03/21/2008 | P40A Fantastic conditions! I know the majority of the participants will strongly disagree with this statement, however from Aruba propagation was great on all bands except for 10m. I did hear a nice 10m opening a few days before the contest. Unfortunately, during the contest it never really occurred from my location. On Saturday, I listened to HC8A and others in South America running stations for hours but I did not hear a peep out of the U.S. until late in the afternoon. My 10m opening only covered a small area of the southwestern United States. The rates were not fast and I worked very few new multipliers, so I did not spend much time on this band. I listened often on my second transceiver for a better opening and never found one. I made most of my contacts on 15m. This band was quiet since there was almost no propagation to Europe and it produced the best rates. During the quickest hour I logged more than 300 stations. 20m was crowded and the rates were slower than on 15m, however the band was open from sunrise to past sunset and it produced very good QSO totals. During the night, I spent most of my time on 40m where I always seemed to be able to generate a pileup. Throughout the night, I regularly changed to either 80m or 160m, usually making around 30 QSOs before going back to 40m. There was little noise on the low bands and the nighttime conditions were exceptional. I would like to thank everyone for the QSOs, especially those who worked me on multiple bands. I worked 4100 different stations, 89 stations on five bands and only N5AW and KB5TX made it into the log on all six bands. The climate in Aruba is rough on antenna systems. The constant wind combined with the salt spray causes very accelerated corrosion to the antennas and towers. It has been two years since I did any maintenance and thankfully everything was still up and working properly during this fun contest. I would also like to thank Tim, WD9DZV for doing a great job as my QSL manager.

73, John (john@p40a.com) -- KK9A