CQWW WPX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: VP2MDM
Operator(s): K2DM
Station: VP2MDM
Class: SOAB HP
Class Overlay: TB-Wires
QTH: VP2M
Operating Time (hrs): 27
Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
160:
80:
40: 201
20: 393
15: 669
10: 240
------------
Total: 1503 Prefixes = 673 Total Score = 2,915,436
Club: The Villages Amateur Radio Club
Comments:
There were few things that went right on this trip. First, I had been ill for
two weeks leading up to it. Second, the weekend before, Karen (K4ZDM) and I flew
to Des Moines for our granddaughter's high school graduation (which was
perfect). We flew home Monday evening, I rested somewhat on Tuesday, then I
began traveling to Montserrat Wednesday around 5AM. My drive to Orlando airport
was uneventful, as was the flight to Miami, which was where things started to go
south. We sat on the plane from Miami to Antigua at the gate for about an hour,
waiting for a couple of passengers who had connecting flights. Of course, that
hour cost me making my flight from Antigua to Montserrat, so I had to overnight
in Antigua. I got to Montserrat Thursday around 12:30PM, having lost about 6
hours of daylight to do antenna work.
I had anticipated installing my TH6 + 40-2CD for WPX. NOT! In the nearly 4
years since my last visit, 47 of the 48 bolts on the TH6 boom-to-element
brackets had rusted nearly solid. And the hairpin wire on the matching system
had snapped. So the TH6 stayed on the ground. And since I normally mount the
40M elements to the same boom as the TH6, the 40M beam stayed on the ground
also.
No worries, what's a few dB among friends, right. Happily, my CL-33 backup yagi
was in good shape, so I spent an hour making sure all the necessary adjustments
were made to optimize it for CW and mounted it on the tower. I pulled a 40M
dipole out of the storage cupboard and attached it to the tower also. My K3
loved all three bands of the CL-33, so my time spent adjusting the elements for
CW was worth it. My K3 also seemed to like the 40M dipole OK, but maybe it was
just fooling me. I pulled an Expert 1KFA amplifier out of storage, and it had
survived fine.
So, there I was, ready to go. I decided that I was going to just have fun,
taking frequent breaks to work on projects. But I had at least one more
surprise. Whereas the K3 liked to 40M dipole, the amplifier faulted every time I
transmitted on 40M. So I ran the contest on 100W to a low dipole on 40M. Still,
I set minor goals for myself: first was to make 1M points. That happened
relatively early, so I adjusted to 2 million. The other objective was to make
1000 contacts, which I adjusted to 1,500. As usual, I enjoyed it big time
whenever a friend called to give me points.
I know, I know, a decent effort with my primary antennas from Montserrat would
blow these numbers away, but it just wasn't going to happen this time around. I
DID manage to remove 47 of the 48 bolts on the TH6 during my breaks. The other
bolt turned out to be stainless and was clean.
So there you have it. But the highlight of the visit to Montserrat was the
arrival on Monday of the crew that had operated WPX on Antigua. I enjoyed the
company of K4UEE, K5PI, W5SJ and W5MJ Monday afternoon and evening - swapping
stories, shooting the bull and chewing the rag.
Until next time.
73,
George K2DM / VP2MDM
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
______________________________________________
3830 mailing list
3830@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/3830
|