ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): NW0L AE9B WB9Z
Station: PJ2T
Class: M/2 HP
QTH: Curacao
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
--------------------
160: 345 52
80: 955 58
40: 1611 60
20: 2663 61
15: 3734 61
10: 3202 59
--------------------
Total: 12510 351 Total Score = 13,173,030
Club: Caribbean Contesting Consortium
Comments:
What a weekend.
We didn't really know what to expect, never having operated this contest from
the DX side before. So we set a conservative goal of about 6000 QSOs, based on
the M/2 results we saw from the 2002 contest, and thought anything better than
that would be just icing on the cake.
The first hour was incredible -- combined rate between the two stations was just
under 550. We had 7 hours with the combined rate over 400 and even the low bands
produced better than we expected.
QSO #6000 came just after 2000z on the first day, so we thought about shutting
down and going to the beach but quickly reconsidered and reset our goal to
10,000 Qs. We hit 10,000 Qs in the 1400z hour of the second day and from there,
it was just a mad dash to the finish. We pulled up the all-time records for the
contest from the ARRL web site and found that 6D2X had M/2 and M/M records back
in 1993 and 1994 of over 14 million points - that didn't seem possible, but
thought we'd make a run at it anyway.
Needless to say, we're elated at the result. The PJ2T station has truly matured
over the last two years. There were no significant problems (aside from a deaf
radio the day before the contest, which we were able to replace) and the antenna
system performed flawlessly. WriteLog was solid as usual, with only a couple of
minor hiccups and a few operator-induced problems.
We had a great time working the contest and were amazed that the pileups seemed
to be so endless. The only thing we'd do differently is to have 4 operators
instead of 3 -- it's an incredible amount of work to man 2 radios full-time with
only 3 guys. But somehow we pulled it off.
A big thanks to everyone who worked us, and especially to everyone who moved
from band to band for us. We were amazed at the number of "new" calls that we
heard, and especially the number of mobile stations who called. If ham radio is
dying, they certainly forgot to tell a bunch of folks in North America!
Station Setup:
Radios: 2 x FT-1000MP
Amps: Ten-Tec Titan II & AL-1500
Antennas: Monobanders 10-40, 80m Vee, 160 Inverted-L, 1000 ft USA beverage.
Software: Writelog v10.39C
QSL via N9AG
73 de PJ2T
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