ARRL 160-Meter Contest
Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): K8ND
Station: PJ2T
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Curacao
Operating Time (hrs): 25:21
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 880 Sections = 78 Countries = 0 Total Score = 137,280
Club:
Comments:
I'm very disappointed in my result in this contest. After 21 trips to Curacao,
including operating from here in four ARRL 160 contests, six CQWW 160 CW
contests, and 11 CQWW CW contests, I thought I understood what this station can
do.
As the score is not too far off of that in my 2003 ARRL 160 Contest operation
from here, perhaps it's just the normal solar cycle "funk" that we Topbanders
need to learn to endure, but during the entire contest I felt that the PJ2T
station was, well, 'impotent'.
Under the best conditions, we are more than 1200 miles from our nearest
Mainland USA QSO in ARRL 160, and so "down conditions" *will* affect us
noticably.
The USA/JA and Europe Beverages have had their annual check-ups (thanks to
Geoff W0CG for braving the dangerous vegetation to hack through and keep the
wires whole and straight each year!), and the transmit antenna seemed to be
working OK. All the station hardware (my K3, the AL1200 amplifier, keyers,
etc.) all worked as expected.
Night one was fairly noisy here, with local rainstorms in the area. Not as bad
as I've "powered through" before, but noisy by anyone's standards. Remember,
it's ~85 degF here throughout the year at 12 degrees North of the Equator! QSB
was annoyingly fast, with callers sinking back into the noise before sending
their section, and then with their signal slow to reappear.
Night two was far more quiet, but there were hardly any callers! QSB was still
annoyingly fast.
Throughout, I had a problem holding a CQ frequency and generating a pileup. US
and European stations kept plopping down essentially on my frequency and
squeezing me out. I had a certain K0xx station who started CQing 100 Hz from me
on 1832.6 and did so for hours. (How about, for those who make QSOs between 1830
and 1835 that are not intercontinental,just remove those QSOs from their log. No
DQ, just pull all the QSOs and re-score them?)
Anyway, I'm going to be fretting and analyzing this result for along time,
certainly before I return for CQWW 160 CW in January!
That all said, when you fail to meet your goals while in Paradise, you still
wake up in Paradise!
Radio: Elecraft K3
Amp: AL-1200
TX Antenna: Inv-L, 55 vertical, rest pulled up to 90-foot level
RX Antenna: 650-foot Beverage
73, Jeff PJ2/K8ND
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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