CQWW WPX Contest, CW
Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): WI9WI
Station: PJ2T
Class: SOAB HP
QTH: PJ2T
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160: 0
80: 1
40: 941
20: 833
15: 776
10: 274
------------
Total: 2825 Prefixes = 827 Total Score = 9,230,147
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
This was my fourth consecutive year operating WPX CW from PJ2T at Signal Point
in Curacao. The previous 3 years I operated as PJ2W, this year I used the CCC
call of PJ2T. My main goal as always was to improve on the previous year's
operation, and my secondary goals were to maintain a spot in the top 10 and
perhaps improve on last year's standing.
My preparation included analyzing the previous years logs, propagation studies
and predictions, talking to some other contesters about improving strategy,
including a short conversation with W2SC at Dayton this year, and identifying
short comings in previous operations.
We arrived at the station on Wednesday afternoon before the contest. I spent
some of my time on 40, 30 and 17 meters over the next 2 days, and some time
listening on the other bands. We also spent beach time, went downtown and went
out to eat. During the contest my wife and elder daughter spent time diving and
spent a day downtown.
My goals for this contest were to spend a lot of time on 40 meters, attempt to
operate all night the first night until past local sunrise, and avoid too much
time "out of the chair." I am not one of those people who can sit down and
operate a 48 hour contest, or even a shorter one by simply sitting down and
eschewing sleep, food, drink and nature's call for the duration. I can stay in
the chair for abot 12 hours at a time, but later in the contest when I get
tired I tend to take a lot of 5 or 10 minute mini-breaks every 2 or so hours. I
wanted to minimize this.
I started with a good first hour on 15 with 134 QSOs and 74 mults, then went to
20 the next hour. In this contest, rate equals mults equals score. When the rate
dropped on 20 I went to 40 and stayed there the most of the rest of the night
with the exception of a short time on 20. An hour after sunrise I slept 3 hours
and then went back at it, alternating time on 20 and 15 until 1800Z when 10
opened. Good rate was had to the US on 10 for about 90 minutes, but the band
never opened to Europe with only one European QSO all weekend. Most of the QSOs
on 10 were with stations I had worked on other bands so the mult rate dropped. I
then went back to 15 and 20 where good rates were had as sunset approached. At
0000Z I went to 40 and stayed there until 0600. Rates were good but it was past
European sunrise and I was running out of gas so I took a shower, had a beer and
went to bed for about 6 hours. By 1300 I was back on 20, and spent most of the
day there since I had spent more time on 15 the previous day. Again 10 opened
to the US and I spent another 90 minutes there in the mid afternoon. I finished
up most of the last 2 hours on 20 where rates were good for the later part of
the contest and I picked up 46 mults.
The bands:
160: Never went there
80: Spent about 10 minites there late the first night. It was quite quiet for
this time of year in the propics, but only one station was worked, an LU and he
wasn't even a mult. Non-productive.
40: Workhorse 6 point QSO band,a bit noisier night one than night two, but
better activity on night one.
20: Good activity, signals 24 hours a day. Quieter on day one, but weaker
signals. Not much Europe before local noon on day one. Day two a bit noisier,
but opened to Europe about 2 hours earlier.
15: Similar to 20, but closed about 2 hours after local sunset. Whisper quiet
on day one, worked a slew of ESP US stations before local noon day one. Day two
a bit noisier, again opened to Europe like 20 about 2 hours earlier than day
one.
10: Strong US openings both days.
I pretty much achieved my goals. Stayed up all night day one, hit 40 hard,
kept my butt in the chair. Coulda - shoulda: Shouda stayed up all night the
second night and slept in the AM rather than quitting after European sunrise.
Would have helped the score. PJ2T isn't really set up for SO2R. I'm not good at
it but a second radio would have helped a bit during slow times. Maybe next
year.
Overall conditions were better than expected. I felt day two was better with
earlier EU openings on the high bands. The bands were really quiet for this
time of year.
Thanks for all the QSOs and congratulations to all the winners.
73
Jim
WI9WI
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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