North American QSO Party, CW - January
Call: NX6T
Operator(s): N0DY
Station: NX6T
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: San Diego
Operating Time (hrs): 10
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 11 3
80: 44 21
40: 302 48
20: 144 38
15: 64 33
10: 207 33
-------------------
Total: 772 176 Total Score = 135,872
Club: San Diego Contest Club
Team: SCCC #2
Comments:
My first NAQP, and what a great one! Despite multiple unwelcome visits from Mr.
Murphy...
Visit #1: The K3 announced a 12v fault just after QSYing to 15m and wouldn't
transmit. No problem, just cycle power and go on. Only after about an hour did
I realize that the K3 automagically lowers the power to 5 watts - so I was QRP
for most of my first hour on 15!
After swapping out 3 power supplies and trying everything I could short of
opening the rig, contacted Dennis N6KI via Skype who gave the go ahead to open
it up. Wiggled some boards and reassembled. Worked great for about 5 QSOs, then
faulted again.
Dennis offered the use of one of the spare TS-950s. Took him up on this despite
having almost never used a Kenwood rig before. Couldn't get the RS-232 port to
talk to the computer, so went with manual band changes. Also, didn't want to
spend any more time trying to figure out how to wire up the paddles, so decided
to live with just computer sent CW.
Finally got things up and running, but had killed my two hour break, right in
the middle of prime time on 15 and 20.
Visit #2:
Life was good again, despite the unfamiliar rig. Worked out 20 and 40 (by this
time, 15 was shot), and decided to QSY to 80M. For some reason which I still
don't understand, could not transmit CW on 80 meters. Got just a straight
carrier. Worked fine on all the other bands. Even swapped out the TS-950 for a
different one. Same problem. Decided to press on without 80 meters and went to
160 for a few Qs then back to 40. At some time during a run on 40 meters, I
got...
Visit #3:
The second TS-950 went bang and stopped working. By this time I was a pro at
swapping out radios, the the first TS-950 went back in place.
Ran up until the last hour on 40, and decided I HAD to be on 80, just for the
mults. Pulled the computer CW and plugged in the paddles, figured out how to
get them working on the TS-950 menus, and did hand sent CW in S&P mode on
80 for the rest of the contest. Just like the old timers!!
All in all, despite Mr. Murphy, I had a great time! Thanks to Dennis, N6KI, for
the use of the NX6T station for the contest and to John, WA2OOB for the help
with setup last weekend and teardown today.
Thanks for all the Qs!
73, Jeff N0DY
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