[SECC] WRTC 2006 - PW5Y

[ku8e at bellsouth.net]

Hi All,

  John and I have made it home safely. We arrived in Atlanta yesterday morning after starting
our way home around 2:00 PM Tuesday afternoon in FLN and a red eye from Sao Paulo to 
Atlanta arriving around 7:30 AM.  What a long day !!!!

  I also want to thank John for selecting me as his partner. Hopefully I didn't let him down. The
contest was somewhat of a struggle for me at times since I was fighting a bad chest cold I had caught before we left. I was taking some antibiotics the doctor had given me before we left but it didn’t totally knock out whatever I had. I gave it my best shot despite not really feeling that good...

  At first I was disappointed at our finish but after having time to think about it I am proud of what
we accomplished finishing number #22.  Our competitors were some of the best contest operators in the world and to finish in the top half is quite an accomplishment.  Also, congrats to fellow SECC member Jim, VE7FO, on having the #1 score with VE3EJ.

Our station was located on a cattle farm. If you look at the WRTC map on the webpage it was #24.
We were on the mainland just north of the island. The terrain around us was flat farmland and we were in the country. To the north and west were some pretty big mountains but there was a gap beaming towards the USA. Towards EU it was just about all water since we were only a couple miles away from the ocean. Our station was setup it what I think was some type of food stand. It had a grill and serving tables inside and a serving counter were the shudders would open up. This was nice during the day as we had a nice breeze. It did get cold at night , since it was not heated.

Overall I think the station played well. We felt like we were loud and for the first 13 hours of the contest
we were averaging over 100 QSO/Hour.  When it got dark and we worked out 40 meters it became a struggle. The 80 meter antenna didn't work very well and the rate really dropped. It was so slow that both John and I were able to each take short naps and have one person operate the radio.

I had a great time and it was nice to make many new contesting friends. I should have a webpage up soon with some pictures.

73, Jeff  KU8E / PW5Y