KP4/KA9FOX: CW Sweepstakes '94 by Scott Neader, KA9FOX ka9fox@aol.com In the Spring of 1994, I sent a message to the CQ-CONTEST Internet mail reflector looking for a place out of the country to operate the upcoming CQWW SSB contest. I had never traveled out of the country before, so I figured the best way to learn the ropes would be to tag along on some group's multi effort. I received quite a few invitations, which was surprising. I initially intended to participate in an effort to activate 9Y4, but they were experiencing some difficulties with Customs. Then, in June, "the message" arrived in my e-mail box. It was from Jim Stevens, KI4HN - a contester whom I had never met. "I will be on St. Marteen just before CQWW SSB. I hope to stay in the Caribbean and operate the test. Might you be interested in a vacation that also involved ham radio? Seems as though you might bring the babe-of-the-month and come down a week or so before CQWW and stay at the Hotel La Chatelaine 'ham shack' I would join you before the contest, and we would work the test as M/S". Since I was "babeless" at the time, I called up and invited Mike Tessmer, N0BSH. I would not be in contesting if it weren't for Mike. Mike first introduced me to DX contesting from W0AIH. Mike and I had traveled together during the previous DX contest season to W3LPL, W0AIH, K3LR and KS9K. It only seemed appropriate that we continue this "multi-tour" to a DX location. Mike agreed, and plans to operate from St. Maarten began to take shape. Airline tickets were purchased, putting us in St. Maarten the Tuesday before the contest, and departing the Tuesday after. Since we had a plane change in San Juan, I thought I'd be cool to stay there a couple of nights on our way home. I contacted Felipe Hernandez, NP4Z, whom I had met at Dayton earlier in the year, and he graciously allowed us to stay with him Tuesday and Wednesday night. I called the travel agent and had her change the tickets. As the contest neared, Mike and I exchanged e-mail messages with Paul Gentry, WX9E, who was joining the J6DX operation. He was planning on doing CW Sweepstakes the weekend after CQWW SSB from KP2. "Hey, we could do that," I thought to myself! Since we were already going to be on KP4 until the Thursday before CW SS, it seemed logical to take a couple more vacation days and stay for the contest. After confirming with the travel agent that there would be no extra charge, I called NP4Z to check into potential places to operate the contest. Felipe found one location for me (a hilltop location on Vieques Island) and Mike began hunting for another location. We left St. Maarten after our PJ8Z operation, landing in San Juan on the Tuesday before CW SS. From a payphone in the airport I called Felipe to announce our arrival. He was glad to hear from us, but was the bearer of bad news. The Vieques Island location was not an option anymore and no other locations could be found. It appeared the best way for all of us to operate would be to do a casual multi effort from NP4Z. So, that was the plan and Mike and I concentrated our efforts on sightseeing and babewatching. On Thursday, Felipe called from work with some good news. He had an invitation from WP4U to use his mountaintop station. The only stipulation was that only Felipe could operate it. Then on Friday, Felipe managed to find another location, KP4WI. Although Felipe had planned to operate his own station in the low (A) power category, he unselfishly gave up his plans for a couple of Wisconsin gringos! Instead, Felipe operated high (B) power at WP4U using his NP4Z call, Mike operated low (A) power at KP4WI, and I operated QRP (Q) power at NP4Z using KP4/KA9FOX. The callsign thing in itself caused a flurry of discussion on the Internet contest reflector. I thought it'd be somewhat helpful to sign with the KP4 at the beginning, and posted a question to the reflector asking if this was legal. Some very knowledgeable people gave me conflicting answers, but I finally sided with the "yes" crowd, which included some regulatory personnel at ARRL - one of which got an informal opinion from someone at the F.C.C. Whether it was at the beginning or the end... KP4/KA9FOX was surely the longest callsign of the contest! Good thing I didn't sign /QRP! With locations, categories and callsigns decided, I spent Friday night and Saturday morning getting the station ready. Felipe has built an excellent station at his surburban, but hilltop, QTH. He has two towers, about 50 feet each. One sports 4 elements on 20m and 2 elements on 40. The other has 4 elements on 10 and a 4 element tribander (the tribander will soon be replaced with a 15m beam). Since Felipe was taking his TenTec Omni VI to WP4U, I used one of the rigs I borrowed for PJ8Z (TS-440) as the main radio and used Felipe's HF PacketCluster rig (TS-130) as my second rig. After a couple of