ARRL DX Contest, CW
Call: P40L
Operator(s): W6LD, W0YK
Station: P40L/P49Y
Class: M/S HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 48.0
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 369 54
80: 750 58
40: 1433 59
20: 1390 59
15: 1247 60
10: 1041 54
-------------------
Total: 6230 344 Total Score = 6,429,360
Club: Northern California Contest Club
Comments:
When we decided to do ARRL DX CW this year from Aruba, we gave little thought to
the likely propagation conditions. We had a vague notion that 10 meters might
not cooperate given the low sunspot numbers. We were in for a pleasant
surprise!
10 meters opened strongly for about five hours on both days. Also, low band
conditions were very good on Friday night (but not Saturday night when the
bands were very noisy). As a result, we had the unusual combination of good
conditions on both the low bands and high band over the weekend, which, in
turn, made excellent results possible in this contest.
This was my first full time radio contesting effort in over 19 months, with
work and other commitments having severely limiting the opportunities for a
serious effort. The prospect of a 48 hour effort, however, was not that
exciting to me at this time, so I reached out to Ed, W0YK/P49X, about six weeks
before the contest to see if he might be interested in extending his visit for
the WPX RTTY contest from the prior weekend for a multi-single ARRL DX CW
effort. He was able to do so, so we had the makings of a plan.
This greatly simplified matters. Among other things, by the time I arrived the
Tuesday before the contest (actually very early Wednesday due to travel delays),
Ed had already taken care of most of the radio room set-up, having modified his
two radio RTTY set-up from the prior weekend, leaving a couple of days to
fine-tune things and to do a bit of tower/antenna work.
The station was set up with two K3s/amps on a SixPak antenna sharing switch.
Each radio had its own networked PC, all of which made for quick bandchanges,
mult passing and monitoring band conditions/activity. We also networked in a
third PC with a barefoot Icom 756Pro2 with a dedicated 10-meter antenna. We
envisioned being able to spot openings/activity with its bandscope. In
reality, we knew much more about 10 meters long before anything showed up on
the bandscope. The second op constantly monitored other stations, such as the
PJ2T, PJ4X and 6Y1LZ multi-twos, for rate and signal strength (of NA stations)
and was able to catch the upswing of the opening.
With simple audio switching, the second op could listen with the run operator,
listen on the second K3 or listen on the second receiver in the run K3 to be
able to listen in slightly different parts of the pileup or set up for a
mult-grab on the run band. All of this created enough interest and activity
that we still managed to sleep-deprive ourselves! We have a keen admiration
for the 46-48 hour Single Ops that maintain performance throughout the weekend.
More physical conditioning is in order for our future efforts.
This was the first time for both of us doing ARRL DX outside the country. We
looked at P49Yâ??s (AE6Y) logs from this station in 2004-2007 ARRL DX CW and
2009 ARRL DX Phone to get an idea of what to expect. We also looked at P40W
(W2GD) recent performances in ARRL DX CW. We assumed that with two ops we
could alleviate the physical challenge of staying at peak performance for 48
hours and get close to top SO results. (Speaking of which, ZF2AM did an
incredible job â?¦ congrats, John!) After the contest, Carl (AI6V/P49V) was
excited about our performance, saying we broke â??the recordâ??. Ed and I
looked at each other, â??Record?â?? It was only after our post-contest dinner
that we searched the ARRL web site to find the records for this contest and
glean an understanding of MS in ARRL DX CW.
P4 was well represented in this contest as usual. Carl, AI6V/P49V and Dave,
K6RC, had planned a multi-single as well, hoping to beat their 1995 record
setting results (which they accomplished). Joop, P43JB, and Andy, K2LE/P40LE,
also were quite active. We had an enjoyable post-contest dinner with Carl,
Dave and Sue (AI6YL/P40YL/P41YL) during which we had a chance to compare notes
and swap stories.
Thanks for all the Qâ??s and congrats to the many fine multi-two and
multi-single efforts, including the PJ2T, 6Y1LZ, V31TP, PJ4X, EE5E, EF8M, CR2X,
CR3L and P49V teams.
