[3830] ARRLDX CW PJ2T M/M HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): KB9OWP, WI9WI, W9VA, NP2L, W0CG, N0VD, W2UP
Station: PJ2T

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

Summary:
 Band  QSOs   Mults
--------------------
  160:   655    58
   80:  1165    59
   40:  1997    59
   20:  2196    59
   15:  2253    59
   10:  2363    59
--------------------
Total: 10629   353  Total Score = 11,256,111

Club: 

Comments:

I and the rest of the CCC members congratulate The Admiral, K0DQ, on his
apparent win in the SOHP category. This is as popular a win in the contest
community as when Phil Mickelson won his first Masters, and we salute
(litearlly) Scott on his accomplishment.

PJ2T got caught napping on this one. Our congratulations to K1LZ and his gang
at TI5W on their win in the M/M category. Great job and a new record! Until
about 24 hours into the contest, we believed that we were the only
large-station Caribbean M/M entry, and thus we left some QSOs on the table the
first 24 hours by not covering some of the very slow band-hours on 20
overnight, on 10 and 15 in the very early morning, and on 40 throughout the
daylight hours. We sacrificed a lot of QSOs. Dumb. 

Watching the spot patterns, we realized about halfway through that PJ4X was
operating as an M/M, even though they pre-posted as a M/2, confirmed in various
E-mails before the contest that they were M/2, and didn't even say anyhing when
we saw most of them at the airport Tuesday before the contest. We confirmed to
them at the airport that we would be M/M, and they said nothing to dispel our
belief that they would be M/2. They later told us that they had decided to
"keep it quiet" that they had shifted to M/M so that they could have a good
head-to-head competition with PJ2T. They did a good job of fooling us, and as a
result we let ourselves get lazy. Once we realized what had happened we doubled
down in the past 24 hours, but it was not enough. TI5W took it, PJ4X is second
in claimed score, and in the words of The Who, we won't be fooled again. 

We had an additional challenge in that something went haywire in our low band
RX system with the result that 160 was interfering badly with 80. We couldn't
hear any stations on 80 that were below about S8. This was my fault as we did
not realize how serious this was and troubleshoot it in time. My apologies to
the PJ2T crew. On top of that, the low band conditions were horrid. I couldn't
believe it when I sat down to start Saturday night on 160 and was hit by a
solid wall of S9 noise. It was present on all antennas and never abated all
night. Worst 160 I have ever heard. Sorry to all who were calling and calling.
Our usual great low band ears were kaput this weekend. 

Because of problems beyond everyone's control, five of our six scheduled
operators had to cancel on ARRL DX, some with extremely short notice. What to
do?! We wanted to go M/M because we knew we almost certainly could not beat
PJ4X. The geometry of their rental site is superior to ours and they are very
loud everywhere, so we felt we had a better chance in M/M. Thus, we had to
recruit a lot more people very quickly. Thanks to WI9WI for signing on at the
last minute, and for recruiting Ryan, KB9OWD. He's a superb operator and an
outstandingly nice guy, and we hope he will be back to PJ2T in the future. N0VD
twisted the arm of Barry, W2UP, who is a world class High Speed Telegraphy
competition champion, and Barry set a new PJ2T rate-hour record with 217 in one
clock hour on 10. We hope he too will consent to return to PJ2T!

Our new Dell Inspiron 560 slim tower desktops ran perfectly (Writelog and
Winkeyers), proving out that our decision to dump the problem old computers and
upgrade was a golden one. All of the PJ2T gear ran perfectly all weekend with
not even a single computer reboot needed for the entire contest. 

Thanks again to the CCC club group for helping us keep this station on the air,
and to Yaesu for their generous sponsorship that enables us to run an
all-FT-1000/FT-2000 station at PJ2T. The Yaesu gear performed perfectly. We
also thank Mr. Randy Rowland, our non-ham friend from Seattle who decided to
celebrate his retirement from his nursing career by cooking for 12 people in
the Caribbean. We ate like kings. 

We posted late because we are still smarting from CQWW SSB 2010 when another
team saw our 3830 posted score and changed their category of entry from M/2 to
M/M on the last day of log submission, snatching away our M/M plaque. But not
posting is even more unsportsmanlike, so here we are. 

See you in ARRL SSB as a M/S with K6AM at the run helm.

     73, Geoff, W0CG/7, PJ2DX


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/