[NCC] PJ2T Report

[Ray Conrad NM2O]

This report documents my return to Curacao for first time since 1974. In 1974, I operated WPX SSB with N4RV and CQ WW SSB with a PVRC team. WPX was a win in Multi-single and CQ WW was a win in Multi-multi as well as a new world’s record. 

Evaluation of competition is a key aspect to preparation. We all knew that D4C and HK1NA are formidable competition. With their geographic advantage, D4C seemed poised for a win on CW, as they did on SSB. Both stations are known to have big signals at my home in New York. Looking at Google Maps aerial photos of the PJ2T site showed that it was cloaked in clouds. For an island with little rainfall, and generally clear conditions, the clouds may lend a bit of mystery to the site. 

The PJ2T site shows up as “Signal Point” on Google maps. That name was coined by John Thompson, W1BIH, (SK). John operated from the site of PJ2T for many years and the special call sign is granted by the Curacao Authorities for contest use. John's memory is evident at the site. 

Team formation – The CQ WW team on CW was composed of operators who are regulars at the site and some who are new to the site. The site is owned by W0CG/PJ2DX and the Caribbean Contesting Consortium contributes funds to the maintenance and operations of the station. The lineup this year:  W0CG K8ND W8WTS W9NJY K2PLF N0YY KB7Q VE7ACN DF9LJ NM2O N7WA. 

The Trophy Case at PJ2T contains CQ and ARRL trophies for many operations. The trophy won by N4RV and me from 1974 is included. This year, I presented to the CCC president the 1969 CQ WW SSB certificate for PJ0DX. This certificate was a World Championship and Worlds Record. The certificate was contained in a box of material inherited from W3AU and W3ZZ. 
Worlds Records were set by CW and SSB teams from the Signal Point site, and the adjacent Coral Cliffs Hotel site beginning in about 1967. The records were broken and re-set into to the middle 1980s. Zone 9 was indeed the place to be. With a huge increase in European activity, the sweet spot seems to be Zone 33 for CQ WW. For ARRL, Zone 9 is still very sweet. I have a print out of the PJ0DX log. I've noted some familiar calls. If you were active, let me know, I can sent a PDF of the pages showing your contacts. 

The Curacao location was selected for the 3 point advantage over 2 points for North America locations in CQ WW. That scoring remains true today. The association with Chet Brandon, PJ9EE, was instrumental in organizing and operating those first operations. Station installation and maintenance clearly requires a resident at or near the site to keep up with maintenance. The exposure to salt spray is a constant source of maintenance issues. It is well known, but corrosion control becomes a very important aspect of staying on the air. W0CG mentioned that they color code the paint used on the towers. One color is used for “first note of rust” and a different color to indicate “second time” painting. 

Station improvements are ongoing. The latest improvement was the addition of a Bencher Tribander on the ridge overlooking the site. The site is about 60 feet above Sea Level. The Beam Heading to Europe is over a substantial ridge of about 250 feet. The Bencher is a major addition to the antennas available. The Tribander is fixed on a European beam heading, and is fed through 4O3A band pass filters and a combiner. This triplexer implementation allows simultaneous operation on 10, 15 and 20 meters. 

Operational observations – The team members arrived on Tuesday and Wednesday prior to the contest. Band assignments were made ahead of time and each operator operated on his assigned band to understand conditions. Each operator used PJ2/HOME CALL. A large number of contacts were made before the contest. 

During the contest, most bands used 4 hour shifts. The incoming operator would plug in a bit before shift change and take the CQ frequency. The strategy was to CQ and keep up the rates. At the start, most stations had 2 operators to pick out calls. Rates were between 150 and 200 at the start. The station has good internet and we had spots coming in 24/7 without interruption. 

I shared 20 Meters with K2PLF and DF9LJ. My 0400 to 0800 shift on Sunday was great. I had back to back 90 to 95 hours of Asians and Europeans. (This was K=0 or 1. The prior night was slower as K=3 overnight.) The stations called in around 45 minutes after their local sunrise. I noted that the USA multi-ops had only 5 hours at those hours. It was nice to have “exclusive access” to those areas. Before my shift, I sat down on 15 when the op took a break at 0300Z Sunday.  Some good multipliers were found: 3W, FO, Z81 and HS. I had heard about these “midnight openings” on 15 meters from N4RV. I’m glad to have been there on a day when the band was open.  

Many BY were on, but none replied. I suspect they have band local noise conditions. Is anyone feeding back the observation that many BY stations seem to hear poorly? 

We had good runs on all bands, but 20 meters at local noon on Sunday was dreadfully slow. (This matched Fred’s observation from Thailand.) I started calling stations just to keep a rate. 20 Meters had a terrible S7 to S9 noise during darkness. The noise came on at dark and went off promptly at sunrise. It is likely that something faulty is on a photo cell. We explored the area on foot with the MFJ noise analyzer, but did not find the source. A car with a mobile HF station will be needed. The noise is in the direction of USA and JA; so it was a major issue. Other bands did not hear the noise. That is a bit different than other noises I’ve hunted. I’d appreciate feedback about 20 meters during darkness. I’m sure we missed a number of callers. Hopefully, we did not miss too many countries. 
Write Log was used for logging. It showed 41 zones on 20 meters from Sunday afternoon. After running the SH5 analysis, we found that we missed Zone 37 on 20. So, it was only 39. Has anyone seen that quirk with Write Log? Not telling what got scored as zone 41. 

Looking forward – Station improvements will continue. A new operator bench is under consideration. This should allow sufficient room to have two operators per band. Antenna switching improvements are under consideration to allow faster switching to the several rotary antennas used to work multipliers. 

The Curacao Authorities mentioned that the call might change for Curacao. It's possibly a change to PJ0 prefix, to mirror their change in status from Netherlands on 10-10-2010. This change might occur as early as December this year. 

Operator Training – N0YY, the CCC president mentioned that they’d like to see PJ2T used for operator training of youth. The station is available for rental most of the year, and a trip could be set up for family or group use. 

73, Ray ncc