Well, that was a lot of fun! First time in a 432 Sprint. I love this
roving stuff.
Prefaced the Sprint with a good Maine dinner of lobster stew followed by
a dish of Moose Tracks ice cream at the Dolphin Restaurant at Basin
Point in Harpswell, the FN43 location.
From FN43:
5 Qs, 4 Grids
Best DX was K2ZRJ in FM29. Heard Ken, KA2LIM on CW before the start but
never again :(
Moved a few miles north and west to FN53:
10 Qs, 7 grids
Best DX was N3RN in FN11. CW accounted for half the Qs. Gotta find my
keyer. Can't recall the last time I used a straight key, and it showed.
Thanks to Bill, K1DY/R, for 3 unique grids; FN54, FN44, and FN53.
Headed to Lisbon Ridge for FN44. Great site; all signals were loud, but
there weren't many of them.
5 Qs, 4 Grids
Best DX was K1TEO in FN31. Worked Jeff from all 3 grids, along with
Dave K1WHS and Bill, K1DY/R
While in FN44 I developed a problem tuning the rig; then the knob fell
off in my hand! Of course I didn't have any allen wrenches with me so
went knobless from then on.
Headed to Lewis Hill in FN54 with 15 minutes to go, and Dave K1WHS was
really weak. Hmmm. SWR light on the RFC brick came on immediately upon
closing the key. It appeared that the heavy bus wire attaching the amp
output connector to the PC board might have come loose again. I had
fixed that before the contest, but it sees a lot of stress removing and
reattaching the stiff LMR400. A future problem to address.
Disassembled the amp this morning; it's visually fine. No broken wires.
I think the radio is also ok as the preamp raises the noise floor as
it should. So...the antenna? Feedline? Dunno yet. More work to do.
Result: Skunked in FN54
Thanks to Dave K1WHS for the loan of the DSFO432-15RS yagi. Great
performer, but a rotator is definitely in my future...
If I'm back from Saturday's trip to CO in time, see you all in the 6m
Sprint, perhaps from the same route.
73,
Bruce WW1M/R
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|