[3830] ARRLDX CW PJ2T M/M HP

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                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): W0CG WA9S W9VA VE3CX N5OT K2PLF NF9V KB7Q WI9WI
Station: PJ2T

Class: M/M HP
QTH: Curacao
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:  858    58
   80: 1225    60
   40: 2100    61
   20: 2164    61
   15: 1803    59
   10:  634    46
-------------------
Total: 8784   345  Total Score = 9,085,230

Club: CCC

Comments:

Hi all.

We had a major logging crisis. Sorry for not getting this posted until mid-day
Tuesday, but we have been dealing with the crisis. In what was not one of our
shining moments at PJ2T one of our ops somehow fat-fingered something into N1MM+
at our 40 meter station, thus popping up an unexpected dialog window. This was
mid-afternoon on Saturday when we had some 1200 Qs and 61 mults in the log on
40. He's not an experienced N1MM user, so to make the dialog box go away he
clicked on "OK." That immediately deleted ALL 40 meter QSOs and mults
from the log. The op next to him at the 20 meter station saw the problem and
didn't take enough time to study the situation, and immediately re-synched the
log thinking that would bring everything back. What happened was just the
opposite. The good logs at the other three stations dutifully deleted all of
their 40 meter QSOs also, and we were out of luck. I didn't notice any of this
happening at my 10 meter station, but a minute or so later I saw that MA went
into the log as a new mult on 40, and that's when I realized that we were in a
real mess. Our N1MM+ guru KB7Q was out of the shack on break. By the time he got
back it was too late.

Fast forwarding to today, it's all fixed thanks to patient and generous-hearted
work by N2IC. KB7Q sent Steve the transaction logs from all four computers
(these files were NOT identical), and he sorted the problem and sent us back a
correct log. THANKS N2IC because now we're breathing again down here.   

The ABC islands were the place to be in these rotten conditions. 10 opened both
afternoons long enough for us to put 634 QSOs in the log. PJ4A did even better
with 703 on 10, but the band would not open to W7 or VE5, 6, or 7 either day,
and we ended up with only 46 mults on 10. The low bands were reasonably quiet
and there was very little lightning noise in the region.

Equipment things did not go smoothly, with some very troublesome cross-band
interference that lost us Qs on 10 and 15. Naturally we're unable to re-create
that today in troubleshooting, so it will be hard to find and fix. There were
too many computer blue screen crashes, and the logs were never all quite in
agreement even before our 40 meter deletion crisis. Somehow, though, the power
stayed on, the equipment more or less worked, and the periodic heavy rain
showers did not hurt our effort much. 

All eyes are quite properly on the Bouvet crew. Our hats are off to them for the
risks they take and the dollars they invest, unselfishly, so that we can all
have fun on the air. We have immense respect for those gentlemen and know that
they will rise again. In the same spirit, I thank our PJ2T crew for their time
and generosity in making the trip down here for ARRL. This is very small scale
compared to Bouvet, but it's still pretty expensive in time and cost for ops to
get here, and we are very appreciative of that. American Airlines is getting
very, very greedy with many fares up on the order of 75% recently, reflective of
what happens when the government allows an industry to turn into a classic
limited competition oligopoly. So when you're able to work the easy PJ2
multiplier it's the ops who make this trip that you can thank.

Many thanks to the members of the CCC club group for keeping PJ2T alive and on
the air, to WI9WI for serving as our operational leader this weekend, to KB7Q
for great logging and computer work, and to N5OT's XYL Kathy Stewart for feeding
us like royalty. I also thank Dorothy Dahlgren, my YL of 10 years for taking
vacation time from work to come to Curacao and work her fingers to the bone to
help support me, the contest crew, the QTH itself, and all of the logistics. I'd
be lost without her. 

Thanks, friends. It's a delight to read the 3830 reports and stories. It feels
more and more like we're all part of one huge worldwide extended family, and I
look forward to our getting together and partying on the air again in the SSB
weekend. Look for German accents from PJ2T with DL8OBQ and DK3DM taking the lead
in ARRL SSB.

    73 from the PJ2T gang,

       - Geoff, W0CG, PJ2DX


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