NA Sprint - CW
Call: W6UE
Operator: W4EF
Station: W6UE
Power: HP
QTH: CA
Summary:
Band QSOs Op Time
----------------------
80: 58
40: 116
20: 139
----------------------
Total: 313 Qs 49 Mults = 15337
Comments:
Team Name: SCCC #1
Heard but not Worked: NE
Missed: VE1, VE2, ME, RI, VT, MD, KY, MT, IA
Station #1 TS950SDX/Alpha 78 - 5EL 20M 48' boom at 70'/
80 meter Inv-V at 90'/
75 meter Inv V at 70'
Station #2 Ten-Tec Paragon/Alpha 78 - KLM 40M2 at 70' fixed ENE/
Inv-V at 70'
Started reconfiguring the usual two station HF setups at W6UE for
SO2R about 9:30 Saturday morning. Around noon I discovered that
the 80 meters station was QRMing the 40 meter station. Thinking
it was the close proximity of the 80 meter dipole to the 2 el
40, I tried tuning up our 75 meter inverted vee on 80 CW (its
on a different tower). Tried on old Dentron tuner, but it started
flashing over at about 600 watts, so I drove home a grabbed my
trusty old Ten-Tec 229. By 2 PM I had everything hooked up, but
the I was still getting QRM on 40 from the 80 meter station. All
the coaxial stubs and ICE bandpass filters that I tried didn't
seem to help either. My second harmonic sounded real dirty, so
I began to suspect some kind of rectification. Finally I got smart
and unplugged the remote coax switch for the 80 meter antenna.
This killed the 40 meter QRM, but left me with only the 75 meter
inverted-vee. Just after 2 PM I headed up to the roof with bypass
caps and soldering iron in hand. By 3 PM I had all the control
lines to the ICE remote switch bypassed. Arrgh, still no better.
Wait, if I grab the rack handle on the control box, the QRM goes
down. One hour to go before the contest and I am taking apart the
control box. Its 3:35 PM as I solder in the last bypass capacitor
and button up the control box. Double aargh, still no better! Okay
how about a short ground strap to the station monitor (it should
be at RF ground by virtue of the coax cables). Bingo, QRM is gone
with 15 minutes to spare. Just enough time to go to the bathroom
and warm up a little. Gee I'm tired!
Get N5NU on the hook at 23:59:30, okay AS AS AS 00:00 N5NU W6UE #1
Mike Ca. W6UE #2 Jay Tx N5NU. Hey, how'd he do that? Okay here we
go for another 4 hours of arm flailing, adrenal pumping, chaotic
action. 03:59:55 N2NT 313 Mike Ca W6UE. It's over, time to come out
of the hypnotic trance - hey I finally broke 300 QSOs - cool! Now
to just figure out how the winners are making 15 more QSOS an hour
than me (I wonder if they remember the contest?).
Mike, W4EF................
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
W6UE 313 49 15337HP
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/3830faq.html
Submissions: 3830@contesting.com
Administrative requests: 3830-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-3830@contesting.com
|