[3830] CQWW CW 9Y4/VE3EY SOAB HP

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CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: 9Y4/VE3EY
Operator(s): VE3EY
Station: 9Y4/VE3EY

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Trinidad island
Operating Time (hrs): 42

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  434    13       55
   80:  587    19       71
   40: 1243    26       92
   20: 2012    28       98
   15: 1382    21       83
   10:  393    15       22
------------------------------
Total: 6051   122      421  Total Score = 9,716,442

Club: Contest Club Ontario

Comments:

The conditions on lower bands I found to be outstanding.  I felt like a kid in a
candy store having a tough choice which band to pick.
In particular, second night on 160 sounded like something I did not hear in
years. The static crashes were there but EU signals were also so loud.

I also worked some 100+ JAs on 80 meters (before and during the contest).  I
never even heard one on 80 before from my little city lot back home in VE3. 

The packet pileups were at times too much for me to handle. This is especially
true when guys get locked into a zero-beat situation.It was interesting to hear
how low key stations break the pile with just low power by calling few Hz off
the center and move on quickly.   

I ran all the time with no particular effort spent to chase the mults around. 
Lots of good souls were willing to move across bands and that helped a lot.
Thank-you for that. 

As a result of Hurricane Otto which did hit Costa Rica, Trinidad was beset with
some torrential rains at the same time which caused frequent power outages in
the area.  I was without power almost all day on Friday and many other times,
but hotel staff valiantly manned the generator and as a result I had no
significant down time during the contest this year.

I am really grateful for them getting up in a middle of the night to turn the
generator on for me. 

In the perpetual struggle to contain cost, many airlines are tightening the
grip on the allowed luggage weight. On many carriers the first check-in baggage
is no longer for free on regional flights. Passengers are trying to bring on as
much stuff possible into the cabin which causes shortage of overhead stowage
bin space. This year it resulted in some arguments with flight crew who wanted
to send my carry-on luggage down into the cargo hold which I had to refuse for
fear of my K3 inside becoming damaged. 

My setup has remained virtually identical compared to my previous two visits to
9Y. While the installation looks small and simple, there was still some 170 Lb.
of stuff that I had to carry on the airplane by myself.  I could allow myself
only about 5 lb. of weight for personal items (spare clothing etc.) .
 

Rig:  One K3 + KPA500.   (Amp hopefully soon to be upgraded to an Expert
1.3K-FA). 

Ant:  Ground mounted SteppIR vertical for 40M-10M;  64ft tall top loaded
"T" vertical for 160/80
 

Some pictures at https://www.qrz.com/db/VE3EY


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