Contesting from Aruba

To those of you who have often traveled to various island locations for DXing and contesting, the following story may seem boring. For the most part, these are US readers, because it’s much easier for these hams to guest operate from both US and overseas locations. Exchanging operators from the big multi-op teams is quite common, as is being a guest operator or getting on the air from the (relatively) close Caribbean area, where there are many stations available for rent. We don’t have many big enough multi-op stations. We could fly to the Caribbean, but because of the language, the distance, and the high costs, the number of Europeans who travel to these places isn’t very large. Those who do go there usually do a "low profile" operation. Therefore, when it does happen that we can get on the air from one of those big stations that produce endless strings of high scores, for us it’s an exciting event. We like to sing our praises enthusiastically, as if nobody else could do the same! Forgive us, then, if this article is boring to you.

The first time I ever heard about an island called Aruba was sometime around mid-December 1985. I cannot remember if it was a cold winter or not, but I still remember when Giorgio, I2KMG, called me on the phone. Giorgio is a middle-aged, well-mannered, distinguished gentleman. He is Professor of Nuclear Physics at one of the most famous and old universities in Italy (Pavia), and he is also a notable at CERN in Geneva.

At the time, those who didn’t know that Giorgio is a radio amateur believed he was a nice person. This is partially wrong, since he really got crazy when he heard about the remote possibility that "something" (unable to be better identified) could "possibly-maybe-perhaps" become a new one for DXCC. Some doctor could probably have explained his pathology: He was afraid to miss the new one, so (remember, in 1985 PacketCluster was still a dream, at least in Italy) he started calling everyone in the Northern Hemisphere who had a receiver. The summary of these phone calls, more or less, was this: "Please write down my phone numbers. You can call me at any time of the day or night. Don’t worry if you wake up my family. Call me even if you hear a rumor. I’m always so busy, and I don’t know if I’ll be home or in Geneva. Possibly I’ll drive home immediately." Obviously, he got tons of phone calls. His wife kept threatening to divorce him. However, he always worked the new one on both modes, and then he relaxed a bit until the next time some rumor appeared.

After Giorgio’s phone call, I heard of the possibility of a new one, including the callsign of the station that was planning to be active—P4/KQ2M. Oh, well. I already had heard this young, fast guy, and I knew that it had to be an easy one. So it was. I called I2KMG late on the night of January 14, and both of us easily worked the new country on 40 meters CW.

After that first "official" QSO with Aruba, many others filled my log in the following months. Now it was a new multiplier and a new country, so a lot of guys were discovering the existence of this place.

In 1987 AI6V "discovered" the island and went there with a few friends looking for that famous "perfect contest QTH" everyone is searching for, but that nobody has ever seen (just like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow). I don’t need to tell you this story again, though. Carl’s team used the 1987 trip to gather enough experience to come back the next year and create the wonderful P40V adventure in the 1988 CQWW.

Looking at these events from our side of the ocean was not just interesting, it was really exciting. I guess each one of us was nursing feelings of great admiration mixed with deep envy, because we understood that these results were impossible to achieve from here, and it was not realistic to plan to go there and do the same without a big enough base of understanding. It was the same when "Mr. Fast" (N6KT) logged 10,000 Qs from TI1C, or when KR0Y did 450+ Qs in an hour, or when Dick Norton, N6AA, won the CQWW CW six times in a row. I could go on with this list.

At that time I was starting my duties as Italian HF Contest Manager. One of my plans as editor of the contest column in the ARI magazine was to make a short presentation on the big contest stations that were always so loud, but that were a kind of mystery to us on the old continent (in the mid-‘80s the internet was far in the future). One of the many imploring letters I sent out asking for material for my column reached AI6V, who kindly answered, sending me over 50 pictures taken during his two big 1988 efforts. I put together a good article, split into two issues of the magazine, and a picture of those antennas was on the front cover.

One event then followed another. First I headed the Italian team at WRTC-90. Then I visited the US each year and met AI6V each time, reinforcing our friendship. In December 1996 I called Carl on the phone to express my Christmas wishes, and he invited me to join him in Aruba for the ARRL DX CW 1997—a dream come true.

