[3830] ARRLDX CW P40W(W2GD) SOAB HP
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Tue Feb 21 00:20:52 EST 2006
ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: P40W
Operator(s): W2GD
Station: P40W
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 40
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 360 54
80: 679 58
40: 944 58
20: 1273 58
15: 1102 59
10: 542 54
-------------------
Total: 4900 341 Total Score = 5,012,000
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
Station Description: IC756ProII, TenTec Titan 425 amp. 1KW CTWIN
Station Antennas: 160M Vertical Dipole (55' Vert), 80M Inv V @ 70', 2 ele 40M
wire beam @ 65', Force 12 4 el 20 @ 72', Force 12 5 el 15 @ 80', Force 12 5 el
10 @ 76'. Force 12 C4 @ 60', RX beverage antennas NE, N, NW, E/W
WOW, what a great weekend - very interesting and different propagation from this
part of the world. Very unfortunately an amplifier T/R relay failure the second
day prevented a full bore effort but still had lots of fun.
Arrived on Aruba at 10 p.m. Wednesday night (plane was delayed nearly 2 hours in
Miami due to mechanical problems), so setup this trip for ARRL DX CW would be
limited to whatever I could get accomplished during daylight on Thursday.
P40R/P40W is NOT your typical plug and play station....wire antennas always need
to be "repositioned" or re-strung and nearly 2000' of coax and control cables
installed to be operational.
Thurday morning dawned with overcast skies.....and what looked like a serious
threat of rain. Fortunately the showers held off till very late in the day, and
the clouds provided a very pleasant, relatively cool working environment, and
probably most importantly a low threat of sunburn.
There is a logical order to stationi setup, e.g. start by making at least one TX
antenna operational for each band, and then proceeding to make the backups
operational. At this station we presently have TX antenna redundency for every
band....history has proven this to be essential. Next comes rx antenna work,
since without beverages, 160 and 80 operation from here is less than enjoyable.
As the day progressed things went generally as planned. The ends of the dipoles
and wire beams were all in place by noon - I survived another trip into the
cactus fields without serious injury. And about 2/3 of the coax and control
cables were installed and the beverages antennas inspected (to be sure they were
still there....its funny how wires just disappear sometimes here - when left
unattended).
The only failure of note was a bad coax connector on the 160M vertical dipole.
Even after over 20 years of station building in the Carrib it still amazes me
how salt can get through two layers of Scotch #33 tape and a layer of vaper wrap
or cork tape. The connector was black inside and over 2 feet of cable
contaminated beyond the connector. Just wish the diagnosis of this problem
hadn't taken 3 trips up the tower and over an hour's time.
By the end of the day everything seemed to be working. Left deploying the far
half of the 800' northeast beverage till very last....knowing it wouldn't be
used much for working W/VEs during the coming contest weekend.
Andy, K2LE/P40LE, did a wonderful job coordinating dinner on Thursday
evening....with Emily P43E, Joop P43JB, Andy P49Y/AE6Y, Martin P49MR/VE3MR, and
P40W attending. The social aspects of these trips are just as enjoyable as the
operations themselves.
Managed to work the 3Y0X guys on 160/80/40 after dinner....just for fun. They
were very loud during their EU run on 160 that evening. Even from here its a
long way to Peter Island - good test for the 160M vertical.
Friday was the usual do very little day....briefly considered lengthening my
North and Northwest beverages and decided I shouldn't risk any injury. They
worked fine as it turned out. Had a nice lunch with P49Y, returned my rental
car, and slept for a few hours.
Deciding which band to start on went through my mind all afternoon. Eventually
decided on 20M hoping it would stay open but this ended up a mistake. The first
10 minutes were mediocre there...went to 40 ... couldnt get anything going, went
to 80, couldn't get anything going....then back to 40. Lousy 130ish first
hour.....you expect to have 180/hr or better from here. Eventually things
calmed down but the rates were never ever normal the first night....more a stead
160 to 170. Was it conditions?????
The first trip to 160M at 0200 Z for 24 minutes was fabulous. Could run with
rate over 180/hr.....the band was very quiet, a quick 28 mults appeared in the
log. Future trips to top band the first night continued to yield good rates
(around 150/hour) and great conditions. Before the contest P49Y and I had
agreed to swap even/odd hours each night....since we're only 1 mile apart and
the both of us operating on 160M at the same time is not at all compatible due
to rx overload. This arrangement worked well.
