[3830] WPX CW P49Y(AE6Y) SOAB LP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: P49Y
Operator(s): AE6Y
Station: P49Y

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:     
   80:   85
   40:  823
   20: 1029
   15:  966
   10:  294
------------
Total: 3197  Prefixes = 949  Total Score = 11,582,545

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

With PJ4A (K4BAI) and P40W (W2GD) battling it out in HP for SA honors, I decided
to see if I could improve on last year's low power score, which had been
affected by missing the first seven hours of the contest due to a power
failure.  Fortunately, the power stayed nice and steady this year, and the
claimed score is some 2.5M points better.  

LP worked pretty well on the high bands, but I must say that there were times
in the contest when I looked longingly at the lovely Alpha 91B that we had just
purchased from KK9A when he had to close his P40A station -- it would have been
a big help on 40m.  Last year I had a great time on 40; it was quiet and seemed
very available, but this year was totally different.  With LP, you just can't
blow a hole in the spectrum, particularly on a noisy band.  For example, on
Saturday evening I was on 20 and I heard P40W go to 40 at about 2230Z (which is
about when it starts to be workable to EU here) and start a successful run on
7001.  I tried the same thing a few kHz higher, but got absolutely no answers
to CQs.  The same thing had happened at the start of the contest.  After only
19 difficult QSOs in 16 minutes on 40, I ended up on 20 for the next four
hours.  But I shouldn't complain: it was very nice that 20 was wide open at
night, which hasn't usually been the case for the past few years of low
sunspots. And, amazingly, later on while running on 7036 with the K3, I idly
hit the "21" button on the Pro2, and there were signals on 15.  Between 0637Z
(that's 2:37 in the morning local time) and 0655Z, I made second radio Qs with
YE1C, II9T, HC2SL, and C4N on 15 -- what fun!

All hardware and software worked FB this weekend.  As usual, the K3 was cool
and rock solid.  I've come to appreciate the resolution of the P3, as there are
times LP when you have to slot yourself very accurately between adjacent
signals.  By contrast the Pro2 bandscope, which I have always found very
useful, is much lower resolution and mushes out on a crowded band.  I had this
overpowering, semi-hallucinatory image when I was running on 40 and had the
Pro2 set to 80 for second radio Qs that the signals on it were little yellow
dancing ghosts playing in the surf of background noise.  Every so often a
static crash would bring in a huge tsunami of noise that would submerge all the
dancers, who would magically pop back up waiting for the next wave -- you don't
see that kind of imagery on the hi-res P3!

Ten was open to parts of EU on Saturday, but I didn't think it would be
productive to try to run there, though it was good for about 20 second-radio
Qs.  When it finally opened stateside on Sunday afternoon it yielded the best
hour of the contest: 138 Qs in the 1900Z hour.  

Thanks to everyone for their participation, particularly those in northern
latitudes who suffered through some marginal conditions.  Also thanks to the
casual operators who get on to pass out some points.  And in that category was
the co-owner of the station John, W6LD (P40L), who managed to push a few watts
on 15 into his 20m dipole for a contact.  Also thanks to him for our excellent
beverage setup, which helped greatly on 40.  We have four of them, all K9AY
switch-selected, and their directionality was very helpful when 40 seemed to be
open to all directions at the same time.  Even got to try the rarely-used
East-West beverage when a few VKs called in. 

Rig: Elecraft K3/P3, Icom 756 Pro2
Ant: 2 el 10, 5 el 15, 4 el 20, 2 el 40, 1 el 80, C31XR, all F-12, beverages
Software: CQPWIN ver. 12.1

73, Andy, AE6Y
www.arubaqth.com


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