North American QSO Party, CW - January
Call: WX3B
Operator(s): WX3B
Station: WX3B
Class: Single Op Assisted LP
QTH: MD
Operating Time (hrs): 0.6
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160: 0 0
80: 0 0
40: 0 0
20: 12 10
15: 0 0
10: 17 14
-------------------
Total: 29 20 Total Score = 580
Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club
Team:
Comments:
File this story under "What do you get when you don't get RESULTS? You get
EXPERIENCE (or a long story!).
After a little progressive rock playing on my piano before the contest,
(Trying to play a version of YES: Yours is no disgrace) - I headed downstairs
and immediately discovered my Yaesu FTDX-101mp was DEAD DEAD DEAD, wouldn't turn
on, NOTHING.
I made an executive decision that I was more interested in working on that
problem than operating in NAQP. For the next 45 minutes, I fussed with the
radio and power supply to no avail. Then I got smart and measured the power
supply voltage and was bamboozled that there was NO 50 volt output as necessary
to power the radio. Figured that *must* be the problem: the power supply. Then
I got on the internet and did some reading and discovered that the 50v ONLY
appears when the power supply is under load on the 13.8v section (this saved me
a lot of time).
On a lark, I disconnected everything from the radio piece by piece and when I
disconnected the computer interface the radio CAME BACK TO LIFE!! Problem
solved for now - I'm not sure how *something* in the computer interface could
inhibit the power supply or radio from turning on, but for this radio, one of
the first suggestions when there is a malfunction, is to "disconnect
EVERYTHING" and try again. Hmmmm...this sounds more and more like COMPUTER
SOFTWARE BEHAVIOUR!!!
I was late to the 10 meter party and boy 10 sounded better than it has in awhile
during NAQP. There was west coast, Mid-west, even worked Hawaii. Stuff all up
and down the east coast (new England, Canada) - ZF...and PY.
As I was settling in for the next few hours, I got a phone call from my son Alex
and we rag chewed for a very long time and did some zoom conference testing.
Got on 20 meters for a few minutes and discovered it was in excellent condition
even with the time nearing 5:30pm!!
I'll bet there are going to be some seriously BIG scores in this event.
It was a fun time for a very short time.
A more significant effort is being planned for NAQP SSB!
73,
Jim WX3B
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