I don’t know if Aruba is really the perfect contest QTH, but it probably is the perfect ARRL DX QTH; it at least appears that way when you look at the results of this contest over the last ten years or so. Carl Cook achieved some great results on SSB, a few times logging well over 8000 QSOs as a single operator. In the past, especially during the CW leg, he went multi-single with several different teammates. Over the past few years, AI6V has equipped a cottage with various antennas, building one of the most powerful contest stations in the Caribbean area. At that time P40V was equipped with three towers holding 4 elements on 10/15/20 meters, 2 elements on 40 meters, and a TH7. Wires on 160/80 and beverages for listening complete the setup. His place is more or less in the middle of the island, far from the "real" life (white-sand beaches, casinos, shopping areas), but it is a great radio location.

Most of the time American magazines arrive in Europe after a long delay, but that year QST came in time to let me read the results of the previous year’s ARRL DX CW: P49V was #2 behind PJ9C. In 1996 Carl went multi-single with W6OAT. Since I consider these two gentlemen my best friends and you can joke with good friends, I immediately started sending them e-mail messages stating that since they were not good enough to win even from such a great place, they were too old for contesting. I suggested something easier and quieter such as 70cm RTTY or county hunting on the net. This was because collecting stamps was too much for them, as it required good eyes, which they didn’t have anymore due to advancing age!

When my flight from Amsterdam landed on the short airstrip in Aruba, three Yankees were waiting for me: AI6V, W2GD, and W6OAT. We went to the cottage. Now the dream had really come true: I was at P40V’s, and I was about to enter the ARRL DX CW at its highest level. Carl literally was flying because his girlfriend was awaiting a flight to Aruba in Miami while a pilot’s strike was on. Therefore, Rusty, W6OAT, and I were the only two in charge of the entire contest. Everything was working properly even if corrosion was doing a lot of damage to the equipment. Carl and Rusty spent some time in the "kanuku," which is a land full of every kind of cactus and other dangerous spiny plants right on the back of AI6V’s property. That’s where the beverages are. All of the rest of the station (an FT-1000D and Alpha 87A) was okay.

Carl joined us just for a couple of hours at the end of the contest, so Rusty and I split the 48 hours almost in half. From Italy I had never operated a contest with an endless pile-up, and it took me a few hours to get over the excitement of a W7 calling me on 160/80, as those are the states that you (almost) never work from Europe. Sometimes I did not even realize that I was a real DX station instead of "one of the many."

We had no failures, no trouble with equipment and antennas, but we ended up #2 again after PJ9C. This was a superb result for me, but Carl didn’t like it when, coming back down to earth for a while, he realized that the two teammates (W1BIH and W1WEF) from Curaçao had done better for the second time in a row. When you have spent the last ten years winning, it’s hard to end up #2. I can easily understand this, but I was so happy with those 5288 Q’s, 323 mults, and 5.1M points.

Researching a good excuse when you lose is a typical Italian sport, so we started immediately. The best one was that Carl had operated for two hours (or, version B, Carl had operated for only two hours). More seriously, we guessed that some trouble could have come from the fact that there were three stations on the air from Aruba (P49V, P40W, and P4/K2LE) that logged a grand total of almost 13,000 QSOs in the contest, while on Curaçao there was just one participant. This fact probably caused some dispersion of QSOs among the three P4 stations, but I cannot estimate this distribution.

Comments exchanged between Carl and me on this subject went on for several months. Each of us was ascribing the fault to the other: you’re too old for contesting, you’re not old enough, you’re waiting for a new Japanese high-tech keyboard with extra-large blinking keys as your eyes aren’t good enough anymore to find those small black letters on the board, and so on. When Carl visited me in 1997, we spent some more time planning our revenge. Poor John and Jack; we were still in business and bad as never before!

This time we had more time to plan. I decided to stay far from my QSL cards a little while longer and spend a couple of weeks on the island applying for my own P40 callsign to enter the CQWW 160 Meter SSB that was to take place the weekend right after the ARRL DX CW. I manage the Italian QSL bureau for all Italy, and I calculated that I process about 2,500,000 cards each year. That means 8400 kg (18,500 pounds) of cards. If you put all of them on top of one another, you would make a pile 75 km (almost 46 miles) high! I guess that a serious holiday was deserved.