73,
John, W6LD/P40L
Station:
Rigs: Elecraft K3s (2); Icom 756 Pro II
Amps: Alpha 86, Ten-Tec Titan 425
Antennas:
C31XR at 43 feet
2 elements 10 meter at 55 feet
5 elements 15 meter at 55 feet
4 elements 20 meter at 68 feet
2 elements 40 meter at 76 feet
1 element 80 meter Sigma 80 at 64 feet
â??Câ?? 160 meter vertical at 67 feet
Four 500 foot beverages using K9AY switching box/preamp
Logging software: WriteLog on three networked computers
DSL Internet for Packet
QSO/Sec by hour and band
Hour 160M 80M 40M 20M 15M 10M Total Cumm
OffTime
D1-0000Z --+-- --+-- --+-- 184/43 --+-- --+-- 184/43 184/43
D1-0100Z 47/24 - 121/41 - - - 168/65 352/108
D1-0200Z 61/12 11/8 70/4 - - - 142/24 494/132
D1-0300Z 70/4 - 114/7 - - - 184/11 678/143
D1-0400Z 45/6 97/29 - - - - 142/35 820/178
D1-0500Z 12/3 - 140/2 - - - 152/5 972/183
D1-0600Z - 137/10 - - - - 137/10 1109/193
D1-0700Z 37/4 73/6 - - - - 110/10 1219/203
D1-0800Z 9/0 15/0 58/1 --+-- --+-- --+-- 82/1 1301/204
D1-0900Z 1/1 35/2 44/0 - - - 80/3 1381/207
D1-1000Z - 29/0 66/1 - - - 95/1 1476/208
D1-1100Z - 60/1 54/0 - - - 114/1 1590/209
D1-1200Z - - 34/0 75/4 - - 109/4 1699/213
D1-1300Z - - - 47/1 72/25 - 119/26 1818/239
D1-1400Z - - - - 108/12 7/4 115/16 1933/255
D1-1500Z - - - - 126/13 23/11 149/24 2082/279
D1-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 125/4 54/12 179/16 2261/295
D1-1700Z - - - 1/1 67/1 121/11 189/13 2450/308
D1-1800Z - - - 2/2 - 213/5 215/7 2665/315
D1-1900Z - - - - - 190/4 190/4 2855/319
D1-2000Z - - - - 153/2 19/0 172/2 3027/321
D1-2100Z - - - 66/4 130/1 - 196/5 3223/326
D1-2200Z - - - 206/1 - - 206/1 3429/327
D1-2300Z - - - 179/1 - - 179/1 3608/328
D2-0000Z --+-- --+-- 107/2 37/0 --+-- --+-- 144/2 3752/330
D2-0100Z - 29/1 99/0 - - - 128/1 3880/331
D2-0200Z 52/0 76/1 - - - - 128/1 4008/332
D2-0300Z 16/0 33/0 84/0 - - - 133/0 4141/332
D2-0400Z 15/0 14/0 73/0 - - - 102/0 4243/332
D2-0500Z - - 118/0 - - - 118/0 4361/332
D2-0600Z - 57/0 28/0 - - - 85/0 4446/332
D2-0700Z 4/0 10/0 30/0 - - - 44/0 4490/332
D2-0800Z --+-- 16/0 31/0 --+-- --+-- --+-- 47/0 4537/332
D2-0900Z - 21/0 30/0 - - - 51/0 4588/332
D2-1000Z - 29/0 17/0 - - - 46/0 4634/332
D2-1100Z - 8/0 55/0 - - - 63/0 4697/332
D2-1200Z - - 47/1 17/0 - - 64/1 4761/333
D2-1300Z - - - 63/1 - - 63/1 4824/334
D2-1400Z - - - 77/0 12/0 - 89/0 4913/334
D2-1500Z - - - - 144/1 - 144/1 5057/335
D2-1600Z --+-- --+-- --+-- --+-- 103/0 31/1 134/1 5191/336
D2-1700Z - - - - 1/1 170/3 171/4 5362/340
D2-1800Z - - - - - 156/1 156/1 5518/341
D2-1900Z - - - - 109/0 57/2 166/2 5684/343
D2-2000Z - - - 75/0 97/0 - 172/0 5856/343
D2-2100Z - - - 138/1 - - 138/1 5994/344
D2-2200Z - - - 124/0 - - 124/0 6118/344
D2-2300Z - - 13/0 99/0 - - 112/0 6230/344
Total: 369/54 750/58 1433/59 1390/59 1247/60 1041/54
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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