Stew Perry Topband Challenge - Dec 17
Call: KH6AQ
Operator(s): KH6AQ NH6V
Station: KH6AQ
Class: Multi-Op HP
QTH: PAHOA, HI
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 175 Total Score = 1,972
Club:
Comments:
This turned out to be a very successful Stew for us!
Dave and Rob did a Hawai'i field-day style Stew from the windward side of
Hawai'i island. A 1/4 wavelength sloping vertical wire worked against two
elevated radials worked well. Local RFI was non-existent and the local weather
was great. All but 4 QSOs were made at 500 watts with just four at 100 watts.
Dave thought the 4 kW generator would run the entire contest on one tank of gas.
It didn't. Having brought no gas can, Rob drove the generator to a gas station
at 2 in the morning while Dave continued working stations at 100W. That yielded
four valuable contacts by the time Rob returned.
Thunderstorms around the islands made for horrendous and prolonged RF blasts
that obliterated all but the strongest signals. When it started, single
characters would be taken out by the blasts. By the early morning hours the
blasts got longer and longer until some persisted for as long as 10 seconds with
2 second recharge periods after which we were served up another blast. The
blasts might be cascades of hundreds, if not thousands, lightning discharges.
Rob discovered that turning the FTdx-10 Noise Reduction OFF made for better copy
as the RX recovered faster after a blast. We used two very different receiver
setups to handle the noise. Rob turned the AGC off, audio gain up, and rode the
RF gain control along with one preamp invoked. Dave ran FAST AGC, RF gain at
full, no preamp and 6 dB of attenuation. The APF turned out to be useful
sometimes. Overall, the FTdx-10 did a good job and was not fatiguing even with
the lightning noise.
The "shack" was the passenger seat of Dave's car and the other op
slept in the second car. AC took care of the amp heat dumped into the car
interior.
FTdx-10
AL-811 at 500W
1/4 wavelength ground plane 50' from the shoreline parallel to the mainland
path.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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