[3830] P40W WPX SSB SOABHP
John Crovelli
w2gd at hotmail.com
Thu Apr 1 12:28:20 EST 1999
Bon bimini to everyone.
This was the first time I’ve had the opportunity to enter WPX SSB from
Aruba. Actually, I have never done a full SSB effort in this contest,
but prior WPX CW efforts from Aruba gave me some idea of what to
expect.. I ultimately found that the CW and SSB events are very
different, largely a function of propagation and participation.
Over the two weeks prior to the contest a fair amount of time was spent
trying to develop a good operating strategy, in terms of band usage and
off times. In retrospect, some of my assumptions proved a little off
the mark and the 36 hour time single-op time limit (which by the way I
vote be kept) is very unforgiving, leaves little chance for recovery
once critical errors are made. Figuring out the right strategy is the
real challenge, which makes this event so fascinating to me. In
retrospect I made too many wrong choices but the knowledge gained will
be useful in future attempts.
Congratulations to Rich, N6KT for his outstanding (and likely winning)
effort from HC8A. I had several opportunities to listen to Rich’s
focused and consistent operating style over the weekend. The mechanics
of his delivery are absolutely flawless, a model of efficiency for
others to emulate. Great job Rich!
Here are the P40W summary and breakdown reports:
CQ WORLD WIDE PREFIX CONTEST -- 1999
Call: P40W (W2GD) Country: Aruba
Mode: SSB Category: SOAB High Power
BAND QSO QSO PTS PTS/Q PREFIXES
160 7 42 6.0 6
80 242 1424 5.9 80
40 507 3004 5.9 159
20 1116 3300 3.0 299
15 1172 3461 3.0 182
10 2090 6198 3.0 326
--------------------------------------
Totals 5134 17429 3.4 1052 = 18,335,308
Time: 36 hours
Club Affiliation: Frankford Radio Club
Equipment Description: TS930S, Alpha 87A, Force 12 Monobanders 40-10,
Inverted Vs on 80 and 160, beverages toward Europe and USA/JA.
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults P40W CQ WPX SSB SOAB High Power
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM
TOT
0 ..... ..... 65/57 70/47 ..... ..... 135/104
135/104
1 . . 11/8 169/87 7/6 . 187/101
322/205
2 5/5 15/10 54/22 . . . 74/37
396/242
3 . 23/13 . 112/43 . . 135/56
531/298
4 1/0 111/37 . 23/9 . . 135/46
666/344
5 . . 117/21 . . . 117/21
783/365
6 1/1 55/16 2/1 48/24 . . 106/42
889/407
7 . 11/1 95/31 . . . 106/32
995/439
8 ..... 11/3 17/5 60/27 ..... ..... 88/35
1083/474
9 . . 1/0 2/0 . . 3/0
1086/474
10 . . 15/3 . . . 15/3
1101/477
11 . . 11/1 . 110/52 7/3 128/56
1229/533
12 . . . . . 177/41 177/41
1406/574
13 . . . . . 192/52 192/52
1598/626
14 . . . . . 157/29 157/29
1755/655
15 . . . . . 184/37 184/37
1939/692
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 203/39 203/39
2142/731
17 . . . . . 191/22 191/22
2333/753
18 . . . . . 130/24 130/24
2463/777
19 . . . . . 182/15 182/15
2645/792
20 . . . . 73/14 92/11 165/25
2810/817
21 . . . . 165/24 . 165/24
2975/841
22 . . . . 113/17 24/4 137/21
3112/862
23 . . . . 47/6 80/6 127/12
3239/874
0 ..... ..... ..... 15/1 ..... ..... 15/1
3254/875
1 . . . 165/11 . . 165/11
3419/886
2 . . 5/0 102/13 . . 107/13
3526/899
3 . . 87/9 . . . 87/9
3613/908
4 . 12/0 1/0 107/11 . . 120/11
3733/919
5 . 4/0 25/1 72/8 . . 101/9
3834/928
6 . . 1/0 139/14 . . 140/14
3974/942
7 . . . 5/1 . . 5/1
3979/943
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
3979/943
9 . . . . . . .
3979/943
10 . . . . . . .
3979/943
11 . . . . . . .
3979/943
12 . . . . 137/12 . 137/12
4116/955
13 . . . . 105/14 . 105/14
4221/969
14 . . . . . . .
4221/969
15 . . . . 12/2 83/14 95/16
4316/985
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 169/17
169/174485/1002
17 . . . . . 138/7 138/7
4623/1009
18 . . . . 159/12 1/0
160/124783/1021
19 . . . . 170/16 .
170/164953/1037
20 . . . . 74/7 80/5
154/125107/1049
21 . . . . . . .
5107/1049
22 . . . . . . .
5107/1049
23 . . . 27/3 . . 27/3
5134/1052
DAY1 7/6 226/80 388/149 484/237 515/119 1619/283
.....3239/874
DAY2 . 16/0 119/10 632/62 657/63 471/43 .
1895/178
TOT 7/6 242/80 507/159 1116/299 1172/182 2090/326 .
