[3830] ARRLDX SSB PJ2T(WB9Z) SOAB HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, SSB

Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): WB9Z
Station: PJ2T

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Netherlands Antilles
Operating Time (hrs): 47

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  379    55
   80:  815    58
   40:  928    59
   20: 1461    59
   15: 2652    59
   10:  434    42
-------------------
Total: 6669   332  Total Score = 6,642,324

Club: Caribbean Contesting Consortium

Comments:

PJ2T's CCC club is composed almost entirely of CW fanatics, so one of the
biggest logistical challenges for me is trying to raise a multi-op team for the
SSB contests. When CCC member Jerry (WB9Z) said last yeat that he'd like to take
a crack at a single op, that got me off the hook for all the effort and
logistical work of trying to beg for operators for ARRL SSB.

Conditions were not nearly as good as for the ARRL CW weekend. The low bands
were terribly noisy, the A index was 2, and we didn't have anything like the
high band conditions of two weeks ago, when 10 opened for hours and supported
around 1000 Qs. But the Man of Steel persevered, fighting noise, massive QRM on
20 and 40,  and lousy conditions on 10, posting a really superb score, and
always staying positive and alert. After K5D, this operation was cake for him.


15 was the bright spot. Conditions on 15 between the U.S. and Europe were
shaky, 20 was a massive logjam, and 10 never really appeared, so beams turned
south and the Caribbean stations benefitted. It seemed like a nearly
bottomless
pit of guys to work on 15, with rates sustained around 250/hour all afternoon
on Saturday. One guy told Jerry that he was so loud on 15 that he sounded "like
Moses, handing down commandments." The PJ2T 15 yagi, 5 elements on a 3 inch 36
foot boom, was pieced together in 2001 from parts left over from projects at
K3LR and K8DX. It fires toward the US from about 90 feet above the salt water,
and seems to be a magic performer. 

Late Saturday afternoon Jerry had all but given up on 10 when, at 5:15 PM local
(2115Z), he was surprised with an almost instant massive opening to most of
North America, with very loud signals and great rate. He quickly spooled off
about 400 QSOs and 36 mults before the band died as quickly as it had opened.
10 was open everywhere at once except for most of W7 and the upper midwest and
Central Canada, and did not do the usual East-to-West progression. Thus baited,
he was hoping for the same kind of luck on Sunday afternoon, but it never came.
There was a brief thready 10 opening early Sunday, which netted 
only a handful of Qs and six more mults. 

Frustration: Missing easy mults such as MT, VE5, and both Dakotas on 160, RI on
80, and working tough ones on 20 like VE8 and VY1 only to miss the easy VE1 and
VE9 counters. And New Mexico was inexplicably silent on 10. (We fondly remember
the great SK Phil, N6ZZ, who would have been on from NM like gangbusters if fate
hadn't intervened.)

Jerry logged bazillions of 2x3 callsigns, especially on Sunday. It's really
heartening to see that there are so many new licensees, and that they're
reading the rules, figuring out the exchanges, and getting on in the contests.
Jerry said he heard CW5W patiently explaining about use of standard phonetics
to a new licensee, who listened and learned quickly and went on from there
doing it right.

As always, special thanks to the members of the PJ2T club for all of the time
and resources they provide to keep PJ2T on the air. We have not missed a major
contest since starting up with CQWW CW in November of 2000. It takes
incredible amounts of work and patient logistics and maintenance to keep
something like this going. Last week, for example, we found a large 3/8 inch
hole in one leg of the Rohn 55 Europe tower, even after years of careful and
meticulous inspection, scraping, sanding, and epoxy painting. There's nothing
to do but splint it and keep working as hard as possible to prevent another
one, and not get discouraged.

We are gradually replacing our fleet of seven FT-1000s with FT-2000s. Operator
feedback on the FT-2000s has been uniformly very, very positive, and one of 
our visiting ops from last fall liked ours so much that he trotted home and
bought one for himself. The Yaesu transceivers have performed superbly since
2000 in this extremely corrosive, hot, humid environment. 

Above all else, ham radio is about friendships, and it was fun for Jerry to say
a quick "Hi" to so many of his and our PJ2T pals. Thanks for taking the time to
work us, and see you in WPX SSB.

For the Man of Steel (WB9Z) and all of the PJ2T gang, 73,

    - Geoff, W0CG, PJ2DX


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