The Magic of Contest Station PJ2T Curacao: Geoff Howard W0CG
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- Legendary is the word most often associated with the PJ2T contest station in Curacao. This ham radio station which is located 12 degrees north of the equator, in what is informally referred to as a magical propagation zone, has a very long and rich history of well known operators. The PJ2T story begins with hotelier Chet Brandon PJ2CC who is credited for first noticing the unique HF conditions in Curacao. Chet then convinced CW Contest Hall of Famer, John Thompson W1BIH, to build a house at Coral Cliffs. In his first contest from his new home, John’s team took the World #1 spot in the 1967 CWWW CW contest beginning a long tradition of multi-operator wins. The PJ2T story continued in 2001 when another CQ Contest Hall of Famer, Geoff Howard W0CG, took over stewardship of this world renowned station. Geoff not only rebuilt the house and the station but formed a unique consortium of contesters that would be instrumental in keeping the station active and winning contests. In this interview, Geoff W0CG provides an overview of the station history, the Curacao Contest Consortium, and the magic that has led to years of worldwide contesting wins.
W0CG Geoff, does an outstanding job with PJ2T. The amount of work required to keep a station like this in working order just boggles my mind where it is located right next to the ocean. Geoff is an amazing host and creates a contest environment that is fun and productive. Max NG7M
"...job is to have fun."
Love your mindset!
Amazing story. Inspirational. Thank you for sharing. 🤝
Glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent interview. Thanks fellas!
I was fortunate enough to operate for St Lucia. Geoff is right. The propagation is wild! I spent 8 days getting beat up by EU and JA on CW. What a blast!
I worked PJ2T on 15m and 20m in the CQ WW DX CW this past weekend with 5 watts and a wire antenna. They were booming into eastern Canada. It's so cool to have behind-the-scenes videos like this one and then work them in a contest. I also got K3LR in the log for the first time this weekend. Thanks again for all of the great content, Kevin. de VA2NW.
Thanks for watching. I agree about the behind the scenes. These interviews have given me a fun look at the stories behind the callsigns.
Loved the PJ2T presentation and learned a lot more than I knew about it previously, though I was aware of the CCC. You're right that the Carib is magic. Last year for CQWW-SSB I operated the ZF5T/K5GO station which Stan owns (I was ZF2AA) and it blew my mind how much different it was there compared to VE9 land. 73 Geoff & Kevin. Keep up the great work both. CU (all of a sudden!) in the next one. Mike VE9AA
Thanks, Mike! I couldn't believe how rich, and deep, the PJ2T story is. There is so much more to tell. I need to have Geoff back again.
That is cool, as a very rookie contester with my minuscule station, I still get plenty of fun, challenges and learing while contesting. A lot of locals here HATES contests and find that stupid that "we" jam the bands and do only a quick exchange but there is something that drives me and push me to contests, break my own records, learn and master difficult conditions, break a pileup or be myself the pilup, just make me love radio so much for such a long time in my life. Now in your extremely beautiful conditions in a killer station like that, that must be a dream and so fun to reach all those difficult places that I can't reach (yet) from my little station ! Very interesting podcast ! 73 de VA2CST
Thank you for watching!
great story and dedication to radiosport and ham radio. If you ever need an op to help out with the SSB contests let me know an I'll do my best to be there de NJ4Z.
Great story & video! de W2CSI
Excellent video. Thanks.
Congratulations on 1,000 subscribers! de VA2NW
Thank you, Tom!