P40L-P49Y Contest Summary Information

AE6Y February 2012 Aruba Trip Notes – ARRL DX CW Contest

Andrew L. Faber, AE6Y, P49Y
3/2/12
[pub. ver.]

Tuesday, February 14 - Wednesday, February 15, 2012. 

The AA scheduling keeps giving me long layovers in MIA. This time flight 272 from SFO left at 9 p.m. and arrived in MIA a little after 5 a.m., leaving a lots of time till the next flight to AUA left at 12:15. I hung out at the Admiral’s Club at D15, enjoying my typical cheese quesadilla breakfast and some napping. Felt OK, after sleeping pretty well on the redeye also. For the first time in recent memory there were long lines at passport control and Hertz was on the slow side, so I didn’t arrive at the house till almost 4 p.m. I didn’t have to take the K3 out of the backpack at SFO; the TSA lady asked what it was, and seemed satisfied when I said it was a radio. She adjusted the contrast on her machine and remarked that she could see the speaker – though I don’t think much of the top-firing speaker on the K3, it apparently has its uses. No problem with Aruba customs either.

 The weather was a bit non-typical Aruba: temperature was probably about 80 with unusually low humidity. I wasn’t even sweating standing around wearing a long sleeved shirt with an undershirt. [The weather stayed delightful all week.] There was no standing water at Frenchman’s Pass, but we did get some rain, and the power lines clearly had been washed by recent rains, judging from the lack of power line noise.

As usual, the house looks immaculate, the combination of Chris’s housekeeping and Ed’s compulsive radio neatness. Ed had left the shack K3 and his P3 hooked up as the right radio. I set up my K3 and P3 as the left radio. Since my last visit, John and Ed had purchased replacement filters and band decoders to replace the old TT decoders, AE6Y relay box, and ICE 419s. The new units are much more modern. They are Filtermax filters and Bandmaster decoders sold by Array solutions. Each decoder talks to its filter with a small LAN connection; there is a “Net” light that flashes every two seconds or so to show the communication – shades of the FT1000’s flashing CAT light. Ed had done a yeoman’s job of building cables to do all the interfacing with the K3s (and also had constructed Yaesu and Icom cables), as well as communicating with the Six-Pak controller box. Note that to use the system with other than the K3s or Yaesus, a setup program must be run to initialize them. I did not experiment with this, but Ed says it is on the USB thumb drive left on the operating table shelf in front of the monitor. The Bandmaster to K3 cables connect to the K3’s ACC connector.

 I had an initial problem that, although the shack K3 communicated perfectly with the Bandmaster, my K3 would not. I tried switching cables, etc., and finally broke out an old TT decoder (they are now stored in the second BR), which worked fine with my K3 using the cable that I had brought along in my K3 cable bag. Since I now knew that my K3 was working as normal, I put on my thinking cap and concluded that maybe the problem was that the Bandmaster didn’t have pull-up resistors, and could only work with the K3 output in the newer K3s which now have them installed. I vaguely remembered there was chatter about this on the reflector quite a while ago, and recalled checking the TT decoder schematics to find out when I first got my K3 that the TT units did have such resistors on the input. I fired off an email to John and Ed. Ed confirmed this diagnosis with Bob, W5OV, at Array Solutions, and then when I returned from dinner at 10:30 Ed called with the suggestion that I simply run the TT units in parallel to get the benefit of their pull-up resistors, using a Y-adaptor which he had in his W0YK boxes above the closet in the master BR. Sometimes “it takes a village.” This clever solution worked FB throughout the rest of the stay. My K3 is S/N 076, while the shack K3 is S/N 5800; the latter clearly has the benefit of numerous production modifications. I should get mine upgraded.

The system worked fine all week. The only noted issue, which Ed had also reported, was an asymmetric interference whereby when the left radio was on 20, it would mess up the right radio on 15 and 10 (also 40 messes up 20). I suspected there may be something going on with the Six-Pak relay unit, but never investigated fully.

