[3830] WPX SSB P40M(@P49V) M/S HP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: P40M
Operator(s): N4OC, W3BW, P49V, K0DQ
Station: P49V

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:  182
   40:  185
   20: 2038
   15: 1838
   10: 1448
------------
Total: 5691  Prefixes = 1339  Total Score = 23,902,489

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

A fundamental maxim of war planning is that the first casualty of contact with
the enemy is the plan.   Thus, we decided to dodge that bullet by not making a
plan before we got there.  

The crew of P40M mustered Wednesday evening at P49V’s QTH after a delicious
dinner at Wacky Wahoo and a few pina coladas to sharpen our strategic planning
skills.  After installing new software (Win-Test) and determining that the
computers could actually talk to the radios and each other, we addressed the
key strategic question:  Are we going to (1) have fun and not kill ourselves,
or (2) be competitive.  After deciding the answer was "yes," we formed two
watch teams and decided on port and starboard watches.  Finding ourselves one
crewman short, we sent the press gang to the next room to hijack Carl, the
Archduke of Aruba contesting, to fill out the watch bill.  

It was a motley crew indeed.  Ed, N4OC, was working on the last step to
officially shed his Rip Van Winkle Contester moniker by completing the phone
trilogy of ARRL DX, CQ WW, and WPX after being out of contesting for 32 years. 
Brian, W3BW, an accomplished DXer who’s worked all but one (nope, he’s got
P5) was looking to enter the world of high rate contesting with his first-ever
contest from the DX side.  Carl, P49V, had the privilege of learning Win-Test
on the fly, as well as indoctrinating the newbies into the manifold
capabilities of the station.  The fourth member, in his third multi-op in 45
years, was Scott, K0DQ, a recovering amnesiac who was pondering desertion after
realizing he’d signed on for a PHONE contest.  

With K1AR as our first contact, the first four hours went fast with spirits
building as 20 stayed open late and we put 800 contacts in the log.  However,
Mr. Murphy was not foxed by our (lack of a) plan and showed up with a
vengeance, taking down the 40 meter beam after 3 QSO’s (likely the result of
unseasonable horizontal rain in the past few weeks).   20 closed about 0400 and
so did our rate.  In the next six hours we had a total of roughly 150 low band
contacts, only 15 of which were on 40 meters.  The only saving grace was a
brief middle-of-the-night 20 meter opening to Europe.   Later on, Brian figured
out we could use the 160 meter dipole on 40 with a tuner and the second night we
added about 160 Q’s on 40, but the nights were slow and we remained far behind
our competition. 

Following the SEAL maxim that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, we
committed to fight through and, indeed, life looked better with the appearance
of the sun.  As others have noted, high band conditions were superb, with
Sunday seeming marginally but noticeably better than Saturday.  10 opened to
Europe, although sporadically with spotlighting and without the depth of 15 and
20.  15 was pristine. . . the polar route to Southeast and East Asia were simply
awesome, rekindling fond memories of the last cycle.  We tried to compensate for
the lack of low band Q’s by running the states early and often.  We ended up
with the third highest QSO number but they were virtually all high band and we 
simply couldn’t make up the difference.  We never really figured out how to
use the second radio effectively for multipliers but did make some in-band
multiplier QSO’s using the second receiver-- old stuff for multi-multi
operators but a first for several of us.  Lots of room for improvement on that
score. 

In the end, we met both of our objectives.  We went ashore happy and were the
hands down winner of the coveted One Happy Island engraved conch shell for #1
M/S in Aruba.  As a bonus, Brian earned his high-rate merit badge and Ed’s
contesting union card is now stamped “current!”  

We all enjoyed plumbing the depths of the FTdx-5000MP’s seemingly endless
capabilities, including the excellent DSP noise reduction features, roofing
filter with IF DSP contour and width controls, all of which made operating much
less fatiguing.  Our sincere thanks to Yaesu and Dennis, K7BV, for graciously
allowing us to put this impressive contest system through its paces. 

As always, the hospitality of Chez Cook was superb.  Thanks to Sue and Carl for
another great contest experience.  

Congrats to the 3V1A crew and thanks to all for the QSO’s and fun.  A special
well done to PS2T for a superb performance in an all band category from a
location far from Europe.

The P40M crew

Software:  Win-Test 4.7.0.  

Software consultants:  N6TV & W0YK

Station:  
FTDX-5000MP with Alpha 86
FT-1000D with Alpha 86

Antennas:
Three 60’ towers. . . two with stacked TH7DXX (Top antennas rotatable, bottom
antenna fixed Europe/US), one  with SteppIR and Shorty 40.


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