CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB
Call: P40T
Operator(s): VE3DZ
Station: P49V
Class: SOAB HP
Class Overlay: Classic
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 44.5
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 99 15 42
80: 734 24 85
40: 1209 30 113
20: 2083 30 109
15: 1610 29 103
10: 598 14 27
------------------------------
Total: 6333 142 479 Total Score = 11,494,089
Club: Contest Club Ontario
Comments:
Though I planned this trip way in advance it went exactly the same way as a year
ago when I decided to go to Aruba on a short notice.
About a week before my trip I received a message from 2 U.S. HAMs who were
renting a place before me that K3 is not working properly, giving out just 12
watts with "ERR 12 V DC" error message and that ACOM 2000A is dead for
good. In addition to that one set of Band Pass Filters got stuck on 20 meters
and was not switchable.
Quick Internet research resulted in my call to Elecraft to order a pin
replacement kit and kudos to the company the kit arrived the day before I left
for P4.
I was hoping to try to repair the ACOM 2000A on the spot or worst case scenario
to borrow the amp from locals or from P40L/P49Y station (Andy helped me with the
2nd radio last year). Upon arrival I started with inspection of the station
which resulted in one working radio (FT1000) with one set of switchable BPF's
and one working amp - Alpha 86. The 40 m Yagi rotor controller was acting
erratically which made it almost impossible to know where exactly the 40 m beam
is pointed. Also few different sources of noise were discovered with the loudest
one coming from the direction of US/JA i.e. towards the main street from the
house.
I spent few hours trying to find out what's wrong with the other set of filters
and after few hours I found (by error and trial) that the reason was improper
baud rate setting for CI-V control for the MicroHAM microkeyer which controls
the radio and the filters. So, now there's small for for an SO2R. There was no
point of borrowing or fixing the other amp if the K3 is not working, so next
step would be fixing the radio, fortunately JP P43A graciously agreed to perform
a mod on the K3 which allowed me to focus on ACOM and on beverage installation.
My friends, a couple from Canada (non-HAMs) came with me to enjoy Aruba for the
first time and the guy agreed to assist me to roll the 700 feet wire through the
cactus field on the back of the property. Big THANK YOU to Ray K9RS who left the
RX antenna stuff on the spot and provided a lot of useful and detailed
instructions. On Tuesday we made first attempt to put up a receiving antenna
and we finished and healed our wounds from numerous giant cactus bites I
realized that I screwed up with the direction and we had to re-install all over
again the next day. I also spent some time om Wednesday trying to bring ACOM
back to life, but after performing few tests by the instructions provided by
ACOM guy from the U.S. (through JP) and cleaning optosensors and motors, I
realized that it was as far as I could go in this situation and most likely
either one of the transistors or the stepper motor needs to be replaced. Also
it became clear that I couldn't count on a borrowed amp. Fortunately by the end
of the day on Wednesday I received one good news: JP reported that he
successfully completed the mod and K# now is giving full output power.
The next day we re-installed the beverage ( as a result few cactus pins pieces
are still in my toes), but this time it worked just fine and direction was
precisely on Europe.
I also spent few hours trying to set-up my SO2R hoping to use K3 with the amp
and FT1000 just barefoot however it was another disappointment, because whenever
I tried to combine microkeyer II with DX Doubler it would end up with huge hum
in the K3 audio. FT1000 remained cleaned as a tear. I tried different grounding
solutions and ferrite chokes - nothing seemed to help even a bit.
On Friday I kind of lost my motivation and after going to the beach I decided
just to take it easy and go with a single radio + amp and just operate as much
time as possible. Also, I believe it is called a Classic category nowadays. It
went better than I expected with biggest surprise being a beverage working
perfect, especially on 80 m. On the second night when it a real life saver when
the noise became really terrible. I made many more contacts on 80 and 160 and
what I could never expect was hending up with more than 40 DXCC countries on
160. RX antenna is a must at this QTH!
Another surprise was brief opening to East Coast U.S. on late Saturday afternoon
when I worked more than 550 U.S. station in about 2 hours. With exception of few
SA multipliers, the 10 was dead most of the time. I was also very lucky to stay
most of Saturday on 15, because on Sunday 15 was pretty slow, so I could catch
up with 20 meters (more than 1500 Q's on Sunday alone on this band). My mistake
was going to 80 m at the end of the contest which resulted in only 2 QSO's in 11
minutes...
Anyway, thanks everyone for the Q's and especially to those who agreed to move
for me to give me new mults. I hope I will remain #2 again as last year.
Also, it was nice to meet with my old friend John W2GD/P40W whose guidance and
advises are invaluable (as usual).
See you all in CW part.
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