n5dx – Page 4

CQWW SSB SOAB LP

This contest has been circled on the calendar since moving to the Cayman Islands in March of 2014. My family and I will be here for the next two years so it should be easy for everyone to get the ZF multiplier into their logs. I knew the big club station was already reserved for most of the major contests so I needed to find a location to operate from. I’ve experimented with multiple setups from all over the island and one thing is clear. If you are directly on the water then you will have a good signal.

I decided to keep things simple and built a clone of a butternut all band vertical. The antenna is 26′ tall and uses coils to resonate on 160, 80, and 40. It sure is great to have such a supportive wife (the two kids are supportive but they don’t have much of a choice) for all of my ham endeavors. Our apartment has been turned into a quasi antenna assembly warehouse with aluminum tubing, wire, tools, and all other things strewn all over the place.

A couple of weeks before the contest I decided on a location located about 30 minutes from our apartment on the Northside of the island. This location had a water shot in the three major locations: NA, EU, and JA. When operating from here reports were excellent into EU and NA. Japan just isn’t very strong from this part of the world even when using big antennas. The downside with this setup however is that I would be operating off generator power and have no access to running water. Basically a field day setup, all though I would be operating out of our mini van. My main concerns going into the contest were dealing with any public that came by during the operation and potential failure of the generator. The trade off though was having an outstanding location to operate from. Coming from Arkansas, I’ve always been enamored with the thought of a vertical stuck out in the salt water. Believe the hype. It works great. All though I know the prefix adds at least an S unit to the signal reports! At the same time though everything written about the difficulty of achieving a good and stable ground when having a vertical located direction in the water is also true.

The Monday of the contest I received an email from Phil, ZF1PB/ZF35PB about some different potential operating sites. All of the sites were more isolated than my planned location which was good from not having to deal with any potential problems from the public. However, they still lacked power and amenities. Phil then had the brilliant idea of a house that I could use that would provide running water and a stable power source. The house was located on a small finger shaped parcel of water. Fortunately the long part of the finger was jutting out towards Europe. I would have a water shot for a thousand feet or so then it would be over land to Europe. The shot to NA and JA would be nearly totally over land except for the 30′ that the dock jutted out into the water. I decided that having some safety and stable power would be worth the trade off of a near and far field shot over the water. I’d still be operating in my car though as the coax runs to the house would have been to long for my taste. I also wanted to keep the equipment out of the elements as much as possible. After seeing my new location I decided that since I was giving up a few S units in operating location that those missing dB needed to be gained back. Going into the contest there was a good chance that around 70% of my contacts would be made on 10 and 15 meters. A quick email to my dad and I had a design for a dual band 10/15 meter Yagi on a 10′ boom. The plan was to mount the antenna vertically over the water in order to get a really low angle of radiation. Alternatively an antenna oriented around 45 degrees would give both low and high angles with a small sacrifice in gain. The real word rules and I wasn’t able to mount the antenna vertically so I got it as close as possible with the tips of the 15 meter elements about a foot above high tide.

Stimulating contests always seem to go by in a blur and this one was no different. Apparently there were some flares. I was totally oblivious to them. The contest was dominated by incredible EU and NA runs during the day time and incredibly high winds, rain, and lightening during the night time. The all band vertical fell over into the water three different times Saturday night. Trudging out into the wind and rain to re erect and secure the vertical on no sleep was tough but at least it gave me an opportunity to stretch! I do not recommend operating inside an enclosed vehicle for 48 hours. My butt hurts! There is also a nasty body odor type stink that permeates throughout the vehicle. Add our van to the list of things I need to clean up right after the ZF2DX antenna staging facility otherwise known as our spare bedroom.

