CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 2007

      Call:      PJ2T
      Category:  Multi-Two
      Power:     High Power
      Band:      All Band
      Mode:      SSB 
      Country:   Netherlands Antilles
      Zone:      9      

3830 Comments: 

Two failures of commercial power, the worst thunderstorm we have ever seen here, and almost non-existent conditions to Europe

 took a lot of the fun out of this one. Hard to believe, but only 8.6% of our QSOs were Europe as compared to the usual 38% or so. 

Still, we had a lot of fun and hung in there after being tempted to turn off the rigs and just watch the Red Sox beat the Rockies. 

Shortly after midnight on Sunday morning the most incredible lightning storm we've seen here nailed us. This is tremendously unusual, 

as these usually stay offshore. Lightning in all quadrants, close and loud. We shut down and isolated the station electrically as the

 rain came in torrents. Predictably, the commercial power died about 30 minutes into the storm. I fired up the generator, and after 

the rain ended we got back on the air barefoot with two transmitters. 40 was not bad, even with only 100 watts, but 80 barefoot 

was a waste of time. Naturally, this is the first contest where I had not filled the fuel can, so I headed out on the 110 minute 

round trip to the island's 24 hour gas station at 1:40 AM, leaving W1MD running the west coast on 40. On the way back I got 

stuck behind an accident cleanup that was blocking the only highway, adding to the delay. By the time I got back the power 

was back up, so we secured the generator, fired up the amps, and woke up the ops. Sunday conditions were no better with 

an almost complete inability to establish any runs into Europe, even in the Europe-only bands. Shortly after cleaning up the 

generator and putting the cables away the power dropped again around 4 PM Sunday afternoon. We fought the temptation to 

surrender and were back on barefoot within 10 minutes, running that way for about 90 minutes until we got back on the mains

 with the amps. The Titan III refused to make RF after this Sunday afternoon restart, so I hot-swapped in another amp while 

K1EA patiently worked around my antics on 20. (We fixed the Titan III and it tested good on Monday morning.) Also, the

 rain left us without Internet connectivity much of the weekend. Now that the contest is over, of course, the weather is calm, 

sun is out, bands are improving, and the data connection is back fast and solid. Many thanks to Craig (K1QX) and

 Ken (K1EA) for making their first trip to Curacao. Too bad they ran squarely into Murphy. And we regret greatly that 

W6PH was not able to make it here, stopped by wildfire smoke on I-5 and unable to get to LAX Thursday morning. 

Thanks for the Qs, and sincere congratulations to Kyle's (WA4PGM) PJ4E crew and to everyone else who waxed 

us fair and square in this one. Nice work, guys! Great contesting. Now it's on to CW, thank goodness, and we'll hope 

that things go better. Thanks also to all of the CCC members and guests who make this PJ2T operation a reality. 

73 from Geoff, W0CG, PJ2DX