Texas QSO Party
Call: NM5G
Operator(s): NM5G
Station: NM5G
Class: SO SSB Mobile LP
QTH: STX
Operating Time (hrs): 18
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Dig Qs
----------------------------
160:
80:
40: 95
20: 142
15: 43
10:
6:
2:
UHF:
----------------------------
Total: 0 280 0 Mults = 79 Total Score = 59,740
Club: Northwest Amateur Radio Society
Comments:
>From N3FJP log file:
SOAPBOX: 500 Bonus for W0BH in 9 counties.
SOAPBOX: 5 or more contacts from: Washington, Austin, Fort Bend, Brazoria,
Matagorda, Jackson, Calhoun, Refugio, Goliad, Victoria, DeWitt, Lavaca,
Fayette, Bastrop, Lee, Total Mobile Bonus = 15000
CLAIMED-SCORE: 59740
Worked 15 of planned 35 counties.
Murphy visited early and often. On Friday Qs were made on each of the bands.
15 and 20 are covered on a 5 inch Hi-Q screwdriver, and 40 is covered by a
Hustler. I had a report of distorted audio on the Hi-Q, so added some ferrite
clip-ons to the coax. That seemed to fix the problem. On the trip back home,
the antenna mount for the Hustler loosened. It was tightened.
Saturday morning I left to pick up my driver, Skip K5LLR, in Brenham. I
stopped for coffee and found the Hustler was loose again. Not sure why, but I
replaced the Hustler with a hamstick and proceeded on to Brenham. It was still
okay when I picked up Skip.
We had breakfast and gassed up for the first operating position,
Washington-Austin county line. After hooking up the PC, connection via
USB-RS232 to N3FJP could not be found. PC re-boot solved that problem. SWR
was infinite on all bands. Tape used to attach the new ferrites to the Hi-Q
was the problem on 15 and 20 (shorted coax shield to antenna). Removed tape
and ferrites hung low like decorations seen on some pickup trailer hitches
<grin>. 40 mount was loose again. Tightened again and SWR was a bit
high, but below 3. All of this activity put us more than an hour late.
Getting reports of distorted audio again on 15 and 20. Either the ferrites are
the wrong mix, or there needs to be additional grounding on the antenna mount
(trainer hitch), or both. Reducing power, turning off processor and reducing
mic gain got me back to where other stations could understand me. However,
only the strongest stations could pull me out over the noise on 20.
SWR on 40 got progressively worse during the day. During evening pit stop
found antenna mount was loose again. Tightened again, but this time SWR went
to infinity. Found the cheap 3/8 x 24 stud was pulling the center out of the
coax connector. That was the end of 40 meters, because the Hi-Q would not
resonate anywhere on 40. I think this means it wants a better ground. To add
insult to injury, the next morning we found the stinger on the hamstick was
gone. It must have vibrated loose and unscrewed itself.
So now we are limited to running 15 while moving, due to ignition noise on 20
from the Silverado, and limited to 15/20 while parked at county lines. At
least there were no battery issues as I had a dry cell battery installed to run
the radios only. It weighs 45 pounds, and delivers 1200 amps for 11 seconds, a
real brute! It is designed for those high-end mobile audio system sub-woofers.
Works great.
considering the above problems, it is surprising that I made 280 contacts. It
was frustrating at times, but still a fun time.
73, Keith NM5G
TQP Coordinator
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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