160 and 80 were horrible, but I attributed that to my extremely inefficient antenna. The second night was better on the low bands and I was able to work EI7M on 80 meters. Amazingly, I had IW1CAB call me during an 80 meter run at 5:30 in the morning local time. I had him repeat his call and then told him that I must be hallucinating. The next U.S. caller confirmed that he heard him. I also had KL7RA call on 80 meters during this run which was a double mult that I missed on 20. 40 meters seemed decent and I was able to have some short lived runs into Europe. Going into the contest I had vision of big EU runs simplex in the DX portion of the band but those never happened. The second night I had a brief EU/JA run simultaneously when operating split. 20 meters was a real disappointment. That is the one band where a lot was left on the table. Many easy European mults were missed here. There was a nice opening into Europe the second night at their sunrise but I was never able to get anything going. Joe, ZF2AH, did a single band 20 operation and this probably helped to quell the need for ZF on this band. 15 and 10 were non stop rate fest.

Lasting inside that van for 48 hours sure was an endurance test. I alternated between a typical sitting position to having my long legs draped over the passenger side seat in order to give my back and butt some relief. I took two 30 minute naps during the contest, both on Saturday night. My first nap was precipitated by noticing the SWR go high on 20 meters during some torrential wind and rain. I turned the headlights on and saw the vertical taking a swim out in the water. The wind and rain were so high and my rate was so low that I decided a sleep break was in order. My hope was to take a quick nap during which the storm would pass.

Given all the uncertainties going into the contest, my main goal was to not quit. Given good conditions and no catastrophic failures I felt like 5500 Qs would be a good goal. It’s hard to think of terms in winning contests from zone 8 given the point different between here and prime zones like 33 and 9. I knew that P40W would be low power all bands and I thought that having a Q total around John’s would at least be a moral victory. I know that I missed a lot of workable mults on 10 and 15, but it just didn’t make sense to pull away from the big runs to tune the dial (only had one radio).

The toughest part was taking off the headphones at 0000z and looking outside into the dark abyss and realizing that I was now faced with dissembling and packing up the entire station. Operating portable like this has sure helped to increase my patience. I’m greatly appreciative of the support of my wife for this crazy hobby. It’s also nice to have an antenna guru on call when needed. Having a private location with a stable power source was huge and I’m really appreciative of the help that Phil gave me. The hams here on the island are a great group of guys and are very supportive of all of the contesters that come and visit the island. After building some of the biggest antennas of the world, it is incredible to think that I was able to fit my entire station inside my vehicle and be highly competitive.

73,

Kevin ZF2DX

80 & 40 meter coils of homebrew vertical.

Entire Station Packed & Ready for Transport

Operating from the van Sunday morning during the EU run.

