2006 ARRL International DX Contest (Phone)

TO5A -- Jun 19, 2006 04:11 ET

The biggest thrill was the 10 meter opening on Sunday. I kept going back and forth on 15 to 10 and calling CQ to try and get something going. Not getting those multipliers would have been tough. During that opening I worked one station in Arizona, K9RX, none in OR, CA, or WA. That just speaks for itself how difficult it is operating from the West Coast of the USA. I am using a tribander and a two element yagi on 40 on a city lot to make noise. It is very modest compared to the former setup in Hawaii as NH7A but the scores are better. Thanks to all who got in the log, and sorry to those I could not hear because of the QRN. -- F5VHJ, NH7A

4M5DX -- Jun 9, 2006 10:55 ET

Hi to everyone nice to takl with you this way,arrl dx for me it is one of my favorite contest,very good pile ups,fast that make you have good rates per minute,with a heavy fight between other good ops from caribean and south america.This year i did a few qso´s more so hope to repeat the championship again.Thanks to all who spot me and call me,hope to hear you next year.

73´s&dx Alex

http://www.4m5dx.org http://www.yv5ssb.org.ve http://www.yw5cq.org -- YV5SSB

TI1C (W5AJ, op) -- Jun 3, 2006 21:23 ET

Carlos TI2CF and Robert W5AJ at ti1c

This is the 3 element 80 up 240 feet with a 230 ft service tower beside it!

After years of praying for a chance to see the TI1C contest station the event turned into an operation during the Premier SSB DX Contest. This station is by far the strongest low band station in NA & perhaps the world.

Host to the event was TI2CF Carlos who went far and above any expectations to insure the antenna were covered. For example 20 meters sported a six element at 170 feet and Carlos added a 3 element on another tower at 90 feet with new coax ran directly into the shack.

The contest conditions were typical for a rain forest looking at the Gulf - clouds or clouds with rain. Carlos allowed me to play with the different antennas although now that I have experience with the station I understand which antenna works best for Stateside.

An interesting event of the weekend was a sporadic opening on ten meters about 1430 on Saturday morning. As I got up for a break I took a quick look at ten meters and on hitting the ten meter button there was W3LPL at 20 over calling CQ!! Worked LPL and moved and started the CQ machine. The event ended 15 minutes later and the band was quiet. Ten provided a strong opening from 2110Z till 2250Z Saturday.

Congratulations to Martti at V31BH who stayed on 20 meters several hours longer each morning and produced strong 20 meter QSO numbers. I hit 20 hard but those morning hours on 20 were key this year to running up the QSO total. I opened on 20 Friday night and got 110 minutes of action before the band went quiet. There were two TI1 Contest calls going on 20 with TI1R going 20 SB. It's nice to see the activity from TI.

I've posted a few pictures at http://rwood90.clearwire.net/ti1c.htm

73 Robert and Best of DX -- W5AJ

PJ2/KB0VVT -- May 12, 2006 00:14 ET

PJ2/KB0VVT and PJ2T

Note: The photographs will usually open bigger in a seperate window if you click on them using the mouse. Also, notice the hyperlinks in the captions.

May 11, 2006

I am taking the time to finish this soapbox after celebrating my eighteenth birthday today.

I am sorry that I am so late with this soapbox but I have been tremendously busy with activities during the final days of my senior year in high school.

Late in March, I was accepted to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A few weeks ago, I spent a few days on campus attending the MIT Campus Preview Week. Well, I have decided to give up the nearly free ride offered to me from the University of Missouri-Rolla and I plan to attend MIT this fall. I am so excited about attending MIT but my dad has mixed emotions about it because of the financial burden. Now if I could only get about one thousand of my fellow contesters to pledge $30 dollars each for the next four years. Hi Hi!

Did you hear that in last November’s CW Sweepstakes, Joe Watts KC0UNB and I, both teenagers, finished in first place beating the all time School Category record set in 2001. Joe and I finished second in SS Phone behind the much older K0HC team consisting mainly of W0BH, other faculty people, and one student according to the web report. I think that it is great that the faculty is helping operate in the School Category as long as the students are making at least half of the contacts.

Check the soapboxes for Joe and I at the following links:

http://www.arrl.org/contests/soapbox/index.html?con_id=96&call=kb0vvt

http://www.arrl.org/contests/soapbox/index.html?con_id=97&call=kb0vvt

Now for my PJ2T ARRL DX Phone story:

My journey began Wednesday, March 1, 2006, at the Kansas City International Airport. After my morning stop at Starbucks, I boarded my first flight to Dallas. After arriving in Dallas and eating my last bite of official American fast food, I boarded my next flight to the Miami International Airport, the last part of my journey on American soil. Shortly after landing in Miami, I caught a plane to Curacao, Netherlands Antilles- my first international destination.

