[3830] RTTY WPX PJ4R(N4RR) SOAB LP

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                    CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: PJ4R
Operator(s): N4RR
Station: PJ4R

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts
-----------------
   80:   51   298
   40:  795  4762
   20:  500  1496
   15:  659  1974
   10:           
-----------------
Total: 2005  8530  Prefixes = 661  Total Score = 5,638,330

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

This was my first time operating from the island of Bonaire.  It’s quite the
trip with all the airline security these days and the lack of direct flights
from the USA during weekdays.  My flight was
Chicago/Miami/Aruba/Curacao/Bonaire with plane changes at each stop.  My return
home required 5 security screenings before I even boarded the flight to Miami! 
With 150 lbs of baggage to drag along it sort of takes some of the fun out of
the contest experience.  Don’t know how many more years this old body (62)
can do the physical aspects of airline travel.  30 hours of operating was the
easiest part of the entire week! 

I rented the hill top qth of Noah K2NG (PJ4G) which is several hundred feet
above see level on the northern part of the island near the small village of
Rincon.  Views from the 90 ft tower were awesome with the ocean in full view
about 2-3 miles away for both paths to the US and Europe.  Several world
records have been set from this qth in the past.  I spent a day and a half
putting up an 80 meter half wave sloper towards the US and two 500 ft.
beverages for NW and NE.  One of the beverages required a machete and hedge
clippers to get thru the dense and thorny underbrush.  Tnx to local ham Hans
PJ4LS for letting me use his gardening tools.  In the prior two years in Aruba
as P40R 80 meters showed the most need of qso improvement so I did my best to
prepare!

On the way down the Chicago airport security people promptly made me check one
of my PRO3’s.  Consequently upon arrival in Bonaire, the audio output was
either off or full on!  I worked around the problem by backing down the RF gain
but this required constant tweaking the entire contest to get decent decode and
to keep from blowing out my ears when a really strong station called.  I also
had a smashed remote keyboard and broken switches on both DXP38’s.  A few
temporary jumpers and a borrowed keyboard solved those problems.  

The qth had an ADSL internet connection so I set up packet to the bandmaps on
both computers the entire contest.  I estimate this netted me about 25 extra
multipliers.

At 0000Z Friday night I was really psyched and hoping for the best.  I started
on 40 and 20 with the first hour of 111.  Disaster struck at 0103Z when the 20
meter computer totally locked up requiring a total shut down.  I was using the
single TX lockup feature of Writelog and I think that was the culprit.  I went
back to using my brain the rest of the contest to keep only one radio
transmitting at a time.

I had a big moment at 0314Z when I worked Ed at P49X.  Aruba is about 110 miles
west of Bonaire.  My number to him was 321, his number to me 319!  That’s a
first! 

20 meters was significantly down (-200q’s) from last year with 15 being a
little better and 40 about the same.  80 meters with low power is really tough
with all qso’s via search and pounce.  My overall score was down 3 percent
from last years world record that I set from P40R. Time will tell if that’s
good enough to win this year.  With scores going up each year, I’m not
holding my breath!  Thanks to everyone for the qso’s and CU in the next WW
WPX!  I may be back to Bonaire in the future as soon as I forget the bad travel
experiences and learn how to pack better.

73,

Roger   N4RR/PJ4R


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