[3830] ARRLDX CW VP5S M/S HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: VP5S
Operator(s): K0MD, K4IU, AC0W, NY0V
Station: VP5S

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Turks & Caicos
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  293    53
   80:  822    57
   40:  936    57
   20:  874    57
   15: 1226    58
   10:  921    58
-------------------
Total: 5072   340  Total Score = 5,172,420

Club: Minnesota Wireless Assn

Comments:

Four team South members went to Turks and Caicos on February 14, 2013 to do the
ARRL DX CW contest as a multi-single team.  We were assigned VP5S as the
contest call.  It is similar to VP5H, the call used by the MWA team who travels
for the ARRL DX SSB contest.  The team was organized by Scott, K0MD and included
Fred, K4IU, Bill AC0W and Tom, NY0V, who is relatively new to MWA but an
accomplished Dxer in his own right.  We arrived into Providenciales in the
early afternoon to typical sunny, hot Caribbean weather â€" the perfect
antidote for the mid-winter blahs we suffer in the upper Midwest.  We were met
by Jody Millspaugh and her groundskeeper Frandy who ported our heavy luggage
into two cars for the 15 minute drive to the Hamlet.  We brought in an Icom
7600 and an Acom 1010 from the QTH of K0MD along with an Icom 756 Pro II from
the QTH of K4IU.  This combination of equipment has been the mainstay of the
MWA team for the ARRL DX SSB contest.  The pre-contest set up went smoothly and
we were on the air as VP5/K0MD and other calls quickly.  Scott worked over 100
stations the first afternoon / evening and had lots of interest in QSO’s. 
Scott also worked a tough run of JA’s the hour before the contest on 15 CW,
experiencing the cachophony of CW that sounds like a hornet’s nest from the
eager JA hams to get VP5 worked and confirmed.  Fred spent Friday on the air,
getting familiar with N1mm as a logger.  Bill and Tom each worked QSO’s and
enjoyed their time as Caribbean DX!  Jody’s all Force 12 antenna array is
simply amazing.  The US signals especially Minnesota signals were very loud. 
As usual, Jody is a great host. We enjoyed several meals with her and Lizzy
(her dog). 

Scott’s comments:  The propagation for the ARRL CW contest was amazing â€"
perhaps the best I have encountered in five years or so of contesting from VP5.
 Ten meters was incredibly hot on the Sunday afternoon of the contest and we
worked over 600-700 stations in three to four hours.  The Low Bands were great
the first night â€" quiet, active, and the entire USA was open on 80 meters
after 8 PM local time.  It was a lot of fun to hear W6’s competing with
W0’s and W3’s for us.  160 meters was unusually productive as well.  I
cannot remember working more multipliers on a Friday night.  I hope this bodes
well for the ARRL SSB contest in two weeks.


It is always fun to have an endless pileup.  The rates were very good but
slowed on my watch when the pileups grew intense.  The cachophony of 100+
stations calling on one’s spotted frequency leads to one loud RTTY like tone.
 I learned to use the RIT to vary 0.15 above and below my transmitting
frequency.  This was the only way I could find a station call to reply to. 
Those in the USA who continue to call right on the DX spot frequency should
learn from this to vary your frequency a bit. The US stations would stop
transmitting once I sent a partial call back, nearly all of the time.  I remain
impressed at the civility of 95% of our fellow hams during intense contests.  I
found us lacking a few mults on ten meters during the last afternoon. Several
times, I stopped the runs and called only for certain states. It was a bit
humorous when a station would call from outside the needed state multipliers
only to discover that I would not log them. We picked up KY and one other state
doing that.  We still never found West Virginia on 10 meters â€" who would have
thought?   I also enjoyed working all of our fellow MWA members and friends
from around the USA.  The contesting community is a nice group of hams.

Rig:  The 7600 is an incredibly quiet receiver. I think it is better on the Low
bands than my 7800.  I really like using this small rig â€" it is like sleek
sports car and handles like one as well.


Amp:  The Acom 1010 amp is durable and quiet. It is perfect for this type of
contest.  700 watts is enough on a CW contest to the USA.


40 meters:  The band was incredible this year and we worked 57 multipliers
during the contest.  I wish we could have reached 60.  Forty meters had our
second highest total QSO count and it was a band we did not spend a lot of time
concentrated on. 


