ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: FS5KA
Operator(s): W1SJ
Station: FS5KA
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: St. Martin
Operating Time (hrs): 42
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 102 29
80: 636 54
40: 767 56
20: 1530 60
15: 2996 59
10: 12 6
-------------------
Total: 6043 264 Total Score = 4,786,056
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
First DXPedition after battling in contests for 30+ years from New England.
This was a absolute rush! AFter 268 Q's in the first hour (would have been more
if 20m didn't run out of gas at 0050), I was hooked. Don't think I can contest
in NE anymore!
The new callsign for the St. Martin ARC - FS5KA, arrived a few weeks before the
contest - perfect timing. It is not listed on QRZ yet.
As with many expeditions, Murphy was there to provide suprises and problems to
deal with. I was told that amp was a bit shaky so I brought another unit up the
hill, just in case. The amp worked fine.... until it was time to change bands.
I put the backup amp on line and... nothing. Luckily, I found an old Dentron
160-10-L hanging around. I plugged it in and it powered up. Great! Except
that it had a French type plug on it and the power source in the shack had a
U.S. receptable. But was this amp wired for 110 or 220v? With no voltmeter,
all I could do was make an educated guess. Finally, I figured it out and got
the amp on line with about 500 watts - better than nothing. Things went fine
for a while, but I realized that someone was smoking nearby. Wait a minute, I
was the only person on the mountain, what was smoking wasn't a cigarette! when I
noticed smoke blowing out of the bottom of the amp, I got a sinking feeling. A
capacitor in the supply let go and the buzz was quite noticeable. Finally, I was
able secure another amp from PJ7UQ, but it required an hour round trip to get.
Fortunately, I scheduled this trip for the wee hours when the rates were low and
the traffic non-existent. I got everything back in place, got running, but I had
to go down for a short nap!
Fortunately, that was the end of the equipment problems. However the operator
(me) was pretty burnt out on Saturday. Running the monster rates certainly
lifted my spirits.
Propagation was tremendous but the end bands - 160/10 - were disapointing.
Wasn't much on 160m most of the time except for some of the nearby islands.
Finally, things got going at 0430 on the second night. Wasn't much there, but I
was able to collect a bunch of mults.
But 10m was really bad. I expected better from the Carribean, but conditions
were that bad. Heard everyone in South America, but that's it. Some had runs
going, and I couldn't hear anyone they were working. Sunday afternoon around
2100 I picked up a few on S&P and a few more CQing for a total of 12. Everyone
was begging for 10 QSO's from me but the prop wasn't there. I probably could
have CQ'd and picked up a few more, but given a choice of doing 20/hr (if that)
or 250/hour on 15m.... well, that wasn't a tough choice to make.
Rates dropped dramatically on 20 and 15 on Sunday morning, but ramped back up in
the afternoon. Finished up with a 263 hour on 20 meters and was hoarse the rest
of the night.
Thanks to Mort FS5UQ/PJ7UQ/W1UQ for use of his FB station on the mountain.
Mitch W1SJ
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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