[PVRCNC] CQ WW CW VP5M M/S LP

[Jim K4QPL]

Call: VP5M

Operator(s): AA4NC K4QPL

Station: VP5/K4QPL

Class: M/S LP

QTH: Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands, B.W.I.

Operating Time (hrs): 48

 

Summary:

Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries

------------------------------

  160:  355    13       42

   80:  527    19       68

   40: 1520    24       94

   20: 1790    29       97

   15: 1363    23       90

   10:   10     8        7

------------------------------

Total: 5565   116      398  Total Score = 6,609,012

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

 

Notwithstanding Murphy making his presence known by using stray RF on close
proximity antennas to fry the input of two radios and playing havoc with USB
rig control and keying, all obstacles were overcome. Revenge was sweet with
an 18% increase in score over last year. Will kept the run chair hot for
much of the time while Jim kept tabs on the "magic wall" monitor and the
mult radio to make sure almost no workable mult escaped our grasp. A fun
contest in a great island environment at Harbour Rock, Providenciales.
Thanks for all the Q's and mults. Still holding on to #1 on claimed score
despite the disadvantage of the two-point rule for stations in North America
which the stations south of us don't have to deal with.

 

Conditions seemed strange and week during the first part of the contest and
we felt like we wouldn't even match last year but everything went uphill
from there. 160M was amazingly quiet and productive. The rebuilt SteppIR
destroyed by Irma but upgraded to include the 40M loop kept 40M productive.
15M could have been better but 20M kept on giving. 10M was even worse than
last year. We're just too close to hear or work more than a handful of
W/K's. We hear the handful of South American's but have to compete with NA
to work them.

This year we added an A3S tribander on a temporary military mast I picked up
in Dayton. What really made it play for the mult radio was a rotator mounted
on a ground base to rotate both the mast and the antenna. 

This afternoon Will and I visited with the doyen of ham radio in the Turks
and Caicos, Jody Millspaugh, VP5JM. Jody has lived here for probably 40
years and rented out a small cottage for DXpeditions. Lost all but a small
vertical in Hurricane Irma.  She is now the only resident ham on the island
and processes all visitor licenses for submission to the government..
Cocktails along with her signature conch fritters on her deck overlooking
Turtle Cove and the Caribbean is a great experience. Back home tomorrow.

73,

Will, AA4NC

Jim, K4QPL