Cabrillo Statistics (Version 10g) by K5KA & N6TV
http://bit.ly/cabstat

CALLSIGN: ZF2DX
CONTEST: CQ-WW-SSB
CATEGORY-OPERATOR: SINGLE-OP
CATEGORY-TRANSMITTER: ONE
OPERATORS: ZF2DX

————– Q S O   R a t e   S u m m a r y ———————
Hour     160     80     40     20     15     10    Rate Total    Pct
——————————————————————–
0000       0      0      0     11     73      0     84     84    1.5
0100       0      0      9     27      8      0     44    128    2.2
0200       0      1      1    141      0      0    143    271    4.7
0300       0      0      0    126      0      0    126    397    6.9
0400       0      6      4     40      1      0     51    448    7.8
0500       0      1     59      6      0      0     66    514    8.9
0600       0      7     74      4      0      0     85    599   10.4
0700       0     31     95      0      0      0    126    725   12.6
0800       3      5     38      2      0      0     48    773   13.4
0900       0      4     36      5      0      0     45    818   14.2
1000       1     40     22      4      0      0     67    885   15.4
1100       0     13      5      0     41      0     59    944   16.4
1200       0      0      0      0    215      0    215   1159   20.1
1300       0      0      0      0     80    160    240   1399   24.3
1400       0      0      0      0      0    233    233   1632   28.3
1500       0      0      0      0     48     64    112   1744   30.3
1600       0      0      0      0      0    228    228   1972   34.2
1700       0      0      0      0      0    225    225   2197   38.1
1800       1      1      0      0     19      9     30   2227   38.7
1900       0      0      0      3      5    211    219   2446   42.5
2000       0      0      0      0      5    153    158   2604   45.2
2100       0      0      0      2    256      1    259   2863   49.7
2200       0      0      0     18     33     94    145   3008   52.2
2300       0      0      0      0     24    135    159   3167   55.0
0000       0      0      1      8     72      0     81   3248   56.4
0100       0      0      1     30      0      0     31   3279   56.9
0200       1      0     71      2      0      0     74   3353   58.2
0300       0      0      1      5      0      0      6   3359   58.3
0400       0      0      7     54      0      0     61   3420   59.4
0500       1      3     53      1      0      0     58   3478   60.4
0600       0      2      7     25      0      0     34   3512   61.0
0700       0      0     48      0      0      0     48   3560   61.8
0800       2      6      2      0      0      0     10   3570   62.0
0900       0      0     14      1      0      0     15   3585   62.2
1000       0     79     38      0      0      0    117   3702   64.3
1100       0      6      1     78      1      0     86   3788   65.8
1200       0      0      0      6     81    101    188   3976   69.0
1300       0      0      0      1      2    212    215   4191   72.8
1400       0      0      0      0      1    210    211   4402   76.4
1500       0      0      0      0      5    130    135   4537   78.8
1600       0      0      0      0      1    200    201   4738   82.3
1700       0      0      0      0      0    136    136   4874   84.6
1800       0      0      0      0    143     25    168   5042   87.5
1900       0      0      0      8    118      1    127   5169   89.7
2000       0      0      0      0    115     25    140   5309   92.2
2100       0      0      0      0      2    164    166   5475   95.1
2200       0      0      0      9     99      0    108   5583   96.9
2300       0      0      0    145     32      0    177   5760 100.0
——————————————————
Total      9    205    587    762   1480   2717   5760

Gross QSOs=5813 Dupes=53 Net QSOs=5760

Unique callsigns worked = 4085

The best 60 minute rate was 279/hour from 2107 to 2206
The best 30 minute rate was 326/hour from 2130 to 2159
The best 10 minute rate was 378/hour from 2132 to 2141

The best 1 minute rates were:
9 QSOs/minute    1 times.
8 QSOs/minute    3 times.
7 QSOs/minute   33 times.
6 QSOs/minute   88 times.
5 QSOs/minute 215 times.
4 QSOs/minute 359 times.
3 QSOs/minute 402 times.
2 QSOs/minute 370 times.
1 QSOs/minute 511 times.

There were 154 bandchanges and 29 (0.5%) probable 2nd radio QSOs.

—————– C o n t i n e n t   S u m m a r y —————–
160     80     40     20     15     10 Total    Pct
———————————————————————
North America      7    193    391    573    763   1043   2970   51.6
South America      2      7     26     52     49     54    190    3.3
Europe             0      3    156    104    621   1517   2401   41.7
Asia               0      0      6     10     28     75    119    2.1
Africa             0      1      6      8     16     20     51    0.9
Oceania            0      1      2     15      3      8     29    0.5
————————————————————–
Total              9    205    587    762   1480   2717   5760

Number of letters in callsigns
Letters # worked
—————–
3        37
4      2276
5      2179
6      1248
7         8
8         5
9         4
10         3

