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[3830] P40B CQWW SSB SO AB HP (long)

To: <3830@contesting.com>
Subject: [3830] P40B CQWW SSB SO AB HP (long)
From: jacobo@oduber.com (Jacobo Oduber)
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 10:43:07 -0400
CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST -- 1998

Call: P40B (opr. P43P)  Country:  Aruba
Mode: SSB               Category: Single Operator High Power
Zone: 9
Hours Worked: 36.7

BAND     QSO   QSO PTS  PTS/QSO   ZONES COUNTRIES Antennas

160       6       16     2.67      3      6    160m  Dipole @ 58ft
80      232      682     2.94     11      23    80m  Force12 dipole @ 67ft
40      705     2090     2.96     19      63    2 el Force12 @ 60ft
20     1310     3876     2.96     28      79    5 el Force12 @ 60ft
15     1558     4632     2.97     26      84    4 el Cushcraft @ 30ft
                                                5 el Force12 @ 75ft
10     2249     6700     2.98     27      83    5 el Force12 @ 75ft
     ---------------------------------------------------

Totals 6060    17996     2.97    114     338  =>  8,134,192

All reports sent were 599, unless otherwise noted.

Equipment Description:

Yaesu 1000MP
Alpha 76A
Cuscraft 4 element 15 Monobander @ 35ft
Force12 Magnum 510/515 @ 75ft
Force12 Magnum 520/240 @ 60ft
Force12 80M dipole @ 67
160M Inverted V @ 58ft
Heil Headset with HC5 Element

Club Affiliation:  Aruba Amateur Radio Club

This is to certify that in this contest I have operated
my transmitter within the limitations of my license and have
observed fully the rules and regulations of the contest.

                             Signature ___Jacobo Oduber

           MAILING ADDRESS:
               Jacobo Oduber  P43P (contest call: P40B)
               P.O. Box 685
               Oranjestad,   ARUBA

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After having done probably about 95% of all my contacts on 15M (IARU, ARRL &
WPX all single band on 15 meters), I had been thinking some time about doing
an all band effort.

Since I had only a 4 el. Cushcraft 15m monobander up, I needed a little more
aluminum up in the air to do a serious all band effort. In order to make an
"informed" decision regarding my upcoming antenna project, I though that the
best place to see all the different antennas and hardware would be at Dayton
98. So a few of the "Team Aruba" contesters (P43T, P43E & P43P) took off to
Dayton last May. Since this was my 1st Dayton visit, it was quite an
experience. I never thought there could be so many people that talk about
the same subject (amateur radio, antennas, contesting, etc.) for 3 days long
and sure enjoyed it.  After looking at all the towers, antennas and what
else there was to see in Dayton, I decided to go for the trap less force12
antennas and a 60ft Rohn 45 Tower.

Living in Aruba has it's propagation advantages but also a big disadvantage,
especially at the location of my QTH on the North coast of the island.
Basically you can sum up the disadvantage at my qth in one word: SALT!
Having the constant easterly trade winds here of 14 knots average,
everything that is left outside in the elements gets a big dose of salt.
Anything metallic I put outside will degrade to a pile of rust in just a few
years, with the exception of aluminum and stainless steel as long as these
two don't come into contact with each other. If they do, the aluminum
pulvers to nothing in about a year.

To make a long story short, during the last 12 weekends or so before the
1998 CQWW SSB Contest, we put up the 60 ft Rohn, a 20ft 2" (K5RC) mast and 3
large Force 12 antennas up at my qth. Each antenna of course carefully
protected from the brutal environment with lots of black tape and plenty of
noox. Took me some extra time to get special stainless U-bolts from Harbach,
but it was
sure worth waiting for these nice stainless Steel bolts, since the normal
u-bolts that force12 supplies with their antennas would never last in the
Aruba climate.

Talking about cutting it short on time. With the help of P43W, P43T, P43A,
P43LMA and under the careful observation of P40W, the last antenna finally
went up
on the Sunday before the CQWW SSB contest and I had only about two days
before
the contest to play around a little on 20, 40 and 80 meters and get to know
conditions and propagation on these 3 bands, since most of my pre cqww
contest experience has been on 15M, with exception of some work on a 160m
dipole that also performed remarkably well when tuned to the 10m band.

On to the contest:
Started the contest on 20 meters and had my best hourly qso rate of 278
qso's/hour during the 2nd hour of the contest. Guess that is when you still
have most energy.  LZ7G was my 1st contact and W1NT the 1st Stateside
contact for qso#6 in minute #1 and JA7FTR was my 1st JA contact at 02:45z.
20m was good through 0300z for 690+ q's.

