[NCC] CQ160 CW PJ2T Multi-Op HP

[James M. Galm, W8WTS]

CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): K8ND W8WTS
Station: PJ2T

Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: Curacao
Operating Time (hrs): 26:44

Summary:
Total: QSOs = 1225 State/Prov = 58 Countries = 71 Total Score = 1,568,898

Club: Mad River Radio Club (1/2) North Coast Contesters (1/2)

Comments:

Jeff K8ND and Jim W8WTS, both members of the Caribbean Contesting Consortium, operated PJ2T. This was the fifth time that we operated as a multiop team for CQ 160 CW from the CCC club station at Signal Point, Curacao. 

Our station consisted of a K-3/P-3 and AL-1200. The transmit antenna is an inv-L, approximately 50-feet vertical and sloping up to approximately 95-feet. 
The receive antenna complement was two beverage antennas (Europe 1000-foot and USA/JA 635-foot) and one DX Engineering active receive four square. This has been our standard antenna configuration for several contests. 

We had a set of four Software Defined Radios (3 x SDR-IQ and 1 x Perseus) running CW Skimmer on two laptops. Each receiver had a different receive antenna, with our "ridge 80-meter inv-V" serving as the antenna for the fourth Skimmer. The spots from each of the Skimmers were aggregated by a local instance of VE7CC’s CC Cluster. WriteLog received spots from the dx cluster network (NA and SA spotters only) and from the local CC Cluster aggregator. 

Conditions were fair the first night, working a mix of Europeans and K/VE and
14 JA stations. Our start was slow, missing our QSO total goals for the first two hours. It was clear that many NA stations were having more difficulty working Europe than the norm. Signal strengths from Europe varied from noise level to S8 or more. The first JAs popped out with strong, clear signals, but by the end of the JA run, signals were hard to copy. As the sun rose, we worked a few trailing NA stations with good signals. 

The second night also started slow, with sub-goal QSO total for the first two hours. Overall, the second night brought higher noise levels and more difficulty maintaining rate to Europe. The Europeans had far more of a challenge hearing us on night two. We found the need to send the European station’s call several times to ensure that the ops knew who we were answering. No JA QSOs were logged the second night. Although we started calling several hours before the contest end at 2200Z, we made no QSOs on Sunday evening in full daylight. At the contest end, we had logged 911 NA, 270 Europe, 20 Asia, and 24 Rest of World QSOs. 

Through challenging conditions, we managed to complete a competitive score and had a great time doing it. We appreciated everyone’s patience, gentlemanly operating, and attention to logging accuracy. 

Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/