—————— C o u n t r y   S u m m a r y ——————
Country        160     80     40     20     15     10 Total    Pct
——————————————————————-
3B8              0      0      0      1      0      0      1    0.0
4O               0      0      0      0      1      1      2    0.0
4X               0      0      0      4      1      6     11    0.2
5B               0      0      1      2      1      4      8    0.1
5H               0      0      0      0      1      1      2    0.0
5W               0      0      0      1      0      0      1    0.0
6Y               0      2      1      0      1      1      5    0.1
8P               0      1      1      1      1      3      7    0.1
9A               0      0      5      2     13     18     38    0.7
9H               0      0      0      0      1      0      1    0.0
9K               0      0      0      0      0      1      1    0.0
9M6              0      0      0      0      0      2      2    0.0
9Y               0      0      0      1      1      1      3    0.1
A6               0      0      0      1      0      0      1    0.0
A7               0      0      0      1      0      1      2    0.0
C3               0      0      0      0      0      1      1    0.0
CE               0      0      1      6      2      2     11    0.2
CE9              0      0      0      1      0      0      1    0.0
CM               0      3      2      1      0      0      6    0.1
CN               0      1      3      3      4      3     14    0.2
CT               0      0      3      8      6     11     28    0.5
CT3              0      0      1      0      2      2      5    0.1
CU               0      1      1      1      0      2      5    0.1
CX               0      0      0      1      2      3      6    0.1
DL               0      0     24      8    100    293    425    7.4
E7               0      0      0      1      2      5      8    0.1
EA               0      0     15     12     33     65    125    2.2
EA6              0      0      1      1      1      3      6    0.1
EA8              0      0      2      2      6      8     18    0.3
EA9              0      0      0      0      0      2      2    0.0
EI               0      1      2      1      7     13     24    0.4
ER               0      0      0      0      2      3      5    0.1
ES               0      0      0      0      3      5      8    0.1
EU               0      0      0      0      7     10     17    0.3
EY               0      0      0      0      1      1      2    0.0
F                0      0     19      5     32     86    142    2.5
FM               0      0      2      1      1      2      6    0.1
FY               0      0      0      0      1      1      2    0.0
G                0      0     11     10     46    116    183    3.2
GD               0      0      0      1      1      1      3    0.1
GI               0      0      1      2      4     12     19    0.3
GJ               0      0      1      0      0      2      3    0.1
GM               0      0      3      1     12     18     34    0.6
*GM/s            0      0      0      1      1      1      3    0.1
GU               0      0      0      0      2      0      2    0.0
GW               0      0      1      1      5     17     24    0.4
HA               0      0      6      4      9     22     41    0.7
HB               0      0      1      0      6     14     21    0.4
HC               0      0      1      3      1      2      7    0.1
HI               0      1      1      1      2      0      5    0.1
HK               1      1      3      2      5      1     13    0.2
HL               0      0      0      0      0      1      1    0.0
HP               0      1      1      0      1      0      3    0.1
HZ               0      0      0      0      1      1      2    0.0
I                0      1      8     11     45    131    196    3.4
IS               0      0      0      1      0      2      3    0.1
*IT9             0      0      1      2      8     15     26    0.5
J3               0      0      1      1      0      0      2    0.0
J7               0      0      1      0      0      0      1    0.0
JA               0      0      5      1      9     52     67    1.2
K                4    160    328    527    669    940   2628   45.6
KG4              0      0      0      1      2      1      4    0.1
KH0              0      0      0      0      0      2      2    0.0
KH2              0      0      0      0      0      1      1    0.0
KH6              0      1      1      1      1      2      6    0.1
KL               0      1      0      0      2      3      6    0.1
KP2              1      2      3      2      4      1     13    0.2
KP4              0      2      6      5      5      3     21    0.4
LA               0      0      2      0      6     13     21    0.4
LU               0      0      1      9      8     14     32    0.6
LX               0      0      1      0      1      5      7    0.1
LY               0      0      2      1      7     15     25    0.4
LZ               0      0      1      1      2     12     16    0.3
OA               0      0      2      4      3      2     11    0.2
OE               0      0      3      0      4     21     28    0.5
OH               0      0      6      4     30     32     72    1.3
OH0              0      0      1      1      2      2      6    0.1
OK               0      0      6      2     16     42     66    1.1
OM               0      0      0      1      4     15     20    0.3
ON               0      0      6      1     15     43     65    1.1
OZ               0      0      1      1      6     18     26    0.5
P4               1      3      3      2      3      2     14    0.2
PA               0      0      5      1     23     62     91    1.6
PJ2              0      1      1      1      1      1      5    0.1
PJ4              0      1      2      3      1      1      8    0.1
PY               0      0      6     11     15     14     46    0.8
S5               0      0      5      2     11     25     43    0.7
S7               0      0      0      0      0      1      1    0.0
SM               0      0      3      2     16     30     51    0.9
SP               0      0      5      2     32     85    124    2.2
SV               0      0      0      2      4     11     17    0.3
SV9              0      0      0      1      1      2      4    0.1
TA               0      0      0      1      0      2      3    0.1
*TA1             0      0      0      0      0      1      1    0.0
TF               0      0      1      1      2      2      6    0.1
TG               0      0      0      0      1      0      1    0.0
TI               0      2      2      0      0      0      4    0.1
TK               0      0      0      1      1      2      4    0.1
UA               0      0      1      4     54     97    156    2.7
UA2              0      0      0      0      3      2      5    0.1
UA9              0      0      0      0     13      5     18    0.3
UN               0      0      0      0      2      1      3    0.1
UR               0      0      1      1     18     61     81    1.4
V2               0      1      1      0      2      1      5    0.1
V4               0      1      1      0      0      1      3    0.1
V5               0      0      0      0      1      1      2    0.0
VE               0     13     32     27     63     78    213    3.7
VK               0      0      1      5      1      1      8    0.1
VP5              0      1      2      0      1      1      5    0.1
VP8              0      0      0      1      1      1      3    0.1
VP9              0      0      1      2      1      1      5    0.1
XE               0      0      3      2      4      5     14    0.2
YL               0      0      2      0      4     14     20    0.3
YN               1      1      1      0      1      0      4    0.1
YO               0      0      0      0      5     22     27    0.5
YU               0      0      1      2      6     14     23    0.4
YV               0      1      6      6      5      6     24    0.4
Z3               0      0      0      0      1      2      3    0.1
ZD8              0      0      0      0      1      1      2    0.0
ZF               1      1      1      2      2      2      9    0.2
ZL               0      0      0      8      1      0      9    0.2
ZP               0      0      0      1      0      3      4    0.1
ZS               0      0      0      2      1      1      4    0.1
——————————————————————-
Total            9    205    587    762   1480   2717   5760

