Stew Perry Topband Challenge - Spring
Call: PJ2ND
Operator(s): K8ND
Station: PJ2T
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: Curacao
Operating Time (hrs): 11:19
Remote Operation
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 227 Total Score = 2,933
Club: Mad River Radio Club
Comments:
This was my first time operating a contest with the PJ2T remote capability and
my new Curacao callsign. I was operating from my chair in Ohio. This capability
may allow us to participate in more smaller contests for which we cannot justify
the cost of airline travel and the depletion of vacation time.
We are not yet equipped to switch TX or RX antennas remotely, so I was limited
to just the 880-foot USA/JA Beverage and the transmit inv-L for receiving.
Sorry to the many European stations who I knew were calling, but who were too
far below the very high noise level on the transmit antenna to copy. Most of
the Europeans I worked were strong enough to "sneak in" to the USA/JA
Beverage or overcome the heavy noise on the inv-L. I felt terrrible knowing that
there were many juicy QSO points just a button-push away, and yet my finger was
not 2103 miles long in order to push it!
The sun starts setting on Curacao at ~2245Z, so I started listening at about
2220Z. The band was filled with images of a station in the Caribbean. At least
a dozen frequencies appeared to be him CQing, and I finally found the one where
the signal was least distorted and worked him, letting him know of the issue.
The problem got better over time.
Conditions were much worse than they were for the CQWW 160 CW Contest in
January, with much "letter-mining" required to pull calls out of the
noise. US stations were generally very weak. After 15years of Topband
contesting from Curacao, I can say that these conditions (noise &
propagation) were slightly below average.
I'd given up on hearing any JA callsigns that I could copy. I spent a very long
time unsuccessfully trying to pull a JH1 out of the noise just before sunrise,
and figured I'd missed my chance at any QSO with Japan. Then I worked four JA
stations, including JH1HDT, in full Caribbean daylight. This is not usual: the
appearence of the Sun normally slams a foot down on the throat of any
additional QSOs!
I didn't plan to take any offtimes, but N1MM reports a 37-minute offtime at
0740Z. This was a combination of unanswered CQs (USA ops tend to vanish a
couple of hours after midnight, being overly enamored of sleep) and perhaps me
dozing off in the chair for a couple of minutes. Also, Daylight Savings Time
moved the time from 2AM to 3AM during the contest, perhaps psychologically
making ops an hour more sleepy than they expected!
DX Worked: DL, EI(2), G(2), HI, JA(4), KH6(3), KP2(3), LU, LY, OK, OZ, SM, UA2,
UR(2), XE, and YU. (Best DX for the contest was a JE6 in PM53 for 44 points,
the last QSO in my log!)
Equipment (Curacao): Elecraft K3/100, RemoteRig RRS-1258MkIIs (Radio), AL-1200,
160m inv-L (TX), 880-foot USA/JA Beverage (RX).
Equipment (Ohio): Elecraft K3/0-Mini, RemoteRig RRS-1258MkIIs (Control), N1MM
Logger+.
Thanks to Gene KB7Q for spearheading and fine-tuning the remote capability at
PJ2T, and to Geoff W0CG/PJ2DX, who selected antennas and tuned the amplifier
prior to the start of the contest, and who was available on-site in case
anything were to 'burst into flames' (nothing did)!
73, Jeff K8ND / PJ2ND
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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