Incidentally, the computer is hooked up in the usual fashion: laptop on the table at the left. One USB to the Compaq 4-port expander. Two serial ports to the rigs, USB Y-connector to mouse and keyboard, and using the black USB-to-2 serial ports for one serial cable to the R1/R2 switch on the DX Doubler. External monitor. In total, I used four serial ports: two for radio control, one for R1/R2 and one for the Winkeyer (which also ran PTT through the DXD). At first, for some reason the Winkeyer wouldn’t initialize but rebooting the computer solved that problem, which probably was caused by the multiple reassignments of serial ports in Device Manager that always seems to be necessary.

I also hooked up the internet connection and telephones, which Ed had organized and greatly improved. The modem is now in the master bedroom, connected by a cable that he and JP ran along the ceiling and through a hole in the wall to the radio room, where the router is mounted high on the back wall. The drill is as follows, following the directions that Ed had left for us: (1) Connect DSL cable in BR to the side of the black connector hanging from the modem (not the end slot). (2) Plug in modem. Four green lights should come on. (3) Plug in router. (4) In dining room, plug in phone, and connect phone cord to the phone jack on the wall. This was the basic setup from last year, but Ed had cleaned it up and had SETAR replace a corroded phone jack, with the result that the internet appeared to be rock solid all week, and the telephone line was quiet. Andy Bodony (K2LE), who had been in the house last month for the FOC Marathon, said we had the best internet on the island (or at least better than at his time-share at Playa Linda)!

Lisandro called in the afternoon, and at 8 pm. he and Lissette rolled up in her new KIA Sportage to take me to a very pleasant dinner at our usual haunt, Peanuts in Oranjestad. I had fish keri-keri (a kind of fish hash with criollo sauce) this time instead of my usual Aruban keshi yena (a cheese dish). They are well, and I gave them some guidebooks to NYC that I had brought for them for their upcoming fall vacation. Andy Bodony also called, and we arranged to have dinner tomorrow night.

Thursday, February 16, 2012.   

Went to bed about 11:15 and slept well until a little after 7. Had some coffee and read for a while to put off a jaunt into the cunucu. The only item on the agenda was relocating the bottom leg of the 160 vertical dipole, which Andy Bodony had routed too close to the tower and left running through the bushes near the fence. This had the effect of increasing the SWR to over 2 to 1. I had to clear a little foliage, but fortunately Andy had already cleared a usable path. (But note that there are some heavy branches just outside the gate across the path that should be removed, though they may require use of a pruning saw, instead of the normal clippers.) I relocated the bottom tie point in the eyebolt that fits into a hole in the fence about 8 feet from the tower. In the garage storage area was about an 8-foot white PVC tube. I took that out and tied a cord loop to the top to hold up the wire. While trying to put the tube in the ground at the far edge of the bushes, maybe 15 feet from the wall, a worker next door at James and Esther’s house came over and offered, in Spanish, to help. Immediately seeing that the bottom of the tube wasn’t going into the hard ground, he (Rafael) came back with about a 2-foot length of rebar and a hammer to knock the rebar into the ground. Putting the tube over the end of the rebar solved the problem. That was a very neighborly gesture on his part. All that was left was to pull the wire taut, and it easily cleared the bushes. [At John’s request I left it in place for him at the end of my trip.] The SWR dropped right down to about 1.2 to 1 as before.

Went off shopping at Ling and Sons, stopping for a half-hour visit with Carl and Sue on the way. Carl has been rebuilding traps in his TH7s, which apparently got fried due to lightning some time ago. He and Andy will do a multi-single, low power, in the contest. Violating the old command not to shop on an empty stomach, I way overbought at Lings.