———— M u l t i p l i e r   S u m m a r y ————
Mult     160     80     40     20     15     10 Total    Pct
————————————————————-
05         3    116    218    318    381    496   1532   26.6
14         0      2    101     57    323    827   1310   22.7
04         1     45    101    184    269    410   1010   17.5
15         0      1     51     37    202    468    759   13.2
03         0     11     42     54     84    112    303    5.3
16         0      0      2      5     80    172    259    4.5
08         2     15     21     14     19     16     87    1.5
20         0      0      2     11     14     60     87    1.5
09         2      7     15     15     17     13     69    1.2
25         0      0      5      1      9     52     67    1.2
11         0      0      6     12     15     17     50    0.9
33         0      1      6      5     13     16     41    0.7
13         0      0      1     11     11     18     41    0.7
10         0      0      3      7      4      4     18    0.3
17         0      0      0      0     12      5     17    0.3
06         0      0      3      2      4      5     14    0.2
07         1      4      4      0      3      0     12    0.2
12         0      0      1      6      2      2     11    0.2
32         0      0      0      9      1      0     10    0.2
02         0      1      2      1      1      2      7    0.1
21         0      0      0      2      1      3      6    0.1
38         0      0      0      2      2      2      6    0.1
31         0      1      1      1      1      2      6    0.1
30         0      0      1      3      1      1      6    0.1
40         0      0      1      1      2      2      6    0.1
01         0      1      0      0      2      3      6    0.1
18         0      0      0      0      4      0      4    0.1
29         0      0      0      3      0      0      3    0.1
27         0      0      0      0      0      3      3    0.1
39         0      0      0      1      0      1      2    0.0
36         0      0      0      0      1      1      2    0.0
28         0      0      0      0      0      2      2    0.0
19         0      0      0      0      1      1      2    0.0
37         0      0      0      0      1      1      2    0.0
——————————————————
Total      9    205    587    762   1480   2717   5760

