VP5B
Claims New M/2 Record
In CQWW SSB 2003!
WX3B's North Caicos DX-Pedition Page
Team VP5B in 2003:
K4ISV (Owner/Leader), K1LZ, W5AO, WX3B.
In back: K4UU,
K4RO
Revised:
May 20, 2004
VP5B Claims
First Place, North America, Multi-Two
in 2003 CQWW SSB!
In October, 2003 I was
fortunate to join Bud Foster and a world class team of operators for the CQ
World Wide DX SSB Contest. Our team consisted of K4ISV (Owner &
Team Leader), Gary, K4UU, Kirk, K4RO, Krassy, K1LZ, Dave, W5AO
and myself. Additional photographs of this event can be see at
www.k4uu.com/~rghext/vp5.htm.
Follow this link for a summary of our claimed score.
VP5LP
Multi-Two 2003 ARRL DX CW
Team VP5LP in 2003 ARRL DX CW left to right: N3SB, K3LP (Team
Leader), N7DD, WX3B
I am pleased to
announce that our team consisting of Steve, N3SB, David, K3LP (Team Leader),
Larry, N7DD and Jim, WX3B won the 2003 ARRL DX Contest outside of the USA.
Our score:
7,891,914 was #1 overall, not only in M/2, but it was the highest score outside of the
USA in any category!
Thanks to David, K3LP
and Larry, N7DD (our veteran DX-Peditioners and contesters) for showing us how
it's done. Thanks to Steve Beckman, N3SB for all of the fine antenna
work.
Our team was active in
February, 2003 from Whitby, North Caicos, BWI for the ARRL DX CW Contest.
In addition to having a good 'old time on the
radio, we missed the Blizzard of
2003 in Maryland.
Special Thanks to
Terry Hines, N4ZH for handling all of our QSLs, and to Bud Foster, K4ISV for making
La Villa Rose such a great vacation and radio
destination.
Here are some pictures
of our adventures while on vacation.
David, Jim, Larry WX3B Runs 'Em Pileup on N3SB
The Girls
Team VP5LP '87A Repair Team
Skyhawk on
Left C-3 & N3SB
What a View David &
Larry VP5LP Antennas Larry, N7
Dog Dog
DX Dave:
K3LP Welcome Home
VP5LP Acknowledgements
Bud Foster, K4ISV maintains a world class
contest station in North Caicos. Our team benefited from many other
contests held at this location (VP5B). Having the Tower, two Yagis,
and dipoles and all radio equipment in place was a BIG stress reducer.
Bud has invested heavily in this location to make it operational - with very
little additional effort.
N3SB's 2nd HF Tribander
(the C-3) installation and tower building/climbing skills were critical.
N3SB also did a great job with the two networked computers - both
running writelog. Writelog performed flawlessly - and perhaps next year
we'll consider adding Packet Spotting to our efforts.
Jim, WX3B gets the
credit for organizing the transportation to VP5, handling the licensing,
assisting with the computer network, verifying the radio & keying interfaces;
handling the finances, organizing the operating positions in the radio room,
and most importantly - cooking the BBQ "Bubba" Burgers.
David, K3LP won the
iron man award for operating several (non-contest) nights - all night long and
we could hear him CQing during sunrise.
Larry, N7DD was the die-hard
King of 160 among the group - and our Executive Chef.
Steve, N3SB
was our master of PSK31 and one of the fast contest "runners" during the
morning European runs. In addition, Steve was also the
Amplifier and Yaesu MP Surgeon. Please see the MS PowerPoint
presentation for details if you're interested.
The 160 vertical
(Inverted L) was set up quickly by N7DD and K3LP since Bud's station planning
was in order and the materials were ready to go. The companion
receive antenna for 160 was a Pennant antenna.
VP5LP Equipment Summary
The equipment we used included
Yaesu FT-1000MPs (2), a (1)
Kenwood TL-922 amplifier, (1) Alpha
78 amplifier, Two Heil HC-4
headsets, Writelog Contest logging
software, a Force 12 C-3, dipoles,
Cush-Craft 2 element
40 meter beam at 55 feet, 160 meter inverted L with a special pennant antenna
for receiving; and the star of the show was a
Bencher Skyhawk Tribander
at 50 Feet.