Plans started to go wrong about a month before our departure. Yes, I know that this is quite common, but you always think it will happen to someone else, and when it happens to you, you’re sure it’s unfair. First W6OAT had to cancel his participation due to some business problems. Rusty is a very good CW operator and a very important member of the team. We were sorry not to have him this time. Then one week before we were to arrive, Carl got a report from K2LE, who was operating from the cottage, that the rotator of the 20/40 meter tower was out of service and that another half element of the 20 meter antenna had dropped down. The antennas turning in the constant wind of Aruba with no break probably pulled up the feedline. Oh, well! Next, due to some serious health problems of one of their relatives, Carl and his girlfriend had to delay their arrival on the island, so they landed just a few hours before me. When Carl met me at the airport, he was wet clear through, as he had already spent some hours trying to figure out what had happened on top of that tower. He brought with him a new rotator and a few other spare parts.

After an inspection, Carl thought that he could repair the 20 meter 4-element problems. However, he had to change his plans, when the following morning we found another half element that had fallen down in the garden during the night. That antenna had to be replaced, but we didn’t have enough time before the contest, so we decided to use the TH7 on 20 meters. Carl spent some time on top of the tower working on the new rotator which was not working at all. Then we decided to block the 40 meter 2-element and play with that rotator after the contest. While Carl was working on the 20/40 meter tower, he checked the 160 meter inverted Vee, as we had had a bad SWR reading. He fixed it, or so it seemed. The other antennas were okay.

As it happens, each time someone uses that station several months after a previous operation, the beverages have to be rebuilt. Due to the lack of time, we decided to build only the one we needed that night, beaming USA, and to wait to build the one beaming Europe, which I would need the next week for the CQWW 160 Meter SSB. Carl grabbed a wire and started walking in the cactus field, beaming right at the big tree on the left of K4VX’s house in Missouri, until he ran out of wire. Cactuses are very good for holding the wire.

You can easily imagine how hot the temperature in Aruba was. Carl spent almost six hours on top of the tower, and he was really feeling terrible. We discussed a little about our plans for the contest. As Carl was so tired, he offered for me to go single operator. I didn’t like that idea, though, as I knew that he was looking for some operating hours, too. We decided to go multi-single and try to do our best even if he was not in perfect shape. At least we had a good excuse for a poor score!

At the same time, another group of guys was working hard to get ready for the contest. Being in a big city, they could have been considered almost "next door." However, as we were in the Caribbean, they were in another country; the island of Curaçao is no more than 40 km from Aruba. John, W1BIH/PJ9JT, and Jack, W1WEF, were very busy getting everything ready for going on the air as PJ9C in the contest.

The day after the contest, when W1WEF/PJ9 called me to exchange results, I immediately thought that it could be very interesting to compare our scores and come up with some statistics, since our results were extremely close. But this was not all. Both stations had had the same problems on the same band during the contest. I waited until the mailing deadline expired, and then I asked Jack to let me have a copy of their log. He agreed, and so here are the data.

Let’s say immediately that PJ9C did it again (pain!). This time they made the new highest score ever in this category. It was really a nice showing. Just 244 QSOs, 2 mults, and 5% of the score made the difference. Theses really are small numbers considering the 5500+ Qs that both stations logged.

Following are some thoughts on the contest, in random order:

Even though I like the ARRL DX CW very much, I was a total newcomer operating from a place where you get a real pile-up of W/VE. Yes, I know the game (once I won it from Europe): Work them all and you’ll win. However, here we say that you always must be very smart, so I harrassed Carl with questions.

Carl told me that 160 is very important. You have to be there at the right time and work all the guys who are looking for you. It doesn’t matter if you’re into a busy pile-up on 40 or 80. You must go on 160 at the beginning of the hour when people expect you to be there. So we did. During the first night we went on 160 seven times: 0400, 0500, 0630, 0700, 0800, 0830, and 0950 UTC. PJ9C did it five times: 0400, 0620, 0820, 1000, and 1030 UTC.

