Sorry for the big delay in my getting something to you on our ARRL DX 'phone
effort from Costa Rica as TI8M. We arrived home last Tue night so I guess a
week is my requirement to re-compress. Thanks to John Laney for his comments
last week nudging me to submit this.
There were 5 hams from the Atlanta area (myself...W4BD, K4UN, K4WPM, NA4BW and
W4KTR) plus two native, Costa Rican ops, our old friend TI2KAC and his buddy,
TI2MOT, for a total of 7 ops operating from Quepos, Costa Rica. Quepos is
about 32m south of San Jose, Costa Rica on the Pacific coast but it takes 3-4
hrs by taxi and about 110 road miles to get there. Ours is very intense
preparation for contesting with about a full week of an advanced Field Day type
effort just to assemble the Multi-two station. We start with only our airline
baggage allowance and nothing permanently installed, pull boxes from storage
and unpack, assemble and erect a TA-33 tri-bander and a 15m monobander (likely
to be replaced by a second TA-33) plus slopers for 40m, 80m and 160m using only
trees for supports, unpack two amps and cross our fingers as they are powered
up and just make all the necessary interconnects to make everything "talk".
All this is completed in 85-90 degree heat plus high humidity with no air
conditioning. Our operating location has only screens and a warm breeze.
While this probably seems like a long time to set up, there must be time
allocated for other activities such as beach walking, taking the bus into town
to shop, buy supplies (both eats and items to get the stations going) and
perhaps take a canopy tour through the local jungle tree tops. And of course
the local seafood isn't too bad either. We usually make a sked with folks at
home in Atlanta each night, scheduled around catching the sunsets and dinner
plans. Obviously a busy week of preparation!
Our motto for these trips is that we try to always remember to have fun with
our efforts. We know all too well that we will never be seriously competitive
"out of a suitcase" so we aim to maximize "the fun factor" as we call it and
hopefully place somewhere in the "top ten" in a category that has maybe 15-20
entries each year...not so ambitious is it! This is much more than just a
contest operating opportunity, it's a big adventure with something new each
trip. This year it was sighting Crocodile tracks across the beach about 200
yds from our accommodations, then seeing the big boy in the surf just offshore,
where the locals always surf. Needless to say, he cleared out the ocean
pronto!
This year's efforts did manage to increase our score and our multiplier tally
from last year, in spite of the solar conditions. 10m was the real surprise
with a good production there coupled with better counts on the low bands than
previous years.
Our totals for this year were:
Band Q's Mults
160m 209 43
80m 756 57
40m 564 56
20m 1260 59
15m 1405 60
10m 1410 53
Total 5604 328 for 5,514,336 Claimed Score
This year we spent 1 1/2 days getting the 160m sloper into it's usual spot
instead of the normal 1 full day, but it proved it's worth with 209 Q / 43 M
for our best results to date on 160m. We were satisfied for the rookies that
we are, but we do have plans for a Beverage for CQWW in Oct...we had planned
that for this trip but just ran out of time. I heard one comment about our
weak signal on 160m but I stand by my reply that "We put our sloper in the
tallest tree around (a 100 footer about 30' from hight tide) and just can't do
much better!". At least 209 folks heard us.
We had excellent openings on 10m with 1410 Q / 53 M for a pleasant surprise.
Evidently 10m was not as good in the states so a big "Thanks!" for all who
worked us, especially the last few 10m mults we snagged, ID, MT, WY & NV,
though we never could find UT or ND on 10m.
I want to say "Thanks!!" for all the SECC members we worked. On Sunday
afternoon during one of my hours operating, I worked a W4 or K4 with a familiar
call who asked how things were going. When I replied about the 10m mults we
were missing, he immediately said he'd go see if he could find some of them and
send them our way. I can't remember who it was in the heat of the battle, but
it sure was nice to hear...whoever it was. If anyone reading this was that op,
please let me know.
Sorry for the long message but I guess that's one downside of waiting a week to
create this, you get reflective and wordy.
73's es tnx for all the QSO's...
Bob Wilson - W4BD -- TI8/W4BD
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