BARTG RTTY Sprint
Call: VE7FO
Operator(s): VE7FO
Station: VE7FO
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 3
Summary:
Band QSOs Pts
-----------------
80: 19
40: 1
20: 25
15: 13
10: 8
-----------------
Total: 66 4 Mults = 25 Total Score = 6,600
Club: British Columbia DX Club
Comments:
Hmmm.... a confusing score entry box. 66Qs x 25 Mults x 4 Continents = 6600
pts
Wasn't able to spend much time on this one. Last BARTG I had just got the new
(to me) PK232 working in it's own WriteLog window along with RITTY. This one
provided the impetus to see if I could set things up to do SO1.5R on RTTY with
the MkV. Turns out to be very easy once you have 2 TNCs working in separate
windows. Now that I have my audio patch panel pretty well set up I patch MkV AF
OUT from VFO B through mixer (to enable me to adjust audio level) and into PK232
input. RITTY gets it's audio from PKT OUT jack on back of MkV, also via mixer.
So Run on A with RITTY and tune for mults, etc., on B with PK232. Very slow, as
can only listen on B when not transmitting on A. When you find someone on B and
want to call, hit the A<>B swich, work him on A, hit the switch agtain and go
back to running and tuning. There may well be better ways of doing this but
this was my first attempt. (Hope I got this right. Found I haven't documented
what I did so doing this from memory.)
As I find the PK232 tuning indicator difficult to use quickly, I was going to
connect it's tuning outputs to an old Heathkit scope. I got out the scope and
turned it on. Nothing. Now what. Pulled it out of it's case and found 2 10
watt resistors lying in the bottom in a pool of gooey adhesive like substance,
right under the big 4 section electrolytic filter capacitor. Hmmm.... I can
see that these resistors used to be soldered right here and now they aren't
soldered to anything. Must have got pretty hot in here. I used to think that
Heath stuff was pretty reliable but I've only had this scope for 47 years and
already it's failed.
So, no scope tuning indicator. In spite of that, SO1.5R worked pretty well. I
can see that the next thing to do is hook up the old 75A4 to a separate antenna
(with due regard to protecting it's input from my transmitted RF), and feed that
into the PK232. I could feed both 75A4 and VFO B audio into the mixer and
select one or the other to feed the PK232. Between that and the scope tuning
when I get it fixed, there'll be no catching me. Not only that, technically it
won't even be SO2R so I will be able to proudly proclaim that I did it all with
one radio.
No blow-by-blow this time. Had troubles at the start getting RTTY output from
the Tx. Tried all kinds of things. After an hour or so I turned up the Mic
gain. Oh, that was it. Got 100W now. Sigh. I've got to document the setup
for each type of contest.
Wish I could have been on longer. Maybe next time. In spite of the poor
conditions there were Qs to be made. Thanks for the patience everyone while I
hit the wrong keys and thanks for the Qs.
73 de Jim Smith VE7FO
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