[3830] ARRLDX CW P49Y(AE6Y) SOAB LP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: P49Y
Operator(s): AE6Y
Station: P49Y

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 44
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  222    47
   80:  632    57
   40: 1135    59
   20: 1210    59
   15: 1248    57
   10:  148    34
-------------------
Total: 4595   313  Total Score = 4,314,705

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

This was my second year as a Low Power entrant, as John, P40W, and I continue to
try to co-exist in major contests with stations only a mile apart.  My score
actually ended up 100k higher than last year, so I can't complain, in spite of
17 fewer mults on 10 meters (and with the prospect, until late Sunday afternoon
local time, of having under 300 mults in total).

As usual, this operation was from the P40L-P49Y station (ex-P49V QTH) owned by
John, W6LD, and myself. To give an idea of some of the maintenance required by
such a place, since last year's ARRL, we had to rebuild the 20/40 yagi, put up
a new antenna for 160 (I had put up a new inverted vee last fall, but P40W
seemed offended by it when he stayed in our place at Christmas and on his own
initiative replaced it with a vertical dipole in an H-configuration -- at the
same time, he swapped out a frozen rotor on the C31), and just last week, Ed,
W0YK, very kindly replaced the C31 reflector, which had fallen off the boom
after 7 years of yeoman service. It was a greatly appreciated heroic one-man
effort by Ed (of course he was incentivized by his desire to set a new world
record in RTTY WPX which he did). (We also had to take the Alpha 87A home for
servicing, and bring back a serviced FT1000D for P43A, so there has been a fair
amount of heavy baggage hauling).

Some comments and comparisons to last year:
1) Low band conditions were great for us Arubans, with virtually no atmospheric
noise.  40 seemed particularly pleasant, and I was surprised and pleased to have
two hours of over 100 Qs on 40 Saturday night and one on 80; last year I had no
hours on Saturday night even approaching 100.

2) Mults seemed a little harder to come by.  Some usually rare ones were fairly
evident, including DC (thanks for going multi, W3DQ, and KE3VV was there as
always), DE, VE5.  Others seemed rarer, including ND, WY, and VE4.  I had no
NDs, until 3 called on 20 late Saturday afternoon, at a time when no moves to
other bands could work.  VE4MG called on 20 in the last hour, but by then 15
was closed, and I already had worked VE4VV on 40 and thought a move to 80 would
not work.  I was delighted when W7ZQ in WY called in on 40 with literally 6
minutes left in the contest, and was willing to make a successful move to 80
for a new one!

3) My outboard keyer went berserk early in the contest, and all efforts to
reset it failed, so I had to plug the paddles into the 756 Pro2 to use its
internal keyer.  I didn't like it nearly as well, and apologize to all who may
have been subjected to my very sloppy hand sending at times.  Fortunately,
unlike our former FT1000D, you can (for what it's worth) at least use the
internal keyer when also using computer keying.

4) Of course 10 was completely weird. There was a very brief opening on
Saturday that yielded 9 Qs and 8 mults, then a brief opening at the same time
on Sunday, good for only 2 more mults. But surprisingly, 10 came back in our
late afternoon on Sunday for a strange opening. Signal weren't strong and there
were no pileups, but people were there.  Last year it opened in a very orderly
fashion, first to the north then spreading to the west, and I had a huge
initial pileup -- my rate last year averaged 130 per hour for 3 hours and 51
mults.  This year, the rate averaged only 57 per hour for 2:38 hours and 34
mults.  But I'm not complaining -- at least we were far enough south get some
opening.  During the whole opening, I could hear KH6s clearly -- go figure.   

As always, one of the highlights of contesting from Aruba is the opportunity to
spend time with local hams and visiting contesters. For example, this one-week
trip interrupted by a 48-hour contest included meals or visits with: P43A
(Jean-Pierre) and his wife P43C (Chris), P43E (Emily), P43L (Lisandro) and wife
Lissette, P49MR (Martin), P40LE (Andy - K2LE), P49V (Carl - AI6V), AI6YL (Sue),
and the ubiquitous P40W (John - W2GD). It's the exact opposite of some contest
expeditions, where the ops are essentially isolated in a strange country. 

Equipment: 
Radios: Two IC-756 PRO 2s 
Antennas: Force 12 4 el 10/15/20, 2 el 40, C31XR; inv vee for 80, vertical
dipole for 160
Software: CQPWIN by AE6Y, ver. 10.6 

Congratulations to P40W (HP), P49V (15 HP), and P40LE (LP with a vertical!) on
great efforts, and thanks to everyone for the contacts and the moves and even
the failed moves.

 73, Andy, AE6Y, P49Y


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