CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: PJ2T
Operator(s): K8ND W0CG WI9WI VE7KW NA2U N7IR M0ORD N7WA
Station: PJ2T
Class: M/M HP
QTH: Curacao
Operating Time (hrs): 48
Remote Operation
Summary:
Band QSOs Zones Countries
-------------------------------
160: 345 16 45
80: 1072 24 90
40: 2676 36 121
20: 3152 38 135
15: 3528 36 123
10: 3272 34 131
-------------------------------
Total: 14045 184 645 Total Score = 34,496,348
Club: CCC
Comments:
The foundation of our success this time is that Monday we managed to grab the
next-to-last available Butterball turkey. $65 here, but we were thrilled to get
it and thus be able to serve a wonderful full-course Thanksgiving dinner to the
WW CW crew.
This was the PJ2T Cancellation Contest. We lost four of our crew, three of whom
had to bow out just a couple days before the planned travel. All three
cancellations were for profoundly unavoidable reasons of family issues, medical
emergencies, and the things in life that matter most. We wish them all the best
as they deal with those crises.
Our surviving small crew decided to buckle down and do a downsized Multi/Multi
Lite, with four stations instead of five and some band hours going uncovered.
This meant that we left some QSOs on the table, but we opted to stick with the
simplicity of a scaled-down M/M rather than have to actually think as is
required for M/2.
We had help. On the last possible day we were fortunate to recruit Roger, M0ORD,
who booked a short notice flight from Heathrow to Curacao via Amsterdam. He was
an excellent addition to our team, bringing skills from contests and expeditions
all over the planet, particularly in his native Z2 and ZS worlds. There was also
superb help from Dink, N7WA, who did 17 hours of operation on 40 and 15 via the
remote, comfortably at home in Seattle. He ran super rates, and the remote is so
solid here with our fiber connection that it seemed Dink was here in the shack.
He could almost smell the PJ2T contest chili cooking in the Crock Pot on
Saturday.
Our on-site team was K8ND, N7IR, NA2U, VE7KW, WI9WI, M0ORD (above) with a few
QSOs even tossed in by W0CG. K8ND (Jeff) is our CCC President but seldom is on
site for the big team contests, so it was nice to have him here for a change.
Jeff is a QSO automaton with tremendous skills and endurance, and he did a lot
more hours, generously, than were called for in the schedule. Gary (N7IR) is
PJ2T’s Station Equipment Lead, and it was fun for him to spend a week here and
use so much of the gear that he has acquired, fixed, tuned, badgered, or
otherwise nursed into functionality for this big station. He was accompanied
from Phoenix by Fred (NA2U), a CCC member and well-known globetrotter. Adding
to his impressive resume recently, Fred won ARRL DX CW on the DX side in SOUAB
HP as KH7M, piloting KH6ZM remotely. VE7KW (Keith) has been to PJ2T before, and
we welcomed him back after a seven year absence. He has operated all over the
world, is supremely skilled, and this weekend achieved the best rate hour on our
team. Jim, WI9WI, needs no introduction to the contesting world and has been a
mainstay of the PJ2T group for 18 years. He and his XYL Annette, KA9DOC, are
valued friends of mine and Dorothy. It was a privilege to again spend a week
with them among the palm trees. Jim continues to turn in incredible contest
performances at an age where most of us have tapered off. He’s ageless.
We matched our CQWW SSB score of 26.7M at about 1230 UTC Sunday morning. That
was an exciting incentive to press even harder in the remaining 11+ hours.
Conditions were good all weekend long on all bands, and we were also graced with
perfect meteorological weather. The AC power stayed on for the whole contest,
never a given here, and the atmosphere was mainly quiet. Nothing quite beats
watching the sun come up from the 10 meter position, the palm fronds lighting up
bright green, and the sea tinting to turquoise as we run Europe pileups to the
smell of brewing coffee. The sea horizon from that operating position is about
10 miles, always gorgeous in the morning light. Have fun shoveling your snow.
The N1MM logger was flawless, Hamachi VPN supported the remote logging without a
glitch, all the antennas played well, and we enjoyed placing our new (to us) K3S
into service for the first time. Sadly, we did lose our Commander HF-2500 amp on
Sunday morning. (“What’s that burning smell?”)
As always I first thank my wonderful partner Dorothy Dahlgren for feeding us and
keeping everyone smiling all week. She’d rather be back home in Idaho, but she
gamely and generously keeps coming to Curacao to take care of this bunch of
nutcase ham operators. Second, we thank the 31 members of CCC, who together
power the PJ2T locomotive in many different and valuable ways. It takes a real
team effort in order for us to be able to show up at 0000Z in contest after
contest and hand out so many PJ2 contacts.
Next year, CQWW CW will mark the 25th anniversary of contesting as PJ2T. Hard to
believe.
Thanks for the worldwide friendships and for all the QSOs, 73,
- Geoff, W0CG/PJ2DX for the entire PJ2T/CCC gang
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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