The Cabo Rojo Contest Club (WP3X (ex KP4XS) ) strikes again!
After 3 years of playing around in the CQ WPX SSB contest the
operators at WP3X decided to try our luck in the ARRL DX test. This
was, without a doubt, the smoothest trip to date! We have the setup
and teardown of the complete station (6 rigs, 6 amps, 6 antennas and 6
networked computers.) down to a science and wound up with tons of
extra time to enjoy the culinary delights and the gorgeous weather of
Western Puerto Rico. I have finally found a dedicated and extremely
qualified group of operators who want to return year after year making
the M/M efforts easier each time.
Conditions were very good to excellent on the first night
and day except for the extremely high noise levels on 75 and 160
meters. Lingering thunderstorms on the island made life on 160m
miserable but W0GJ (160m op.) persevered and managed to put quite a
few stations in the log. The 350 foot beverage helped out enormously
and basically eliminated any qrm on the band from the other Caribbean
stations to our East who tried to relieve us of our run frequency by
setting up shop within a kc either side of us. The 75m qrn was just as
bad but oddly enough 40m was extremely quiet. I found 40m to be very
long and logged hundreds of W6/W7 stations the first night while the
w1/w2/w3/w4 stations were few and weak. 10 and 15 meters proved to be
real money makers on Saturday. W4OC cranked out a 276 hour on 10
meters sometime in the afternoon! Yes Ladies and Gentlemen, 10 meters
is alive and well! K3MM continues to be the man to beat on 15 meters
at WP3X belting out 3500+ qsos. The band that seemed to be hurt most
by 10 meters' new found popularity was 20 meters with W8MJ and K8CC
both mentioning lessened pileups and difficulty in maintaining rates.
Saturday night was quite the opposite of Friday night. I
found the 40m qrn to be extremely harmful. I was having lots of
difficulty picking out calls in the muck and mire of the static
crashes and broadcast qrm. The worst part of it all was the incessant
changing of listening frequencies. I can't even count how many times I
purposely asked for a repeat of a clearly copied state exchange just
to make sure the guy at the other end was really talking to me and not
another DX station. What a pain in the ass that band is! The strange
thing about Saturday night was that AA4S on 75 meters said it was the
quietest he had heard it on that band in awhile and the 160m op
thought it was quieter than the previous night.
Sunday turned out to be a usual Sunday contest day with more
and more qsos making it into our log but at lesser rates than on
Saturday.. The last two hours of the contest were fantastic! The CTRL
F9 rate graph showed the rates almost as high as the first two hours
of the contest. Signals on 40 meters were outstanding! I was called by
W3LPL with still two and a half hours to go for my Sunday sunset and
asked by Frank, " Hey, what are you doing on here? It's broad
daylight!". His signal was 40 over S9! Compare this to Friday and
Saturday evening where USA signals weren't heard loudly until after
sunset in Puerto Rico. Too bad the contest had to end at 0000!
I want to thank the International relief effort from
Goran, S55OO. This was Goran's second trip to the qth in 3 years. He
is adept on all bands and all the different rigs brought to the
station and also makes a great partying partner!
We were both hung over well into the afternoon on Saturday the weekend
before the contest. Advice- Putting up antennas in the hot sun after a
binge night is not recommended! I'm really looking forward to WRTC
2000! Hide your vodka! Ken is on the way!
Our breakdown and Score-
Band qsos mults
160m- 397- 58
80m- 1199- 59
40m- 1641- 59
20m- 2783- 61
15m- 3554- 60
10m- 2247- 59
--------------------------
Totals 11,821- 356 Score= 12,624,828
Equipment-
10m- 5el yagi @ 20 feet, SB220, IC765
15m- 3el yagi @ 25 feet, SB220, FT1000MP
20m- 3el yagi @ 30 feet, Alpha 91b, TS850
40m- wire beam at 35 feet, SB220, IC740
75m- wire beam at 60 feet, SB220, IC765
160m vertical +bev Alpha 91b, TS850
73 and thanks a million to all of you who worked us and most
especially to those of you who went the extra mile to work us on 4
bands or more. Your qso points are MUCH appreciated. Look for us in
next year's contest.
73 Ken N4UK and the WP3X Multi-Multi team.
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