I became fascinated
with the Bencher Skyhawk
because it combines durability with high gain, flat SWR, and monoband
performance on 10/15/20. The beam is 3 separate monobanders on a
24 foot boom: 3 elements on 20, 3 elements on 15, and 4 on 10.
I recently discovered that Tim Duffy, K3LR
and Jim Breakall, WA3FET did the
mechanical and electrical designing of the antenna, respectively. In
addition, Bob Locher, W9KNI (Author,
Contester, DXer) is an owner of Bencher.
The Bencher Skyhawk Tribander
For the entire story
complete with contest results from VP5LP - you can view the PowerPoint
presentation of our Multi-Two Effort:
The
Complete, Authorized 2003 VP5LP Contest Vacation
Finally - to get the
ultimate taste of VP5LP DX-Peditioning - Dan Flannagan, W3DF captured the fun
and excitement of running pileups in VP5 for your listening enjoyment.
Dan's DX Audio clips are quite interesting in general - and you can listen in
on the VP5LP and VP5/WX3B Audio Clips. Thanks for the excellent
recordings, Dan.
VP5LP (and other) DX
Audio Clips by W3DF
Thanks again to Bud Foster,
K4ISV for maintaining this world Class Villa and contest station.
Please Remember: QSLs
for VP5LP, VP5/WX3B, VP5/N3SB and VP5/K3LP go to N4ZH. QSLs for
VP5/N7DD to to W7RJ.
David, Jim, Larry WX3B Runs 'Em Pileup on N3SB
The Girls
Team VP5LP '87A Repair Team
Skyhawk on
Left C-3 & N3SB
What a View David &
Larry VP5LP Antennas Larry, N7
Dog Dog
DX Dave:
K3LP Welcome Home
VP5LP Acknowledgements
Bud Foster, K4ISV maintains a world class
contest station in North Caicos. Our team benefited from many other
contests held at this location (VP5B). Having the Tower, two Yagis,
and dipoles and all radio equipment in place was a BIG stress reducer.
Bud has invested heavily in this location to make it operational - with very
little additional effort.
N3SB's 2nd HF Tribander
(the C-3) installation and tower building/climbing skills were critical.
N3SB also did a great job with the two networked computers - both
running writelog. Writelog performed flawlessly - and perhaps next year
we'll consider adding Packet Spotting to our efforts.
Jim, WX3B gets the
credit for organizing the transportation to VP5, handling the licensing,
assisting with the computer network, verifying the radio & keying interfaces;
handling the finances, organizing the operating positions in the radio room,
and most importantly - cooking the BBQ "Bubba" Burgers.
David, K3LP won the
iron man award for operating several (non-contest) nights - all night long and
we could hear him CQing during sunrise.
Larry, N7DD was the die-hard
King of 160 among the group - and our Executive Chef.
Steve, N3SB
was our master of PSK31 and one of the fast contest "runners" during the
morning European runs. In addition, Steve was also the
Amplifier and Yaesu MP Surgeon. Please see the MS PowerPoint
presentation for details if you're interested.
The 160 vertical
(Inverted L) was set up quickly by N7DD and K3LP since Bud's station planning
was in order and the materials were ready to go. The companion
receive antenna for 160 was a Pennant antenna.
VP5LP Equipment Summary
The equipment we used included
Yaesu FT-1000MPs (2), a (1)
Kenwood TL-922 amplifier, (1) Alpha
78 amplifier, Two Heil HC-4
headsets, Writelog Contest logging
software, a Force 12 C-3, dipoles,
Cush-Craft 2 element
40 meter beam at 55 feet, 160 meter inverted L with a special pennant antenna
for receiving; and the star of the show was a
Bencher Skyhawk Tribander
at 50 Feet.
I became fascinated
with the Bencher Skyhawk
because it combines durability with high gain, flat SWR, and monoband
performance on 10/15/20. The beam is 3 separate monobanders on a
24 foot boom: 3 elements on 20, 3 elements on 15, and 4 on 10.
I recently discovered that Tim Duffy, K3LR
and Jim Breakall, WA3FET did the
mechanical and electrical designing of the antenna, respectively. In
addition, Bob Locher, W9KNI (Author,
Contester, DXer) is an owner of Bencher.