[3830] CQWW CW 6Y1V M/2 HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: 6Y1V
Operator(s): UU4JMG EA3ALZ OZ7AM RV9LM KY1V
Station: 6Y1V

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs   Zones  Countries
-------------------------------
  160:   515    19       71
   80:  1209    25       91
   40:  3069    39      128
   20:  3113    38      136
   15:  2096    34      121
   10:   247    14       23
-------------------------------
Total: 10249   169      570  Total Score = 18,687,832

Club: 

Comments:

Having one of the best antenna systems on an Island. Cost $95,000

Having the best radios (IC 7800 x 3) and amplifiers on an Island. Cost
$55,000.

Inviting four of the best young CW ops in the world to operate and making their
dreams come true. PRICELESS!

This contest has been the most rewarding to date at 6Y1V, and it wasn't without
challenges.

Coordinating the travel for these young hams is no simple task. Add a Russian
operator from central asiatic Russia and 

things get even more complicated. All I can say is God bless my wife Stacy for
all her hard work arranging everyones 

travel to and from Montego Bay. I LOVE YOU!

I also wish to thank Peter G3LET and Dave G4BUO for meeting these boys at
Heathrow, arranging the Russian boys transit 

visa, putting them up in a hotel for the night and transferring them to
Gatwick. It would have been much more 

difficult to complete this mission without your help. THANK YOU BOTH SO
MUCH!!!!

Of course special thanks to my partner Krassy K1LZ! None of this is possible
without his friendship and support! (he keeps stealing my ops, note CT1ILT M/M
op at K1LZ??? What's with that LOL)

Things were difficult from the beginning. Murphy was not kind to us at all! We
were determined to beat Murphy at all 

costs.

I hadn't been to the station since ARRL DX so I had no idea what to expect.
First, there was no power at the house. 

Our host didn't pay the bill. Thanks to Colin 6Y5CR for paying the bill the
morning of my arrival in order to prevent 

further delay getting service restored. Power was restored the following
morning and was solid for most of the 

contest.

It seems our host is making things more and more difficult for us to use the
station as all the locks had been changed 

and I had no access to the house. Fortunately, I made a good alliance with our
hosts brother (and neighbor) who some how managed to get in and unlock the
doors.

THe next challenge was with antennas. The 80m four square was dead, none of the
slopers worked on 160 and the bottom 

MonstIR would only turn in one direction. Fortunately, the 160m delta loop was
functional, the 40m high MonstIR was in 

good shape and the rotating tower and stacks on 10, 15 and 20 all worked.

One Acom amplifier was failing completely and another was tripping into
protection detecting RF power at the wrong 

time. We certainly needed two of the three amps working!

These kids really had their work cut out for them in order to get the station
functional before the contest. To make 

things worse, whoever used the station last didn't unplug a single antenna
exposing all the equipment to lightening.

The 80 meter four square was a mess. The comtek phase box and dummy load were
soaking wet and corroded. The dummy load 

resistor was completely broken from the SO239. The switch box in the shack took
a lightening hit and fried the diodes 

and we didn't have any diodes, a meter or solder. Getting these things, even in
Montego Bay is not a simple task. Thanks again to our host whom locked all our
tools, test equipment and repair items in his personal shack! Fortunately, I
was able to pick the lock and gain access or we would have had no 80m antennas!
I am really getting worried about the future of 6Y1V!

Once in the spare shack, I located the meter, tools, solder and parts needed
and OZ7AM quickly repaired the Comtek 

box. He cleaned and dried the phase box and dummy load and made a new
connection in the dummy load. This kid is an 

electronics whiz!

We discovered the problem with the low MonstIR rotation was due to a loose 160m
USA sloper getting caught on the 

director of the MonstIR. Once we moved it we had a working 40m stack. The 40m
stack is our most important antenna 

system at 6Y1V!

