ARRL September VHF Contest - 2021
Call: K2DRH
Operator(s): K2DRH
Station: K2DRH
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: EN41vr IL
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 21 11
2: 39 21
222: 30 17
432: 29 15
903: 12 10
1.2: 10 9
2.3: 7 7
3.4: 8 7
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 156 98 Total Score = 29,792
Club: Society of Midwest Contesters
Comments:
One year to the day from the 100 MPH Derecho that killed my top 2M antenna an
80MPH microburst killed my bottom 2M antenna, again one month from the contest.
M2 was able to get me out a new antenna right away. I’m not yet up to
climbing from my injuries so I hired another tower guy to put up yet another new
one that AC0RA helped me build one Sunday. After 3 cancellations by the tower
guys, finally got it done the Wednesday before the contest with two guys under
30 on the tower doing what I used to be able to do by myself. I went to simple
SWR test it and Damn .. no output on 2M. Had to get out the VNA to check it
out. Found out my amp was dead and commenced troubleshooting but all the usual
stuff that goes wrong was OK. Had to put that on hold the next day, Thursday,
as we had several MD appointments that required a lot of driving around.
My XYL N2KMA had been having some difficulties for a while and she was working
with her doctors to figure it out. It suddenly got a lot worse and she wound up
in the hospital for a week where they determined that a long term medication she
had been taking for 20 years had quit working properly and began doing harm to
her kidneys and liver. Luckily they were able to turn that around but the new
medication takes some adjustment and getting used to so we’ve had lots more
bad nights and visits to multiple doctors and therapists. I’ve been taking
over all the cooking, cleaning etc until she gets better and we can share it
again.
My station normally runs high power on 2M (there is no low power for CQWW VHF)
with an intermediate SS driver amp since the old 90s vintage DEMI transverter
has maybe 17W out on a good day. I low drive the transverter from the Flex and
use a nominal 25 in 150W out intermediate SS amp to boost that to 50 W to drive
the tube to 1.5 KW. It will run 100% duty cycle all day long like that without
anything getting really warm. I turn off the intermediate amp and low drive the
8877 amp with the transverter until the Bird tells me I’m at 200W for the ARRL
tests.
It was well past midnight Thursday when I fixed what I thought was the problem
by replacing the 8877 tube. Didn’t help that I accidentally crowbarred the HV
on the amp when I forgot about a safety switch while I was troubleshooting (that
will get your attention!) and then had to fix the HV LOL. Takes roughly 12-24
hours to burn in a new tube so I went to bed but had to get out at 6AM then
drive 2 hours to Chicago on Friday to teach a CTU class on VHF contesting at
W9DXCC.
I was sure now that that I was insane that I’d made that commitment, but I had
to honor it. Ironic that the students would not be able to put their new found
knowledge to the test while attending the conference. Got back home and caught
a couple hours sleep before going back and finding the new tube didn’t fix it.
Had to completely disassemble the RF deck to get to the bottom of the tube
socket only to find that the high current filament had arced and melted one of
the tube socket pin spring fingers. Need a new socket so it was end game for
that repair in time for the contest.
Reconfigured and could get just over 100W out with everything turned up but it
quickly thermaled out the SS brick amp after 5 minutes of FT8 even with a fan on
the heatsink. I knew I could run 50W, but 6db down from my usual just didn’t
seem very competitive to me. Besides it was well after midnight again and we
had to be at the lab a half hour away for Fran to take another blood test during
a 7-8AM window Saturday the day of the contest. I basically threw in the towel
from lack of sleep and exhaustion from all the stuff that went on leading up to
the test.
Saturday I was debating whether to play at all when the rovers and other guys
started calling my cell. So I basically just did an “on-demand” contest
for them and anyone else who was lucky enough to catch me while working them.
One guy heard me and sent me a message on ON4KST to run with him and that opened
the floodgates for a while; I had a virtual pileup! I did mostly SSB and CW,
very little FT8 and practically no 6M. Glad I could give out a few points
between naps and taking care of Fran.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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