Had to change plans for several reasons so “just” an SOSB15 entry by myself. Sorrily only had one working Tribander pointed fixed to Southern Europe. Mid and western USA & JA were not workable on that one. So had to improvise a bit, i.e. matching the existing 30 m GP on 15 m which worked “so lala”. While switching between antennas on the 6×2, i.e. between the EU beam and the GP, came across the 40 m position and USA sigs were much louder there. Finally ended up using the “Shorty-40” with reduced power (didn’t want to stress it with 3:1 SWR) for all QSOs dir Northwest. It worked reasonably well (think the 40 m beam’s driven element just acted as a 3/2 lambda dipole on 15 m and the height made up for it) and even brought 60 JAs into the log, too. 🙂
Condx quite well on Saturday and much worse on Sunday. Saw lots of QSB. Stations calling with an s3-5 signal completely dropped down into the noise within seconds! Made it challenging with most Europeans. On the other hand there were guys being solid s9+ signals all the time. Really interesting propagation-wise … also my first experience from the Caribbean.
Even with all the equipment compromises and dip in condx on Sunday I’m quite pleased with the result. So far it’s the second best ever 15 m single band result posted in WPX-RTTY’s history if the records website is not missing anything. At least it’s a new Aruba 😉 and as it seems a new South America record, too. 🙂 With a bit of luck it could also be enough for the world win … please keep your fingers crossed. 😎
CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest Call: P40FA Operator(s): DH8BQA Station: P49V Class: SOSB15 HP QTH: FK42xn Operating Time (hrs): 26 Summary: Band QSOs ------------ 40: (55) 15: 1743 (incl. dupes) ------------ Total: 1715 Prefixes = 791 Total Score = 4,042,010 Club: Bavarian Contest Club Comments: FT-1000, 800 W + TH7 & "Shorty-40", see above ;-)
Also made a few QSOs on 40 m Saturday morning before 15 m started to open up (counted out above). Hope antennas get fixed enough during the next few days to be at least a bit competitive next weekend in ARRL DX CW. CU then!