the boom
late on
          Saturday evening finally gave up as it was dark - only to
find
          on Sunday morning that my final effort had actually worked.
So,
          managed to release the brake on the T2X rotor and swing the
          KT34XA around to north - it refused to go past that point.

          So that's why my EU presence was very dissapointing. I
missed the
          usual 10m openings to EU which are my traditional bread and
butter.
          The few African and Asian mults I heard were hard to work.
With
          just 100 watts I needed to be aimed right at them.

          With only 100 watts, I also found QRM a huge problem. It's
tough
          to appreciate this as I normally run QRO in contests but I
had
          to abandon run frequencies very often where if I had higher
power
          the offenders would not have cranked up so close to my
frequency.

          The most fascinating moment was moving a mult (I won't say
who!!)
          he suggested 21452 - which without thinking I dutifully
typed into
          the computer to QSY rig 2  - computer beeps and does't QSY -
so in
          a panic I QSY using rig - there he is calling... and just as
I'm
          about to answer... another station comes up and says - "I
heard
          that" and then it hits me - We're out of band!!! Needless to
say
          QSO not logged. But you do have to be so careful!!!

          On the positive side, my most productive time was spent
listening
          to 8P1A (W2SC). What a great op he is. I learnt a lot about
          managing a pile-up and then put it to good use with personal
best
          rates as follows:

          1220z:          9 per minute     (540/hr)
          0238z:         52 per 10 minutes (312/hr)
          0321z:        271 per hour

         The modest 1.4M is a new 8P record for the low power category
in
         CQWW. It eclisped the previous 766K held by 8P6CV since 1997.
I
         expect 8P1A to smash his 1999 11M effort for the high power
         record.

         Thanks for all the guys who managed to pull my peanut whistle
         through the heavy QRM and to the great ops who worked me on 5
bands.

         Next year I really do hope to have a genuine presence on
160m. And
         I will most probably be back as low power also!!! It was fun.


Club Affiliation: Carib Contest Club

QSL Manager:  KU9C


Dean St. Hill, 8P6SH



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