Both Carl and W1WEF agreed that the 160 was one of the noisiest contests ever. Static noise was unbelievable, especially the second night. Both of us had trouble with the 160 meter antenna, and both of us had one operator who had to climb the tower almost in the dark to fix the inverted Vee. This happened to P49V during the first night and to PJ9C during the second night.

Jack, W1WEF, said, "I had taken over from John in the middle of the night and noticed the SWR jumping around. To figure out what was wrong, I let the computer call CQ and went out to the antenna in pitch-black darkness. I saw arcing at the remote switch box like a spark transmitter. The salt air had corroded the ground connections around the SO239s and they were arcing badly. I bypassed the box and overhauled it the next day while John was operating."

Carl did the same: He climbed the tower, replacing the feedline point in the middle of the inverted Vee while I was operating on another band.

During the second night we went back on 160 five times (0300, 0400, 0500, 0600, and 0640 UTC). Then we tried it about 15 minutes before the end of the contest, because we had some skeds. However, we logged only N4XM from Kentucky. PJ9C tried 160 three times: 0220, 0500, and 0810 UTC. One-sixty made the difference in the mults; PJ9C was lucky (clever?) enough to log four mults more, even if we did 40 Qs more.

Both of us did more or less the same number of band changes—59 and 63. PJ9C did not move any multipliers (unless they didn’t set some skeds that are not noticeable from the log), while we moved the VY1 from 10 to 15. All the rest was left to the "+" key: "TU QRZ?"

By comparing the breakdowns, we can see that PJ9C took 80% of his advantage during the first day, ending with 194 Qs more than P49V. It’s not easy to say where those 194 Qs came from. Obviously, both stations started on 20 meters, but P49V QSYed to 40 meters after 55 minutes, while PJ9C switched quickly to 40 for 10 minutes about 45 minutes after the beginning, and then they went back to 20 meters for one more hour, logging 211 Qs in the second hour against the 150 Qs at P49V. There are no other big differences in the QSO/hour graph, just 10 Qs more, 15 less, and so on.

PJ9C had 3 hours with over 200 Qs: 01-02 (211 Qs, 20 meters), 03-04 (203 Qs, 40/80 meters), and 19-20 (226 Qs, 15 meters) all in the first day, while the best hours at P49V were 16-17 (192 Qs, 10 meters), 18-19 (199 Qs, 10/15 meters), and 19-20 (191 Qs, 15 meters). The worst hours were in the middle of the second day with 24 and 27 Qs.

We had no particular strategies, but Carl recommended that I avoid sending fast CW. "No more than 32 wpm," he said, "because we want to work everyone, including the slow guys." Was this a choice that could somehow penalize us? I didn’t know, but I remembered that sometimes the pile-up was really heavy and that maybe sending faster could speed up the Qs and increase the rate. But we didn’t have proof of this, so it could have been wrong. However, if it were true, how many Qs per hour could we gain sending CW faster during some sections of the contest?

Here is another good question for the station lovers. I remember that one of the topics of the Contest Forum at the 1997 Fresno Convention was "Working dupes or not?" Use the NOWORKDUPE option or not? And if you use it, how heavy can the loss of time be (if any)? We used it, and we logged just two dupes, while PJ9C worked everyone who called them, letting the software flag the dupes. They logged 208 dupes.

By looking at valid QSOs and mults by band, it’s obvious that PJ9C spent much more time on 10 meters that was really good. We did not do so well on 80, but we had already experimented with this in 1997 when we were not satisfied with our result on this band. Probably the inverted Vee at P49V doesn’t supply a loud enough signal. The rig setup at PJ9C was an Omni VI and a Carey amplifier with low output and one tube removed! The antennas were a Mosley Classic 33 at 50 ft., a delta loop for 40 supported by the tower, a sloping dipole on 80 with one end on the tower and the other end on a cactus plant about 15 ft. high, and an inverted L off the same single tower for 160. They also had a 500 ft. beverage toward the States.

