CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 2010

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

160:   413     19   45
80:     1535   27   95
40:     3258   34   121
20:     3538   34   133
15:     4076   35   118
10:     1554   24   52

3830 Comments by W0CG/PJ2DX: 

A big thanks to Yaesu, whose sponsorship now enables us to operate exclusively with Yaesu transceivers, mostly brand new FT-2000s. They have performed fabulously for us, and have proven to be the most reliable of all the vendor’s equipment in the extremely corrosive, electrically hostile, hot and wet climate here in the deep tropics.  

We had a superb team this year. John, K6AM, now becoming a member of the CCC/PJ2T club group, served as the operations coach for this contest. In that role, he prepared the operating schedule, wrote a comprehensive band-by-band plan, designed two-radio per band technology, built it, brought it to the island, and patiently coached us in how to best use it. He’s a good motivator and a patient teacher, and we’re very excited to have him now associated with PJ2T.  

We were also fortunate to be able to welcome Helmut, DF7ZS, back here for his fourth PJ2T operation. He was part of our record-breaking World #1 finish in WPX SSB 2005 and ventured here for several other contests. He’s a tireless top operator who travels the world contesting. He also brought along some incredible skydiving videos that entertained us before the contest. Also from Germany , brothers Bernhard and Dieter Horst, DL5RDP and DL5RDO were fantastic additions to our team. I met Bernhard by chance last March when he and his family were vacationing on Curacao and he kindly consented to return for this contest. They are superb operators, and their language skills were of obvious advantage. Also, they made a fantastic pasta dinner for us Friday just before the contest. We hope they will return often.  

N8NR was one of the key builders of the PJ2T antenna system in 2001, then was co-opted by his job to the point that he has not been able to return here to operate until now. In all those years, he continued support generously to the PJ2T build out, and we’re excited that he has finally gotten back here to see how the station and QTH have grown and improved. He even grabbed a string trimmer without being asked on Thursday and cleaned up the ratty yard, all grown-over from our wet fall this year. Whatt’a guy. Gary, K9SG, the team doctor for Peter 1 and Desecheo, has been a long-time PJ2T member but not able to get here until now for the major contests. Finally he was able to be part of our team for a big effort, and he reports that he had a lot of fun and will be returning for more of the same. He has been most generous in supporting this station.  

We’re honored to have Joe, W9JUV, one of the very top Honor Roll DXers back on the team for his umteenth visit to PJ2T. He made the very first QSO with PJ2T (from Illinois ) on 10-10-10 with new country Curacao and is a cunning and patient multiplier-chaser and run operator. At age 80, he participates hard in all the projects at the station, operates the weekend with almost no sleep, and quickly adapts to all our new technology initiatives. He sets a superb example of how to stay active and vital, and I hope to be able to emulate his excellent example as the years go by.  

CCC Vice President K8LEE is again on our team, and seems to be able to operate endlessly on noise-eater bands with patience and accuracy. He is always there when we need volunteers to do the dirty work around here, and is a tremendous asset to our operations.

It’s fitting that today is the 10^th anniversary of our purchase of this QTH from W1BIH/PJ9JT. On this occasion, we logged more QSOs in a weekend than in any other contest in our decade of PJ2T operation. We also had great fun, applying the techniques brought to us by K6AM for two-radio band operation in the multi/multi. None of this is totally new, and we follow pioneers like K3LR and the other monster multis. But it is new to us, and such things are much more challenging in a small-nation DX location. You may have worked us on 40, particularly, where one op was running QSOs on the TX frequency to Europe whereas a second op (and voice) answered your calls up on the 7200s. Tricky, and VERY fast, and once we got our rhythm it worked great, strange as it may have sounded from your side, hearing two voices on one band from one callsign. This and other innovations made this weekend special.  

We continue to benefit enormously from an old recycled Mosley TA-34XL tri-bander at the end of 1200 feet of 7/8 inch Heliax, 350 feet above the elevation of the shack, fixed on Europe . It is a tremendous band-opener, perched on a ridge top looking toward Europe down into a deep and quiet valley in the foreground of the antenna. Thanks again to W8AV and WA9S who helped me haul the tower sections, Heliax, and antenna up sheer rock cliffs in 95 degree tropical heat and sticker bushes and incredibly dense vegetation in 2008. No fun, but it paid off.  

Another innovation at PJ2T with this contest weekend is that we operated in air conditioned comfort. For 10 years we have been dying in the shack, with temperatures that often reach 100F and stay there for many hours, with high humidity to boot. We were finally able to get a monster 36,000 BTU air conditioner in here last Wednesday. It was a huge hassle with the supplier and the installer, but we pulled it off. It’s not the most elegant installation – the condensate tube drips into a plastic bucket on the kitchen floor, but it works and helps us to keep comfy and maintain much better concentration.  

The contest started with a monster wall of 20 dB over S9 noise on 160 and 80. We had that on all Beverages and on the DX Engineering RX four square. It was a rainy weekend, and tropical storm Tomas hovered in the region all weekend, moving very slowly. Sorry to all of you who called and called an apparently deaf PJ2T. We did our best, and by the middle of the second night things quieted down somewhat, and we were able to make some hay on the low bands. 10 was a bit of a disappointment, with openings to Europe not nearly as solid as they were two weeks ago during the Curacao Independence operation. Because of the new country status, pileups were incredible, especially on 15. We had to resort to some outlandish techniques, such as running contest Qs by the numbers, offset a few KHz above the TX frequency. Sorry about that, but it was the only way to get any rate with a wide, loud wall of callers.  

We ended up with a score we’re proud of, and feel that we left nothing on the table. Congrats to all of our M/M competitors, and thanks for the good society of contesting that we all share on as well as off the air. It’s great to feel like we have 20,000 friends all over the globe.  

Thanks as always to all the members of the CCC club who do so much to support PJ2T, to all of you we worked in this now completed first decade of PJ2T contesting, and to Yaesu for support. PJ2T has been active now in EVERY MAJOR CONTEST, bar none, in the last 10 years. What a pile of hard work, but also what a great ride, and we’re not done yet. Sometimes one wonders why we contesters worldwide put ourselves through all this work and stress in the name of fun, but it’s worth it for the friendships made and the relationships maintained. Nice seeing all of you this weekend if only for a one-second “59 9.”  

     73, Happy Halloween, and thanks friends,  

             - Geoff, W0CG, PJ2DX – Curacao; Coeur d’Alene , Idaho ; and Suffield , Ohio