Wisconsin QSO Party
Call: WI9WI
Operator(s): WI9WI
Station: WI9WI
Class: SO Mobile LP
QTH: IOW,GRE,LAF
Operating Time (hrs): 1.6
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs
--------------------
160: 0 0
80: 0 0
40: 74 0
20: 41 0
15: 0 0
10: 0 0
6: 0 0
2: 0 0
UHF: 0 0
--------------------
Total: 115 0 Mults = 34 Total Score = 13,575.0
Club: Four Lakes ARC
Comments:
After a good start this turned into a disaster. I had intended to activate IOW,
GRE, LAF, ROC, WAL and JEF to add 5 new counties (excepting IOW) to the list of
counties I have operated from solo mobile in the WIQP. I set up in IOW near the
IOW/GRE county line. Everything worked fine, and after 45 minutes I pulled up
the road into GRE. After 45 minutes there I moved on to LAF. That took about 30
min to get to my operating spot. When I turned on the radio it had trouble
adjusting the tuner to the 40 meter antenna. I use the tuner in the K-3 because
the antennas are very narrow banded. After one QSO, I noted smoke coming out of
the K-3. I quickly turned it off and checked everything. I turned it back on
and it still wouldn't tune properly, with more smoke coming out of it. I again
quickly turned it off. At first I thought the problem might be the tuner, but
after a bit of thought I figured the problem must be the coax, although it has
worked fine for years. Not wanting to further abuse the K-3 I put my spare
radio, an IC-7000 in line and changed the coax. Everything now worked fine. I
started making QSOs on 40, and after 13 QSOs in 8 minutes my RV battery failed.
This should not have happened. It is a glass-mat battery less than 2 years old
and has done a fine job in several mobile and camping/field day type
operations. I keep it charged and have it on a maintenance charger when I'm not
using it. Now my choice was to quit or put the radio on the vehicle battery. I
really didn't have the proper tools to put it on the car battery, so I drove
back home which took about 50 minutes. I thought of just quitting but after a
bit more thought I decided to put the radio on the car battery and drive to
Rock Co which would take about 25 minutes and pass out some QSOs from Rock.
With proper tools it only took about 10 minutes to hook up to the car battery
and I drove to Rock. I turned everything on, and now the IC-7000 wouldn't tune
into either the 40 meter Bugcatcher or the 20 meter Hustler. I switched coaxes
again, but no joy. Quick investigation seemed to point at a loose antenna
connection within the tuner. So I quit, went home, unpacked everything and had
a beer. Monday morning I got everything on the table and started checking
things out. First I checked out both radios in my normal station configuration.
No problems. I took the K-3 apart and could see no obvious damage in spite of
the smoke the previous day. It and the internal tuner worked fine. The coax
connector to the antenna on the LDG tuner for the IC-7000 was slightly loose. I
tightened it up, and it and the radio worked fine. Next I checked out the coax.
There was an intermittent short in the PL-259 that attached to the radio. I
have used this coax for years, and I guess it was done in by a lot of wear and
tear. I threw it way. I expect the smoke from the K-3 was coming from dust on
the heat sink for the finals which overheated when the tuner was trying to
match a short circuit. The K-3 seems to have no issues after this abuse. So the
bottom line was a wasted day when the weather was about as good as we've had for
months and band conditions were good. The radios are fine. I'm not sure what the
issue is with the battery, but it is under warranty, so even if it is bad I'll
get something out of it. I used a new car for this one. On the old car I had a
power cable with PowerPole connectors already attached to the battery for just
such circumstances. I've got to do it to this one, it might have saved me a lot
of trouble.
Thanks to all the participants and thanks for the few QSOs I did make.
Next year.
73
Jim
WI9WI
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