North American QSO Party, RTTY - July
Call: W4PK
Operator(s): W4PK
Station: W4PK
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: VA
Operating Time (hrs): 3:50
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
80:
40: 22 17
20: 59 29
15: 37 8
10: 3 3
-------------------
Total: 121 57 Total Score = 6,897
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Team: PVRC SWVA 3
Comments:
Three problems kept me from putting more time into this contest. The first was I
didn't have one radio's audio from my home-brew SO2R equipment, the second was
with n1mm+, and the third was with my SteppIR 3-element beam.
I was able to fix the lack of audio problem and I started the contest about an
hour late.
Soon after I started and while running with both radios I found that often
N1MM+ would log calls but not send an acknowledgement message to the intended
station. This was a problem I had encountered occasionally in previous
contests but this time it was quite often.
Thinking I had a hardware problem in the way I was using the LPT port (A/B
selection via pin 14) from my computer I modified my SO2R logic board to use
the RTS pin on each radio's serial port to key each radio's PTT line. Making
these modifications took about 3-4 hours away from the contest. But it made no
difference. I then suspected that my Edgeport USB-to-RS232 adapter was the
culprit. I am going to try using a PCI board that has RS-232 Baudot capability
next to see if that is the problem.
I ended up just using one radio but my heart was no longer in it so I quit
early and went to bed.
Later I found out that others also were experiencing this problem. I really
thought I had a hardware problem but it turned out that I can duplicate the
problem every time if the other radio was transmitting for any reason when I
right-clicked in the DI window to complete the exchange. It would log the
exchange but not activate the radio's PTT. I do think this is a bug.
I never did get to the 3rd problem with my SteppIR not working. This will be a
project for later.
73, Sam W4PK
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