When you operate in the ARRL DX from Europe, you almost always experience a curious phenomenon that comes about when you are close to having your band multiplier sheet full of X’s except one or two. You spend all of the first day and most of the second looking for that lousy multiplier. Sometimes you start monitoring CNN to see if a tornado is damaging that area. Most of the time you guess that nobody loves you in that darn area, until finally a merciful guy answers, giving you that last X. Well, if you stay on that same band for one more hour, you will work at least five more stations from that same state or province. Well, that phenomenon occurs in Aruba, too!

Even if the maximum number of multipliers that you can work is 62 per band, from Europe usually you never consider LAB, NWT, and YU, especially on CW, as those are extremely rare. I guess that there were no VO2’s and VE8’s on the air, as those are blank boxes on both sheets, while we had VY1JA call us. For a European, this is like having a rare Pacific island call you on 80 meters SSB! By looking at QSOs by State/Province, we can see that there are some more populated areas that were not represented at all. Just look at VY2 (Prince Edward Island). Some other places had very few stations active: VE1 (NB), VE4, VE5, and DC. These were the toughest multipliers according to both logs, but both stations were probably very confident in being able to work them, as nobody thought to move them onto the other bands.

The ARRL DX was done. Those 48 hours seemed shorter, and the next morning the contest seemed so far away. But I had ahead of me nine more days in Aruba.

The weather in Aruba was nice as always—about 27-30 degrees C with a constant wind that is not a bother at all, as it is the only way to tolerate the oppressive heat. However, the winds also make the heat of the sun less noticeable, so you are more likely to get sunburned. The bathroom of the P49V cottage is full of bottles of sun lotion from all over the world left behind by those who have rented the house or Carl himself.

The contest in Aruba ended at 8 PM (2000 UTC) Sunday evening, so we finally relaxed. We realized that while we had been spending time sending endless strings of dots and dashes, the local folks were enjoying the renowned Aruba Carnival. As it happens almost everywhere in Central and South America, the carnival is really something very special. Some tourists like visiting these exotic places just during the "hot" days of the carnival, but the local people spend months and months planning for the event. Sometimes planning for the next carnival starts just one day after the end of the previous festivities!

Aruba is a small island that is shaped like a banana, with the two "large" cities, Oranjestad and St. Nicholas, on the two ends of the island. There is one "big" road that goes from one city to the other, and around it are a few villages that bring up to nine the number of separate settlements. Each one of them takes care of a section of the organization of the carnival, including the election of a "Miss" who will enter the Miss Carnival contest.

As you enter Oranjestad both sides of the big road are rented long in advance by families and groups of friends. A week before the parade they start using tows and trailers to erect galleries equipped with large stereos and food and drinks. People literally live there during the endless parade. The parade goes on for hours with tireless dancers, colorful costumes, beautiful girls, and deafening music. Even the day after the big parade, you may see a truck carrying a band still playing music. We could not join this event as we were busy in the contest, but we watched the "Miss Aruba" parade on the local television station.

Real contesters don’t need a long rest after a contest, so we got up early (as nobody was there to see us, I can lie) on Monday morning. We had to take care of all the problems that we had not been able to fix before the contest. The new rotator on the 20/40 meter tower was still not working and the 20 meter 4-element Cushcraft had to be fixed. Carl, AI6V, was planning to remodel the 4-element by shortening the boom and eliminating one element to make a new 3-element on 20 meters. He was planning to do everything on top of the tower, as it was not easy to take down the 20 meter antenna without damaging the 40 meter 2-element that was just 4 or 5 feet higher.

Carl started playing with some software to calculate the new dimensions. I was curious to see how he could measure the elements without taking the antenna down from the tower. Unfortunately, I could not help, as my weight does not allow me to climb towers (I’m too light, and I’m afraid the wind might blow me down!), so I was forced to spend a lot of time in the shade holding an iced drink, watching Carl on top of the tower. It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it!

As I said earlier, there is a lot of friendship between Carl and me, so we spend a lot of time joking. I tell Carl he’s too old, and he answers I’m an inexperienced kid. But this time Carl surprised me once more when he spent several hours on top of the tower trying to do something with those rusty pieces of aluminum and then came down and said, "No way. It’s impossible to do it alone on top of the tower. I give up." He continued, "I’ll just put up a new one. I must have a new 3-element 20 meter still packed on top of the closet in the main bedroom."

