[3830] CQWW SSB PJ2T M/2 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): K1EA, W1MD, K1QX, K1XX, W9JUV, W0CG
Station: PJ2T

Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Netherlands Antilles
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  172    14       38
   80:  599    23       74
   40: 1302    28      109
   20: 2382    28      113
   15: 2579    26       95
   10: 1278    17       36
------------------------------
Total: 8312   136      465  Total Score = 14,541,195

Club: YCCC and CCC

Comments:

Two failures of commercial power, the worst thunderstorm we have ever seen here,
and almost non-existent conditions to Europe took a lot of the fun out of this
one. Hard to believe, but only 8.6% of our QSOs were Europe as compared to the
usual 38% or so. Still, we had a lot of fun and hung in there after being
tempted to turn off the rigs and just watch the Red Sox beat the Rockies. 

Shortly after midnight on Sunday morning the most incredible lightning storm
we've seen here nailed us. This is tremendously unusual, as these usually stay
offshore. Lightning in all quadrants, close and loud. We shut down and isolated
the station electrically as the rain came in torrents. Predictably, the
commercial power died about 30 minutes into the storm. I fired up the
generator, and after the rain ended we got back on the air barefoot with two
transmitters. 40 was not bad, even with only 100 watts, but 80 barefoot was a
waste of time. Naturally, this is the first contest where I had not filled the
fuel can, so I headed out on the 110 minute round trip to the island's 24 hour
gas station at 1:40 AM, leaving W1MD running the west coast on 40. On the way
back I got stuck behind an accident cleanup that was blocking the only highway,
adding to the delay. By the time I got back the power was back up, so we secured
the generator, fired up the amps, and woke up the ops. 

Sunday conditions were no better with an almost complete inability to establish
any runs into Europe, even in the Europe-only bands. Shortly after cleaning up
the generator and putting the cables away the power dropped again around 4 PM
Sunday afternoon. We fought the temptation to surrender and were back on
barefoot within 10 minutes, running that way for about 90 minutes until we got
back on the mains with the amps. The Titan III refused to make RF after this
Sunday afternoon restart, so I hot-swapped in another amp while K1EA patiently
worked around my antics on 20. (We fixed the Titan III and it tested good on
Monday morning.)

Also, the rain left us without Internet connectivity much of the weekend. Now
that the contest is over, of course, the weather is calm, sun is out, bands are
improving, and the data connection is back fast and solid. 

Many thanks to Craig (K1QX) and Ken (K1EA) for making their first trip to
Curacao. Too bad they ran squarely into Murphy. And we regret greatly that W6PH
was not able to make it here, stopped by wildfire smoke on I-5 and unable to get
to LAX Thursday morning. 

Thanks for the Qs, and sincere congratulations to Kyle's (WA4PGM) PJ4E crew and
to everyone else who waxed us fair and square in this one. Nice work, guys!
Great contesting. Now it's on to CW, thank goodness, and we'll hope that things
go better. Thanks also to all of the CCC members and guests who make this PJ2T
operation a reality.

    73 from Geoff, W0CG, PJ2DX


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