5134/1052
BREAKDOWN in mins/QSO's per hour P40W CQ WPX SSB SOABHP
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM
TOT
0 ..... ..... 44/88 16/263 ..... ..... 60/135
60/135
1 . . 10/66 45/223 4/94 . 60/187
120/161
2 5/60 16/57 40/81 . . . 60/73
180/132
3 . 21/66 . 39/173 . . 60/136
240/133
4 2/25 51/132 . 10/145 . . 62/130
303/132
5 . . 58/122 . . . 58/122
360/130
6 4/14 33/101 4/31 20/147 . . 61/105
421/127
7 . 6/110 53/107 . . . 59/107
480/124
8 ..... 13/52 15/67 34/106 ..... ..... 62/85
542/120
9 . . 2/25 1/212 . . 3/61
545/120
10 . . 13/69 . . . 13/69
558/118
11 . . 8/80 . 49/134 3/157 60/128
618/119
12 . . . . . 60/177 60/177
678/124
13 . . . . . 60/192 60/192
738/130
14 . . . . . 60/157 60/157
798/132
15 . . . . . 60/184 60/184
858/136
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 60/203 60/203
918/140
17 . . . . . 60/191 60/191
978/143
18 . . . . . 61/128 61/128
1039/142
19 . . . . . 59/184 59/184
1099/144
20 . . . . 27/161 33/169 60/165
1158/146
21 . . . . 60/166 . 60/166
1218/147
22 . . . . 46/146 14/103 61/136
1279/146
23 . . . . 21/133 32/150 53/143
1332/146
0 ..... ..... ..... 5/183 ..... ..... 5/183
1337/146
1 . . . 60/164 . . 60/164
1397/147
2 . . 5/59 55/112 . . 60/107
1457/145
3 . . 61/85 . . . 61/85
1518/143
4 . 13/54 5/12 40/159 . . 59/123
1577/142
5 . 6/37 22/67 32/134 . . 61/99
1638/140
6 . . 2/40 58/144 . . 59/142
1697/141
7 . . . 2/188 . . 2/188
1698/141
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
1698/141
9 . . . . . . .
1698/141
10 . . . . . . .
1698/141
11 . . . . . . .
1698/141
12 . . . . 59/140 . 59/140
1757/141
13 . . . . 52/121 . 52/121
1809/140
14 . . . . . . .
1809/140
15 . . . . 11/64 30/166 41/139
1850/140
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 60/169 60/169
1910/141
17 . . . . . 60/138 60/138
1970/141
18 . . . . 59/163 2/36 60/159
2031/141
19 . . . . 59/172 . 59/172
2090/142
20 . . . . 33/135 27/178 60/154
2150/143
21 . . . . . . .
2150/143
22 . . . . . . .
2150/143
23 . . . 12/138 . . 12/138
2162/143
DAY1 0.2/36 2.3/98 4.1/94 2.7/177 3.5/148 9.4/173 .....
22.2/146
DAY2 . 0.3/49 1.6/75 4.4/144 4.5/145 3.0/158 .
13.8/137
TOT 0.2/36 2.6/92 5.7/89 7.1/157 8.0/146 12.3/169 .
36.0/143
Looking at the rate reports, you see the critical error I made by
starting the contest on 40M when better rates were likely on 20 or 15.
The pre-contest plan was to maximize 40 and 80 both nights, a strategy I
tried to follow until conditions and the then current rate gave me
queues that I should be elsewhere. Unfortunately my stubbornness got in
the way and I kept trying to make 40M plan work when the competition was
undoubtedly cleaning up on 20M. On CW, my strategy has worked well in
past events. Once the error was made there was really no way to recover
(the curse of short contests).
Although others might disagree, from where I sat there seemed to be a
tremendous amount of US activity. I was very pleased with my final
multiplier count. Good JA runs on 10, 15 and 20 really helped. I
thought conditions were really fabulous to everywhere, especially the
first 24 hours of the contest. On Friday night there was little QRN
which made 75M fun. The noise was far worse the second night, giving me
a queue to sleep and not try to make the proverbial round peg fit in a
square hole.
The rate machine never seemed to get going for me on Sunday. Maybe it
was the fact I knew I had been out maneuvered and I was playing for
runner-up status. I probably didn’t choose my off hours well on Sunday.
Finished up before sundown so I could take down the beverages and
inverted Vs before dark.
As always, the Sunday night post-contest dinner was great with P43A,
P43P/P40B, P43W, P49MR, P40N/KB8N and P40W/W2GD enjoying the local
cusine at our favorite waterside restaurant. Swapping our individual
contest stories and debriefing each other about the goings on over the
weekend is a great social way of ending the weekend's fun.
Monday and Tuesday were spent taking down all of the P40W antennas and
the 70 foot Rohn 25G tower (my special thanks to AI6V/P40V and W2REH,
for loaning me the heavy ropes, Rohn ginpole, heavy duty pulleys, metal
plates, and hydraulic jack were used to get the job done). My Aruban
host (a non-ham) is building an addition on his home, right where the
tower previously stood. The current plan is to relocate the 70’ tower
by early this summer, and at the same time adding a second tower in line
toward Europe about 175 feet away. The second tower will enhance
station flexibility and offer some interesting 40, 80, and 160 meter
antenna possibilities down the road.
Looking forward to seeing many of you in Dayton next month.
73,
John W2GD/P40W
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