trips to Radio Shack, I threw together a cw keying switch and a headphone mixing/splitting contraption. By the way, I left these devices with Felipe, so watch out for NP4Z wielding two rigs in the future! After I got everything hooked up and working, I decided to get on and work a few guys before the contest. Except for having to dig into the 440 to turn down the sidetone level, everything was working well. About 15 minutes before the contest, the phone rang. It was Felipe calling from WP4U. "Man, we forgot to turn the 40 meter beam towards U.S.," he said. The beam is side-mounted to the tower, and was still fixed towards Europe from CQWW SSB. "So, you ever climb a tower?" he asked. "No," I replied, "but I think I can do it. You got a belt?" Images of my puny QRP signal being directed to the wrong continent had convinced me to do the unthinkable... climb a tower. I found his belt, grabbed a wrench and s-l-o-w-l-y climbed my way up to the 40 meter beam. I loosened the bolts and twisted the beam towards the U.S. But, almost instantly, the beam snapped back into position towards Europe. I looked behind me and found the beam was getting caught in a tree. I tried to get it out of there for quite a while with no luck. Frustrated, sweaty, dirty, shaking (from being nervous), angry and tired, I came back down the tower. All was not lost, however, as this WAS my first tower climb and the view was really cool! Wow! I didn't realize how long I had been up there... the contest had started 10 minutes ago. I washed my hands and sat down, still out of breath and shaking, and spun the dial for a clear frequency. Throughout the contest I found myself having the best rates when I stayed low in the band... usually in the Extra Class portion. After the initial surge of QSOs, I started S&Ping on the second rig. After the first 60 minutes, I had 52 QSOs in the log, 11 of which were made on the second rig. In the second hour, I worked Danny K7SS. Normally, I'd be bummed out by his 15 QSO lead, but I made the (hopefully correct) assumption that he was doing another one of his "sprint" contests and wouldn't put in the full 24 hours. Thanks, Danny! 15 and 20 meters seemed to play all right, but the biggest surprise was 40 meters. Despite the beam being pointed wrong, I was able to slowly but consistently run guys. I even had a few Europeans trying to work me. Again, I hid down around 7004 - 7020, which seemed to work perfect. You could sure tell when the band went long, which of course was great for me. I stayed on until things dried up around 07z. I just couldn't get people to hear me on 80 meters. I decided to sleep for 5.5 hours, catch a shower, heat up a burger (the breakfast of champions!) and get back on for the duration at 13z, thus taking all of my off-time in one chunk. At 13:05z I began CQing on 20 meters and S&Ping on 15. At about 15z, I ran across W2GD and my heart quickened as he gave me serial number 518... just 10 QSOs behind me. I sure hoped he still had some off-time to take! I really got down to business for the rest of the contest! Around 17z I found N6VI/KH6 on the second rig on 15 meters for mult number 74. Two hours later I came across VE8CRS on 20 meters with a gigantic pile-up. Dumping in my KP4/KA9FOX was just taking too much time away from the CQ rig, so I started tailending guys, sending just "QRP...QRP". After about 10 minutes of trying this, he came back with "QRP?" Yes I am! With 8 hours to go, I was missing WY and VE6. I picked up KS6H in WY at 21z for number 76. That left VE6 as my lone missing mult. Every time I heard a VE, my ears perked up... but to no avail. I finished the contest at 03z with 906 QSOs and 76 mults for a raw score of 137,712. I went back through the log and estimate that I made 140 QSOs on the second rig. Back home in the U.S., I was surprised by a comment by a prominent contester on the Internet contest reflector. He was commenting about some of the fine CW SS scores and noted that "Those Caribbean guys don't count." Another noted contester chimed in with an agreement, "SS from the Caribbean is a joke." I, of course,was really bothered by the comments, especially since I admire both of these people. It may be true that a Caribbean location is an advantage for SS, but so is an east coast location for CQWW. Efforts from either location should not, in my opinion, be subjected to this type of criticism. I received apologies from both people, although they both stand by their intended position that SS from the Caribbean is very advantageous. This contest season sure has given me a lot of new experiences. My first time out of the country, my first chance to "be DX," my first tower climb and now, my first ham radio article. I would not be writing it if it weren't for the incredible generosity and hospitality of Felipe and his wife, Maribel... wow, is this a great hobby or what!