I have kept a station notebook for years. I never really thought that it was
something that others did. I am on volume 5 I think. Little spiral bound
notebooks. I keep notes of pin-out connections with drawings, rotator and
other cable colours and connections and drawings, antenna design info
(element length, spacing, taper schedule, etc). Equipment and packet
interconnecting cable pin-outs, etc. In fact a I also have a separate book
just for mic, afsk, control and other pin-outs. It is good to be able to go
back 10 years and check on something 'you think you remember'. I also have
an old filing cabinet full of manuals, circuits, rubbish, etc.
Stewart
GM4AFF/GM0F
-----Original Message-----
From: K4RO Kirk Pickering [mailto:k4ro@k4ro.net]
Sent: 13 August 2004 21:53
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Cc: tcg@k4ro.net
Subject: [CQ-Contest] The Station Notebook
Do you keep a Station Notebook? I'm talking about
a binder (or perhaps computer documents) where you
keep track of station design and construction.
What parameters do you keep track of? Which do you
find the most useful for troubleshooting antenna or
station problems? How do you organize the data?
I am trying to take care of some severe inter-station
interference in my humble one-tower SO2R station. The
number of antenna choices and feedlines is bewildering
for my little station; I can only imagine what it must
be like to keep track of a serious M/M or M/2 station.
To get the answer pump primed, my station notebook is
currently a file cabinet with a myraid of folders, plus
some documents on the computer. I have separate folders
for tower, antennas, rigs, antenna switching, and non-station
stuff like DXCC etc. I have just started logging information
for each antenna feedline (currently numbering 16, including
RX antennas.) For each antenna, I am logging resonant frequency,
SWR curves, and impedance resistive and reactive components.
One goal is to have a place to start troubleshooting when an
antenna does not seem to be working properly.
I would be interested in hearing about other's Station Notebooks,
and what information is considered the most important to track.
73
-Kirk K4RO
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
Scanned by IFB SafeMail http://www.ifb.net for spam/UCE and virus content.
IFB Spam-Score: (0.6)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Offshore Design Ltd
www.odl.co.uk
This email is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain
confidential and privileged information. You should not disclose its
contents to any other person. Any unauthorised review, use, disclosure or
distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please
notify the sender immediately.
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|