[3830] ARRLDX CW PJ2T M/2 HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): N1ZZ, NP2L, W8AV, W8TK, W9SN, WA9S, N0VD, N0YY, W0CG
Station: PJ2T

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  816    59
   80: 1138    59
   40: 2085    59
   20: 2035    59
   15: 1870    60
   10: 1351    57
-------------------
Total: 9295   353  Total Score = 9,843,405

Club: 

Comments:

What an absolute thrill!

Conditions were great.  We outlasted Mr. Murphy.  The team was outstanding. 
What more could you ask for?

PJ2T has done well annually in this contest and we wanted to continue that
tradition.  While we planned for most of the contingencies, you can never
anticipate everything.  Some things were pleasant surprises, while others were
not so welcome.  We had taken on several projects in hopes of improving our 80M
performance and to ensure that we had all the necesary receive capabilities
necessary to support our low band desires.

The team started arriving the weekend before with the intent on getting
everything ironed out in terms of equipment and overall planning.  The final
members arrived on Wednesday evening.  So getting the receive 4-square
installed was the last of the projects before the contest.

Being in the ocean salt environment, maintanence is constant.  Geoff,
W0CG/PJ2DX keeps things well oiled in the station and antenna systems with
constant tower climbing, coax maintenance, etc.  But over the past year the
noise levels have become a problem.  We had located the source of the noise and
were waiting to see how bad it was going to be on the low bands.  Sure enough it
was S9+ on the low bands.  So armed with water balloons and a launcher we
assaulted the suspect insulator.  When all was said and done, the salt tracks
were washed away and the noise disappeared for most of the contest.  It would
pop up occasionally and we went back and launched a few more balloons until it
was quiet again.  It brought back memories of the old college frat party days!

The team had several active "horse races" going on during the contest.  Tom,
W8TK on 40M and Rick, N0YY on 20M started the contest both with hot runs. 
Multipliers built and QSO count moved back and forth building a good base for
the rest of the contest.  We suffered a radio with a PA keying relay that stuck
intermittently and caused the 40M operator fits - so that radio was swapped out
4 hours into the contest.  And it was off to the races.  Later it was Goose,
W8AV on 15M  and Steve, W9SN on 10M who were pushing each other's rate meter.

While we had planned on some level of 10M opening (well actually hoped for one)
we were wildly surprised with the length and quality of the openings on both
Saturday and Sunday.  We watched the MUF map and saw the tilted oval start to
move with the sun.  Sure enough at about 1400Z on Saturday morning, we worked
our first couple of stations on 10M.  At about 1600Z the flood gates opened and
we ended Saturday with a run of about 900 Qs.  Sunday started later but we added
another 450 Qs.

While 15M was the most fun, we really focused on 40M and found that it was able
to produce Qs during about 21 hours of the day.  Rates on 15M were wild while
20M was the typical workhorse band.

We met nearly all of our planning targets for the contest.  Rick, N0YY
developed a plan and set some preliminary performance targets.  We came in very
close to all the targets with the exception of 10M where we exceeded all of our
expectations.

Most importantly we all had FUN!  We had the opportunity to introduce W9SN to
contesting from the Caribbean and the smile on his face will likely have to be
removed surgically.  Steve was the operator at the 10M position when the
Saturday run started and you could not pry him away for the radio as the rate
built.  Goose, W8AV enjoyed the big 15M runs and the low band challenges.  Dan,
N1ZZ used his east coast skills on the low bands and enjoyed the rates on the
high bands.  WA9S - Keith, N0VD - Kelly, and NP2L - Mal all rotated into each
position to enjoy the runs or to share in the low rate grind.

There are a lot of positives to reflect on.  The most notable are:

  -  Super rates on the high bands
  -  Moving multipliers from band to band
  -  Lack of atmospheric noise
  -  Station preparedness to minimise disruptions

But to be in balance there are a few things we,as a community, should work on
resolving:

  -  Dupes - in the past Sunday afternoon always had the distinction of a high
percentage of duplicate contacts.  This year it started right out of hte box. 
We already had 15 Dupes in the first hour of the contest!  Throughout the
contest we had one station that worked us 35 times!  In all we totaled almost
10,300 duplicate QSOs over the contest period.

  -  Exchange - It is a bit challenging to be trying to work a QRP station and
have them repeat the "5NN" four times and then send their section ONCE!  Try to
keep it in balance.

It will be interesting to see where the comments fall about packet accuracy. 
In many ways I think this year was better, but that might be from our little
view of the world.

Our thanks to everyone who provided a QSO or two and a special thanks to the
Caribbean Contesting Consortium for maintaining a world class station in this
hostile contest paradise.  Much of that credit goes to Geoff, W0CG/PJ2DX who
leads the maintenance of PJ2T and ensures that we have a highly capable and
comfortable station for our efforts.  We're already planning for next year!


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