Back at the house at about 11:30 for a brunch consisting of a premade egg salad sandwich from Lings and some OJ. After lunch I did some more radio setup. There was a 10-minute violent squall, then at 1:30 a somewhat longer but milder shower. At about 2:30, now in sunshine, I went to Chris and JP’s to chat with her and the kids. I had intentionally chosen that time because JP was at work and I wanted to give Chris the truck model that she had had me buy for her as a birthday present for JP. Prior to leaving, I verified that the Alpha 91B loaded fine on all six bands. Operated for a while running mostly EUs on 15.

A shower and shave then to dinner at the T.G.I. Fridays in the High-Rise Hotel District with Andy, Carl and Sue. We sat outside in very pleasant weather in a sort of plaza in the shopping center across from the Playa Linda. The company was great, the conversation interesting, the food lousy, and the entertainment in the plaza extremely loud and intrusive. Note to self: even TR’s would have been preferable. Andy returned the Logikit Keyer and Bencher paddle that he had borrowed. Speaking of paddles, the brand new N0SA mono paddle that I had brought down developed a loose dash contact post which seemingly could be cured only by taking the whole thing apart, which I declined to do since there happened to be another one on the shelf in the closet. Not sure where it came from, though Ed thinks I had brought that one down before, but I have no memory of so doing -- a possible senior moment? After a few adjustments with an Allen key it worked great for the rest of the trip. Mine is an “SP2”, while the house paddle was an “SP1” and was a little noisier but similar in operation. 

Friday, February 17, 2012. 

 Up at 8 and on the air briefly on 15 barefoot running an EU pileup. Off to the Hyatt for my traditional Friday-morning-with-nothing-much-to-do-before-the-contest breakfast. Stopped by the California Lighthouse for a little walk in the sun then stopped in at Martin and Truus’s for a brief visit. Back at the house, the 20m 4 el gave erratic SWR readings. I tried both radios with and without the Six-Pak. Sometimes the SWR seemed fine, but I wasn’t not sure if that was an artifact. I eventually decided that the SWR was indeed high (meaning circa 2 to 1), so I set up our antenna tuner on top of the 91B. As installed, it only works on the left radio. [It didn’t occur to me that if I simply had put it in line after the Six-Pak, I could have used it on either radio. In fact, if I had done that, I wouldn’t have had to switch it out of the circuit to use the C31.] It easily tuned the antenna back to one to one.

 Carl and Sue dropped by about 4:30, bringing with them Joop’s second Orion which I had agreed to take back with me (Ed had brought the first one back earlier in the week). They had a large box and lots of bubble wrap, so it all fit in the huge blue suitcase that we store on top of the closet in the master BR with the Alpha box inside. [As it turns out, they sold the Orion to Raul, P43RC, so I didn’t have to bring it back after all, just the little remote VFO that goes with Ed’s unit.] I dozed for about an hour, then ran through a number of pre-contest rituals: putting the car in the garage, setting out contest food (candies, grapes, cookies, water, Snapple tea), making four sandwiches on rolls to store in the refrigerator (two cream cheese and jelly and two PBJ), having a light dinner (a Ling’s tuna fish sandwich and a chocolate muffin), turning on the amps and verifying everything seemed to work.

ARRL DX CW Contest Saturday, February 18-Sunday, February 19, 2012 – Contest notes more or less as dictated during the contest.  Warming up 14021 ten minutes before 0000Z, 20 seems to be in great shape. An excellent first hour (actually my best ever) of 230 Qs, then the rate starts to slow down and grinds to a seeming halt. At 336/46 on 20, QSY to 3525. 40 is as usual jammed with EUs and past experience suggests that it will be more manageable in a few hours. It’s 0238Z and I’ve been on 80 for just about an hour, at 182/39. Interestingly, about ten CAs, but no 7’s except for AZ. Switch to 160 on the right radio. The pileup is clearly QRMing itself and I slow down to 33 wpm (had been at 35 and 36). First CA is N6BV (at N6RO), the 96th QSO and 36th mult.