The first six hours of the contest went along OK, abet the lower rates. The
second six hours were SLOW. The supply of stations on 80 and 40 seemed to dry
up.....the rate overed between 70 and 80 per hour. Decided to take a 1.5 hour
nap at 1000 Z. In retrospect probably could have even slept long since when I
returned the rate remained low. But having the rest probably helped later in
the day.
Mornings can be brutal here....when the US is beaming EU and we end up CQing
endlessly. I even tried about an hour of S&P on 20M at one point....the rate
was still about the same. Finally at 1500 found 15M runable....and strung
together a set of 226/208/180 hours, including an 8 minute trip to 10M at 1600Z
that produced 15 qsos and 8 mults....the ONLY 10M opening the first day. Kept
checking, no NA signals.
Decided to go to 20M a little early, since 10 was dead and 15 wasn't great.
Felt good puttng together back to back 214 and 199 hours....being relatively new
'meat' with favorable conditions. Probably stayed on 20 too long, an earlier
transition to 40M probably would have been smarter.
Half way through the contest the numbers were 3086 Q and 281 M ... somewhat
lower than I'd have hoped but seemed in line with overall conditions and
activity level.
Always find the 0000 hour on the second day difficult for some reason. This
year was no exception, the rate dropped to under 100/hour.....on 40 and 80.
Part of this seems psychological, and part band conditions I suppose. Did get
up out of the chair for a few minutes to wash my face and make coffee. That
seemed to help my frame of mind, the rate started to improve.
At 0300 went to 160 and stayed for nearly an hour, it was dead quiet and I'd
made a number of skeds with western multipliers. The rate was a decent
150/hour.....people just kept calling....and so did the Europeans :-) . My love
of top band shows.
Over the next several hours kept shuttling back and forth from 160 to 80 to 40
etc, the rates staying in the 150ish range. But I began to develop a serious
headache, and quick administration of several asprins didn't help. At 0800
decided it wasn't fun anymore and laid down to take a 1.5 hour nap...in the hope
this would cure the headache. Woke up at 0935 as planned, but still felt lousy,
and decided to try another 1.5 hours. Unfortunately in my haze, I didn't set
the alarm correctly, and ended up sleeping another 3 hours instead.
Ooops.....have done this before....kick myself every time. Still had a dull
headache...which would stay with me for several more hours.
The big discovery when I got back on the air was a problem hearing stations on
the TX antennas. Not sure when the failure occurred, but when I went to 20M and
switched in the yagi, the band sounded totally dead quiet. Hmmmmm. All during
the evening I'd been listening on the beverage antennas while working 160 -
40.....something had 'changed'. Diagnosing problems when half conscious is not
easy.....but systematically I tested various system components, the TX/RX
antenna switching box, the XCVR, and finally the AMP. Ultimately determined
there was a failure in the amplifier T/R switching....signals were not passing
through the amp....as if the T/R relay was stuck in the XMIT position. The
TenTec Titan has a protection circuit to prevent relay hot switching, so could
not be totally sure if it the relay failed or something in that circuit failed.
Disconnected the xcvr from the amp to be sure there was no drive applied. Still
deaf between the input and outputs of the amp. Concluded it was most likely the
Jennings vacuum relay stuck in the xmit position. I could key the amplifier
fine. Decided I could not go through the day without access to TX antennas for
receiving, but opening the amplifier to try to make any further diagnosis or
repairs was simply not SAFE in my current physical/mental condition. So I
proceeded to build a haywire T/R switching arrangement using a power divider box
that was not in use. After nearly an hour, couldn't quite get it working the
way I wanted, so ended up just sticking the C4 tribander coax into the 2nd
antenna jack on my ProII, and used the front panel switch to bring it into the
circuit when signals were just not there on the beverages....maybe 300 or more
times over the next 10 hours. I felt pretty discouraged about the lost time,
knew I was playing for 2nd or 3rd place. But that was the hand I was
dealt....so finished out the contest with this arrangement. In retrospect
should not have attempted to build the external T/R box.....caulk it up to
'fuzzy thinking'.
The morning duldrums didn't help things when I finally got back on the air.
Endless CQs were not producing results on 20 or 15....the rate stayed at 60/hr
regardless of what I tried.
