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T48RAC |
Once again the ARRL DX SSB Contest saw a joint effort from 18 Cuban and 3 Canadian amateur radio operators using the special Cuban call T48RAC at the radio club station CO9NLA at the University of Oriente in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba.
This year the operators, supported by Edil CO8KL, and Don VE3ESE, were:
Eduardo CO8LY, Juan CO8OT, Victor CO8HF, Juan CO8TW, Felix CO8DD, Douglas CO8DM, David CO8DC, Eric CL8EVL, Armando CO8WN, Josue CO8JY, Ruben CO8WZ, Luis CO8SA, Jose CO8DW, Andres CO8DT, Eduardo CO8UZ, Abel CO8VN, Adolfo CO8WS, Joe VE3SDN and Greg VE3NXB.
Pictures follow this article
Five stations, working all bands, were assembled in three rooms at the electrical engineering campus. Contest log activity and pictures of the ops, were forwarded to the T48RAC log page on the Kitchener-Waterloo Amateur Radio Club Web site with the assistance of Dave VA3DGS,
and Edil CO8KL ... NEAT!
Don set expectations high and felt that 5,000 contacts could be achieved during the contest and was pleased with 4837. The ops came together with structured determination to make a great showing... and the winning certificate.
Five rigs operated barefoot using a 3 element beam for 20 meters, and a second for 15. The other bands used dipoles or end fed wires. All antennas were above the roof of the 4 story building. A 160, 80, and 40 meter Zepp antenna donated by some visiting hams earlier this year was strung across to the next building but proved to be intermittent for some unknown reason. Joe VE3SDN, Josue CO8JY, Don VE3ESE and one of Edil's undergrad students Ricardo , spent all day Saturday trying to get it to work on 160, but MURPHY prevailed. In desperation they strung out a quarter wavelength of wire and connected the braid of the coax feed to the ground wire for the lightning rods that circle the
perimeter of the roof. This made a great, although possibly dangerous counterpoise and put us on top band. Josue, an avid 160 meter operator worked 151 contacts and 34 multipliers to give the final score a 618,039 point boost.
We must not forget the guys that looked after our food and refreshment needs. Without them the operation could not have been run for the 48 hours without the operating gang having to leave to "restoke their boilers". This function was headed by Joe VE3SDN with Eduardo CO8UZ, Adolfo CM8WS, and Abel CO8VN ensuring all could happily contest.
After returned home, Don set about reviewing the logs and calculating the final score; after taking out the DX contacts, like Clipperton Island. The final score is 4830 contacts, 311
multipliers, for a grand total of 4,506,390 points. I hope your call is in the T48RAC log and that you had as much fun as we did. Please QSL via VE3ESE to confirm the T4 Cuban prefix.
73, from Greg VE3NXB and Don VE3ESE
The operators uploaded their logs each evening via packet to the internet and on to the KWARC web server. You can check to see if you're in the log. Click the flag for access.
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Omar, CM8DW |
David, CO8DC |
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Felix, CO8DD |
Victor, CO8HF |
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Greg VE3NXB | Dave CO8DC | Don VE3ESE |
Don VE3ESE |
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