CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: P49Y
Operator(s): AE6Y
Station: P49Y
Class: SOSB/20 HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 30
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 3724 33 120
15:
10:
------------------------------
Total: 3724 33 120 Total Score = 1,688,508
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
As usual, this operation was from the P40L-P49Y station (ex-P49V QTH) owned by
John, W6LD, and myself. Although the weather was excellent the whole week I
was on there, and I managed to get lots of sun, this was the first trip in
which all the sun was enjoyed while sweating in the backyard doing antenna
work, with nary a trip to the beach the whole time. When I arrived on the
island on Tuesday, the station only had fully operational antennas for 10 and
15. Our 4 el 20/2 el 40 had been taken down a few days earlier by Lisandro,
P43L, and Jean-Pierre, P43A, and lay propped against the back fence. The 40m
driven element had loosened on the boom, tilted at an alarming angle and broken
the coax, and the 20m reflector had literally dropped off! This antenna had
lasted for seven years on Aruba, which is actually a pretty respectable service
life. Now, in addition to those maladies, the capacitance hat rods had corroded
to unstable brittleness and the braid on the feedline had rusted away along the
boom (due to a small hole that had been taped over at some point, but had
admitted enough water to do the damage). I spent the next few days repairing
the antenna, then on Thursday night, it was raised â?? after sundown â?? in a
truly heroic two-hour effort featuring JP and Lisandro on the tram, Raul,
P43RC, and myself on the pull line, and John Crovelli, W2GD, in the wind and
dark on top of the 55â?? Rohn 45 tower. Friday morning I had to re-attach the
80m dipole, and then on Monday spent the entire day building and installing a
new 160m inverted vee. The old one had been made from copper stranded wire,
and in some places its existence was literally â??hanging by a threadâ??, i.e.,
with only one strand surviving the ravages of corrosion.
As W2GD noted in his write-up, keeping a station going on an island is
definitely not a plug and play experience. In addition to helping us, John had
a huge amount of maintenance to do on his own station, not even counting his
usual installation of beverages and vee beams for 40/80. This included
replacing a 15m beam, half the boom of which had literally fallen off â?? and
it was the top antenna above two others on a mast of dubious condition. If he
ends up winning the contest, he certainly deserves it.
As usual, one of the highlights of contesting from Aruba is the opportunity to
spend time with local hams and visiting contesters. Both work and socializing
was a pleasure with P43A (Jean-Pierre) and his wife P43C (Chris), P43L
(Lisandro) and his wife Lissette, P43RC (Raul), and P40W (John - W2GD).
The main lowlight is my usual after-the-fact feeling that I missed an awful lot
of multipliers. For example, I never even heard, or worked, ZS9X or zone 38,
and similarly missed some other stations with large scores that should have
been workable. Iâ??m somewhat mollified by noting that my mult totals are
about the same as the nearby multi-ops PJ4E and PJ2T, but still it seems that a
lot of DX was missed. Anyway, thanks to everyone I did work for another
exciting CQWW.
Equipment:
Radios: IC-756 PRO 2, Alpha 86 amp
Antennas: Force 12 4 el 20, C31XR (fixed North)
Software: CQPWIN, ver. 10.5
73, Andy, AE6Y, P49Y
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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