CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2023
Call: P40W
Operator(s): W2GD
Station: P40W
Class: SO(A)AB HP
QTH: Aruba
Operating Time (hrs): 40
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
160: 12 4 12
80: 133 15 53
40: 541 24 82
20: 1191 33 102
15: 1632 33 116
10: 2688 31 117
------------------------------
Total: 6197 140 482 Total Score = 11,297,386
Club: Frankford Radio Club
Comments:
Station: Elecraft K3S, Dentron 2500A - 800w, Win-Test Software
Antennas: 160m Vertical Dipole, 160/80 Inverted V, 3 ele 80m wire beam (EU), 4
ele 40m wire beam EU, F12 Delta 240, Force 12 C3S, RX Beverages NE, NW N/S,
E/W.
Comments: In August the top 30 feet of the primary tower at P40W was lost due
to corrosion and mechanical failure leading to deliberate demolition, and along
with it went a 28 year old F12 C31XR and more recent 2ele 40 were mostly
destroyed. The plan for this visit before CQWW PH was to complete
reconstruction of the tower to 60 feet and install replacement beams. After the
first 2 days the project was nearly on schedule BUT the impact of the worst heat
wave on Aruba in several decades were slowing everything and everyone down. By
Thursday afternoon the tower reconstruction was done, and the 2 ele 40 was
reconstructed and ready to install, but time ran out on any hope of assembling
and installing the bigger Skyhawk triband beam before the bell. Switching to
Plan B was inevitable.
My neighbor, AE6Y/P49Y came to the rescue Friday morning. Under brutal
conditions Andy laid out the seven elements of the wire beams (3el 80 and 4el
40) and attached strings to the ends to make it easier for me to complete
installation later in the day. In the meantime I made one more climb to
complete installation of the 2el 40 and attempt to resolve a rotor binding
problem (the beam worked fine, but only 90 degrees of rotation which was not
resolved until Monday). A newly constructed 160/80 inverted V needed to be
tuned for PH, which took about an hour, then on to raising the wire beams. By T
minus six hours the antennas were finally completed. Time for a critical three
hour nap. I went to sleep wondering how the 23 year old Force 12 C3S would
perform on 20/15/10.
In recent years this particular C3S tribander has been primarily used as a
receive only antenna, for nulling out local line noise that has become
progressively worse over the years toward the NW/US/JA. The 15 and 20 meter
reflectors were both missing element tips (victims of over 20 years of Aruba
wind and weather). So the question to be answered was how well would a small 3
ele 10 and effectively two rotating dipoles for 15 and 20 perform in the
contest? Have never been this hardware limited on the high bands at P40W. And
have never felt the station was so ill-prepared, having just 10 minutes of on
the air testing time before the bell. So many unknowns.
Fortunately 20m was terrific the first hour - 291 contacts logged from about 20
countries and 6 zones ... a mood boosting run answering the question would a
rotating dipole perform. Stayed on 20m the first two hours taking full
advantage of propagation to the US (my strong suit). Then on to 40m which
seemed dull, and then 80 and 160 which were totally dismal - high absorption -
worked only 9 stations on 160m and 36 on 80m virtually all S/P the first night.
Didn't feel particularly fatigued but decided on a three hour nap with the rates
so low.
Everything improved at sunrise. Ten meters was roaring to EU and the next nine
hours were spent running with my mighty 3 ele 10m beam. The old 'no meters like
ten meters' adage was playing out perfectly. Ignoring 15 meters until very late
afternoon was likely a strategy error but several hours of rate over 200 to the
US were gratifying with just a dipole at 60 feet.
80 and 160 were somewhat improved the second night. Cheered when K3LR and VE3JM
were logged for zones 5 and 4 on 160 but never heard a single EU signal. Had
some success chasing down mostly EU multipliers on 80 but 40m was the dominant
point producer but nothing spectacular. Decided a long four or five hour snooze
was in order.
