[3830] ARRLDX CW P40W(W2GD) SOAB LP
w2gd@hotmail.com
w2gd@hotmail.com
Tue, 19 Feb 2002 14:19:44 -0500 (EST)
ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: P40W
Operator(s): W2GD
Station: P40W
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 41
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
----------------------
160: 224 43
80: 463 57
40: 629 59
20: 685 59
15: 925 59
10: 1040 59
----------------------
Total: 3966 336 = 3,997,728
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
Station: TS930S 99 Watts
160 and 80 Meter Inverted Vs at 70'
Force 12 Monobanders 40 - 10 at 70 to 85'
350' beverages NW and N
I'll call this one my "just in time" contest. Arrived on Aruba only 5 hours
before the start, having missed my flight a day earlier due to traffic jams on
way to the airport the previous morning.
The station is partially dismantled after each visit, so I rushed to get the
outside work done before sunset. This included stringing out the 160 and 80
dipoles, routing coax cables for all antennas into the shack, laying 400 feet
of beverage feedlines, and putting up a new north beverage through a cactus
field...ouch! And as it turned out, the two beverages (N and NW) saved the
weekend.
An hour before the contest I was off to the food store for weekend rations,
ice, and drinks for the cooler. 30 minutes before I was on the telephone with
the YL back home. 15 minutes before I'm in the shower. 2 minutes before I'm
programing CT. Zero hour, I'm listening on 15M and trying to figure out why
the signals sound muffled, and quickly switch to 10M to start the contest.
Discover I have rf getting into the keying line which renders the F buttons
useless. Would end up sending everything manually for the first 12 hours
before the rate dropped enough for me to find a solution. Nice workout!
Stayed on ten about 10 minutes before returning to 15. There is a definitely a
layer of "crude" masking all signals. I switch from the beam to the beverage
and the crude almost disappears. For the rest of the weekend I would listen
almost exclusively on the two beverages on ALL BANDS. Who ever said a 25 year
old Ameco Nuvistor (that's a tube model for your younger guys) preamp
purchased used at a flea market 15 years ago doesn't work wonders! The noise
would mysteriously come and go all weekend, heard it on 160 and 20 - 10, but 15
was the worst situation. After the contest, P49V confirmed what I was hearing.
My guess it is a MW or SW high power commercial station somewhere in the
Caribbean or S.A. that has gone out of tune. Hope someone finds the source
soon.
Conditions were way TOO GOOD in the rest of the world. When I switched from 10
to 15 I could heard EU coming through loud and clear and knew then it would
probably be a long weekend. No "spotlight" conditions on S.A. this time unless
we had a flare. This didn't happen of course. :(
On the plus side, 160 and 80 were unbelieveably quiet. All Friday evening I
did't hear a single static crash....this is unheard of on P40 where the noise
is almost always S9+. Noise level on the transmit antenna was S2....amazing,
the very best rx condx in my 3 dozen + trips. The first night every hour on
the hour it was off to the races on 160....I could hear everyone and it seemed
everyone could hear my 99 watts. Had similiar success on 80M. Averaged
110/hour the first day but only 81/hour the second. Found it impossible to
break through the EU wall on the high bands in the mornings when 15 and 10 were
HOT HOT HOT. An involuntary nap about 0630 the second day cost a few low band
qsos. The price of getting older I supposed
A highlight of the contest was having JT1CO call me on 80M (twice). He was an
honest 579. I think this was my first 80M Zone 23 QSO ever from Aruba.
Conditions don't get much better.
Finished the first day with just over 2400 qsos. But knowing the LP record
required at least 4500 and a multiplier of 333 for a tie, I recalibrated
expectations to something a bit more reasonable. New goal was 4000 qsos and 4
million points. Ended up coming within 2 or 3 qsos of 4 meg.
In retrospect maybe this may have been a better weekend for a QRP effort.
Thanks to all of you who were asked to QSY and did. Found ND, SD, DC, and VO1
particularly difficult to work. Never heard VO2, VY1, or VE8 on any band.
Fortunately the two DC stations found me in the last 2 or 3 hours. Missed some
easy ones on 160 (like MN .. where was everyone?)
Finished off the weekend with a great steak and ribs dinner in the company of
P43P. Life is good. Breakdown below.
73, John W2GD/P40W
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults P40W ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST Single Operator Low
Power
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 ..... ..... ..... 63/30 25/16 27/15 115/61 115/61
1 . . . 61/11 77/17 . 138/28 253/89
2 35/23 92/34 13/12 9/1 . . 149/70 402/159
3 43/7 . 99/21 . . . 142/28 544/187
4 51/4 29/7 49/6 . . . 129/17 673/204
5 36/3 60/5 62/6 . . . 158/14 831/218
6 32/3 87/2 . . . . 119/5 950/223
7 . 1/0 105/3 . . . 106/3 1056/226
8 5/0 62/4 4/2 3/1 1/1 ..... 75/8 1131/234
9 4/1 14/1 30/1 . . . 48/3 1179/237
10 3/1 10/0 31/0 . . . 44/1 1223/238
11 . 1/1 66/1 1/0 . . 68/2 1291/240
12 . . 8/0 53/1 4/0 . 65/1 1356/241
13 . . . 13/0 51/5 . 64/5 1420/246
14 . . . . 3/0 . 3/0 1423/246
15 . . . 4/0 58/8 19/10 81/18 1504/264
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 71/3 13/5 84/8 1588/272
17 . . . . 2/0 149/15 151/15 1739/287
18 . . . . 2/1 132/4 134/5 1873/292
19 . . . 2/2 . 138/4 140/6 2013/298
20 . . . . 31/0 104/1 135/1 2148/299
21 . . . 2/1 77/1 53/1 132/3 2280/302
22 . . . 32/2 47/1 14/0 93/3 2373/305
23 . . . 47/1 47/0 . 94/1 2467/306
0 ..... ..... 3/0 88/1 11/0 ..... 102/1 2569/307
1 . . 1/1 119/2 . . 120/3 2689/310
2 . 4/1 4/2 94/0 1/1 . 103/4 2792/314
3 4/0 100/1 1/1 1/1 . . 106/3 2898/317
4 11/1 3/1 8/1 2/1 20/0 . 44/4 2942/321
5 . . 69/1 4/1 . . 73/2 3015/323
6 . . 11/0 . . . 11/0 3026/323
7 . . . . . . . 3026/323
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 3026/323
9 . . . . . . . 3026/323
10 . . . . . . . 3026/323
11 . . 60/0 6/0 . . 66/0 3092/323
12 . . 4/0 15/1 6/0 . 25/1 3117/324
13 . . . 32/0 6/1 1/1 39/2 3156/326
14 . . . 8/0 24/0 1/1 33/1 3189/327
15 . . . . 38/1 . 38/1 3227/328
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 32/0 17/0 49/0 3276/328
17 . . . . 4/0 42/0 46/0 3322/328
18 . . . . . 73/0 73/0 3395/328
19 . . . 1/1 5/1 79/1 85/3 3480/331
20 . . . . 4/0 122/0 126/0 3606/331
21 . . 1/1 1/1 47/1 56/1 105/4 3711/335
22 . . . 1/0 130/1 . 131/1 3842/336
23 . . . 23/0 101/0 . 124/0 3966/336
DAY1 209/42 356/54 467/52 290/50 496/53 649/55 ..... 2467/306
DAY2 15/1 107/3 162/7 395/9 429/6 391/4 . 1499/30
TOT 224/43 463/57 629/59 685/59 925/59 1040/59 . 3966/336
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