P40L-P49Y Contest Summary Information

Comments:

This was our second CQ WW cw effort from outside the U.S. Fortunately, we were able to assemble the same team as last year and add Mike, N7MH. Denny, Mike and I arrived on the island mid-day Wednesday. Rick arrived on the red-eye Friday afternoon only 5 hours before the contest. Of course, this made him the natural choice to be our lead-off run station operator.

We approached this year with targets that represented a substantial decline in both Qs and mults relative to last year (e.g., targets that were 90-95% of last year's results) given where we are in the sun spot cycle. We are very pleased to have exceeded even our "stretch goals" for just about every band.

The results are probably due to four principal factors:

(1) Very good low band conditions.

(2) Reduced interstation interference attributable to the addition of coaxial stubs (fixed problems on 160, 80 and 40, but still need more work on high bands) and a switchable band filter on the beverages.

(3) The addition of a 500 foot beverage pointed at Europe in addition to a the existing beverages pointed at Western and Eastern U.S.(made possible by the heroic (and painful) efforts of Denny, KX7M, who tunneled through about 70 feet of brambles and cacti in the cunucu).

(4) Sufficient operators to afford a second set of ears on the run radio, especially the very talented ears of N7MH.

Low band conditions were excellent. John Crovelli, P40W, with whom we had the pleasure of sharing several meals (including Thanksgiving dinner) and from whom we continue to learn something every time we get together, commented that these were among the best conditions he has experience in his 20+ years of contesting from Aruba. Ten meter was a challenge, but we succeeded in working 22 European stations, most of which were just above the band noise.

Our biggest challenge was the discovery that all three of the usual rigs for the station (2 FT1000Ds and a FT990) had problems. We ended using the recently added IC756ProII as the run radio, a radio that none of us had any prior experience operating, plus a borrowed FT1000MP. Many thanks to Jean-Pierre, P43A, for the loan of his rig.

The pile-ups were huge, but generally well behaved. We all had lots of fun. I was particularly pleased by how well the team worked together.

Thanks for all the contacts!

73, John, W6LD/P40L