[NCC] N9RV and K3LR as PT5G in WRTC2006

[Tim Duffy K3LR]

I have attached an email that Pat, N9RV wrote about our trip to WRTC2006.
While we are extremely disappointed, we had a great time and are very happy that

the top 3 teams are 6 very good guys (all have operated in K3LR multi multis!)

There are some great pictures at http://wrtc2006.contesting.com/
All of the logs, UBNs and results are at http://www.wrtc2006.com

Thanks for your support and the QSOs!
Very 73!
Tim K3LR



Well, WRTC 2006 i s over, and both K3LR and myself are back home
It was a perfect trip to a great party with perfect
hosts. Everyone in Brazil was so friendly and helpful it was almost
overwhelming. From a social standpoint, WRTC 2006 will go down as a
highlight of my ham radio career, and I have made many new friends.

Unfortunately, I am very embarrassed and disappointed in our score. We
finished number 34 among 46 competitive teams (the OK team did not show),
and last among all of the US teams. At times during the contest I was
very down, especially when hearing other WRTC stations running high rate
working things that we could not even hear. But my team mate K3LR was
very focused on making the best score we could, and we gave it our best
effort. We both stayed in the chairs for 24 hours and did everything we could to
maximize our score.

When I saw our station draw I feared we would be in trouble. The attached
picture says it all ­ from sea level we looked right into a 800 foot hill
to Europe only 200 feet from our antennas!
The view to the states was a little better ­ still over land,
but looking in between two hills. Our terrific salt water shot covered
KH6 to ZL ­ not exactly high QSO territory! The plus side (if there is a
plus) is that we had a terrific host (PY2WB, Fred) and an incredible
referee (Alberto, IV3TAN, of D44AC fame) who also wanted to win.

The contest was pretty much decided for us by the fourth hour, when there
was a 10m opening to EU that we heard many other WRTC stations working
(the N6MJ/N2NL team reported that the UA9’s were 20 over on 10!) and we
got nothing out of. We worked a grand total of four multipliers on 10 ­
we heard a few EU that CQ’d in our face, a nd that was about it. Our final
log showed only 20 percent of our total Q’s were with Europe, and we had
only 23 SSB QSOs with EU.

That’s about 340 EU QSOs total. The winners had over 1100 EU Q’s. Get it?

We did manage to work quite a few stateside, though, which was
 fun. K8CX always found us fast, N3GJ and WW3S were strong.
K8AZ and K8CC as NU1AW/8 were very good.
 It was also a hoot to hear a super
loud VP8 on 40 meters. It is amazing how loud the JA’s were there,
 especially on 40m where we had a nice run. They are so far away, but so
 loud ­ incredible, really.

 Thanks for all of the support, both on and off the air. Look forward to
 swapping more stories in person some time with all of you.

  Pat
  N9RV