CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 2009

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

160:   338     16   62
80:     1023   23   92
40:     2425   31   122
20:     2914   37   137
15:     3280   33   134
10:     914     21   80

3830 Comments by N0YY: 

Another amazing experience for the team at PJ2T.  In many ways it seems as
though the contest gods were smiling on us this year.  As usual we spent much
of the week before fixing a myriad of equipment glitches and making sure the
back up equipment was ready to play.  But once the contest started we were off
to the races.

Part of our success was a significant amount of planning and looking at
previous performance to spot shortcomings and missed opportunities.  We all
exchanged many emails to ensure that we had captured everyone's preferences
and skills.  All of this was captured in a fairly extensive Operating
Plan prepared by Rick, N0YY that put all of our findings in one place in
preparation for the contest.  The key to a successful operation is the planning
before hand and then executing to that plan.

This year we chose teams for each of the operating positions.  Rick, N0YY and
Martin, G4XUM teamed for the 160 and 15 meter operations.  Kyle, WA4PGM and
David, G3NKC partnered for the 80 and 10 meter bands.  40 meters was handled by
K8LEE, Wayne and N0VD, Kelly.  John, K6AM handled the 20 Meter operations with
help from Geoff, W0CG/PJ2DX, Joe, W9JUV, and an occasional visit from Kelly,
N0VD.  The team concept ensured that each of the operating teams built on the
band experiences of the previous day.  The alignment of our UK visitors on the
low bands paid huge dividends.  Our 160 and 80 meter performance on multipliers
exceeded any previous contest totals and even exceeded our pre-contest targets! 


Here is a band-by-band breakdown:

160 Meters was quite noisy with significant seasonal QRN both nights.  Pulling
calls out was like working a crossword puzzle and working to put complete calls
together one letter at a time.  But the multipliers and Qs just kept rolling in
for the best performance ever at PJ2T for a CQWW SSB event.  Martin, G4XUM was
amazing applying his knowledge of the European players to the European Sunrise
as it moved across Europe.

80 Meters the seasonal QRN did not seem to hinder the efforts of the team of
Kyle and David, WA4PGM and G3NKC.  They also set PJ2T records for multipliers
and Qs.  The matching of the US opening and the Europe openings with the two
partners paid huge dividends.

40 Meters was amazing.  Wayne and Kelly, K8LEE and N0VD, just kept racking up
the points.  Hour after hour they were there to just build a great performance
foundation.  When the dust settled they exceeded the goals set.  Joe, W9JUV
stepped in on a couple of occasions to add nice multipliers to a quiet band.

20 Meters had some frustrations as the band never built to the rates we had
anticipated.  Performance by John, K6AM and his team was solid, but the band
just never cracked the way it had in the past.  Again Joe contributed his
multiplier skill during the early morning hours with key captures in the Middle
East and the Pacific.

15 Meters was just plain fun.  For the team of Rick and Martin that had
collected hazardous duty pay with the crashing static on 160, the high run
rates on 15 to Europe and the US were welcome openings.  Here is one of the key
places the Ridge antenna just played and played.  Rates were high and sustained
for relatively long periods of time.  The fact that 15M outperformed 20M was
somewhat anticipated, but was again satisfying that we had projected that level
of performance. 

10 Meters is always a question mark at this point in the sunspot cycle.  But we
had hoped for an opening or two.  We were quite surprised with the length and
the global footprint of the opening.  It started with South American stations
and then moved through Europe and then the US with occasional contributions
from the Pacific.  David and Kyle did an outstanding job of sorting the opening
profiles and then just working the stations to fill the log.  Again the Ridge
antenna was a key contributor.

Mr. Murphy knocked on the door a couple of times, but we quickly slammed the
door on him before he could find a place to make residence.  A couple of locked
keylines and a voice keyer with a mind of its own were his attempts at
challenging our fun, but when all was said and done we successfully denied his
participation.

Of course all of our success was due to the meticulous maintenance and
oversight of issues at the hand of Geoff, W0CG/PJ2DX.  The Caribbean
environment just eats antennas, radios, computers, and as we found this week
traces off of printed wiring boards.  John, K6AM led the efforts to repair one
of the backup amplifiers, an Astron power supply, and placed some critical
tools to allow multiplier chasing using the sub-receivers.  We also enhanced
our antenna performance with the addition of another 80 meter antenna that
supplemented those already in place.  The 80 meter antenna project was handled
by W0CG/PJ2DX, G3NKC, and K8LEE, each suffering from a prolonged adventure
up the hill and in the mid afternoon heat and sun.

Rick, N0YY led a team to put one of the Flag receiving antennas up to enhance
our 160 performance to the west.  In analyzing previous contest multipliers we
found that we had never worked a KH6 on 160 during one of the SSB efforts.  The
antenna played its part as we worked several KH6 stations and a couple of other
Pacific multipliers on 160M SSB this year adding to our overall score.

We took the time to burn in each of the stations before the contest and to
acquaint each of the operators to the antenna switching configurations to
ensure smooth sunrise/sunset transitions.  The use of the Ridge antenna on 20,
15, and 10 meters was the secret weapon that allowed us to open bands earlier
and to stay longer.  The challenge was when to predict the hand offs to the
next higher band.  Each of the hand offs went without a glitch and our score
shows the fruits of our efforts.

We also need to highlight the multiplier chasing efforts of Joe, W9JUV.  Joe,
with his extensive experience of band openings allowed is to capture several
key multipliers during what should have been "dead"� band periods.

But most of all we had FUN!  Watching the run rates build, having key
multipliers call us, and just watching the score build throughout the contest
was satisfying.

Thanks to all of the stations that took the time to work PJ2T. Without you
we could not have had all the fun we did putting together a respectable score.

Now its on to the 2009 CQWW CW contest to see if we can enjoy a similar set of
circumstances.