ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: 6Y8Z
Operator(s): WN9O, WO9Z, W9IU
Station: 6Y8Z
Class: M/S LP
QTH: Jamaica
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 259 48
80: 496 55
40: 784 58
20: 546 53
15: 774 55
10: 268 33
-------------------
Total: 3127 302 Total Score = 2,796,822
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
This years trip to Jamaica had it's fair share of problems. It all started with
a Barney Fife type "Custom's Officer" in Montego Bay. The paperwork we had was
not to his satisfaction, so he was not going to clear the radio and antenna's.
After four hours of arguing, they finally stated they wanted $1,000 USD as a
bond for the equipment and it would be returned when we left. They all but
stated they wanted the money in "small unmarked bills." Luckily Mike, WO9Z, was
already in the counrty with his equipment, so we could run the contest with
limited antennas if needed. After six hours and it was time for them to go
home, we reached a gentleman's agreement that they would hold our passports and
thus they could verify the our equipment again upon leaving the country in 5
days.
Now we have all of the antennas and radio equipment, next we needed sunshine!
>From what I was told, there was no rain from Christmas until a few days before
we arrived. Needless to say trying to set up antennas in the rain is no fun!
We did not get too wet, but it pushed us until the very last moment getting
everything ready. We finally had all the radio and computers working about 15
minutes before the contest started.
We used vertical beams for 40 thru 10 meters (Mosley TA-33 JR and a Force 12
EF-240/B). We did not use the booms, just the elements. On 80 meters we used a
2 element vertical array (Butternut HF-2V) with a parasitic reflector. Since we
were only aiming at the USA, we did not need to change the beam heading. On 160
meters we used an inverted "L", with the vertical height around 40 feet. Being
2000' from the coast with 3,500' of radials we were very pleased with the
antenna performance, but unfortunately the bands did not cooporate with us.
Last year we had around 1000 Q's on the low bands (160/80/40) and 3800 Q's on
the high bands. This year we roughly had 50% more Q's on the low bands and 50%
less on the high bands. It was amazing we worked mobile stations and QRP
stations at 20 over S9 on 10 meters, but we did not work any W1, W2, W3, or W4
stations! Wow, if someone wanted to bet me we were going to work a mobile
station in Colorado but not any BIG GUN stations on the East Coast, I would have
jumped at the chance. Not now! Maybe we needed to be farther south as it
appears the other DXpeditions
Never really got any good runs going this year, but as usual the last hour of
the contest was wild. It ended up being the best run rate we had all weekend on
a per hour basis.
What is in store for us next year?? Maybe a real DX station, so we don't have
to setup a FD style station for the weekend...
A BIG THANKS to all who looked, worked and spotted us!
Kevin WN9O, Mike WO9Z, & Don W9IU
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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