The amplifier tripping constantly was a big problem. This was a problem last
time I was here also, but we didn't discover it until the middle of the contest
and had no time to figure out the cause. This time I was determined to figure
out what was wrong. I spent several hours measuring voltages, checking
interlock cables, etc. Then I started looking at rig settings. It's a timing
problem, so why is one rig and amp working fine and another not? I compared
Icom 7800 settings one at a time and finally discovered the problem. The
working system was set for LEAD keying and the failing system was MOSFET. If
you use an Icom 7800 with an Acom 2000A, use LEAD keying not MOSFET. I'm not
sure how this setting got changed but it solved the problem instantly!

Things started looking up. We had working antennas, rotors, radios and amps.
With a little rest, we would be ready.

Contest time. We had an excellent start. Roger EA3ALZ on 20 meters and Andy
UU4JMG on 40 meters. Everything going well, almost 400 Q's in the log in the
first hour! We switched from 20 to 160 and BAM! Every few minutes, 160m would
simply go quiet. Nothing, ZIP, NADA! What the heck? It took Andy and I nearly
two hours to figure out the 40m stack pointing at Europe was beaming right into
the Delta Loop and causing the amp to have too much reflected power and killing
the receive completely. One dit and things were normal, but it was a repeat
battle all night. We eventually switched the antennas to the opposite stations
and the other amp did not exhibit the same beahvior, by then, however,  we lost
several hundred Q's.

On Saturday night we lost power! Fortunately, it was a very brief outage but it
killed the computer at STN1 and the third computer which was recently replaced
had no parallel port so the remainder of the contest, about 20 hours we
operated one station with a bencher paddle. Anyone notice?

Then we lost the top rotor on the 40m stack! POT ERROR? It was stuck on North
which is the best possible place and we could turn it 180 degrees with the
control box, but it really hurt not having that antenna to work mults the
second night! We used the low antenna mostly and ran the daylight out of
Eurpeans and US stations.

Andy UU4JMG focused on Mults when he wasn't running 160 and 80 and Roger
EA3ALZ, Alex OZ7AM and Alexander RV9LM put Q's in the log like their lives
depended on it! What a great job. I operated little during this contest, making
less than 500 Q's. I supervised, consulted, encouraged and solved problems,
letting them do most of the hard work. The highlight of my operating time was
shared between the few times I jumped in and broke some pileups which they were
struggling with (I have a knack for busting pileups on the first call, ask
anyone that's operated here), and then I worked XU7ACY in the last ten seconds
of the contest putting a double mult as the last entry in our log!

Despite all the problems and challenges, it seems we may have a top 3 world
score for M/2!

These four young kids worked their butts off and deserve some recognition. More
importantly, you should consider inviting them to operate in future M/S, M/2 and
M/M CW contests. You can't make a mistake sitting any one of these four boys
down at your busiest operating position and asking them to handle the pileups.
They get no bigger than here at 6Y1V. By the way, Roger had our highest single
rate of 218 in a 414 hour! This kid is a top notch CW op! Alexander, RV9LM was
operating the 196 hour on the other station! And to think, some schmuck had the
nerve to write me and tell me this Russian kid was a bad operator and I
shouldn't have selected him. Nothing could be further from the truth. From
learning English to repairing the station problems this kid is a team player
with a strong work ethic!

We rounded out our Jamaican adventure with a trip to Negril on Monday with a
little diving at Ricks cafe and jet skiing. Pizza and Red Stripe at the Bob
Sled Cafe in Montego Bay made for a great ending in Jamaica Mon!

Thank you to all 10,249 people that are in our logs and to those that tried and
didn't make it.

One more thing. Just to see how we would have done if our US Q's counted 3
points instead of 2 (like PJ2, PJ4, P4 and 9Y) and we would have a cool
22,518,069! Not to shabby!

This is probably my last contest from 6Y1V. My relationship with George 6Y5GC
is beyond repair and I am selling my interest in the station to Krassy. Thanks
to everyone for the great times.

If you are interested in what we used to make this score please visit
www.6y1v.com.

IMPORTANT: QSL Direct ONLY to Kari OH3RB. DO not send cards to me, they will
get trashed! Also, please send Kari a couple of greenstamps/euros. He processes
over 50,000 cards a year for us. Please show him your appreciation for his hard
work!

David ~ KY1V


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