[3830] CQWW SSB PJ4/N0VD M/S LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: PJ4/N0VD
Operator(s): N0VD K5GS
Station: PJ4/N0VD

Class: M/S LP
QTH: Bonaire
Operating Time (hrs): 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:    0     0        0
   80:    1     1        1
   40:  132    16       44
   20:  289    19       61
   15:  153    19       47
   10:   30     4        6
------------------------------
Total:  605    59      157  Total Score = 332,886

Club: Grand Mesa Contesters of Colorado

Comments:

Well, where to start...

This was my 6th trip to Bonaire.  The island is full of friendly people and the
snorkeling & diving are phenomenal.  And as some of you may know I, along with
W4PA and K4FW, are in the process of trying to build a DX/Contest rental QTH on
PJ4.  The idea was hatched after a chance meeting with W4PA after the 2006 CQWW
SSB.  We were both waiting at the Curacao airport heading back from our
respective outings - me as part of Team PJ4E and Scott as part of PJ2T.  After
some initial discussions, project Villa Desert Palm was born (see
http://www.villadesertpalm.com for more info).

A year ago, we had anticipated that the villa would have been completed by this
year's CQWW SSB.  However, due to the governmental changeover that is taking
place in the Netherland Antilles, building and construction projects have
become mired in bureaucratic red tape.  I had already made plans in early 2008
to be on the island in preparation for the opening of the villa, but when it
became evident that the villa would not be ready in time for CQWW, I contacted
WA4PGM about joining PJ4E for my 3rd tour of duty.  We had operated M/S in
2007, M/2 in 2008 and this year as the team continued to grow, we decided to
operate M/M with a total of around 10 operators.  That was until Wednesday
before the contest.

K6AM, K5GS and I arrived on Bonaire the Saturday before the contest.  This gave
us a few days to enjoy the island and do a little snorkeling.  Little to our
knowledge, Murphy apparently joined us on the flight down, but seemed to have
been staying at the contest station.  The rest of the team was to arrive on
Tuesday and the plan was to meet at the station then run into town to have
dinner.  After waiting around for 30 minutes past our designated meeting time,
we came to the conclusion their flight must not have arrived - their airline is
notorious for extreme delays and cancellations.  In light of their "no show",
the three of us headed off to dinner.  A call to the contest station house
later that night revealed they had been delayed nearly 3 hours, but they were
at the contest station and we'd begin setup Wednesday morning.  Little did we
know how ugly Murphy would get!

Setup began as planned on Wednesday.  We knew there had been a break-in to the
contest house a few weeks earlier and the thieves had taken some of the gear. 
What we had not planned for was the state of disrepair that was found later in
the day.  The 160M inverted L was broken and laying on the ground, neither of
the two rotors would turn and the 40M beam had extremely high SWR.  These were
pretty tough obstacles to overcome, but we decided to press on setting up the
"inside gear" setup and we'd deal with the "outside gear" first thing Thursday
morning.

Thursday arrived and I found 3 of the team members sitting on the outside porch
at which point they indicated that we may not be operating at all.  As it turned
out, the problem with the 40M beam was a broken wire in the linear loading.  The
only way to fix it was to pull the antenna off the tower - something nobody
wanted to attempt due to safety concerns.  The inverted L had been fixed, but
for whatever reason still had high SWR and still neither rotor would turn. 
Given the state of equipment disrepair, it didn't make any sense to try to
mount a full fledged M/M effort.  While some minor maintenance can be expected
when coming to a contest rental QTH in the Caribbean, nobody was prepared to
undertake the magnitude of repair needed to become competitive - especially
after paying a premium to use the station for CQWW.  Ultimately 3 team members
left in disgust on Friday without operating any of the contest while myself and
K5GS decided to operate a less than serious M/S from the house we were staying
at.

A couple of lessons learned.  When operating as a "portable" station and your
callsign is not in the Super Partial, many stations have a difficult time with
the "slash" callsign.  When operating with low power and a vertical in the
yard, it's extremely difficult to hold a run frequency.  When operating with no
sun spots, 20 meters is nearly impossible to find a spot to run with low power
and a vertical.  When making a callsign "famous" over a few years, everyone
assumes a station with PJ4 as part of the call is automatically PJ4E (who did
finally get on the air as a crippled M/2 with 6 ops - my hat's off to them!). 
When everyone is calling CQ in your face, it's time to turn the radio off and
go look at the fish - did I mention the snorkeling is great on Bonaire? 

I'm crossing my fingers that by this time next year, Villa Desert Palm will
(finally) be open for business and an enjoyable operation for the team members
that come can be had for all!

73
Kelly - N0VD


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