[CQ-Contest] Cuba Libre Contesters update (long)

[John Downing]

Hi all,

Wednesday's the big day.  We've been packing, repacking, weighing,
downloading, and testing in preparation for the ARRL SSB DX weekend.  A
few minor traumas along the way:  The shaft encoder on the FT1000mp VFO
A decided to give up the ghost last week.  A quick drive up to Yaesu in
Los Angeles (there is at least SOME benefit to being a Southern
California contester!) resulted in a replacement of the errant part and
complete radio checkout while I enjoyed the fine dining at El Torito.  A
big thank you to the fine folks at Yaesu who dropped everything to get a
simple contester's rig repaired while I waited.  Chip offered me some
words of encouragement and some advice on the care and feeding of our
new Yaesu Quadra amplifier - which will find it's first test in the heat
of battle next weekend.  This looks  like a solid state rig that will
make the grade - I'll report after the contest.  We have our gear packed
in five cases; two Sea King Tundra instrument cases and two larger
Pelikan instrument cases.  We've used these many times with great
results.  Unfortunately the Sea Kings weigh 13 pounds empty and the
Pelikans weight 20 pounds empty - two of the cases when loaded weigh 65
pounds, the other less than 50 pounds.  Why is this important?
Continental has a 75 pound weight limit but TACA only allows 50
pounds..... oh well, I guess we'll deal with it at the airport.

On Wednesday we catch a 7:00 am Continental flight to Houston then a 2
hour layover to catch the TACA flight to Belize.  Simple matter of
clearing customs (yeah, right...) then on to the Tropic Air flight to
Ambergris Caye arriving there about 5:00 pm.  Long day.

Here's a web site that shows our QTH at the Belize Yacht Club:

http://www.worldvacations.com/hotels/yachthotel/belmap.stm

Tuesday night before we leave we'll have our usual "contest kickoff
dinner" at a local Tratoria known for it's great food and first class
wine list.  Each year before major contests we have a dinner like this
to get the weekend started right - you know, there's something about old
rituals to ease the transition into another great contesting weekend.

A few notes for those who asked:

	Our QSL manager is Art N2AU who performs this thankless task
wonderfully well.

	We will do some operating before the contest mostly to get our 80
vertical and 
	160 meter inverted L working.  We will, for the most part, be working
non-US/VE
	hams (especially on the low bands) before the contest.  It's been a
while since
	V3 has been active on 160 or 75.  Please be patient if we don't stand
by for 
	US/VEs - I guarantee that we'll be begging you to work us as the
contest unfolds!

	We will enter as a Multi/Something.  Most of our operations have been
in the
	"gentleman's" M/S class.  One year we completely screwed up on the old
10 minute
	rule and just sent in our entry as a M/M.  Lo and behold, we actually
took top
	honors - which says much more about the quality of the M/M entries that
year than
	any skill on our part.  If conditions are fantastic and 10 is wide open
we may
	enter as a M2.  If we do - you'll get two different power reports 100
and 500
	depending on the band/rig since we only have one amplifier.  But, most
likely, 
	we'll be our regular old M/S operation.  

	I happen to have an extra server which is just about alone on a T-1
line.  After 
	the contest I'll try to get our complete log uploaded on that server. 
URL to be
	posted after the contest.  I downloaded the RecordALL Pro software and
will attempt
	to record the whole contest on a spare laptop we're bringing.  If I get
the thing
	to work I'll also post a set of bite size .wav files indexed by
time/QSO number
	for the contest.  URL to be posted later.  So you'll be able to find
yourself in the
	log, hear the QSO and laugh at how we busted yet another call......

So that's about it.  Thanks for all of the notes of support and thanks
to Yaesu and HyGain for their rapid response to our small problems.  The
countdown begins....

Have a great time this weekend!

John W2NA 
Vic KI6IM
Tom KM6K
Peter AB6WM

The Cuba Libre Contest Club


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