The score only tells half of the story…

 

Band	QSO	Zones	Countries	Ops
160	954	23	82	W0CG, K8ND, W9WTS
80	1464	30	101	N0YY, K8LEE
40	3058	34	122	WI9WI, N0KE
20	3962	39	141	WA4PGM, K2PLF, W0NB
15	3255	38	136	W0CG, K8ND, W9WTS
10	2598	33	123	N0YY, K8LEE
Total	15291	197	705

 

For a total score of 40,916,524 - A job well done by the team.

 

In summary we had FUN, we ate very well, and kept trying to block Mr. Murphy from joining our effort.

 

This score represents the single largest score and most number of QSOs for a single contest from PJ2T in the history of the club.  The score however does not tell the tale of how we got to that score.

 

The high bands were amazing.  The low bands were noisy with local storms.  But amid those challenges 160 and 80 still produced great results.  On Saturday morning we had amazing rates on 80M into Europe resulting in several hours of 140 QSO/hour rates.  Those rates would not return on Sunday morning but we could work most stations we could hear.

 

We missed a few multipliers that we either could not hear or were so buried in pileups that we just could not bust through.  But there are stories of calling CQ on 10M and having 8Q7DV call in the middle of the European pileup.  Other bands experienced the same kind of events.

 

But as we all know preparation is the name of the game and this year was no exception.  Station repairs started before the CQWW SSB contest with the failure of our venerable LK-800 amp.  It is suffering from some of the same maladies other equipment has experienced – lost traces and failed relays.  In the week before the CQWW CW contest, Jeff, K8ND located some replacement relays and after some “surgery” we had the amp back on line.

 

Then comes the story of antennas…  We lost the feed on the US 15M yagi just before the SSB weekend.  With Herculean efforts between Geoff and Wayne, K8LEE the antenna was repaired and back on line for the contest.  But then we found additional failures that needed attention.  We knew we needed the CL-33 for the Pacific multipliers so we took on a long standing trap rebuild.  We found that all the parts on the island were questionable and were of different release dates from Mosely.  So we took the traps apart and looked for matched pairs that could be made to work.  The good news is that we found one set – the bad news is that we have no spares for the CL-33. 

 

And then the European 20M yagi failed on Monday evening in the middle of a late afternoon European run.  It lost its hearing and had a high VSWR.  We used Tuesday to analyze the problem.  On Wednesday, with Geoff and Jim – W8WTS on the tower working on the 20M yagi, trying to fix the problem before the contest, we were hit with a huge rainstorm including a waterspout – but the antenna was fixed “well enough” for the contest but Geoff and Jim were soaked along with the ground crew when they finally made it down the tower.  The repair was enough to use the antenna through the contest.  Repairs were completed on Monday morning after the contest.

 

The Ridge antenna continues to be a real differentiator in terms of band openings.  We used it sparingly to open the band and then transitioned as quickly as possible to the main antennas to allow it to be used by the next highest band.  Antenna selection was smooth and efficient.

 

But amid all of those “challenges” we enjoyed gourmet meals at the hands of Jim, W0NB and some of his helpers.  We had TWO turkeys with all the trimmings for the Thanksgiving meal, enjoyed pot roast, stew, chili, steak and potatoes, and a huge spaghetti dinner in celebration of our efforts.  No one went away hungry.

 

We met many of our goals.  We had targeted a score of 44M but with the small coronal event on Saturday that closed the high bands early we would fall a bit short of that goal.  We await the scores to see how we faired, but initial results look like we will be in the top scores.  If there is one area we wished could be improved was the huge number of dupes that were worked.  We made a total of 15,700 QSOs of which 15, 290 were valid.  While the number in itself seems small, the real impact was that it added to the depths of the pileups that slowed our rates when the bands were open.

 

This year we staffed the contest almost entirely from within the club – the exception was Phil, N0KE who joined us with significant TI5N experience.  Phil and Jim, WI9WI shared the load on 40M and did an outstanding job.

 

The real thanks go to the CCC membership who continues to support this world class contest facility.  Without your support this kind of performance would not be possible.  It was great fun to work those of you who provided QSOs during the contest.  We also want to thank the thousands of hams worldwide that participated and made the 15,000+ QSOs possible.

 

Rick, N0YY