What? He had a new 3-element 20 meter still in the box and he spent hours trying to remodel an old one on top of the tower under a merciless sun? And so it was: A brand new Hy-Gain 203BA was in a never-opened box right on top in that closet.

Obviously, the next step was to take down the old antenna without damaging the 2-element 40 meter and the two 160/80 inverted Vees hooked under the beams. This was easy using a saw: Ah ha! The revenge of the man against the antenna!

We had enough time to assemble the new antenna, as the next event was the CQWW 160 Meter SSB, which was planned for Friday, February 27. During that week, however, something else was going to happen. The entire island was very excited about this unique event—the eclipse!

On February 26 the island of Aruba experienced a total solar eclipse. During the eclipse visibility on the island became dusk-like dark, and at 1409 local time (1809 UTC) the moon was directly in front of the sun for 3-1/2 minutes. The process started at 1238 (1638 UTC) and ended at 1535 (1935 UTC). The next total solar eclipse visible from Aruba will be in the year 3388. I hope it will be in the afternoon, as in the morning I already have something on my agenda.

Raising the new 3-element 20 meter antenna was much easier than we had expected. With the help of Jean Pierre, P43A, we raised the antenna on top of the tower and Carl fixed it. Fixing the rotator was easy, too. However, our antenna work wasn’t finished yet. We still had to install the new beverage beaming Europe. In the middle part of the island there is a lot of uninhabited land—just the right place for beverages, if you don’t consider all those cactuses (probably why nobody wants those pieces of land!). The land bordering P49V’s backyard is just full of wires left behind by previous users of the shack. Usually beverages have some "emergency supports" that don’t last for a long time after a contest. The next user prefers to install a new one instead of trying to untie the wire from all those dangerous, spiny, unfriendly cactuses.

"The longer the better" is a rule that can be quite respected in this place where you can grab a roll of wire, food and water for traveling, and just start walking. You will see thousands of small, medium, and large cactuses and other spiny plants that will help hold the wire. It will not be very even, but it will work.

Needing reasonable reception from Europe, we decided to beam our new beverage right on the tall, red building that stands to the left of OK2FD’s house in the Czech Republic. To do an accurate job, you always need a definite point.

Beverages are another aspect of contesting that sounds quite new to many Europeans. I understand that this statement probably sounds strange to many in the U.S., but in Italy there are not many stations that have enough room for a set of beverages, and most of us just read about it in the ham magazines.

The next step was to enter the CQWW 160 Meter SSB that in Aruba starts at 6 PM. This time I had to go single operator, as Carl was justifiably busy celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday. I must tell you that the previous year I flew back to Europe just a couple of days before this contest, so Carl went single op. When I called him on the telephone right after the contest, I told him that he had not made enough Qs to have a reasonable score. So we bet 20 bucks, and he won, as in 1997 P40V ended #5 DX and #8 overall with 450 Qs, 54 W/VE, 32 countries, and 378K. That file was still in the computer, so I spent some time trying to make plans and get an idea of what I had to face.

One-sixty SSB from Europe is really a pain. In Italy we are allowed to operate from 1830 to 1850 only, and the legal power on this band is 100 watts. Sometimes someone decides to CQ out of the window, risking his own license. Recently our PTT got some money from these rash operators. In most of the other European countries there are, more or less, these same band limits. Even if everybody in Europe operated low power (I know, it’s a dream) in those 20 kHz there would be no way to coexist. So you can imagine what happens when three multi-KW stations (we have some of them in Italy even if the limit is 100 watts.) get hold of top, middle, and bottom of those 20 lousy kHz. Quite often there are hundreds of little pistols trying to use the rest of the window (it should be their right.), but most of the time this is a hopeless mission. This is the situation in Italy. Add to this all those other countries, and you’ll have the complete picture.

Only a few big guns in Europe can log several tens of W’s in this contest because receiving is very hard. Most of the others still believe that Canada means VE1ZZ and that U.S. means N2RM and K1ZM, because those are the only callsigns logged by those who cannot have a "real" antenna on 160. CW is another story, as the window is much more reasonable on this mode.