Multi-band QSOs
—————
1 bands    3085
2 bands     574
3 bands     246
4 bands     124
5 bands      53
6 bands       3

The following stations were worked on 6 bands:

K3LR P40L NQ4I

——- S i n g l e   B a n d   Q S O s ——
Band    160     80     40     20     15     10
———————————————-
QSOs      0     56    177    329    664   1859

WPX CW 2014 @ ZF1A & ZF2DX/P

Anyone that has ever spent time with my dad knows that he flys by the seat of his pants. Needless to say the word “plan” is truly a four letter word to him. The same was true of our planned operation for the WPX CW contest. Initially we planned to do two separate single operator sites. I had scouted both locations and both seemed like great places to operate from (especially mine). However, after operating from my place on two different occasions before the start of the contest I decided that it would be to much work for each of us to setup an all band station on our own. So instead, we decided to do a multi single operation from the location I had planned to operate from. We knew that ZF1A would be stiff competition. Dave, N5DO, Steve, AC6T, and Steve, K6AW were planning a multi single operation from the ZF1A super station. Dave sent me an email about a month before the contest asking if we would be interested in joining them for a multi 2 operation. We declined because we had already committed to operating multi single together from the Northside QTH that had been generously offered by a ham friend. The idea of setting up verticals on a beach in a major contest was just to enticing to pass up.

F1 Designs, aka K5GO, made two 40 meter shortened verticals, two 15 meter verticals to be used as a driven element and a parasitic reflector, a 20 meter vertical and then a bunch of three foot pieces of aluminum tubing to be used for whatever we may have needed. To top it all off, he also brought enough tubing for me to build a 5 element 6 meter beam. We had everything needed to put together a formidable setup on the beach.

The Thursday before the contest I received an email from my dad saying that he had found an even better location at a public beach that had access to power. This new location was under a covered cabana, complete with a picnic table and restrooms. Not to mention a direct water shot to Africa, Europe, U.S. and Japan. I liked where we had planned to operate from mostly because it was secluded and was a very peaceful location. This new place, while it was a better location in terms of signals was not secluded and the wind was very strong. Despite this, we made the decision to change our plans and setup at the new public beach location. We were still a bit unsure about what the police or authorities might say so we went to the local police station to meet officer Bill. We explained our intention and got the o.k. from Mr. Bill. My daughter, Katie, asked why we changed plans at the last minute. It was a good question and one that I didn’t have the answer to, but it was typical of the just say no to a plan initiative that my dad has been following since the beginning of time. In fairness though, it was a joint decision.

Pre contest setup Thursday afternoon did not go well. K5GO was stressed out 15 minutes into the setup. It was difficult to find all of the tubing we needed mainly because of the large quantity of tubing that we had brought with us. Sometimes less is more, and this was one of those times. After a couple of hours a 15 meter vertical was erected about 40 feet from the water’s edge. The cabana was located about 150′ from the water so we were restricted by the 100′ coax that we had to use. It was late in the day on 15 meters, probably around 5:30 local time, but we were hearing lots of Europeans and got a true 599 signal report running 100 watts from an EU station. We quickly got a 20 meter vertical erected and that band sounded good as well. Dinner was served at 7:00 so I gave my dad his marching orders for the next day which was to preassemble additional verticals and lay out the radial field for the 40 meter vertical. We were both very tired and it was not an enjoyable experience.

