ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: P49Y
Operator(s): AE6Y
Station: P49Y
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 333 52
80: 663 58
40: 1114 60
20: 1512 60
15: 1523 59
10: 572 45
-------------------
Total: 5717 334 Total Score = 5,728,434
Club: Mother Lode DX/Contest Club
Comments:
Well, this wasn't 2012, my last full-bore entry in this contest from P49Y, when
my contact total was about 600 Qs higher. However, 10 was wide open then, and it
was easy just to roll up 59 mults on 4 bands without much special effort.
Before the contest, W2GD and I were worried about whether 15, let alone 10,
would be useful this weekend. Maybe contest RF caused more ionization, as 15
was great both days, and 10 opened up for about an hour and half each mid-day.
The first day, I got 43 mults on 10, but there seemed to be a north-south wall
blocking sixes and sevens and some of the zeros. The second day I hoped there
might be some greater coverage, but that didn't seem to happen, though
post-contest discussion with P40E and P40W suggest there were some more
possibilities (and I did pick up AZ and NE on Sunday). Perhaps to compensate,
the low bands were very quiet here; in fact most of the time I just used our 40m
yagi for receiving instead of the usually-required beverages.
Mults certainly are funny. Some years some are hard, and some years the same
ones seem to be everywhere. In the latter category this year were DC, DE, ME and
RI. I might have found a few more by tuning around, but I did no tuning other
than looking for a clear frequency to run on. Never heard YT, NT, or NU, and
only worked VO2 near the very end when VO2AC called on 20 and obligingly moved
to 40. Thanks to him and a number of other guys for moves, and I apologize to
several who were willing but where something intervened to prevent the contact,
either propagation or a QLF moment by me (e.g., being confused about which radio
I was on at the time or was using for the move, which occasionally happened).
Congrats to some superlative scores and contact totals. I find I usually need
all my powers of concentration to run one pileup, let alone two. There are
times in this contest when it seems effortless and things just roll along, but
there are more when it seems to take real work. In that vein, I need to
apologize to some guys on 20 in the penultimate hour of the contest when I was
getting tired and losing focus. In particular, a WB8 with a complicated callsign
called in and I just couldn't hear it properly or type the letters in the right
order, and when I tried to send it by hand, I messed that up also. I can just
imagine the exasperated look on his face, thinking "who is this bozo?"
Anyway, I immediately got up, walked around, and got myself refocused for the
rest of the contest (the log shows only a two-minute gap till the next contact,
but those two minutes improved my concentration from nil to a
normal-for-that-time of maybe 80%). Others must lose concentration also (or
maybe it's just bad packet spotting), as I had 173 dupes! Since I sent my call
after every QSO most of the time, or at worst every 3 Qs, I don't know what else
I can do, though maybe I should be quicker about changing a run frequency as
soon as dupes start to emerge. But even that won't prevent dupes due to an
earlier mis-spot. For example, I think a lot of later dupes were generated by an
early bad spot on 10, for P40Y. Obviously, there are quite a few contesters who
simply work off the spot and never verify the callsign by actually listening (or
considering the likelihood that both P40Y and P49Y are active in the same
contest, which has never happened).
As always, one of the nicest things about visiting the island is socializing
with old and new friends, on this trip including Lisandro (P43L) and xyl
Lissette, JP (P43A) and Cris (P43C), the ubiquitous John (W2GD, P40W) and Andy
(K2LE, P40LE),along with visitors Ray (K9RS), Steve (AA7V), Art (N3DXX), and
Bruce (AA5B).
Thanks as always to Cris and JP for performing needed house maintenance and
upgrades. Since my last visit in Oct. 2017, these include new living room
couches and drapes, repaired roof, new aluminum patio roof and furniture, and a
new faucet in the bathroom. Thanks also to Ed (W0YK) and co-owner John (W6LD)
for all of their ceaseless radio repairs and upgrades. Everything worked fine
on this trip, with no lingering problems to be fixed. It was delightful not even
to have to venture out in the cunucu behind the house to put down or take up the
bottom leg of our 160m vertical dipole, as Ed had used it last weekend for RTTY,
and John will use it in two weeks for phone.
Full report and rate sheet will be posted at arubaqth.com (it should be the
103rd such contest reported on the site, BTW).
73, Andy, AE6Y
Rig: K3 x2, Alpha 91B, 86,
Ant: 2 el. 10, 5 el. 15, 4 el. 20, 2 el. 40, 1 el. 80, vertical dipole 160,
beverages
Software: CQPWIN ver. 12.9
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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