[3830] CQWW SSB P40W(@P40L/P49Y) SO(A)AB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2021

Call: P40W
Operator(s): W2GD`
Station: P40L/P49Y

Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: ARUBA
Operating Time (hrs): 40

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   60     8       16
   80:  448    18       73
   40: 1496    26      104
   20: 1191    32       96
   15: 1652    30      109
   10: 2187    26       79
------------------------------
Total: 7034   140      477  Total Score = 12,812,622

Club: Frankford Radio Club

Comments:

Station - I want to thank John P40L/W6LD and Andy P49Y/AE6Y for giving me an
opportunity to pilot their station last week. Once again it made contesting a
joy.

Note:  All of the P40L/P49Y towers are on a small 100 x 100 foot lot:
Rohn 45 tower (66’):  Single boom 2-element shortened 40m interlaced with
4-element 20m (68’) (JK2040, long-boom version); 80m Inverted-V (65’); 160m
Double-L center-fed vertical dipole (65’)

North Rohn 25 tower (56’):  Single boom 5-element 15 interlaced with 6-element
10 (58’) (JK1015 configured for dual feed)

South Rohn 25 tower (45.5’):  Tri -bander (JK Mid-tri)

Beverages:  4 controlled by K9AY switchbox: West-US (800’), East US (500’),
EU (800’)and East-West (AF and OC) (350’)

Rig:  Elecraft K3/P3 + Alpha 91B  900 to 1000 watts
Logging software:  Win-test 4.28

COMMENTS

This has been a most enjoyable week. I had the pleasure of piloting a well
engineered station that was fully renovated just 18 months ago - all new towers
and antennas. I was spared the physical exertion normally needed to get my
station operational.   

Traveled to Aruba on Monday ... allowing three days for station setup.  Since
last year at this time obtaining the required Covid PCR test within a 72 hour
window before departure has become virtually routine - the local pharmacy had
results back to me within 30 hours. 

Initial station setup and testing revealed just two problems.  The 15m portion
of the JK1015 was 'dead' and the 10M portion had a strange SWR curve. On
Wednesday morning I found the feedline on the 15M was damaged at the top of the
ower and was replaced.  Then perhaps a little voodoo later that day, the 10m SWR
curve changed dramatically after a heavy rain storm ... being it back to near
perfect (sometimes it is better to just get lucky).  All of the beverages
functioned normally which would later be important with persistent t-storm
activity over in Venezuela during the entire contest weekend.

Conditions leading up to the contest weekend were encouraging as the SFI reached
111, SN over 90, with low A/K indices. Causal DXing was a joy and ten meters was
opening to EU and USA with exceptionally strong signals.  BUT then (there always
seems to be a BUT) the sun let off a flare on Wednesday that was predicted to
make the contest weekend miserable.  Fortunately conditions never seemed to
deteriorate much on Aruba during the contest - perhaps sometimes it is best to
ignore predictions. 

For years I've reviewed logs to find my mistakes and to see how other
competitors build their scores. Band selection and operating technique are
particularly important attributes.  In my own case, by using just one radio, it
is particularly critical to be on the right band to accrue mults while
sustaining rate.

Opened the contest on 20 meters after a dismal start 40m a year earlier. 
Managed to more than double overall rate the first five hours by aggressive
CQing, overcoming a personal tendency to not press F1, preferring instead to
chase callouts/mults. A lesson learned ... if you are not CQing you are not
winning ... a lession I've found hard to grasp and perhaps more difficult to
retain for many years.  I worked on this all weekend.

With fear of the flare looming, made a concerted effort to max out mults on the
lower three bands the first night, not knowing what would happen Saturday (as it
turned out the flare was essentially a non-event on the low bands).  Conditions
on 160 were somewhat absorbed and local t-storm static made any move there
painful and generally non-productive. 80m was far more manageable.  Never found
160 productive all weekend.

By the time of my first off time about 0800, I'd managed to keep the rate much
higher than 2020, and within about 400 contacts of what I thought would be an
optimistic goal.  All good.

Awoke at sunrise to find 20m open to EU but quickly transitioned to 15m where
the EU stations were loud and plentiful. The first opening on ten was discovered
at 1220.  Spent the next several hours jumping back and forth between 15 and 10
meters. The big 10m action came later ... a three hour 700 qso run occurred
between 1700 and 2100 ... top hour of 301.  This was followed with some decent
rate on 20m.  At the halfway point the line score was 4009/121/368 5.8M. Decided
to increased my goal from 11.8 to 13 meg. 

The next six hours were rather typical on 40/80/160.  Chased whatever mults
appeared fairly aggressively while still trying to sporadically maintain rate. 
Top Band never showed sufficient propagation to sustain any runs.  Worked just
one EU all evening although I could hear many through the QRN.  At 0700 took a
three hour nap in the hope I'd be ready for high rates on Sunday.

At sunrise lingered on 40 meters for some US/AS, then transitioned directly to
15M skipping 20 entirely.  Ten meters opened to EU at 1300 for an hour then
disappeared. For the nest several hours I listened to US/VE running EU stations
like crazy that I could not hear! Sometimes this gets very maddening. Ten
finally came back my way at 1700z producing a 950 qso run over the next five
hours.  Finished out the last two hours on 20m - passing my goal of 7,000
contacts with just ten minutes to spare ... what a rush.

Overall it was a terrific weekend.  Increased my score by 30% compared to 2020.
Congratulations to my friend Sergio, PT5J, for supplying a very spirited
competition.

See everyone again during CQWW CW in a few weeks.

73, John W2GD/P40W/P44W


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