[3830] CQWW CW P40W(W2GD) SOAB(A) LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: P40W
Operator(s): W2GD
Station: P40W

Class: SOAB(A) LP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 43

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   86    14       32
   80:  532    22       87
   40:  635    32      119
   20:  883    37      125
   15: 1272    37      127
   10: 1348    32      120
------------------------------
Total: 4756   174      610  Total Score = 10,979,136

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

Station:  K3, 100w, Win-Test Software 
Antennas: 160 Vertical Dipole, 160/80 Inverted V, 3el 80m wire beam, 4el 40m
wire beam, F12 Delta 240, F12 C31XR, F12 C3, Beverages NE, NW, E/W, N/S

Not So Brief Comments:

Had to cancel the planned trip for CQWW PH when my XYL broke her foot and
needed surgery in mid-October....the first CQWW event I'd missed in over 35
years.  Rebooked those October flights for ARRL DX CW 2014 in February - see
you then!

Arrived on Aruba on the Monday afternoon before the contest....weather was
notably less humid than normal and this would continue for the entire week, no
rain at all.  Also observed their was less growth of everything, it had been a
dry fall, making access to beverage feedpoints much easier this time aournd. 
Low humidity is a godsend when you are need to do several days of time driven 
outdoor antenna and tower work.  

Quick assessment of resources upon arrival - beams are intact and all showing
normal SWR readings.  160m vertical dipole is missing it's feedline.  NW, N/S
and E/W beverages are down, but just have broken wires in several places.  800
foot NE bev wire intact but termination resistor assembly needs repair.  Dinner
with old friends K6AW, W6LD, and W0YK Monday evening was quite enjoyable.

By Tuesday afternoon at sundown (following an 11 hour workday), most of the
important antenna work at P40W was done.  2200 feet of feedlines and control
cabling had been unrolled and connected, all beverages repaired, and 700 feet
of Yagi elements on the 4el 40m and 3el 80m wire beams aimed toward EU are
deployed using 1500' of nylon string to support the element ends.  K3 is set
up, and TX and RX antenna switching systems (40+ year old B&W rotary coax
switches) hooked up and tested.  Some casual operating operating confirmed the
antennas were in fact functioning normally.  Low bands sound exceptionally
quiet which will remain the case all week...several EU and AF contacts made on
160 and 80 low power.

Part of the workplan is to paint both of the 60 foot towers...corrosion from
the heavy salt air on Aruba is a never ending problem.  On Wednesday the 60'
tower rebuilt last fall was painted again and on Thursday the top 40 feet of
the main tower supporting the C31XR and 2el 40 got a fresh coat.  These are old
Rohn 25G towers...which have seen at least 30+ years of service in the US and
now P4....they continue to need plenty of TLC to survive.  Dinner again Tuesday
evening with the P40L team with Mike N7ML having joining the party that
afternoon.  These guys are setting up a serious M/2 station a mile down the
road from my QTH.

Tuesday evening after dinner hooked up my Titan amplifier.  Enjoyed all of 30
minutes running stations on 160m before hearing something go 'pop' in the power
supply and the amp would no longer work.  Sigh....had planned a SOABHP (A)
effort, so it was now time to rethink the available options. Tracked down the
two other Titan power supplies on the island but discovered they both were also
non-functional.  One other issue ....the HamIII rotator which turns the
C31XR/2el 40 is rotating very very slowly.  Keep testing it over the next few
days but it doesn't fail.  Decide not to do a rotator swap....something that
would turn out later to be a significant mistake on my part.

Wednesday evening we had another group dinner, this time Valery, R5GA/P40F
joined the party.  He tells us about problems he is having with one of the
Alpha amplifiers and the beverage at P49V which apparently has fallen into
disrepair since CQWW PH.  

Friday morning of the contest, P43A and I rented the fire company ladder truck
to repair an element on P43MR's Tennadyne T12 LPA and install a new truss
cable.  In the process we discovered a thrust bearing is ceased preventing
rotation....the Aruban envirnment is so demanding and unforgiving.   

Afterward a quick trip to the food store to purchase the weekend's compliment
of 'contest food' (microwave pasta dinners, malta drinks, mango juice, coffee,
cereral, milk, and a variety of yummy cookies) I took a final walk of the
beverages before retiring to take a pre-contest 3 hour nap.

At the start of the contest, after observing fairly good reliability of the DSL
connection all week, decided a SOAB LP(A) entry would be the most fun, allow a
broader observation of the contest 'action' and propagation by watching the
cluster spots, and there was the prospect of a new world record in the class. 
Thanks go to N3RD for some very last minute help installing filters so I would
only see NA and SA callouts on the NC7J cluster.  Had learned earlier in the
day my good friend and fellow K5D DXpedition team member NP4Z would also be
entering SOABLP(A) so I knew beforehand there would be very real competition in
the class.  Hope Felipe did well.