Conditions on 20 through 10 seemed to take a slight downturn the final 12 hours.
Rates were generally lower but I had plenty of ground to make up on 15m.
Padded the QSO count with what seemed like an endless number of stateside
callers on 10m mid-afternoon before trying to do the same on 15m with less
success. Bands seemed to all perk up the last hour with several double mults
logged on all three of the higher bands. Special thanks to all the Carib
stations that heard my weak signal on 14 Mhz and above ... great ears!
Congrats to Sergio, PT5J and Filipe, NP4Z for outstanding scores in the SO
Assisted category and Manu, LU9ESD at 6Y1V for running away from the field in SO
Unassisted. BRAVO!
Looking forward to returning to Aruba in a few weeks to complete antenna repairs
and to participate in CQWW CW - THE BIG ONE.
73,
John, W2GD
Many thanks to K8IA for helping me out with this summary.
-------------- Q S O R a t e S u m m a r y ---------------------
Hour 160 80 40 20 15 10 Rate Total Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 0 0 0 291 0 0 291 291 4.7
0100 0 0 0 183 0 0 183 474 7.6
0200 0 5 41 62 5 0 113 587 9.5
0300 1 0 0 96 1 0 98 685 11.1
0400 3 12 52 0 0 0 67 752 12.1
0500 0 0 170 0 0 0 170 922 14.9
0600 5 8 23 7 0 0 43 965 15.6
0700 0 12 7 0 0 0 19 984 15.9
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 984 15.9
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 984 15.9
1000 0 7 100 0 0 0 107 1091 17.6
1100 0 0 7 0 0 78 85 1176 19.0
1200 0 0 0 0 0 196 196 1372 22.1
1300 0 0 0 0 0 181 181 1553 25.1
1400 0 0 0 0 13 164 177 1730 27.9
1500 0 0 0 0 6 181 187 1917 30.9
1600 0 0 0 0 0 254 254 2171 35.0
1700 0 0 0 0 0 218 218 2389 38.6
1800 0 0 0 0 0 262 262 2651 42.8
1900 0 0 0 0 61 139 200 2851 46.0
2000 0 0 0 1 221 1 223 3074 49.6
2100 0 0 0 0 210 0 210 3284 53.0
2200 0 0 0 0 180 1 181 3465 55.9
2300 0 0 0 35 49 10 94 3559 57.4
0000 0 0 1 114 0 0 115 3674 59.3
0100 0 0 0 92 103 0 195 3869 62.4
0200 0 5 0 117 1 0 123 3992 64.4
0300 2 11 9 31 1 0 54 4046 65.3
0400 1 4 14 8 0 0 27 4073 65.7
0500 0 3 39 0 0 0 42 4115 66.4
0600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4115 66.4
0700 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4115 66.4
0800 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4115 66.4
0900 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4115 66.4
1000 0 66 35 0 0 0 101 4216 68.0
1100 0 0 42 4 18 1 65 4281 69.1
1200 0 0 0 2 99 2 103 4384 70.7
1300 0 0 0 0 1 112 113 4497 72.6
1400 0 0 0 1 3 154 158 4655 75.1
1500 0 0 0 1 26 97 124 4779 77.1
1600 0 0 0 0 129 0 129 4908 79.2
1700 0 0 0 0 72 12 84 4992 80.6
1800 0 0 0 0 0 203 203 5195 83.8
1900 0 0 0 0 0 257 257 5452 88.0
2000 0 0 0 1 109 122 232 5684 91.7
2100 0 0 0 0 242 0 242 5926 95.6
2200 0 0 1 3 82 24 110 6036 97.4
2300 0 0 0 142 0 19 161 6197 100.0
------------------------------------------------------
Total 12 133 541 1191 1632 2688 6197
The following stations were worked on 6 bands (only 55 worked on five bands):
K3LR ZF1A PJ4K 8P5A V26B PJ2T
P49Y
it's toll. . But the wildcard was
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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