Friday, the day of the contest, I slaved away at work while K5GO continued setup at the beach. I had sent Dave, N5DO, an email telling him that we would be running low power instead of high power. Messing with an amplifier was just to much to ask at this point and we wanted to keep everything as simple as possible. Dave responded and said that we would still be stiff competition for them even though they would have at least a 10 dB advantage on us due to the difference in power.

Updates from K5GO were good and he was able to erect the 40 meter vertical in short order. It probably helped that I wasn’t around giving him dirty looks and sending nasty thoughts his way! Actually the 40 meter vertical was nicely packed and all of the parts were together so setup was quite easy and straight forward. Around 10:00 A.M. I received a call from N5DO. He again extended the invitation for us to join them and operate in the multi 2 category. We agreed to join them. The stress of the previous days setup along with concerns about security on the public beach for 48 hours, and creature comforts made the decision easy for both of us. While the dream of operating field day style from the beach was alluring the reality was just to difficult to implement. Especially when we had the invitation to operate from a great contest station. My dad packed the ZF2DX/P contest station into the back of his car and at 4:00 p.m. local time we joined the other ZF1A team members for some precontest strategy.

We met the guys and an operating schedule was developed.

The only thing needed was an 80 meter antenna. Fortunately, the station already had a 60 meter inverted vee that we could easily turn into an 80 meter antenna. Rates were not spectacular but they were certainly consistent throughout the contest. 15, 20, and 40 meters were the place to be with extremely loud signals into ZF from Europe and the U.S. Being in North America we are at a huge disadvantage in terms of points per contact into the U.S. Our competition in South America would be getting 3 points vs. our 2 points for every U.S. contact on 10, 15, and 20 meters. On 40 and 80 meters they

would get 6 points vs our 4 points for each U.S. contact. We would be at a big disadvantage on 10 and 15 meters as compared to the multi two operations in South America. However, we hoped we hoped that our advantage on 20, 40, and 80 meters would equalize our 10 and 15 meter disadvantage. The contest went quite smoothly and apart from a networking problem between the two computers we did not encounter any problems. PS2T was posting their score to the live score site and we watched their score intently throughout. After the first 12 hours of the contest, we had a 2 million point lead on them. However, 10 and 20 meters were dead from sunrise until around 3:00 p.m. local time. During this time PS2T clawed their way back into a virtual tie with us after 24 hours. They clearly had an advantage on 10 meters as they could hear and were being heard all over Europe and U.S. 10 was very spotty for us and we never really got anything going other than short 10 minute bursts of weak EU or U.S. We again built our lead up to over two million points after the second night. Clearly we were doing well on 20, 40, and even 80 meters where we were able to eek out nearly 200 contacts with almost all of them coming on the second night. The updated score posts from PS2T stopped Sunday morning. I have no idea why they stopped posting but I figured that we would end up in a tie with them at the end of the contest. 20 and 10 meters were even worse the second day but somehow our team kept plugging away and it looks like we ended up winning the Multi 2 category for the entire world!

The contest ended for K5GO and myself at 3:00 p.m. with the conclusion of our last operating shift. With four hours remaining in the contest, we came back to my apartment to relax for a bit. Neither of us really like to relax so instead of sitting around we decided to make the 45 minute drive to the north part of the island to resurrect the ZF2DX/P beach front contest QTH. One of our main goals was to see just how well a vertical on the water would work. Looking at the Reverse Beacon Network spots would give as a good indication of how loud we were as compared to the ZF1A station. Because of the power difference, anything within 10 dB would mean that we were as loud or louder when the power factor was taken out of the equation. A few examples from 15 meters.

