P40L-P49Y Contest Summary Information

Comments:

Great rates and conditions on the high bands, but challenging conditions on the low bands which were noisy and generally chock full of N America stations working EU. It was a pleasure to have 10 meters back again, although propagation to EU was of the spot light variety and sporadic (and most limited to Southern EU). On the other hand, 15 meters was excellent for most of the daylight hours, with surprisingly strong openings to JA and Asia generally that helped increase the multiplier total. There were lots of new prefixes on the air that helped make things fun and helped drive scores to new records.

The station generally worked well. It was great to have all the antennas functioning as expected as a result of our complete replacement of antennas and towers in 2008. I did, however, have some minor equipment problems that distracted a bit, causing me to lose almost an hour of prime operating time Sunday morning.

This was only my third single op SSB contest and my first in five years. I'd forgotten how hard they are on the ears. I found it difficult at times not to let some of the bad stuff get to me, e.g., horrendous audio of many signals, prevalent strong persistent jammers and guys with 20 plus over 9 signals opening up 500 Hz away from my run frequency. Fortunately, in the end, these were more than offset by the many positives, including the demonstration of some great operating skills, the many signals with excellent audio and wonderful propagation.

Although my visit to Aruba this time was short due to work commitments, I was fortunate to enjoy some pleasurable social time with Carl (AI6V) and Sue (AI6YL) as well as the rest of the P40M team (Scott (K0DQ), Ed (N4OC) and Brian (W3BW)) and their spouses. Those guys kept up a nice pace despite losing the use of their 40 meter beam a couple Qs into their first 40 meter run of the contest.

As always, thanks for all the contacts.
QSL via LoTW or WA3FRP

73, John W6LD/P40L

Station:
Rigs: Elecraft K3 & P3; Icom 756 Pro II
Amps: Alpha 86, Ten-Tec Titan 425; Alpha 91B

Antennas:
C31XR at 43 feet
2 elements 10 meter at 55 feet
5 elements 15 meter at 55 feet
4 elements 20 meter at 68 feet
2 elements 40 meter at 76 feet
1 element 80 meter Sigma 80 at 64 feet
160 meter C vertical at 67 feet
Four 500 foot beverages using K9AY switching box/preamp

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