At 405Z, I’m ready for a brief break then a QSY to 40 at 173/44 on 160, including all mults in the first through sixth call areas, except NM. The 40m pileup isn’t worked down until one hour 38 minutes at 317/48. This was exciting. I leave the right radio on 160 to be ready for moves. First successful move is N7NG in WY from 80 to 160. Unsuccessful moves to 160 are WA and MB – I just can’t hear them. A number of stations simply never respond when asked for a move, and some decline, often saying “no ant” or simply “sri.” At 0747Z, just moved to 40 and was immediately called by K0JV in SD, whom I move barefoot to 80. It’s now 0818Z and things are slowing down. CQing on 160 got 5 contacts in the last 7 minutes. Current total is 20: 336/46; 40: 398/51; 80: 384/52; 160: 241/49; total 1359/198 for 795k points. The contest is only 1/6 over! 

Back on 40 after a nine-minute break for a sandwich, W3DQ calls in on 40 and moves to 80. He says “later” to a 160 request, but does call in later on that band. After asking several NM stations to move from 80 to 160, finally got N7KA to do so successfully at 0911Z. A move of NO1SA (NF) from 80 to 160 fails (though he calls in Sunday morning for my 53d and last mult on that band). I’m falling asleep during contacts, but just moved AA8UL in WV from 40 to 80 at 1050Z. Not sure why I had no WVs so far on 80.

At 1216Z and still on 40, just past the one-quarter mark, the sun has been up for almost two hours and I’m going to make some coffee before changing to the high bands. Listening to 15 on the right radio, it seems to be open to Europe. First night’s low band totals are 40: 711/57; 80: 430/55; 160: 260/51; total: 1674/208 for a little over a million points.

15 and 20 are both slow and full of strong of EU signals, never a good sign for us to the south. When the 91B is on 40 it wipes out the right radio on 20 but has no effect at all on 15. KO7X, reliable Alan in WY, calls in on 20 and I move him to 21112 with a very strong signal. I’m surprised that 15 is open that far west so early. VO1HP calls in on 15 and I move him to 20. There is a very clear double skip zone on 15: East/Midwest and West Coast are strong, but there is nothing at all in the mountain states.

To 10 at 1455Z and the band is strong. The next two clock hours are 231 and 234. VE4VT, the only VE4 I’ve heard so far (worked him last night on 80) calls in on 10 at 1833Z and we easily move barefoot to 15 and 20. The ten-meter pileup is easier to work than on 15. The signals seem to be more spread out and vary more in amplitude, allowing easier separation in the operator’s tired brain. I have the K3’s AGC slope set to 0. I ride the RF gain in the pileups and this really helps to discern the callers, though it calls for constant adjustment. After the double move I celebrate with an 8-minute food break.

 At 1840Z, I’m at 2855 by 319 for 2.683M points. On 10, I’m at 795/55 and the average rate has been 216 for the last three and a half hours. Now to 15, which has the lowest contact total at 190/49. New mults are slow in coming on 15, but VO1SA calls in and moves to 10 at 1944Z. One of the rarest mults so far, VE5VA in SK, obligingly moves from 15 to 20 at 2014Z. It’s 2140Z and time to go to 20 at a total of 3425 by 330 with 758/58 on 15, only missing SD among the normal mults (i.e., discounting LB, NU, YT and NT, which never seem to show up on CW). The 22 hour is 201 on 20. VE4YU calls in on 20 at 2325Z and we successfully move to 40 (he has often moved for me in prior contests). We are right on top of loud guy’s freq on 7055, but we do make the contact.

At exactly the halfway point of the contest, I’m at 3850 by 336 for 3.811M points. At 0010Z of the new day, I’m just about to celebrate with some food, when K0JV in SD calls on 20 and we successfully move to 15 for two new mults, giving me the full complement of 59 on both bands. I keep going, but do take my longest non-sleep break of the contest, 17 minutes at 0040Z, having just hit a milestone of 1001 contacts on 20.