In the last ten years contesting has changed very much with the massive use of the computer, which has revolutionized all the procedures. Probably over 90% of the stations are computer controlled at various levels. This is so nice, because life is much easier for most of us. However, it produces a curious disadvantage. It’s just like when the inexpensive pocket calculators became popular; everyone adopted them immediately, but no on is quick at figures anymore. So it is for "technologic contesters." If the computer crashes, nobody can handle a paper log anymore, and if you don’t have a voice keyer, it’s a pain calling CQ for hours. This last problem happened to poor P40K—no voice keyer and just 11 QSOs in the first hour of the contest. Pain!

In the first 90 minutes I worked a number of Caribbean countries, such as KP4, FM, J3, C6, TI1, V4, CO, YV, PJ, VP5, and obviously VE1ZZ (yes, he’s loud in the Caribbean, too.). Regular W/VE’s started to come in around 2330 UTC, and the rate was more than reasonable compared with the previous year: 37, 49, 69, 74, 65, 58, 77 QSOs per hour were all good ones. The two beverages were working just fine. I had quite a lot of noise due to the poor power lines along the street, but I never had trouble receiving. I guess I logged all the stations I heard. Several times the amplifier shut down because the power at home was just enough to support our Alpha 87A, so I had to wait to get it functioning again. However, I never missed my frequency.

Multipliers were coming in the log along with QSOs. I logged a few other Central and South Americans, but I had no callsigns from the old continent. I was not surprised about this, as I knew how chaotic that window in Europe could be. At 0405 UTC the first EU came in—I3EVK. However, I had to wait almost one hour more to listen to the next one—IT9ZGY. In the next hour I logged EA3VY, I3TGW, LY3BS, UA2FJ, OH5LF, and OH1XX, and that was all from Europe.

From time to time I checked the previous year’s breakdowns. I was very proud of my effort, as I had a clear advantage on P40V’s 1997 result. At 0635 UTC I logged W9YRZ for QSO #451. I had one more QSO than Carl. Eureka! The rate slowed down at around 07 UTC, but signals were still good. I was so happy about the contest when—kaboom! The Alpha 87A started blinking like a Xmas tree, and the SWR meter told me that it didn’t like my antenna anymore. Oh, well. I decided to go see what had happened. It was easy to see that the leg of the inverted Vee hooked to the light pole on the street side was on the ground, as the rope had burned.

According to the previous year’s breakdowns, I had about two more hours to go. I already had done better than Carl, though, so I decided that I had done a real good job, turned everything off, and went to bed. Yeah, I know that some real contesters will be struck with horror reading this, but I never said I’m a real contester. I’m too lazy to be that serious.

The next morning Carl could not believe what had happened. The rope was burned, but we could not understand why it had happened. We even thought that someone wanted to give us some trouble. The 160 meter inverted Vee was hooked under the 20 meter antenna, while one leg was tied to a spiny tree in the cactus field and the other leg was tied to a wooden light pole on the street, about 10 ft. high. We realized that after many months the copper wire, due to the salt air, produced a lot of copper powder that partially coated the small ceramic insulator and the first two feet of rope. The RF produced an arc that burned the rope. This was the only reasonable explanation, unless someone had been paid by one of my many friends to drive there in the middle of the night and, using a ladder, burn the rope!

We again tied up the inverted Vee, and I waited to go back on the air, admiring my 468 QSOs made in the nine hours I could operate during the first night. I did not have too many multipliers, but I had logged less than ten Europeans, so I was looking for more EU mults. This time I went on the air at 5 PM, an hour earlier, but I immediately found a lot of difficulty keeping a frequency—just five QSOs in the first three hours of continuous CQing. I spent some time S&P and I was glad to see that some Europeans were coming through, but they were answering someone else. I had more luck answering the many EU’s than the very few W/VE’s that I could hear. Conditions had completely changed from the first night. I had no way of running a pile-up, but I was logging a few new multipliers: EA8, G, PA0, ON, 9A, SL, S5, and few other Caribbeans such as KP2, PJ7, and HK. It took an endless string of calls to get in the log of one more IT9, who was very loud but who was calling CQ without even suspecting that tens of W’s were calling him. Yes, I know—another alligator.

