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CQWW SSB at C6
Parting Words
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By Ernie Orman, W5OXA
In the beginning there was an idea that the MDXA members should go on some kind of a expedition. I wanted this for a long time and at the Jackson hamfest in 2001 it was born. During the DX forum I made a plea to the members for anyone that wanted to go somewhere for the CQWW contest. I gave a good pitch and right off the bat there was 4 members that wanted to go. The expedition was born and on the way. In the days that followed many details were considered and trashed. After looking in many places we finally landed on the Bahamas where Ken Helton KC4SZE/C6AHN has a villa with radios and antennas for rent at our price. After several hundred e-mails to the team and some joining and some dropping out, it finally was a done deal. All the tickets and license were in hand now we were off and running. All we had to do now was wait for the 22 of October and do our thing.....
The CQWW contest is over and we have returned from a wonderful vacation with memories that will last for a lifetime. The event started out with 7 Hams and when it ended up we had 4 left. There were many reasons for the members to drop out and we all understood. The four left was: Ernie W5OXA, Randy W5UE, Stan K5NY and last but not least Bernie KK5EW. The trip started out at Midnight the 21st of October with instructions from the airlines to be there 3 hours early. With all that in mind Stan and I met in Kiln at Randy's home and we three started out for the New Orleans airport in Stan's van. Stan's van is sort of unique, it amplified every bump in the road but it got us there just fine. We parked in one of those 40 bucks a week lots and got a shuttle to the airport. When we all got in we found that the airport was empty. We were just about the only ones in there except for some lady sleeping on a bench. We made a few pictures and settled down for a three hour wait. At 5:30 in the morning people started coming in and that airport filled up in about 15 minutes. I dont see how they got us all checked in but they did and we made our 6 AM Flight. The flight from New Orleans to Treasure Cay, Bahamas was uneventful except for the fact that we met a Ham in Houston on his way to Miami. The customs check at Treasure Cay was easy and short. We also met Bernie there and we all got a cab and took off to the villa that we secured for the contest.
After taking a short tour of the Cay we finally arrived at the villa. The short tour was because of some misdirection's but we did make it there. We were met by Ken, the owner, which was an unexpected surprise to us. He gave us a tour of the place and got us all settled in. We were all excited about the villa and wanted to get on the air and start making contacts. That would be one of our big surprises. After assigning rooms, we started unpacking which did not take to long. We got both of the stations on the air in short order and began to make contacts. Much to our surprise hams from all over the world seemed to want to talk to C6A. The pile ups were unbelievable. I think that we could have 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We were just about wore out by the time the contest started.
Our one tour of the island was to Marsh Harbor and to Elbow Cay to see the Lighthouse. It was well worth the effort and time not to speak of the cost. The taxi alone was $100.00 with the tip and the boat ride to the Cay was another $85.00. The lighthouse was all that was expected. The light itself was mechanically operated with an oil lamp. It has a chain and weight that operated the light and a oil tank that pumped oil to the light. It was all in operating condition. The Lighthouse was red and white striped with walls about 2 feet thick. It was massive and well worth the effort to see it.
Randy and I put together a plan of attack for the contest. We settled on 2 hour shifts for us, Stan and Bernie was to run the multiplier station at their own rate. After the first shift I thought that we, Randy and I, would not be able to keep up that pace so we went to 1 hour shifts and then we both went to bed around 11 or 12 depending on how we felt. With about 5 hours sleep we managed to keep the pace with no problem. Our contact rate averaged about 150 per hour extending up to 230 per hour. During the 48 hour event we put together some 4500 Q's to the tune of some 4.6 Million points. We did not make any historical records but we did HAVE FUN and exceeded our personal goals that we set before the contest started. A 4 man team can operate multi single and have a good score.
At the MDXA breakfast Randy and I have started thinking about a new place to go for next year. We are also looking of some more contesters that would like to go with us. You will never know how much fun a contest can be until you are on the other end of the pile up. It is a massive shot in the arm to have a never ending pile up. During the week that we were there we made some 8000 + QSO's. That aint bad for a bunch out on the their first try....
73Ernie W5OXA/C6A, C6AKO
