[3830] CQWW CW PJ2T M/2 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): W0NB, K8ND, W8WTS, K8MR, W0CG, N4QQ, N5OT
Station: PJ2T

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  598    23       83
   80: 1238    28      107
   40: 3160    36      133
   20: 2810    35      135
   15: 1790    30      103
   10:   21     7       14
------------------------------
Total: 9617   159      575  Total Score = 20,887,438

Club: CCC

Comments:

Thanks to W0NB, K8ND, W8WTS, N5OT, K8MR, and N4QQ for giving up their
Thanksgiving holidays with family to be here slogging around in the mud, heat,
and mosquito ponds. The contest came at the end of the longest period (two
weeks) of bad weather I've ever seen in Curacao. Heavy rain, grey and cloudy
every day, and swarms of mosquitos. Conditions for building the RX antennas
were difficult to say the least, but the team hung in there and got 'em done.
(One of our non-operating guests came down with a bad case of Dengue Fever from
mosquito bites, and she is still in very poor condition.) Life in the tropics is
not always perfect. 

As always, the DX Engineering RX four square played wonderfully. Also, we were
thrilled with the performance of a new fixed-on-Europe tribander antenna we've
installed on the bluff behind the QTH. This enabled us to open the bands much
earlier than ever before, and resulted in a much more authoritative signal in
Europe. The story of installing that thing, especially the 1100 feet of 7/8
Heliax, is best told elsewhere. Still, no amount of hardware can overcome poor
conditions, and 10 and 15 were huge disappointments. Congrats to our
competitors in Europe and in Africa who had better band conditions and made
very effective use of them. Nice work!

In spite of the world economic crisis, Murphy is apparently still being funded.
On Wednesday before the contest we turned on the Titan II amp and kaboom, blown
HV board and blown metering board. We replaced the HV board but had to go to a
backup linear because of the lack of metering. About half an hour later we
turned on the Ten-Tec Titan 425 and kaboom, HV blown and a dead amp for the
weekend. The first Alpha we put at that position as backup blew in a few hours
and the second Alpha would turn itself off after warmup. This on top of a list
of problems with the QTH (dead air conditioners, dead security gate opener
motor, and myriad other things). We lost two FT-1000s to corrosion damage in
October and they were returned last week thanks to fast work by Yaesu guru
WA4GEG and transportation by K8MR and N5OT. But those two repaired transceivers
were negated by two we lost in the CW week. And one PC decided to die just prior
to the contest. It was a very, very tough week and we had challenges keeping our
attitudes positive. 

In spite of the difficulties, we had a great time, the ops were superb, and we
posted a score of which we are proud. Special thanks to John, N4QQ, in his
first trip to PJ2T who prior to this week had never used computer logging, but
learned with lightning speed and was a real asset to the team. 

I also thank Wilse, WX7P, Rice, Washington, who was kind enough to allow me to
visit his QTH during CQWW SSB a month earlier.

Huge thanks to all the members of the CCC club who made PJ2T possible and keep
it viable. Lot of work, lot of fun!

73 from the tropics,

   - Geoff, W0CG, PJ2DX


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