Carl and Sue went out for dinner again that night, and they came back home quite late (around 11 PM). I was quite tired after over six hours of calling CQ with just 25 Q’s in my log. It was funny listening to WB9Z asking for W6 just before switching his beverages to another direction. V47KP was running better than I. Maybe being closer to the States was good for him. W’s were working other W’s, but nobody had a huge pile-up. I was listening to everyone, but I had trouble being heard by the very few stations that were not in my log. With Europeans it was easier, but there were very few signals from Europe and I had already worked all of them.

Carl came into the shack and told me that he was going to bed. It was around midnight local time (0400 UTC) and I was about to tell him that I was ready to go to bed also, but I thought that I should be more serious and suffer through to the end. Most of my friends already know that I stop during the contest to eat, and I didn’t need more bad publicity—HI!

Mr. Murphy had been sitting behind me since the beginning of my trip to Aruba, and he decided to interfere once more. I logged S54DL as my QSO #512, and then I found a so-called clear frequency and started the game again: CQ CONTEST, PAPA FORTY KILO, PAPA FOUR ZERO KILO, PAPA FORTY KILO, CONTEST. No answer, so I tried again: CQ CONTEST, PAPA . . . Kaboom! The Alpha 87A started blinking like a Xmas tree, and the SWR meter told me that it didn’t like my antenna anymore! I had already been through this scene—the day before!

Carl was still in the bathroom getting ready to go to bed when I called him and said, "Guess what? We lost the dipole again." A fast inspection on the street confirmed that we had the same problem that had occurred the night before. We just made the mistake of using the same old rope that was already full of copper powder. I had about five more hours to operate before losing conditions, but I decided that five more hours of hopeless CQing was too much. By now I had 512 QSOs, 51 W/VE, 30 DX, and 410,022 points, certainly enough to end up #1 in South America and to gain a good position in the overall ranking. Carl is certainly a more serious contester than I am, and at first he insisted a little on making me fix the antenna and go on. However, after looking at my log, he agreed that there was not too much left to work.

The day after the contest WB9Z called and told me that this had been one of the worst CQWW 160 Meter SSB Contests that he had ever faced, with too much noise and a lot of difficulty hearing DX stations. I cannot compare it with previous years, since my experience is limited, but I guess that during the second night conditions were really very tight. As I’m writing this article I haven’t seen the final results yet, but I know that I should be #1 World, probably just ahead of K1ZM.

The CQWW 160 was placed in the archives. I had two more days in Aruba before the 10-plus hour flight to Amsterdam. However, we still had a couple of things to do, such as again fixing the 160 meter inverted Vee, this time with a new rope, as well as resizing the 80 meter inverted Vee to make it resonate on 75 meters, as Carl was going to enter the ARRL DX SSB the coming weekend.

Before flying back home we had to stop in a place called "El Gaucho," which is an Argentinean restaurant located in downtown Oranjestad. As you probably know, our LU friends are the meat wizards, and everyone who likes steaks should live close to one of these places and visit it weekly. This probably is not a secret, as even on Monday night the restaurant was fully booked and we had to go there quite late to get a table. We had a smiling waiter who told us about all the meat dishes, including a nice, tender 48-ounce steak that made my eyes blink. That was just a perfect way to end my trip to Aruba! It was not so big, but they had nothing bigger. They even gave me a special knife with the restaurant logo engraved on it to take back home.

My second trip to Aruba was about to come to an end. As I wrote at the beginning of this article, some of what I have told you may be boring for readers who have traveled quite often to DX locations for contests. For us in Europe, however, this was a big effort and I’m very proud of my results. If I were more serious and had some more experience, I could probably do better. Who knows?

I don’t need to thank Carl Cook, AI6V, and his nice wife (they got married right during the CQP Contest 1998!) for their warm hospitality, as I felt very much at home during both of my trips to Aruba. As I write this, the CQWW SSB 1998 is just over. If Carl invites me again, I will be on the air signing P40K. Why not?

(by I2UIY - 2001)