 Back on the air on 14025 to ride 20 a while longer before switching to the low bands. At 0114Z, KD4POJ in ND calls in on 20 and we move to 40. He agrees to move to 80 also (even though it may be before sunset there). I hear him clearly on the beverage, but he can’t hear me. Though he calls repeatedly, in my befuddled state I don’t notice until too late that I had inadvertently turned off the 80m dipole. Stupid! Fortunately, KE0A in ND calls on 40 at 0342Z and we do move to 80 but a move to 160 fails. 160 seems noisier tonight. Later, moves of WA and ID also fail.

It’s just before 0500Z and things have really slowed down. No one is answering on 80 and 160 is really noisy, so I decide to take a major sleep break. [Later: Note that thing hadn’t really slowed down that much. The 0300 hour has 124 contacts, and the 0400 hour 121. Furthermore, from 0450 through 0456 I have 12 more. So I was clearly overreacting in my tired state. There were still many people to be worked. I need to remember that the bands never change so rapidly, just because there is a lull.] The total now is 4463/341 for 4.467M points.

 Ok, it’s 0715Z. I’ve slept for two hours and had a bowl of Zucaritas (Frosted Flakes -- my Aruban vice) with a banana and a chocolate muffin. I don’t feel totally refreshed, but do have a lot more energy and focus than when I quit. I’m CQing on 80, with relatively slow rates, but VE5GC just called for my 58th mult on that band (only need, and never get, NE). I’m using the right radio and the 86 on 80 and set the left radio and the 91B on 160 for a while. The rate is slow on 160, but am getting answers from CA and OR and BC, so hope to get WA and ID. NK7U in OR must be 30 db over the noise level. Sending at 31 wpm due to the noise. Hey, just got called by N7ZG in WA! And a little later W7WR also. Never do get ID, but VO1SA gives me NF at 1829Z. There don’t seem to be a lot of guys awake at this time of night. The 0900Z hour is the slowest of the contest, at 50 contacts. I give up again, and doze for 25 minutes and have some coffee to wake me up. A 46-minute unplanned break from 1007Z to 1053Z, then resume on 40.

The next clock hour is steady but not exciting at 88 contacts. I’ve been listening on the second radio to FY5KE in French Guiana call CQ on 15. I didn’t know he was to be active in the contest. Maybe he is single band, since no one seems to be answering him. [Later: he does report as 15m SB, with some 2700 QSOs!] Now I get some pleasure (though he clearly doesn’t, as he starts sending “CQ USA”) from his being answered by EUs that I can’t hear, since in the DX contests he always opens the band to EU earlier than we do, being well to the east of us. 20 was very slow yesterday morning and since I already have almost 1100 Qs on that band, I want to skip right to 15 and 10 if possible. By the way, I’ve had a number of DX stations call me. Some I ignore, but if they are loud I give them 599 but don’t log them (will QSL if they send a card). A sudden flurry of dupes at 1226Z, and guys just won’t take no for an answer, so it’s usually best just to work them. But very frustrating, particularly when you are tired, or need repeats to dig out a weak caller who turns out to be a dupe.  

To 15 at 1248Z. Note that 40 has stayed open for about 2 ½ hours after our sunrise. Propagation on 15 starts out only to the East Coast. At 1353Z I go to 10 on the theory that I should try to get there as soon as it’s open. Also, I still need three mults on that band and reasonably expect to have all three answer CQs. Sure enough, at 1422Z KE3VV gives me DC, at 1501Z K0JV provides SD, and at 1548Z KD4POJ is ND. These are my last three mults of the contest. After about four good hours on 10 on 28040, it’s time to go to 15 at 1817Z. I have almost 600 Qs more on 10 than 15, and it’s usually an optimal strategy on CW (not on phone necessarily, since there are many more casual ops on 10 phone) to try to equalize the band totals if possible on the high bands. Only problem on 10 has been some intermittent local ignition noise, but I’ve been able to work through it. 15 is very good; I move to 20 at 2121Z, but it’s not nearly as good as 15, so I go back there from 2201Z to 2233Z, then finish out the contest on 20. The last 10 hours yield an average rate of 160. I work several NEs on 20, but none in the last half hour, so I don’t try to move them to 80 for my last needed 80 mult (though maybe I should have tried).