When I switched to 40m, my lack of experience on 40m really affected
my qso rate. I quickly caught on and between 160, 80 and
40m, I still managed to do another 500+ q's by 7:00z. Took a catnap
somewhere between 8:00z and 9:00z and by 10:00z was on the bands again going
on 40 and then to 20m.
Picked up some nice multipliers on 20 meters. Then I switched to 15M at
11:00z and could not really get a run going. Did get a bunch of
multipliers and finally went to 10M. The band was not really quite
open yet, but plenty of stations to work this early in the morning from
Aruba.

In the mean time, outside we were having a spectacular thunderstorm and
lightning show that you could not believe. Since thunderstorms are very rare
in Aruba, it felt like I was back in Florida for one of those famous summer
afternoon thunderstorms, even though the Aruban trade winds made this a
strong storm in any book. Most of the amateurs on the island had to shut
down for a while and believe or not, we even started chatting on the 2m
repeater during the contest, while waiting to see if the thunderstorm would
rain out.  After about 1/2 hour of being of the air, I
could not stand wait anymore and connected all the antennas back to the
receiver and hoped that the ground cables would absorb most of the static in
the air.
For the next 4 to 6 hours or so, I worked under continuous rain and
lightning conditions
and my QRN levels were up a little more than usual. Luckily my 10M antenna
is at 75ft on a hilltop and I did not suffer the S9 QRN as some of the other
hams did on the
island.

Had a good run on 10m at 1200z (266q's/hr) and kept hopping between 15 and
10 meters depending on the propagation.

One experience I again confirmed over the weekend, it is a lot nicer
and less chaotic to work stateside than it is to work EU, even though
signals from both continents were coming in just about as strong. I seem to
never get Italian stations to give their complete callsign on the 1st call
(this of course with exceptions).

Example of a qso with Italy: (btw, the callsign below was invented to
protect the innocent)

In the middle of a EU pileup:
(P40B) P40B
(italian station) AV
(P40B) AV
(italian) ava
(P40B) ava
(italian) iy2va
(p40B) iy2va 599 P40B

Because of the perennial 2 letter calling, it takes 2 to 3 calls to the
same station to get a qso done with the EU stations. Even in pileups, it
is still normally possible to pick up callsign in one shot.
Hats of to those operators that give complete call signs on 1st call to DX
stations in a pile-up. It sure makes working pile-ups a pleasure. Any ways,
because of the above, I quickly started concentrating on stateside q's by
beaming U.S.

By 03:30Z (11:30pm) I had the urge again to do one of my by now
in-famous 1/2 hour catnaps. Well what a nap, I slept like the contest never
existed and woke up sunday morning at 7:00am (11:00z) and realized that even
though I was well rested (7+ hours of sleep %!*^#&%) , I basically blew any
chances for getting the results I was looking for on 40 and 80M. Like they
always say "you snooze, you
lose" and no pain, no gain.

Back to the contest, I quickly figured out that 10m was the band to be on
and concentrated on that band during most of sunday, briefly switched to 20m
(1900z) and 15m (2100z) and finally switched to 20 meters for my end run
towards the last part of the
contest. Still had a respectable 185q's in my last hour of the contest,
even though I switched to 40M about 15 minutes prior to the end of the
contest to look for some additional multipliers.

After the contest, called up the others on the repeater and realized that
Bob P40N/W5AJ had been without power for a good part of Saturday; that there
was a big hurricane brewing in the Caribbean; the others had suffered
through a lot more QRN than I had during the thunderstorms and that John
Crovelli's rotor box started smoking due to lightning hits in the
thunderstorms.

About an hour after the contest finished, we met at the now traditional
after contest dinner at Brisas del Mar Restaurant. All amateurs running the
contest over the weekend were there and we really enjoyed going over the
different experiences of the contest and  how everyone had suffered through
the saturday thunderstorms and the high QRN levels. Funny thing was that
John looks a lot better when he's had an few hours of sleep instead of going
non-stop for the contest. hihi. We finished the dinner by shooting a groups
picture to remember this year's CQWW SSB weekend.

Some quick number's for the P4's are as follows:

Emily   P43E (3900q's, 5.0+M ABHP YL),
Anthony P43T (3963q's, 4,7M ABHP),
Randy   P43W (2491q's 900,000 points; 10 Meter SB HP),
Jean Pierre P43A (3943q's 1,85M, 15 Meter SB HP)
Jacobo  P40B (6060q's, 8,13M; SOAB HP),
Robert  P40N/W5AJ (2000+q's?),
John    P40W/W2GD (7500q's; 15,18M; SOABHP)

Special mention should go for K3LP/J6 who I worked on all 6 bands and the
following 42  stations KE3VN, N2QT, N2LBR,K2OY, W1WFZ, WA2NHA, W2AX, W4AN,
K8AZ, N8NR, W1GQ, N6AR, W1QK, K2UOP, W3LPL, N2LT, W3MM, W3EEE, K1PT, W1ZT,
W3PP, N3ZA, N6AW, W4AW, W4MS, N4VZ, KV1W, K3ANS, NX9T, W1FJ, K5IID, KD1YN
K2ONP, K3LR, K9NS, VY2SS,  W3GNQ, W4LC, W3BGN, N9UA, W2A and finally W0MW
all of which I worked on 5 bands. A special thanks to P43W and the others
for all the help with putting up the antennas.

