Well I just participated in my first attempt at a contest with my Eagle.
Last year at this time I had the Eagle but had taken down all of my antennas
in preparation for our move back to Germany.
This year I made a decent attempt at the CQWW CW contest.
I say "decent" rather than "serious" because I slept 6 hours Friday night
and 7 hours Saturday night.
Real contesters don't sleep more than 1.5 hrs per day during the contest
(source: K5ZD sleep study).
Being a low band fan, I did get up early each morning and attack 80 and 40.
In doing so, I stumbled onto a real downside of the Eagle.
Before I continue, I need to point out a difference between Europe and USA:
Here in Europe the heating systems in our houses are built different than
the heating systems in the states.
We have a big water boiler in the cellar which heats water to a high
temperature and then circulates the water through pipes throughout the
house, with huge radiators in every room. This gives indirect heating..etc.
Well during the night the boiler temperature is dropped to a very low
temperature to save energy.
It switches on again before we wake up the next morning, so we never notice
it.
During the contest when you are up all night (most of the night, or just a
few hours) it can really be cold in the shack.
In the past, when running my Omni V, Omni VI, Vi+, for about 18 years, I
could depend on the transceiver getting really hot during a long contest,
especially on the top of the rig in the back, near the heat sink.
It was nice to warm my hands on the top cover of the rig.
Well Ten-Tec forgot to include that feature with the Eagle.
Throughout the entire contest it never even got warm.
I about froze my fingers off.
This rig leaves me cold!
Now the positives: I will describe my pleasure using the Eagle in a
separate email (so that people can use the title as a meaningful indication
of content).
73
Rick, DJ0IP
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