 Right after the contest, Ed calls, then John Fore, then Carl. We have decided not to do a post-contest dinner since it’s Carnaval weekend, so I make some sandwiches for dinner. Though I miss the usual camaraderie after the contest, I’m actually happy to be going to bed at 9:30 p.m. instead of the usual 11:30 or so.

Monday, February 20, 2012. A very pleasant day. Up at 8 a.m., again about two hours earlier than usual, feeling quite hung over. A pot of coffee helped get me going, then I composed a 3830 score report and sent it off. I was ready to go in the cunucu to roll up the 160, but John says to leave it in place for him to use when he arrives next week, so I just went out and took a few pictures of it from inside the fence instead.  

This is a great social island. Andy called to chat and talk about his experience M/S LP with Carl at P49V. Then JP just called. We’re having dinner at Marina Pirata tonight. I volunteered to bring back the heavy Titan PS, but Ed said by email that he is bullish on fixing the RF deck, so we decided to leave it in the cottage. Whew!

I started to dismantle the radio room. Ran some tests on the 20, including checking SWR with the Palstar analyzer. The SWR seemed to be about two to one or a little higher on the CW end of the band, though it got better in the phone portion. K6AM just posted his score at ZF2AM, about 5% higher than mine. I had about 200 more Qs on the high bands, but he had about 400 more on the low bands, plus 353 mults (only missing VE4 on 160). He had two big low-band advantages: proximity to NA and contest uniqueness (but of course he obviously also did a fine job of operating).

I headed over to Carl and Sue’s to return the Orion, arriving at about 12:30 p.m. No one seemed to be home, but the house was unlocked, so I left the box in the living room (Carl later told me that Sue had been outside hanging up wash, but I didn’t want to yell too loud, so missed her.)

On the way back I took my usual run and swim at Savaneta, parking at the second pullout south of Marina Pirata. I was slow, not having run in a week due to incipient back problems (which fortunately never really materialized), but it felt great to be back outside in the sun for a change. Some lunch at home, then finished packing, went to Chris and JP’s to chat and talk finances, then we had a lovely dinner out on the deck at MP. It was a perfect evening for outdoor dining, with a clear sky and lovely weather. The fish off the deck (including a number of small sharks) put on a show chasing food tossed at them. Back home about 9:30 and had to pack up a number of items that JP has asked me to take back to the States. He plans to sell them, but would like me to ship them from home.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012. I’m not sure why, but I slept poorly. Otherwise had uneventful flights back to MIA and SFO, arriving home a little after nine. Ed called on my cell phone and happened to be having dinner in Los Gatos, so he came over for a chat and to receive his P3 that I had brought back along with the Orion external VFO to sell for Joop.

Here are the top four claimed scores this year, plus my previous best. ZF2AM was John, K6AM, on Grand Cayman; 6Y2T was Yuri, VE3DZ, on Jamaica; while TO5X was Valerie, R5GA, on Martinique. I couldn’t quite overcome the dual advantages of geographic proximity and contest uniqueness of the first two.

Band	P49Y 2012 HP	ZF2AM 2012 HP	6Y2T 2012 HP	TO5X 2012 HP	P49Y 2005 HP
10m	1414/59	1003/59	1252/59	1188/59	1196/59
15	1464/59	1660/59	1506/59	1357/59	1365/59
20	1437/59	1372/59	1440/58	1521/59	1463/59
40	1095/59	1268/59	1153/58	1359/59	1021/59
80	707/58	889/59	936/57	657/57	518/57
160	293/53	376/58	332/52	342/52	261/48
Total	6356/347	6568/353	6616/341	6324/345	5824/341
Score	6,616,596	6,995,512	6,810,951	6,545,340	5,957,952