Overall the new Force12 antennas worked flawlessly with strong signals all
around. Even though the Force12 80m rotatable dipole had a great signal, I
had tuned it just a bit to low for the SSB section of the band. So
hesitantly I had to work 80M through a MFJ-989C 3KW tuner, which has been
giving me continuos arcing problems whenever subjected to ALPHA power ever
since the very first week I have owned it. Will need to get a different 3KW
tuner asap. Suggestions are welcome.

Finally my average qso rate over the 36.7 hours worked in the contest was
165 q's/hour according to CT version 9.37. All I can say for my first all
band single op effort, I SURE HAD FUN. Thanks for all the QSO's and see you
in the next contest or in the pile-ups as P43P.

73's de P40B

Jacobo (Jacky) Oduber P40B
e-mail: p43p@arubanet.com

Rate sheet
BREAKDOWN in mins/QSO's per hr
P40B  CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST  Single Operator High Power

HOUR    160      80       40       20       15       10    HR TOT   CUM TOT

   0   .....    .....    .....    60/202   .....    .....    60/202   60/202
   1     .        .        .      60/279     .        .      60/279  120/240
   2     .        .        .      61/210     .        .      61/210  181/230
   3     .       8/220   45/93     6/29      .        .      59/103  240/199
   4    4/32    36/174   15/91     5/35      .        .      60/132  300/186
   5     .      22/170   26/202     .        .        .      47/187  348/186
   6     .        .      60/160     .        .        .      60/160  408/182
   7    5/22     8/43    37/112     .        .        .      51/92   459/172
   8   .....    .....    22/117   .....    .....    .....    22/120  480/170
   9     .        .      15/69      .        .        .      15/69   495/167
  10     .        .      10/112   50/70     6/19      .      66/71   562/155
  11     .        .        .       2/26    36/139   15/188   53/148  615/155
  12     .        .        .        .        .      60/202   60/202  675/159
  13     .        .        .        .      10/24    29/82    39/67   714/154
  14     .        .        .        .        .      60/265   60/265  774/163
  15     .        .        .        .       7/70    53/236   60/217  834/166
  16   .....    .....    .....    .....    60/167   .....    60/167  894/166
  17     .        .        .        .       9/166   51/291   60/273  954/173
  18     .        .        .        .       6/241   54/224   60/226 1014/176
  19     .        .        .        .      60/268     .      60/268 1074/181
  20     .        .        .        .      11/256     .      11/256 1085/182
  21     .        .        .        .      48/239     .      48/239 1133/185
  22     .        .        .      16/115   32/170   12/55    61/133 1194/182
  23     .        .        .      32/105   18/89    10/19    59/86  1253/177
   0   .....    .....    .....    61/181   .....    .....    61/181 1313/178
   1     .       4/88    45/146   11/102     .        .      59/134 1373/176
   2     .      21/63    16/152     .        .        .      37/103 1410/174
   3     .      11/11    38/88      .        .        .      50/70  1459/170
   4     .        .        .        .        .        .        .    1459/170
   5     .        .        .        .        .        .        .    1459/170
   6     .        .        .        .        .        .        .    1459/170
   7     .        .        .        .        .        .        .    1459/170
   8   .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    .....  1459/170
   9     .        .        .        .        .        .        .    1459/170
  10     .        .        .        .        .        .        .    1459/170
  11     .        .        .        .      17/112   32/168   49/149 1508/170
  12     .        .        .        .      49/124     .      49/124 1558/168
  13     .        .        .        .      60/123     .      60/123 1617/167
  14     .        .        .        .       8/54    52/160   60/146 1678/166
  15     .        .        .       2/63     2/55    56/163   60/156 1738/165
  16   .....    .....    .....    .....    .....    60/172   60/172 1797/166
  17     .        .        .       1/161    4/84    55/179   60/172 1858/166
  18    1/57      .       2/35     1/56    16/148   40/151   60/144 1917/165
  19     .        .        .       5/25    47/153    8/120   60/138 1978/164
  20     .        .        .       0/277     .      60/177   60/177 2038/165
  21     .        .        .       8/15    45/207    8/40    60/161 2098/165
  22     .        .        .      25/188   18/123    3/83    46/156 2144/164
  23     .        .       6/123   53/194     .        .      60/186 2203/165
DAY1  0.2/26   1.2/164  3.8/127  4.9/173  5.0/185  5.7/214   .....  20.9/177
DAY2  0.0/114  0.6/49   1.8/123  2.8/167  4.4/140  6.2/164     .    15.8/149
TOT   0.2/35   1.8/126  5.6/126  7.7/171  9.5/164 12.0/188     .    36.7/165

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