Bon Bini! After landing in Curacao, I stepped out onto the tarmac into a completely new world. Papa, my weeklong taxi driver, drove my parents and I across the island to the Sunset Waters Resort. The drivers in Curacao give tailgating an entirely new meaning. That night, I met a few of the Signal Point, PJ2T operators- Jerry WB9Z and his wife, Lori, and Marty NW0L and his wife, Kim- at the hotel restaurant. I woke up the next morning to the wonderful 80ºF -90ºF temperatures of the Caribbean island. It was fantastic! I ran down to the restaurant to grab some breakfast, and I got an excellent view of the Caribbean Sea. Later that afternoon, my parents and I traveled down the road to Signal Point to check out the famous PJ2T contesting station. When we were very near the PJ2T antennas we ran into an old run down building that we initially thought might be PJ2T. Yikes! Thankfully, PJ2T was just a little bit further down the road.

After becoming acquainted with the general set-up of the station, and the incredible pavilion balcony overlooking the ocean, I operated mostly CW and some phone as PJ2/KB0VVT. After a short while, I experienced the roaring pile-ups I had long been looking forward to witnessing first hand. I worked hundreds of US and European stations as well as others from around the globe.

The morning of the day of the contest, all of the operators gathered for a pre-contest meeting. This was the time for everyone to become acquainted with PJ2T contesting techniques and strategies, and it was a time for everyone to meet each other and review the contest schedule. After the meeting, I jumped back on the air as PJ2/KB0VVT for one last time before the contest. After reaching 1000 QSOs, I had to QRT for lunch.

Following lunch, I traveled into Willemstad, the capital of Curacao. I learned much from Papa my taxi driver along the way about Curacao’s history, industry, and culture. In Willemstad, I traveled the ferry across the bay and meandered around town, looking in various shops and eating a nice scoop of Baskin Robbins sorbet! I also got my first Florins. I have exactly one American dollar’s worth of Florins left as a souvenir.

After getting back to Sunset Waters from Willemstad, I walked to Signal Point to listen to the beginning hour of the contest through the wireless headphones hooked up to each radio. I was finally able to get a glimpse of what I could look forward to for the next 48 hours, and I was really looking forward to my turn to operate!

I got my first chance to sit in one of the contesting chairs Saturday from 16:00 to 20:00 UTC. Later that day, I also operated from 0:00-04:00 UTC. Sunday, I operated from 12:00-14:00 UTC. I jumped back on the air from 16:00-18:00 UTC, and I helped finish the contest from 22:00-24:00 UTC. I operated on 15m, 20m, 40m, and I even operated on 10m for approximately 20 minutes. This was an awesome contesting experience!

I hope to see you in a few weeks at the ARRL EXPO during the Dayton Hamvention. I have volunteered to help at the EXPO on Saturday and Sunday. I hope to also attend the Youth Forum and the Contesting Forum. There is a good chance that you will see me hanging around the Crowne Plaza Hotel spending the evenings talking with DXers and contesters.

73,

Rebecca -- KB0VVT

Rebecca PJ2/KB0VVT preparing to make some CW contacts a day or so before the 2006 ARRL DX Phone contest.	Rebecca KB0VVT and her mother Barbara KG0UT on the road to PJ2T.
Rebecca's father Dave KG0US operating as PJ2T on 20 meters during the 2006 ARRL DX Phone contest.	Left to Right: Joe W9JUV operating 40 meters with Marty NW0L looking on while Geoff W0CG tries to get something going on 160m. Not many have worked more DX countries than Joe W9JUV.
Left to Right:  Jerry WB9Z operating 15 meters with Geoff W0CG listening to Marty NW0L working the brief, intense, but weak 10m opening.  Chad WE9V is also listening on 10m using the other pair of wireless headphones.	YL Power! A PJ2T first, both operating positions were occupied by YLs. Rebecca KB0VVT and her mother Barbara KG0UT operating together.
Rebecca KB0VVT and her father Dave KG0US visiting Willemstad the capital city of Curacao.	Barbara KG0UT and her daughter Rebecca KB0VVT take a little break at the resort.  Notice the PJ2T antenna farm in the distance.
2006 ARRL DX Phone PJ2T operators, Left to Right, Back Row: Chad WE9V, Barb KG0UT, Rebecca KB0VVT, Dave KG0US.  Front Row: Geoff W0CG, Joe W9JUV, Marty NW0L, and Jerry WB9Z.	2006 ARRL DX Phone PJ2T YL support, Left to Right: Dave's KG0US XYL Barbara KG0UT, Jerry's WB9Z XYL Lori, Geoff's W0CG XYL Cindy, and Marty's NW0L XYL Kim.
It can get warm while operating at PJ2T as shown by the temperature indicator on the lower right corner of the clock.

