North American QSO Party, CW - August
Call: N1LN
Operator(s): N1LN
Station: N1LN
Class: Single Op Assisted LP
QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 10
OpMode: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 86 28
80: 224 46
40: 318 58
20: 192 54
15: 60 31
10: 0 0
-------------------
Total: 880 217 Total Score = 190,960
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Team:
Comments:
Let me start with an apology. If you happened to work me during the first 3
hours and thought my CW keying sounded real bad, well it did. It was better for
the last 7 hours but not much. This issue was also only on one side of my SO2R
configuration. Unfortunately, it was on the K4D side. What could be wrong with
my new K4D? What have I screwed up that I can not find? In short - NOTHING! As
expected this was an OPERATOR ISSUE! I use a YCCC box for my SO2R control. One
configuration feature of the control is to be able to adjust Keyer Compensation
using the MORE tab. I typically have mine set at +6 for both my K3S and K4D. I
checked and they both said 6. Yup....the K4D side was set at -6. Wow does that
screw things up. Did I see that? NO! I wasted about 1 hour of the first 3 hours
trying to diagnose the issue by reading the K4D manual, moving cables, plugging
a paddle directly into the K4D. Finally I swapped the SO2R cables moving radio
right to left and radio left to right. The problem moved to the K3S!! My Ah Ha
moment. It is the SO2R box! I never actually had the issue totally resolved
until this morning at 1115 UTC. During NAQP it got better because I did a total
RESET on the SO2R box which cleared the Keyer Compensation settings. So, both
sides were not great, but usable.
Now on the the actual contest. What happened to 10 meters. Totally gone from
here and 15 was not much better. Then at 2015 UTC everything closed. Gotta love
those FLARES !! Time for dinner.
After almost an hour break the bands seemed back and the fun returned. SO2R
really helped me gain back some of the lost Qs, but I would guess the first 3
hours of FUN cost more than 100Qs and for sure some mults.
See you in a couple weeks in NAQP-SSB. Thanks for the Qs and patience with a
horrible few hours of CW keying.
73,
Bruce N1LN
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