[3830] ARI KP2M(N7MH) SO CW HP

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                    ARI International DX Contest

Call: KP2M
Operator(s): N7MH
Station: KP2M

Class: SO CW HP
QTH: St Croix
Operating Time (hrs): 21

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  RTTY Qs  Mults
------------------------------------
  160:     0                     0
   80:    15                    12
   40:   197                    65
   20:   435                   100
   15:   463                    99
   10:    97                    42
------------------------------------
Total:  1207    0       0      318  Total Score = 1,590,954

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

This is my third time operating in the ARI DX Contest from Radio Reef, KP2M. 
The ARI contest and the St Croix Ironman 70.3 Triathlon are both held on the
first weekend of May so my wife competes in the triathlon while I take
advantage of the Caribbean location to operate in a DX contest.

I came down with a cold on Monday before our red-eye flight to St Croix that
left me with ear congestion during the contest.  This was frustrating because
I'm usually able to dig out callsigns of weak callers but with plugged-up ears
I had to give up on more than the usual.

After running into permission issues in installing the ARI module for WriteLog
I was forced into my annual use of N1MM Logger.  I got it set up for SO2R on
Friday using 2 computers and had only a few small tweaks to do before the
contest started on Saturday morning.  When I started up again on Saturday the
computers were no longer communicating with each other.  I started the contest
using one radio and worked on the N1MM networking config.

Several hours into the contest I figured out that the IP addresses had changed
so I reconfigured both computers and managed to sync the log to the second
computer.  After several minutes off the air while reconfiguring I noticed that
the Alpha 87A had shut itself off.  Turning it on again caused it to fault
within a few seconds.  Brian, KP2HC, the station caretaker, showed up about
this time and tried unsuccessfully to reset the 87A.

After spending over an hour trying to get the 87A working, dealing with IP
addresses being reassigned again, learning that rig control and keying on the
second radio no longer worked, etc., Brian reconfigured the station so that I
had one working computer, radio and amp.  I operated SO2R last year with the
two computers and never had the networking issues so I don't know what had
changed.

In the early evening my wife dropped in to warn me that she saw lightning in
the distance.  I operated a few minutes more but when the shack lights dimmed
due to nearby lightning I turned everything off and waited out the
thunderstorm.  After nearly 2 hours I finally got back on, but I'd missed much
of the best opening on 40 and 80 meters to Europe/Italy.

There were some nice openings late at night on 20 and 15.  A brief long-path
opening into the Middle East on 20, but short-path was open to EU almost all
night.  A run of JAs at 0300Z (11 PM local) on 15 meters and openings to Europe
in the early morning hours left little activity on the low bands so few Q's or
mults there.

I drove my wife to her triathlon at 4 AM local time then returned to finish the
contest.  I hadn't been sleeping well due to the cold so I was tired and have a
couple 15 minute gaps in the log when I briefly dozed (not while auto-CQing). 
The contest ended at 8 AM local time and I walked down to the road to watch my
wife ride by on her bike in the triathlon, then slept until her race ended.

Thanks to Philip/KT3Y for the station rental and to Brian/KP2HC for his help in
setting up the station and antennas.

73,
-Mike, N7MH


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