OE4A -- Apr 17, 2006 16:41 ET

Like last year we decided to operated M/2 categorie which is real fun! Thanks to our guest operators we improved our score for allmost 1 mil points in compare to 2005. Wetter was very bad with much rain and snow producing a lot QRN. Band condx was better as excpected, only 15m was a bit down im compare with CW part of contest; missing some multi´s on that band! Equipment work well without any problems. Team:DK9TN,OE1EMS,OE1RLC,OE3GCU,OE3WLB,OE8CIQ,OE8HBQ,OE8KDK,OE8SKQ,OE8YDQ,S59W

73 es best dx de OE4A Team -- OE1EMS

CE2LS -- Apr 4, 2006 08:28 ET

CE2LS Team

CE2LS Radio station

CE2LS Team LA SERENA RADIO CLUB STATION

In the chair CE2RTF Jose, back L to R CE2SQE Eugenio & CA2WTT Juan. -- CE2LS

P40A -- Apr 4, 2006 13:31 ET

I arrived in Aruba a few days before the contest and I quickly set up my station. I had not been there since November and I was happy to find that everything was still working. I had time to enjoy the beach for two days and I also had a nice pre-contest dinner with P40W. I started the contest on 20m and after 40 minutes the band quickly went dead forcing me to go to 40m earlier than I would have liked to. The low bands were very quiet so I stayed up all night switching between 40m, 80m and 160m averaging a little over 100 contacts and hour. When the sun came up I switched to 20m where I enjoyed faster runs. About an hour later I switched to 15m, where I stayed most of the day. I knew that getting multipliers on 10m would be challenging so I kept my second radio tuned to that band. Finally around 19:00Z I heard P49MR working stations on this band so I switched bands and called CQ. I got some responses, but the rates were horrible. I didn’t know if the opening would get better or worse so I toughed it out, although I did make a few jumps to 20m at times just for some rate excitement. Finally at 2145Z I left 10m and cycled between 15m and 20m working stations at a somewhat rapid rate until 20m closed around 0050Z. I had less success on the low bands during the second night, probably because I worked so many of the bigger stations during the first night. Eventually, I could not stay awake with these slow rates so I took a long four hour nap, hoping that things would pick up when the sun came out. On Sunday I again alternated between 20m and 15m and kept one ear on 10m. 15m was in fantastic shape on both days and I received excellent signal reports and pretty good rates, however P40W who is further inland apparently did not have the same success on this band for some strange reason. I switched to 10m around 2000Z and the band was open to different areas than on Saturday, which helped me with some missing multipliers. On 10m, signals were not strong and many times I had to repeat my exchange several times, however finding new multipliers near the end of the contest was exciting. I finished up the contest on a very crowded 20m band. I never had any super fast rates, my best 60 minutes occurred on 15m Saturday morning when I worked 234 stations. I was not close to K9PG’s (WP3R) 6,028,056 point record that he set two years ago, however at this point in the sun spot cycle I am happy with the outcome and I had a lot of fun. P43JB had a nice post contest party at his home where many local and visiting hams attended. After the contest, it was time to work on the station and house. Fortunately, my QSL manager, WD9DZV / P40D, volunteered to fly to Aruba and help for a week. We removed most of the antennas and installed a new 40m 2 element beam and then reinstalled the 20m beam after doing some maintenance on it. We also installed the base and first three sections of a second tower and made a few repairs around the house before going back home. Thanks to everyone for the QSO’s, especially the 43 stations who worked me on all six bands. QSL via WD9DZV.

73, John KK9A / P40A

p40a@iguanavilla.com -- KK9A

IK0EIE -- Mar 30, 2006 09:43 ET

Good contest,

thanks to all for call me.73 de Bob IK0EIE. Web site for info http:\\xoomer.virgilio.it/ik0eie -- IK0EIE

PJ2T -- Mar 20, 2006 22:35 ET

The PJ2T 2006 ARRL SSB Team Front row, L to R: Chad WE9V, Barb KG0UT, Rebecca KB0VVT, Dave KG0US Back row, L to R: Jerry WB9Z, Joe W9JUV, Marty NW0L, Geoff W0CG/PJ2DX

A first at PJ2T: At times during the contest, both signals from our Multi/2 were YL voices!

It was a privilege to welcome 17 year old Rebecca Rich, KB0VVT and her parents KG0US and KG0UT to join the PJ2T team for this contest. At times Rebecca was on one station and her mom (Barb, KG0UT) on the other. Dad Dave, KG0US also put in many hours in the contest.

Rebecca is the 2004 Hiram Percy Maxim Award winner, was licensed in Extra Class at age 8, carries a 4.0 grade average, is President of NHS, and will be off to college soon, planning to stay straight through a Ph.D.

We're glad to have been able to participate in Rebecca's first operation from the DX side and hope she will be able to return to Curacao. -- NW0L

NJ1H -- Mar 13, 2006 23:52 ET

I enjoyed this contest. This was the first time I had integrated the N1MM Logger program with my SDR-1000 software defined radio. All serial port connections were via virtual serial port connections. No external serial port cables, pretty cool! In addition, the N1MM Logger program voice keyer was very nice. My family especially enjoyed it! It all played very nicely together.

My antennas are modest with a Cushcraft R5 vertical for 20M through 10M and a random wire in the attic for 40M. Running 100W, I worked 341 QSOs using search and pounce concentrating on multipliers. Actual time at the radio was about 25 hours.

Thanks to the stations that heard my signal.

73, Bill -- NJ1H

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