Contest Observations:

This was my first attempt at setting up a remote contest operation in a major contest, and I learned a great deal about what to expect in a solo effort. I had visions of 1500 QSOs and 1M points, which were a bit unrealistic given the declining sunspots, difficult propagation from Oceana, and terrain barriers that I faced.

I was a guest at a bed and breakfast 600 feet above sea level, about 4 miles inland on the south side of Kauai. Kauai has some significant hills and mountainous terrain in the interior, and although I had open views to the west, south, and north, the due east direction was shadowed by a steep hill. Unfortunately, this was in the path of the Carribean and northern SA, where many multipliers reside.

The owners of the B&B, Bill and Cathy Cowern, were completely accomodating to my radio needs. Bill is a tree farmer and there are some nice, tall eucalyptus on the property that you would have access to. I walked to the back of his property where I could work in an open area and got the W5GI multibander up about 30 feet in a broadside east-west orientation. I placed a second multibander in the yard in a north-south broadside direction, giving me some directionality over the pole on 20 meters.

I had the best luck on the lower two bands, because the higher angles of radiation didn't interfere with the hill towards stateside. I found 20, 15, and 10 difficult to W/VE in the morning hours (2000-2400 UTC). W/VE stations were pounding in well over S9, but could not hear me! There was also a tremendous echo on these signals during these hours, reminiscent of backscatter-like tone! I could hear the easy money Africa mults (EA8, CT9, CN, etc.) but could not put any in the log!

By 0100, I could finally begin to work US/VE, but running was still difficult, even on 20. JA of course, was booming in and easily runnable. 40 picks up about 0400 UTC and US/VE is easily runnable. By 0600 the JA's are pounding in on both 80 and 40, as well as 20. So, you have both US and JA to fill the logs up, but multipliers are another matter.

I was thrilled by several who called me: XU, B4, VR2, EZ, P3A, OH0 to name some. EU was another story, but I was able to pick off the "big guns" during the openings around 1800 UTC. You have two short windows to work EU from KH6, 1700-1900 and about 0400-0600, and there is usually multi-pathing going on, with long path echos which can be troublesome in copying even the strongest stations. I did pick off about 20 of the "big guns" and that helped with the multiplier total, but only on 20--no other band produced an EU QSO.

Despite the challenges, I thought this was a credible effort for a rookie contest DXer. I'd recommend a small yagi if you go to this QTH to get the firepower to get into EU and over that hill more consistently.

Waiter Marshall at the Plantation Broiler Restaurant