ARRL June VHF QSO Party
Call: N8RA
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: FN31 CT
Operating Time (hrs): 19
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 198 52
2: 80 23
222: 22 14
432: 25 12
-------------------
Total: 325 101 Total Score = 37,572
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
The contest got off to a slow start here. The Q's and mults were not
building as fast as in previous contests, and it also seemed harder to work
the stations that I could hear. Was it conditions, had my antennas
degraded, or was it a decline in VHF activity? Late Saturday night though,
things picked up, and Sunday's activity more than made up for a ho-hum
Saturday. Of course, when the E skip kicked in Sunday on 6M, most everyone
stayed there and the higher band activity suffered. But after the E's
evaporated, everyone then went to the other bands where tropo had become
pretty good.
Improving the station and facing problems is what makes contesting
interesting and an adventure. I returned home from Vermont only 2 hours
before the start of the contest, had some lunch, and then went to the shack
to turn everything on. The station had been set up for this contest before
my trip and I thought it was all ready to go. Wrong! With only 20 minutes to
the start, I could not get the networked logging computers to see each
other. Started editing computer names and then eventually realized that the
wi-fi network card in the secondary computer had not auto-connected to my
home network. By then though the main computer thought it was computer
number 17, not 0, and would not then let me edit or delete any logging
errors throughout the contest, nor even make notes, so paper and pencil
became an essential item on the op desk. But the two computers did see each
other and kept a consistent log.
Before the last contest, I found that I needed to carefully separate the
cables from the K3 IF radio to the 222 transverter from the serial link
cabling from the IF radio to the computer. But this time I could not seem to
eliminate the excess receive noise when the radio was being polled. The
solution was to use a PCI serial port card in the computer instead of the
USB to serial port converter that I had been using. Much quieter! I think I
will get another PCI card for the other radio.
This spring I put up a new 432 antenna. The one I had been using was on a
higher tower higher up the hill that cleared the top of the trees, but it
had a very long run of feedline. This new one would be lower, would not
clear the trees or the hilltop to the NE, but would have much lower feedline
loss. Would the loss of working a couple of grids to the NE be offset by the
hoped for increase in performance in the other directions? It seemed to work
out that way, my 432 grid count was the highest ever and some nice 400 mile
contacts were made.
That new 432 antenna was mounted only a few feet above the 222 yagi, and not
knowing if 222 would pick up too much RF and burn out its front end, an
antenna relay was installed to disconnect the 222 antenna from the
transverter when 432 was in use. But, when I would forget to switch if back
when getting on 222, it meant that I could not hear anyone. And, it meant
that the 222 amp was then transmitting into an open coax. Fortunately the
222 amp is an old AM-6154 only running 100 watts out, and it did not seem to
mind when I forgot to switch the relay.
Sunday morning the AM-6154 on 2M suddenly stopped working right as I was
moving a 6M station to 2M. What the? A quick check showed no screen voltage.
The amplifier rack was shut down so it could be troubleshot. It turns out
the power resistor in the screen circuit had opened (it was not shorted
zeners, hooray) and I had a spare resistor. The disassembly and repair was
made in a series of short breaks from 6M where I did not want to miss the
spotty E's openings there.
With 2M back on the air again, I then found that I could not work anyone on
222 or 432. Oops, forgot to turn all the power back on when testing the
repaired 2M amp. Thanks K1RZ for your patience while I figured this out.
(Those amps are in another room to minimize fan noise in the shack, and are
not visible from the op chair.)
Again I am left thinking I need to totally disassemble the shack, redesign
the layout and construction and make it foolproof and more convenient to
work VHF contests. Maybe a winter project.
Thanks for all the Q's and for the conversations during slow times, it was
great to connect with old friends and make some new ones.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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