Our adventure to operate the 2014 ARRL DX SSB contest began on Monday with a
Skype message sent by Jeff KB1ZOJ to inform me that our only amplifier had
failed with a rather spectacular bang. There was no time to diagnose the
failure and repair the amp. Our only option was to enter the contest MS LP.
Jeff had been on the island for a few weeks and the balance of the team, Tim
K5AC, George N4GRN, Val NV9L, and Gregg W6IZT arrived on Saba on the last
flight from St. Maarten at 5 pm on Wednesday.
Jeff’s home is located in an area known as Hell’s Gate at approximately
1300 feet above sea level. The terrain falls off steeply and the location has a
commanding view towards North America and Europe.
Work began on setting up the station and antennas on Thursday morning. We hung
a 130 foot doublet that would serve as our primary 80 and 40 meter antenna,
next we erected the 20 foot tower and installed the A3 tribander. We were
ahead of schedule, but somewhat tired. Our last task of the day was to put up
the Battle Creek Special. Trying to put up a BCS when everyone was tired turned
out to be a bad idea. We damaged the antenna in two spots. We were able to
repair the antenna on Friday morning, and put it up without issue.
We started the contest on 20 meters. Conditions throughout the contest were
outstanding, although the upper bands seemed to open a bit late both mornings
causing us some concern that we would be able to achieve our goals. 10 meters
was by far our most productive band. 15 meters was challenging until the band
closed to Europe. We also had good results on 40 and 80. 160 was a bit
challenging with just 100 watts, with most of our Qs east of the Mississippi.
After 24 hours we realized that we had a good chance of eclipsing the MS LP
record. We passed the total set at P40V in 2011 with four hours remaining in
the contest.
Thanks to all of those who took time to work us, and congratulations to those
who have put up some great scores!
It’s Monday afternoon, the antennas are down and the team is off to see some
sights.
73s |