The actual contest is now a blur.  The week before the contest I'd been
developing a progressively worse case of broncitis and would manage to 'hack'
my way through the event.  Sure glad this wasn't a phone weekend.

A few observations about the actual operating part of CQWW CW 2013:

Conditions were exceptionally quiet for South America in November.  I could
actually listen on the 40, 80 and 160 TX antennas effectively.  Most years the
QRN level is S7 to S9+ on these bands....so this was a welcome turn of events
and contributed to decent runs on 80.  But the beverages worked the best they
have in years.  No local line noise or plasma TVs this time.

Likewise, the enhanced sunspot numbers and low A/K index values supported
middle of the night Long Path openings on 15 and 10 to SEA.  Its been a decade
since this occured reliably.

160m seemed to suffer from either absorption or spotlight propagation both
nights, particularly the first night, when compared to pre-contest
observations.  Openings to EU were weak and not particularly fun for a low
power entrant.  Overall, a disappintment, but not completely unexpected.

80m seemed strong both nights.  Felt loud with the 3el 80 wire beam to EU.  Was
pleasantly surprised when seemingly weak unworkable multipliers would come back
to my calls...perhaps there are just so many ops out there with great ears!

In retrospect I should have run more on 40m both nights but being assisted this
time, finding and working mults turned out to be effective using the cluster
spots.  Lost connectivity about a half dozen times over the course of the
contest....which required I get out of the chair and climb two stories in the
house to reset the modem each time. Call that a big PITA.

LOST the rotator on the C31/2el 40 tower about five hours into the contest. The
brake released OK but it would not turn.  Control box checked out OK too.  This
impacted my running and mult chasing the rest of the way since the C31XR and
40m beam were stuck at about 15 degrees.  It added an element of disappointment
in my thinking of course.  Ended up doing too much DXing and not enough running
as evidenced by a relatively low QSO total for the entire weekend.  The smaller
rotating C3S at 60' did an OK job the rest of the weekend, but it isn't nearly
as effective as the larger C31XR.

The higher bands were what you would expect in a high sunspot event.  Activity
was spreadout for nearly 200 Khz on 15 and 10 both days.  Running high in the
band seemed to be the norm for the big stations....which made finding spots to
CQ low in the band relatively easy this time (advantageous for LP and QRP
stations in my opinion).

After the rotator stopped working I made the decision to maximize mults in lieu
of rate.  Not a good strategy to maximize one's score, but it was very high on
the operator fun scale. 
  
At the half way point, had 5 million points in the log.  Using the X2+10%
formula, it looked like the final score would be 11 meg.  Came very close to
that goal.  Finished out the contest working TF3SG at 2359 for a double mult on
40m. NICE!

Thanks to all of the stations that were willing to move through several bands
for new multipliers over the weekend.  This is critcal for SO1R guys like me. 

On Monday morning enjoyed a post-contest breakfast at P40L....cooked up by
W0YK.  We compared results and events of the weekend.  That evening another
group dinner including R5GA/P40F completed the social activities of the week.

Went through the obligatory K3 learning curve this past week.  Still haven't
quite mastered all of the 'buttons' and features, and need to find more
effective AGC settings.  Found myself fiddling with the RF gain control far to
much.  But overall, the radio is a keeper and provided what I'll call 'clear
channel' reception all weekend.  But next time I'll bring the companion P3
unit....I missed the visual display previously enjoyed on my IC756Pro2. 

Monday and Tuesday were again days of labor taking down the wire beams, and
rolling up the two thousand feed of feedlines and control cables that help make
P40W perform so well.  This is not a plug and play operation...is more like a 4A
FD.  Changed out the broken HamIII rotator too....in preparation for ARRL DX CW
in February.  

When United Airlines told me they wanted $265 in luggage fees to transport my
overweight amplifier back to the states, I upgraded to Business Class for only
and additional $218, which included allowance for two 70 lb bags at no
additional charge....a real deal!

I want to thank W0YK and K6AW for their suggestions regarding K3 settings and
operation, N3RD for cluster setup assistance, and of course my host family on
Aruba who for nearly 20 years now have tolerated my presence and blanketing
their yard with so many cables, and have been so supportive in many ways.  

Happy Holidays Everyone ... and look forward to working many of you this winter
on 160 meters during the ARRL160, TBDC, and CQ160 CW contests. 

73,

John W2GD/P40W


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