Receive Station	ZF2DX Signal dB	ZF1A Signal dB
GW8IZR	17	21
EA4TX	22	24
DR1A	12	18
W3LPL	16	16
N6TR	27	21
KH6LC	10	8

ZF1A had their beam pointed at EU during this experiment. Clearly the single elevated vertical on the beach was working quite well in ALL directions. In a worldwide DX contest, like the WPX, it is important to be loud everywhere. In the directions where the ZF1A beam was not pointed we were as loud or in some cases louder while running only 100 watts. It would have been relatively easy to put up a parasitic reflector which would have given us close to another 5 dB while still maintaining a large enough beamwidth to encompass EU and the U.S. Signals at the beach were very loud, just as they were at ZF1A. Our quick operation was a nice way to end a very enjoyable weekend. Thanks to Dave and the two Steves for inviting us to operate with them. And of course thanks to our great host Andrew, ZF1EJ for the use of his amazing station.

Doc Holiday & Jevin Stockholm

Christmas came early this week when our belongings from the U.S. finally arrived. Michael was excited to find his lego set and Katie was happy to get her doll accessories to use with McKenna (her American Girl doll). Jennifer unpacked some much needed kitchen utensils and accessories. I was thankful to open an Ameritron AL-811H amplifier that I will put to use from home and during various contests. Of course getting our stuff wasn’t without some drama. Somehow the freight forwarder managed to

change Kevin Stockton into Jevin Stockholm on the shipping documents. I had originally planned to deal with customs myself which also meant that we would pick up all of our boxes from the dock and then carry them up the three flights of stairs to our apartment. After receiving some sage advice from Victor, at Seaboard Cayman, I decided to have Miracle Brokers handle all of the customs documents and delivery of our items. It was well worth the money to not have to spend several hours with customs as they searched through our belongings.

On Saturday, May the 10th, I had my first tower climbing experience in the Caribbean. Along with Andrew, ZF1EJ, and some of his helpers, we installed a set of guy wires on his enormous free standing tower. It was a little unnerving climbing the tower as it was similar to a giant ladder. There wasn’t a good way to secure a safety belt as I climbed, so for 40′ I used some giant hooks on the fall harness to lash myself to the tower. However, the securing and releasing of the hooks to the tower seemed to be more dangerous than just climbing so I ditched the hooks and quickly (but safely) made my way to the top of the tower.

With the guy wires installed, the tower could probably withstand another Ivan, which had peek winds of over 200 mph! While tightening the guy wires to the posts I uttered the phrase, “say when” to let Andrew know when the guys were tight enough. One of Andrew’s helpers chuckled and said, you remind me of that movie. He thought for a minute and then said, “Yes, Tombstone, that is one of my favorite movies.” He then started to ask me about Doc Holiday and wanted to know if Tombstone was a real story, as if it was taught in our history books in school (I wish it was because it is way more interesting than the war of 1812). Michael went out a few days before the tower project and helped me put some guy grips onto the guy wires. We spent a lot of time talking to Andrew and getting a tour of his excellent station and radio room. Michael was particularly enamored with Andrew’s three dogs and he couldn’t understand why the smallest of the three dogs was the most likely to bite. We also picked and ate some Naseberries from Andrew’s orchard. I’ve never tasted a sweeter fruit in my life. Picture a cross between a pear, apple, and the sweetest sweet potato you’ve ever tasted.

Looking down from 100' — Looking down from 100′

Looking South 100' in the air. — Looking South 100′ in the air.

Lately it has been raining for brief amounts of time and in very isolated patches around the island. One day while at school a particular hard rain was pouring down and a little boy came out of his classroom to investigate the storm. With eyes wide as saucers and he yelled out, “Jesus Pete” at the top of his lungs and then quickly retreated back into his classroom. I had never heard this saying before and the moment was hilarious.

We really enjoy our three bedroom apartment that we are renting. It has minimal finishes inside the apartment, but the view of the ocean is nice and the 60′ long pool is fun for all of us to play in. It is also conveniently located to most of my schools and is less than a 5 minute drive to the kids’ school. We really only need two bedrooms but it is nice to have the spare bedroom for when guests come to visit. Katie and Michael are sharing a room that has two twin beds in it. We discovered that Michael has been sneaking into Katie’s bed to sleep with her at night. Two growing kids in a tiny twin bed is not my idea of comfort.