[3830] CQWW SSB PJ2T M/M HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): W0CG K6AM W9JUV K9SG N8NR DF7ZS DL5RDP DL5RDO K8LEE
Station: PJ2T

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs   Zones  Countries
-------------------------------
  160:   413    19       45
   80:  1535    27       95
   40:  3258    34      121
   20:  3538    34      133
   15:  4076    35      118
   10:  1554    24       52
-------------------------------
Total: 14374   173      564  Total Score = 31,142,862

Club: CCC

Comments:

A big thanks to Yaesu, whose sponsorship now enables us to operate exclusively
with Yaesu transceivers, mostly brand new FT-2000s. They have performed
fabulously for us, and have proven to be the most reliable of all the
vendor’s equipment in the extremely corrosive, electrically hostile, hot and
wet climate here in the deep tropics. 

We had a superb team this year. John, K6AM, now becoming a member of the
CCC/PJ2T club group, served as the operations coach for this contest. In that
role, he prepared the operating schedule, wrote a comprehensive band-by-band
plan, designed two-radio per band technology, built it, brought it to the
island, and patiently coached us in how to best use it. He’s a good motivator
and a patient teacher, and we’re very excited to have him now associated with
PJ2T. 

We were also fortunate to be able to welcome Helmut, DF7ZS, back here for his
fourth PJ2T operation. He was part of our record-breaking World #1 finish in
WPX SSB 2005 and ventured here for several other contests. He’s a tireless
top operator who travels the world contesting. He also brought along some
incredible skydiving videos that entertained us before the contest. Also from
Germany, brothers Bernhard and Dieter Horst, DL5RDP and DL5RDO were fantastic
additions to our team. I met Bernhard by chance last March when he and his
family were vacationing on Curacao, and he kindly consented to return for this
contest. They are superb operators, and their language skills were of obvious
advantage. Also, they made a fantastic pasta dinner for us Friday just before
the contest. We hope they will return often.

N8NR was one of the key builders of the PJ2T antenna system in 2001, then was
co-opted by his job to the point that he has not been able to return here to
operate until now. In all those years, he continued support generously to the
PJ2T build out, and we’re excited that he has finally gotten back here to see
how the station and QTH have grown and improved. He even grabbed a string
trimmer without being asked on Thursday and cleaned up the ratty yard, all
grown-over from our wet fall this year. Whatt’a guy. Gary, K9SG, the team
doctor for Peter 1 and Desecheo, has been a long-time PJ2T member but not able
to get here until now for the major contests. Finally he was able to be part of
our team for a big effort, and he reports that he had a lot of fun and will be
returning for more of the same. He has been most generous in supporting this
station. 

We’re honored to have Joe, W9JUV, one of the very top Honor Roll DXers back
on the team for his umteenth visit to PJ2T. He made the very first QSO with
PJ2T (from Illinois) on 10-10-10 with new country Curacao and is a cunning and
patient multiplier-chaser and run operator. At age 80, he participates hard in
all the projects at the station, operates the weekend with almost no sleep, and
quickly adapts to all our new technology initiatives. He sets a superb example
of how to stay active and vital, and I hope to be able to emulate his excellent
example as the years go by.

CCC Vice President K8LEE is again on our team, and seems to be able to operate
endlessly on noise-eater bands with patience and accuracy. He is always there
when we need volunteers to do the dirty work around here, and is a tremendous
asset to our operations. 

It’s fitting that today is the 10th anniversary of our purchase of this QTH
from W1BIH/PJ9JT. On this occasion, we logged more QSOs in a weekend than in
any other contest in our decade of PJ2T operation. We also had great fun,
applying the techniques brought to us by K6AM for two-radio band operation in
the multi/multi. None of this is totally new, and we follow pioneers like K3LR
and the other monster multis. But it is new to us, and such things are much
more challenging in a small-nation DX location. You may have worked us on 40,
particularly, where one op was running QSOs on the TX frequency to Europe
whereas a second op (and voice) answered your calls up on the 7200s. Tricky,
and VERY fast, and once we got our rhythm it worked great, strange as it may
have sounded from your side, hearing two voices on one band from one callsign.
This and other innovations made this weekend special.

We continue to benefit enormously from an old recycled Mosley TA-34XL
tri-bander at the end of 1200 feet of 7/8 inch Heliax, 350 feet above the
elevation of the shack, fixed on Europe. It is a tremendous band-opener,
perched on a ridge top looking toward Europe down into a deep and quiet valley
in the foreground of the antenna. Thanks again to W8AV and WA9S who helped me
haul the tower sections, Heliax, and antenna up sheer rock cliffs in 95 degree
tropical heat and sticker bushes and incredibly dense vegetation in 2008. No
fun, but it paid off. 

Another innovation at PJ2T with this contest weekend is that we operated in air
conditioned comfort. For 10 years we have been dying in the shack, with
temperatures that often reach 100F and stay there for many hours, with high
humidity to boot. We were finally able to get a monster 36,000 BTU air
conditioner in here last Wednesday. It was a huge hassle with the supplier and
the installer, but we pulled it off. It’s not the most elegant installation
– the condensate tube drips into a plastic bucket on the kitchen floor, but
it works and helps us to keep comfy and maintain much better concentration. 

The contest started with a monster wall of 20 dB over S9 noise on 160 and 80.
We had that on all Beverages and on the DX Engineering RX four square. It was a
rainy weekend, and tropical storm Tomas hovered in the region all weekend,
moving very slowly. Sorry to all of you who called and called an apparently
deaf PJ2T. We did our best, and by the middle of the second night things
quieted down somewhat, and we were able to make some hay on the low bands. 10
was a bit of a disappointment, with openings to Europe not nearly as solid as
they were two weeks ago during the Curacao Independence operation. Because of
the new country status, pileups were incredible, especially on 15. We had to
resort to some outlandish techniques, such as running contest Qs by the
numbers, offset a few KHz above the TX frequency. Sorry about that, but it was
the only way to get any rate with a wide, loud wall of callers. 

We ended up with a score we’re proud of, and feel that we left nothing on the
table. Congrats to all of our M/M competitors, and thanks for the good society
of contesting that we all share on as well as off the air. It’s great to feel
like we have 20,000 friends all over the globe.

Thanks as always to all the members of the CCC club who do so much to support
PJ2T, to all of you we worked in this now completed first decade of PJ2T
contesting, and to Yaesu for support. PJ2T has been active now in EVERY MAJOR
CONTEST, bar none, in the last 10 years. What a pile of hard work, but also
what a great ride, and we’re not done yet. Sometimes one wonders why we
contesters worldwide put ourselves through all this work and stress in the name
of fun, but it’s worth it for the friendships made and the relationships
maintained. Nice seeing all of you this weekend if only for a one-second “59
9.”

     73, Happy Halloween, and thanks friends,

             - Geoff, W0CG, PJ2DX – Curacao; Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; and
Suffield, Ohio


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