[3830] WPX CW PJ2T(WI9WI) SOAB LP

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                    CQWW WPX Contest, CW

Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): WI9WI
Station: PJ2T

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Signal Point
Operating Time (hrs): 36

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    0
   80:    0
   40:  621
   20:  699
   15:  873
   10:  448
------------
Total: 2641  Prefixes = 894  Total Score = 8,643,192

Club: Society of Midwest Contesters

Comments:

Since 1993 I've operated SO AB HP in this contest from PJ2T 7 times, initially
as PJ2W and then as PJ2T. In 2010 my old college roommate N4QQ and I did a two
man Multi-2 operation from here, and in 2011 I went to J7 with K5KG, K1TO and
NX4N for a field day style M/2 operation as J7A. This year, back at PJ2T as an
SO I considered doing something different. My choices were basically SO AB LP
or QRP, or an SB op on 40 or 15. We arrived at the station Tuesday afternoon
and in the next few days I spent some time on 40, 30, 15  and 17 barefoot to
get a feels for the bands. It seemed a shame to waste good propagation on an SB
effort, and I wasn't quite ready to jump into a QRP effort with both feet, so I
chose Low Power. I tend to approach LP operation as I would HP, running when
possible, with the thought that the rates weren't going to be as high and tht I
may have trouble holding a frequency. While the former proved true, the latter
didn't.

As everyone has noted, the bands were the best they have been in years. I
started on 40 as I have done in the last several years in order to maximize 6
point QSOs the first night when there is more activity. Running high power my
rates tend to be about 120-130 the first few hours. this time I averaged about
78 the first 5 hours before it started closing to Europe. I stayed in the chair
for the first 8 1/2 hours, took a 10 minute break and stopped at sunrise about
1045, as the band was dying about 2 hours sooner than it does with lower spots
and absorbtion. I had over 600 6 point QSOs in the log. I slept 3 hours and
then started again on 20. Fifteen opened soon after and I then spent the rest
of the day there and on ten. Ten was a great surprise with openings to NA and
Europe. At the half way point I had about 1600 QSOs and 3.8M points. I had no
idea of what to expect LP, so I set some fairly modest goals of 2000 QSOs, 800
PX and about 6 M points. I was obviously going to surpass that. 

I had planned on quitting at 0400 the second night and taking a 7 hour break,
but 20 was supporting rates of 100/hr so I stuck with it until 0430. I was
pretty tired then so I quit to sleep. I now wish I had stuck with it for
another hour or two. I got up at 1130Z and had the unpleasant surprise of a
power failure. My sister in law said it went out about an hour earlier. I hoped
it was one of the rolling blackouts they have here on Curacao which usually last
about 2 hours, but I couldn't be sure. So I went to start the generator, but to
my dismay I discovered that the key to it was missing from my set of keys to
the station, so all I could do was wait. Sure enough, after about 45 more more
minutes, the power returned, but I then had another unpleasant surprise. The
computer wouldn't reboot. I had had a crash with it earlier in the week, but
managed to get it going with a complete systems restore. I thought of swapping
it out for another computer, but it behaved for the next 3 days so I didn't. It
now appeared completely dead. I'm not  a computer person, but it appears to be a
complete hard drive failure. I didn't start the station computer network, but I
had been backing up the log on a thumb drive. So I swapped in the computer from
Station 2, reloaded the log and was back on the air without any lost operating
time. Sunday I spent more tme on 20 and had many good runs. Operating HP my
highest rates are in the 140-150 range on the high bands, but with LP my best
hour was 108, with a total of 5 hours over 100. The rates generally kept up
steadily all day in the high 80-100 range.

I must say that I am very surprised and pleased with the results. These were
the best conditions I've had here in the past 10 years for this contest. Even
40 was good though it closed early. It was quite quiet on forty on Friday night
except for thunderstorm static in the direction of the US. It was quieter
Saturday, but I couldn't get a run going on forty, so I stuck with 20 where I
had excellent rates. Eighty is a nonstarted in this contest in May. I went
there once on Friday night and heard only one station, former WPX contest
director N8BJQ plaintively CQing.

Some data: NA QSOs 58 %, Eu QSOs 36 %. Most worked: W/K-1388, UA-133, DL-128,
VE-98, UR-90. I also worked 78 JAs, though none on 10. It's hard to work JAs
from here in the summer with high absorbtion and static. There is a whole layer
of them I can hear but cannot pull out full calls.

Gear: FT-2K, WriteLog. For the station see the CCC website.

Thanks to all for the QSOs and patience in providing me with fills.

73

Jim
WI9WI
PJ2/WI9WI


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