[3830] IARU NH2T(N2NL) SO CW HP

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                    IARU HF World Championship

Call: NH2T
Operator(s): N2NL
Station: N2NL

Class: SO CW HP
QTH: Guam
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:                           
   80:    84    0      12       8
   40:   352    0      26      15
   20:   512    0      36      22
   15:   361    0      25      23
   10:    16    0       5       4
-------------------------------------
Total:  1325    0     104      72  Total Score = 1,095,600

Club: Florida Contest Group

Comments:

Some photos of my temporary antenna setup here:
http://www.n2nl.net/gallery/GuamIARU

     First of all, I want to congratulate the organizers and competitors of
WRTC 2010.  Following WRTC 2006, I told my teammate, N6MJ, that I had two
opportunities to compete, and that I would step aside so our mutual close
friend, Chris KL9A, would have a second opportunity to go himself.  As a member
of the Coast Guard, It was always highly stressful with the uncertainty whether
or not I could make the trip.  I wish I could have gone to Moscow, however my
transfer here to Guam made that an impossibility.  
     Everyone knows how fantastic of an operator N6MJ is.  Chris, KL9A is no
slouch either.  I consider him my equal if not a better all-around op.  It was
no surprise to the two of them at the top of the leader board.

*long writeup follows*


	First of all, it’s great to be back in Guam!  This is my third tour on the
island.  I was here previously in 1992-1994 (not very radio active then) and
again in 1998-2000 (very radio active).  My wife and kids have settled nicely,
and we are living in a great location in Navy housing (the Coast Guard does not
manage any housing here on island).  It is located at the northern edge of the
housing area, with a slight negative horizon to North America, Japan, and
Europe.  There isn’t any salt water around like my former home in Key West,
but on the flip side, there is quite a bit of open space behind the house. 
Better yet – just beyond the fence line about 300 feet to my north is several
hundred acres of scrub jungle, or “boonies” as called by the locals.  I hope
to have two 1200ft beverage receive antennas, one for NA and one for EU,
installed in the boonies before the winter DX season starts in the northern
hemisphere.
	I am required to have permission to install antennas here in Navy housing. 
The process should be straight forward, however there are fewer military hams
these days, and those I need to receive permission from have never seen such a
request pass their desk, which makes things more difficult.  Permission from
the Navy frequency spectrum manager came quick, however I am having difficulty
receiving permission from the civilian housing manager, who does not want to
approve my request out of personal concerns that I might “mess with” Navy
communications, in her words.  She is not an engineer.  I expect to eventually
receive approval, however it did not come prior to contest time, so I put up
some antennas temporarily just for the weekend.
	I last operated the IARU contest from Guam in 1999, and my 3830 post
referenced “all-night EU runs on 20 and 15m”.  What can be more fun than
running pileups of EU all night long?  I had not had the opportunity to listen
on the high bands prior to the contest; however KH7XS reported big pileups in
the middle of the night from his QTH.  I had big expectations at the start of
the contest, but my hopes were dashed as EU quickly faded at the start and both
15 and 20 shut down completely.  The contest started at 10pm local, and I only
made a couple contacts on 20 before having to move to 40.
	40 was good at the start, with good runs of JA and west coast USA stations.  I
tried out my temporary 80m vertical, and had a nice run of JA stations with some
NA mixed in.  Unfortunately, the rate on both bands dried up quickly as the
Japanese hams went to bed.  Things got brutal after midnight local time, and I
called CQ for two hours for a net gain of 7 QSOs.  I was frustrated immensely,
especially after investing days of work to get antennas put together for this
contest.  The early hours of Sunday morning here in Guam were some of the most
frustrating I have experienced as a contester.  I eventually gave up trying to
work anyone, and tried unsuccessfully to get a couple hours of sleep.
	I was back at the radio by 5AM, but the bands were still junk.  40m had many
loud Europeans, so I found a hole and called CQ.  No answers.  I went up and
down the band, calling many S9+ HQ stations, and got CQed in the face
repeatedly.  The frustration continued.
	This contest is entirely different from this part of the world as compared to
Europe or even the East Coast of NA.  From here, this was a European QSO party,
with HQ stations running many KW, causing much QRM all over the bands, working
hundreds and thousands of their countrymen.  This is great fun if you’re in
Europe or even the East Coast of the USA, but from out here, it sucked.  I
could not understand why I could not get any EU callers, especially because I
was the only zone 64 station QRV for the first part of the contest.
	Finally, the sun came up, as did the Japanese.  20 and 15m opened up shortly
after.  I let the Europeans have fun with their QSO party while I had some
great runs into JA and NA.  Signals out of NA were weak on 15, but at least
they were workable.  The morning hours mostly made up for the horrible night. 

	By mid day, some Es had fired up and I worked a few QSOs on 10m, into Japan,
Russia, and China.  Signals were good but there was no rate whatsoever.  The Es
gave me 10m, but took away 20 with high absorption.   I spend a couple very slow
hours on 15m in the afternoon until Europe started coming in.  Fortunately, I
had better rate into Europe this time around, including some of the elusive
WRTC competitors I had hoped to work.  Signals were almost at the ESP level,
but they were workable for a short time.
	Later in the afternoon, I QSYed back to 20 and was surprised by booming loud
NA stations.  Why were the bands completely shut down for me at 3AM Local, when
they are booming loud when it’s 3AM there?  I believe it’s due to latitude. 
At 13 degrees north, I’m much further away from the terminator.  Even KH7XS is
further north, closer to sunlight.  I think my southerly location is why the
bands shut down for me at night. 
	It was off to the races on 20m, and later 40 as darkness fell.  Big signals,
and big pileups.  Loads of fun!  Without any sort of end goal for the contest,
I shut down about 90 minutes before the end of the contest, once I had worked
out the pileup.  I still had to take down all the antennas and get some sleep
before my first day of work at my new job.
	I’m looking forward to making many more thousands of QSOs from here on Guam,
both during and outside of contests.  To keep my logs sorted out, I will be QRV
as KH2/N2NL outside of contests, reserving NH2T for contest efforts.
	One final comment – it was great to hear so many Chinese stations active!  I
worked a bunch of BA and BD stations.  This said, for some reason, the B*HQ
stations and those home stations in central China (BA8) seemed to have a very
difficult time copying NH2T.  Even though they were loud here, well over S9,
and sending very quickly, I would have to send my call several times, very
slowly, until they stopped CQing in my face and responded.  This is nothing but
an observation – but something I found interesting none the less.

73, Dave KH2/N2NL


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