ARRL September VHF Contest - 2021
Call: N8RA
Operator(s): N8RA
Station: N8RA
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: FN31
Operating Time (hrs): 6
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 18 11
2: 73 27
222: 13 10
432:
903:
1.2:
2.3:
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 104 48 Total Score = 5,616
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
For weak signal VHF work, FT-8 is a low noise preamp built with software. It is
a delight to log a station that is more than -20dB in the noise.
My runny nose and stuffy head arrived right on time to help keep me off the
voice modes. But the biggest downer was the unreliable transmitter section of my
Elecraft K3 that I’ve been trying to fix over the last few months. After
checking out the bandpass filters, changing the fwd and rev power meter diodes,
rechecking for a bad LPA FET, checking their bias, increasing the supply
voltage, running the failing transmitter gain calibration routine again and
again, it still fails to reliably work at the set output power level. Sometimes
it will, but a few hours later after just sitting there, it won’t. So there
went 6M for the weekend. The K3 has to go back for service, and I may not see it
again this year, as I’ve heard the Elecraft service department is taking over
12 weeks to get to your radio. Argh!!
Managed only a few Q’s on 6M when the K3 worked. Its transverter output also
suffered, but not as badly, and I was delighted to be able to try out the 222
MHz band from my QTH.
The Orion with an Elecraft 2M transverter worked just fine, but with the flaky
K3 for the other bands I only spent a few hours total on the air throughout the
weekend.
A spot of good news: the powerline noise that was killing reception on 6M and a
bit on 2M was gone, so Eversource’s work on the poles I flagged seems to have
done the job.
73,
Chet, N8RA
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