CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: P49Y
Operator(s): AE6Y, K0DQ, N4OC, P43A
Station: P49Y
Class: M/S HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 45
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 127 12 24
80: 852 26 97
40: 1643 34 108
20: 1527 35 119
15: 2690 33 120
10: 751 18 36
------------------------------
Total: 7590 158 504 Total Score = 14,830,786
Club:
Comments:
This was a relatively casual M/S effort by guys who usually just do
single-operator contests. There were four of us: Andy, AE6Y (co-owner of the
station with W6LD), Jean-Pierre, P43A (a very experienced Aruban operator who
lives less than a mile away), and the two admirals: Scott, K0DQ (a master
contester spanning the decades and the world) and Ed, N4OC (retired four-star
now getting back into contesting after many years spent running the Navy
instead of running QSOs).
I had brought my K3 and P3 for the run radio. As usual, they worked
flawlessly. The P3 was very helpful for finding open (that's a relative term
-- there are really no open spots in this contest) frequencies. Unfortunately,
both of our Pro2s had developed some problems, so we dragged our old FT1000D out
of the closet for the mult radio, and it also worked well. We also decided to
try WinTest, a new experience for us. It worked very smoothly, once Scott and
Andy mastered networking our laptops. Thanks to the authors for a very
sophisticated piece of software, and to N6TV for being the very helpful
WT-guru.
We had a fairly rudimentary M/S setup, just two radios and two operators at a
time. One team (or should I say the starboard watch?) was Scott and Ed. Scott
was the run maven, while Ed worked hard to eke out mults from a very noisy band
(160) or a reluctant one (10), as well as any others he could find. The port
watch was Andy and JP. Andy did all the running, as JP really enjoys DX-ing,
and has outstanding knowledge of all expected openings from P4. In fact it was
really fun for me to operate the first few hours on 40, while JP found no fewer
than 56 countries on 80, before we switched to run on 80. Actually, I should
modify that sentence: it was not fun to run on 40! (but it was fun to watch the
80m mult count rise). We had hoped to start the contest on 20 or maybe even 15,
but after getting no results on 20 at all for 10 minutes, reluctantly were
forced to join the circus on 40 right away.
Condx were so-so here. We had great hopes for 10m, as it had been wide open
for the previous week or two, but, alas, it never produced much for us, other
than some moderate stateside runs. 160 was extremely noisy, even on our
beverages, and JP and Ed could almost never hear any of the spotted EUs, so it
was a real struggle. The other 4 bands were pretty good.
Unfortunately, we lost all power for almost three hours Sunday morning from
0800-1100 local time! There was something amiss in our local area, though JP
and John both had normal power very nearby. We probably lost 500-600 QSOs in
that time period, plus some 10m mults that were available then but not later.
Congratulations to the gang at PJ4X, who reported very similar results to ours.
JP and Ed reported that they had endless pileups. We were jealous of their new
country status, but the magnitude of the demand and the resulting mayhem may
actually have made it more difficult for them than for us more normal
Caribbeans.
As usual, ham social life on Aruba is a delightful feature of operating on the
island. The usual post contest dinner (which, in deference to John Crovelli,
featured the "basse cuisine" of Tony Roma's) was attended by Andy, P49Y, Scott
(P40Q, K0DQ), Ed (P40N, N4OC), John (P40W, W2GD), JP (P43A), Robert (P40P,
W5AJ), Bill (P40B,KE5OG), and Scott's lovely XYL, Donna. Robert and Bill
operated from P49V's QTH, and John did his usual SOABHP, so Aruba was well
represented this weekend.
OVerall, we had a very enjoyable experience. Thanks to everyone for the
contacts. Please look for P40L in CQWW CW, operated by W6LD, N6XI, N7MH, and
KX7M.
Rig: K3-P3, Alpha 86; FT1000D, Ten-Tec Titan
Ant: 2 el 10, 5 el 15, 4 el 20, 2 el 40, 1 el 80, vertical dipole for 160, C31,
beverages
Logging: WinTest
73, Andy, AE6Y, P49Y
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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