ARRL DX Contest, SSB - 2020
Call: P40A
Operator(s): KK9A
Station: P49Y/P40L
Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 43
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 107 32
80: 539 59
40: 1137 58
20: 1925 60
15: 1642 52
10: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 5350 261 Total Score = 4,189,050
Club:
Comments:
I had not operated the ARRL DX Phone contest from Aruba since dismantling my
P40A station in 2011. Many months ago my wife and I had planned an Aruba
vacation around this time frame and just days before leaving home I learned that
the P49Y/P40L station was available. The owners Andy, AE6Y and John, W6LD had
just completed a major antenna overhaul in February so the station was in
pristine condition and they were so kind to let me use it. I had little
available time for operating while on the island except during the contest. We
were quite busy vacationing and enjoying Aruba. We went shopping, walked and
swam the lovely beaches, ate at great seafood restaurants and even went scuba
diving where we saw a sea turtle swim out of a shipwreck. I added a few new
vacation photos including the turtle to http://www.p40a.com. On Friday afternoon
we essentially moved into the P49Y/P40L home for the weekend. The station is
well equipped, however I brought along my Elecraft K3S and peripherals because
it was familiar. Everything at P49Y/P40L is clearly labeled and organized and
earlier in the week I talked with W6LD for an hour on WhatsApp, so I became very
familiar with the setup. I started on 20m and had a great first hour total of
253 QSOs. As this band closed for the night and rates diminished I switched to
40 and the 200+ rates resumed. I forgot how much fun this contest was from a big
station! Since I was the only active participant from Aruba, I anticipated
having the same big pileups when switching to 80m and 160m later in the evening,
however that did not occur at all. Low power is just not loud on the low bands
and my first QSY attempts produced no contacts. There were times later in the
evening when propagation was either a little better or I was spotting a lot and
I did manage do pretty well on 80m. 160m was always a struggle and I missed a
lot of sections. The station has an incredible beverage system so I could easily
hear most of the 80m and 160m callers. 15m was open during most of the daylight
hours and it was a great place to be to avoid all of the 20m QRM however,
propagation was spotty. In some areas I was very strong and in others,
especially to the west, I was barely readable. I missed some normally easy
multipliers but I made a lot of QSOs especially to the southeastern part of the
U.S. While on 15m I listened to the station’s K3 set on 10m hoping for an
opening but I only heard South America stations running the US. I did not make a
single 10m QSO all weekend, I do not recall that ever happening to me before in
this contest. By the halfway point I had made 3600 QSOs, three years ago from
the mountain station in St Croix where I operated as WP2AA, I made a total of
3900 low power QSOs all weekend so I felt that things were going quite well. I
did not sleep at all on the first night nor was I not well rested at the
beginning so I took a five hour dinner, nap and shower break which felt great. I
was refreshed and hoped that this would allow for higher Sunday daytime rates
plus enough energy to move back into our rental house so that we could pack for
the Monday flight home. Unfortunately conditions seemed a little worse on Sunday
and rates were about half of Saturday's. I typically work all dupes however at
times they can became annoying when there are so many. In one 1/2 hour segment,
near the end, despite clearly and slowly saying my callsign, 26 operators duped
me which forced me to change bands. The contest was very enjoyable and the
station worked flawlessly. I would like to thank AE6Y and W6LD for allowing us
to invade their home and station for the weekend. I would also like to thank my
QSL Manager, WD9DZV for putting my logs on LoTW, Clublog and EQSL plus replying
to card requests. Plus a special thanks to everyone for the QSOs.
73,
John KK9A – P40A
http://www.p40a.com
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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