[3830] CQWW SSB V31GC M/S LP

[km0l at tfs.net]

                     CQ Worldwide DX Contest - SSB
                    
Call: V31GC
Operator(s): V31GC(KI7WO), V31GE(AK0A), V31GF(W0ROO), V31KY(K0OU), V31LF(K0LW), V31TD(AC0L)
Station: V31RS

Class: M/S LP
QTH: Belize
Operating Time (hrs): 46
 

Summary:
 Band     QSOs  Zones  Countries
-------------------------------
  160:     29      7      7
   80:  157       11     28
   40:    141     17     34
   20:   1571     25     70
   15:   1505     23     63
   10:   1935     25     73
-------------------------------
Total:   5338    108    267  =  4,386,750

Club/Team: Kansas City DX Club

Comments:

Rig 1: TS-940S -> TH6 at 30'
Rig 2: FT-847 -> HF6V vert, 80/160 top loaded vert

Kansas City DX Club went to the jungles of central Belize and operated from the
hamshack of V31RS. Was quite an experience. We all got individual V31 callsigns
but we were unable to get a contest callsign so we drew one of our individual
calls from a hat and V31GC "won".
Problems: We smoked the only working amplifier we had (an MLA2500B) on Thursday
evening and could not revive it by contest time, so we ended operating barefoot
wtth the 940 and 847. The TS940 was the main rig but was only getting 60 to 80
watts output, so we were the next thing to QRP. We were still ablew to generate
nice pile-ups and maintain a good rate though. The TH6 at 40 feet played well
and we got some excellent signal reports, but the verticals on the low bands
just didn't seem to cut it, especially on 40. 
Also, we could not get the laptop computers to talk to each other, so we tried
logging different bands on different computers which proved very combersome and
confusing - so we may have dupped a lot of stations on the mult rig. We also
ended up with a rather anemic multiplier total with the barefoot rigs and
verticals on low bands and unreliable computer logs. We are learning tho- and
will certainly iron these problems out next time we try a venture like this.
Also, the beam was stuck to JA antil Saturday evening. When we finally got it
rotated to Europe the bands literally exploded! Pile-ups on 10 and 20 meters
were phenominal. What fun! The ops were really pretty good and allowed us to
muddle with the pile-up management and keep up a pretty good rate.
10 meters was our band of choice, and never seemed to dry up. 20 stayed open
all night Friday nite and allowed us to stay off 40 and 80 which were very
difficult for us.
Only stations worked on all 6 bands were the big multi/multi's- K3LR, W3LPL,
KC1XX plus K5MR.
Thanks to all for the calls and Q's, and helping us have a real radio
adventure.
QSL's for the V31GC contest go via AK0A.


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