15 meters: This band remains the workhorse. We started the contest on 15 and
had to pry ourselves away Sunday afternoon to try 10 again.  Our highest QSO
count was on 15 meters. 


 10 meters: Saturday’s experience suggested this band might not open on
Sunday but I reassured my teammates that we would get an opening. And, an
opening we did- Sunday after 3 PM the USA opened and it was like magic. We
experienced E skip first hand initially, and then it was open everywhere.  I
have learned two facts about contesting from overseas. Glenn Johnson has taught
me that  contacts and mults on 10 meters separate the first place teams from the
second place teams.  Frank Donovan, W3LPL, taught at contest U â€" No two
weekend days are identical during a 48 hour contest weekend.  Don’t let a
good opening go unworked for it might not be there tomorrow.  His advice was
spot on for us.

Comparison with SSB contest: I found the CW contest to be much quieter.  When I
was not operating, the shack was quiet except for the faint sound of the Acom
amplifier relay doing QSK.  It was much easier to sleep at night time with the
hamlet quiet!  I was worried about my CW skills with regard to handling pileups
but all of my on the air work paid off. My code speed improved dramatically such
that 30 WPM seemed slow by the end of the contest.


 I want to thank Fred, Bill and Tom for having the courage to try VP5 with me
for this contest. I have come to the conclusion that MWA members are some of
the finest hams, operators and people in the USA.  These members are great
examples and ambassadors for amateur radio.  It appears we have the same
weekend booked for 2014 so MWA can field teams again for CW and SSB.


I asked Fred, Bill and Tom for separate comments to add:

Fred’s comments:  Our team had great propagation.  160 was quiet and we had
great runs on Friday night.  The second night was not as good and the band was
noisier.  Everyone agreed that 10 meters was a huge gift from the solar gods.
Sunday was the better day for 10 than Saturday.  It exploded Sunday afternoon. 
Murphy stayed away the entire contest (except during customs with Scott at the
Miami airport).  The radios worked flawlessly. For the most part, the pileups
treated us cordially.  I think everyone on the planet enjoyed this one.  73,
Fred

Bill’s comments:  While I have operated from DX locations before, this is the
first time I have encountered the high rates and pile-ups for hours. In general,
pile ups were civil and people followed along pretty good. That is until the
last hour when all manners went out the window. At the end people were
constantly calling making it impossible to work people so I pulled the plug
earlier (less than 5 minutes before the contest ended).  It was a good learning
experience to be on the other side of the pile-up.  73, Bill


Tom’s comments: I have not been to the DX side of a CW contest before, so I
had some apprehension if I had the skills to do the job. I wanted to be able to
hold up my side of the bargain. Before I left MN I practiced up using Morse
Runner, PileUp Runner, and RUFZ.  What I found was that these programs really
do help bring your speed up and prepare you for a contest.  We were running
around 28 to 30 wpm and that was really adequate.  What was a shock for me was
that on the first time at the operating position I found a total wall of
signals coming back through the headset! There were times when I could not pick
out a single letter, much less a call! I found the RIT does help and that the
smart contesters also offset their transmission to keep off our exact
frequency. Those just clicking a mouse to QSY to call on top of us were not the
first in the log.  The second thing I noticed that really surprised me was the
extremely low noise on the low bands. 160m sounded more like 20m to me. I am
sure if we had had storms in the area that would not have been the case. But, I
found 160 to be a lot of fun with a quiet background noise that made it
enjoyable.  Ten meters was interesting. For most of Sunday the band was just
not producing the rates or mults we needed. We had some close-in states that we
were skipping over; like KY, TN, LA, MS. I even asked Scott to turn the beam to
the Atlantic so that maybe we could hear them backscatter. Nope. We could work
solidly into the Midwest and some Western states and we skipped over the ones
we needed…until about 3:15pm EST. Then it turned into mayhem as the band
opened up and we were stockpiled with callers for nearly the entire rest of the
contest. And, yes, we got those close-in mults.


 There you have it in a nutshell- the VP5S story. 

Thanks for all of the QSO’s and especially for those who worked us on all 6
bands. You are half-way to your special momento.

 Scott, K0MD/ , Bill AC0W, Fred K4IU, Tom NY0V on behalf of VP5s


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