But I kept checking 10M....could heard the PYs and LUs running USA. Finally at
1650 Z I could heard the PJ2T and PJ4R multiops both working some weak US, and
decided to give it a try. The first 55 minutes of CQs produced mostly very weak
responses, with notable exceptions being VO1HE, VO1MP, VY2TT and several Texans
who were loud, otherwise I could kind of vaguely 'feel' stations were calling
but they stayed hidden at or just under the noise level. Finally at almost
exactly 1800Z the band really came alive, instant 2 kc wide pileup....and its
off to the races....a 225 hour followed by a 186 hour. Even more importantly
the mults kept coming too. I could visualize the ionization moving across North
America....east to west. But at the very beginning of the opening there were
some longer haul signals from CA, ID, AZ, etc. Was just thankful there was no
10M drought like CQWW PH and CW last fall.
Finished out the contest moving between 10/15/20 and then a few minutes on
40/80. Thanks to K0HW for showing up for our 80M sked at 2355Z for my last
mult.
After the contest had dinner with P49Y, P43E and P43L. These post-contest get
togethers are a great way to decompress and compare notes. P49Y had a great
SOAB LP score....hope its a winner for him.
See everyone next weekend in the CQ160 PH and again the following weekend for
ARRL DX PH.
73, John W2GD/P40W
BREAKDOWN QSO/mults P40W ARRL INTERNATIONAL DX CONTEST Single Operator
HOUR 160 80 40 20 15 10 HR TOT CUM TOT
0 ..... 26/16 90/30 20/14 ..... ..... 136/60 136/60
1 . 61/19 108/8 . . . 169/27 305/87
2 75/28 74/9 16/2 . . . 165/39 470/126
3 . 20/1 140/6 . . . 160/7 630/133
4 27/5 27/2 92/5 . . . 146/12 776/145
5 24/4 13/0 93/1 . . . 130/5 906/150
6 59/4 60/3 . . . . 119/7 1025/157
7 11/1 47/1 19/0 . . . 77/2 1102/159
8 27/3 41/0 7/1 ..... ..... ..... 75/4 1177/163
9 11/3 33/2 13/0 . . . 57/5 1234/168
10 . 9/0 . . . . 9/0 1243/168
11 . . 49/0 1/1 . . 50/1 1293/169
12 . . 9/1 47/15 . . 56/16 1349/185
13 . . . 85/8 . . 85/8 1434/193
14 . . . 117/12 . . 117/12 1551/205
15 . . . 13/0 213/43 . 226/43 1777/248
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 193/3 15/8 208/11 1985/259
17 . . . . 180/4 . 180/4 2165/263
18 . . . . 153/3 1/1 154/4 2319/267
19 . . . 8/0 111/2 1/1 120/3 2439/270
20 . . . 214/7 . . 214/7 2653/277
21 . . . 199/0 . . 199/0 2852/277
22 . . . 82/0 41/0 . 123/0 2975/277
23 . 1/1 2/2 108/1 . . 111/4 3086/281
0 ..... ..... 39/0 49/0 ..... ..... 88/0 3174/281
1 . 16/2 93/1 . . . 109/3 3283/284
2 1/0 1/0 104/0 . . . 106/0 3389/284
3 102/4 15/0 1/0 . . . 118/4 3507/288
4 2/2 125/1 1/1 . . . 128/4 3635/292
5 11/0 80/0 . . . . 91/0 3726/292
6 4/0 28/0 35/0 . . . 67/0 3793/292
7 6/0 . 4/0 . . . 10/0 3803/292
8 ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... 3803/292
9 . . . . . . . 3803/292
10 . . . . . . . 3803/292
11 . . . . . . . 3803/292
12 . . . . . . . 3803/292
13 . . . 12/0 1/1 . 13/1 3816/293
14 . . . 50/0 1/0 . 51/0 3867/293
15 . . . 15/0 59/1 . 74/1 3941/294
16 ..... ..... ..... ..... 82/0 6/2 88/2 4029/296
17 . . . . . 81/19 81/19 4110/315
18 . . . . . 225/13 225/13 4335/328
19 . . . . 1/1 166/6 167/7 4502/335
20 . . . . 42/0 34/2 76/2 4578/337
21 . . . 57/0 25/1 13/2 95/3 4673/340
22 . . . 105/0 . . 105/0 4778/340
23 . 2/1 29/0 91/0 . . 122/1 4900/341
DAY1 234/48 412/54 638/56 894/58 891/55 17/10 ..... 3086/281
DAY2 126/6 267/4 306/2 379/0 211/4 525/44 . 1814/60
TOT 360/54 679/58 944/58 1273/58 1102/59 542/54 . 4900/341
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