CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2022
Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): K8ND W8WTS
Station: PJ2T
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: Curacao, S.A.
Operating Time (hrs): 25:20
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1178 State/Prov = 57 Countries = 70 Total Score = 1,482,979
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
Congratulations to all of the category winners for their amazing performance in
the 2022 CQ160 CW Contest. The top band operating team of K8ND and W8WTS put
PJ2T on the air for this running of the CQ160 CW contest from Curacao, South
America. We read reports of freezing temperatures and snow storms from our
friends in USA during the contest. That must have been unpleasant, we guess,
because it was 28 degrees C (84 degrees F) and sunny here, with a quick shower
some mornings.
At PJ2T, the contest starts in full daylight. Our first QSO was with HI8A at
2204Z. During the first hour, the only stations to work are the Caribbean
beacons and some of the USA big guns. We hear the Europeans working each other
like piranhas devouring fresh carrion, but they are not the least interested in
working the Caribbean.
With the full sunset at 2330Z, the activity picks up. The first stations that
take notice of PJ2T are the southeast USA stations, of which there are many.
USA signals were strong and clean, with every callsign copyable on the first
hearing. The best hour of the contest was 00Z consisting of nearly all USA. As
Friday night and Saturday morning moved along, the Europeans entered the
picture. Europe was good into the south Caribbean Saturday morning, but not
overwhelmingly strong. We continued to work a mix of USA and EU until the
astronomical twilight terminator started sweeping across Europe. When the AT
terminator hit EU, the noise level increased dramatically in every direction.
The period between EU sunrise and pacific sunset is a good time to work USA
night owls, but it seems most USA ops choose to go to bed when EU is no longer
available: the rate drops and the band becomes less crowded.
When the sun went down in PAC, the band was still noisy and QSB was starting to
be a factor. We worked ZL3AB and ZM4T at 1040Z and 1043Z, but those were the
only PAC stations that we heard on Saturday morning. We kept at it, working the
USA morning crew until the sun was well up. Our last QSO on Saturday morning
was with K5AF at 1112Z.
Saturday afternoon opened with KP2B at 2212Z. The daylight and twilight time is
slow, with only 14 QSOS between 2212Z and 2330Z. When the sun set, USA started
with enthusiasm. Many ops reported poor conditions on Saturday night into
Sunday morning, but that was not the case from PJ2. USA signals were strong,
and at 0000Z the Europeans started to break through. EU was coming in nicely as
the QTHs gradually changed from all USA, to a mix of USA and EU, then mostly EU.
We heard some fast QSB on EU as the AT terminator started to cross Europe.
When we are listening on our Europe facing receive antennas, North American
signals are completely and totally inaudible. During the periods when we are
working mostly Europe, we miss some W/VE callers. When we switch to the NA
receive antennas, we occasionally have an angry mob deriding our ignoring them.
Please be patient, our receive antennas really are that directive.
Europe stopped with unusual abruptness Saturday morning. Nevertheless we worked
some great multipliers on Sunday morning, such as MD2C at 0344Z, 4X2M at 0400Z,
and 4L9M at 0430Z.
We worked the first of three Alaskan stations with KL7SB at 0747Z. We were
pleasantly surprised to start a nice JA run, starting with JA7QVI at 0910Z. The
JA signals were not strong, but were not suffering from the same fast QSB that
we heard at the end of the EU opening. Many were copyable on first hearing with
no fills. A total of 20 Japanese calls were logged.
Our astronomical twilight at 2235Z starts the inevitable wind down of the PAC
opening. We are able to work a good number of USA stations, particularly in the
Southwest and west coast after our AT. At this point, the only plan is to keep
CQing on a clear frequency and pounce on every new station that the RBN and our
skimmers dig up. Our last QSO was with N4II at 1106Z.
Note that at 12-degrees north of the Equator, we have less than 25 hours of
darkness or twilight during the contest period in which to make our QSOs. Those
in Western Europe have 29 hours or more, an extra 4 hours of productive contest
time.
Sunny Sunday afternoon is a bust at grid FK52. We wait as Europe enjoys a final
6 hours of darkness and start to hear the EU stations working each other, but
there is no chance of us being heard under the bright Sun. For the last hour of
the contest, we called CQ and watched the RBN and skimmers for anything that
looked or smelled like a QSO, but we worked no additional stations. The contest
ends in full daylight 6 p.m. local time, when it is time to open an ice cold
POLAR Pilsner and unwind.
Our station operated wonderfully. We used a K3 and a Command Technologies
HF-2500 amplifier, driving an inverted L. We listen on three Beverage antennas,
330 m NE, and a pair of 268 m NW, plus a DX Engineering receive four square
system. Some receive antennas are deployed Field Day style for the contest
weekend. We set up three SDR-IQ receivers with CW Skimmer to listen and keep
the band map populated with known hearable stations, along with spots from the
PJ2A skimmer server and the DX Cluster backbone.
It is always fun to operate the CQ160 CW contest from PJ2T. The rush of being
the DX is without compare. The team of K8ND and W8WTS won the multioperator
category of CW160 from PJ2T in 2014, 2015, and 2016. Whatever the final order
of finish, we had a load of fun operating from 12 degrees North latitude where
it is always warm and sunny, and we appreciate every QSO.
73,
Jim, W8WTS and Jeff, K8ND
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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