Here is the much anticipated by some, and much dreaded by others, next
installment of my micronoscopic dissection of my "G-expedition" to North
Georgia for the Georgia QSO Party. I was only on for eight of the ten hours
of the first day, but by the time I'm through you may think I was on the
road for weeks. I had a blast and felt really good about my score of 208
station and 30 multipliers until I started seeing other logs come in. My
post mortem of the post mortem will be another chapter. This edition of
musings is a continuation of the lessons I learned during the journey.
Lesson Learned Number Six: Inverters are More Finicky than Vera Wang on
Rodeo Drive
Not only did the Inverter squeal like a pig when I tried to
hook up two laptop computers (probably a poor analogy to use when talking
about my trip through North Georgia), it was also a source of considerable
electronic noise when it wasn't being pampered. As related earlier,
although the inverter has 300 WATTS silkscreened on it bold letters, the
fine print reveals that it will only yield 140 Watts if plugged into the
vehicle accessory outlet. My conviction is that the unit must have a yin
and yang that is balanced on a razor thin edge. It gets very unhappy and
pitches a tantrum if the supply voltage drops at all. If you try to ask it
to do the least bit more than it want to do (which is an arbitrary amount
that constantly changes), it pitches a fit worse than a 30-year veteran
union laborer at the Convention Center on move-out day (If you are a union
member, this is not a personal slam - unless you are the grizzled, and very
disgruntled veteran forklift driver that I encountered at a trade show in
Philadelphia a few years back).
Next time: All the more reason to use the alligator clips
and attach the inverter to a good, solid, stable power source.
Lesson Learned Number Seven: Listen to those Small Voices
It was getting well into the trip and I had been working
stations in Lumpkin County (affectionately known as "the LUMP") at a pretty
good rate. My wife deftly navigated beautiful blue Town and Country chariot
up Highway 19 from Dahlonega to Blairsville, a twisty, windy, climbing road
that ascended a foothill of the Smoky Mountains and that seemed to hold a
surprise around every bend. As we were getting closer, I was "teasing" my
contacts to stick around for Union; that we would be there in just a few
minutes. Finally we reached the summit and crossed the Union County line.
We pulled off into a parking lot, and a mini pile-up ensued. All of my
contacts remarked at how my signal came up as I crossed the peak. I was
feeling really jazzed! Suddenly through the ethos I heard a familiar voice:
"KB4KBS from ZF1DX."
"The Delta X-Ray station, your full call?"
"Zed Eff One Delta X-Ray, Hey Scott."
"Oh, Hey Vern! Thanks for the call, great signal from the Caymans. You're
5-9 in Union County.
I look forward to chatting with you back in Roswell when you get home."
Then he was gone and I typed his call into the logging program, erased
Cayman Islands and entered 'DX' in the S/P/C field and hit return. Nothing
happened. Try again: call - report - location - enter. Still nothing. The
program just wouldn't take the data. I had other stations calling me, so I
said "QRX a minute folks, while I get his call in the log - its giving me
problems." Suddenly from the chaos a 5-by-5 voice astutely said,
" Write it down on a piece of paper OM, we're all waiting."
Thanks, whoever you were, for the best piece of timely contesting advice I
could ever receive. I did just that, and got back to the business of the
pile-up, giving out Union County multipliers to the gracious and patient
masses.
Next Time: Keep a pen and piece of paper handy, and if the
logging program hiccups on a call, note the particulars - his call, his
location, the band, mode, and time, then move on. Don't ever keep your
"peeps" waiting.
Lesson Learned Number Eight: The inventor of the Voice Keyer deserves the
Nobel Prize. and a Prison Sentence
This is probably something that ought to be in the post
mortem chapter, but even before I was home I was feeling the effects of the
constant talking. I thought about getting a microphone for my PC and
recording some simple .wav file audio loops before the event but I know how
much I detest the "lids" that play their "CQ" loops over, and over, and over
and how much I don't want to be like them. They're like the blonde who had
to be rescued from the shower because she was following the shampoo bottle
instructions that say lather, rinse and repeat . Of course I'm not the
sharpest knife in the drawer either, and there has been more than one
contest that I have tried to participate in from home where I'm busy calling
a station with a voice keyer on perpetual repeat, using every ounce of my
thimble full of ERP only to un-key and hear his message loop go again, and
again.but I digress. Now that I've done one good contest with a
semi-"real" station, I can understand what drives contesters to uses these
blessed/cursed tools. It is now two days later and my throat is still sore
and swollen.
Next time: Go ahead and take the time before the contest to
record the messages, and also start an awareness campaign to encourage the
responsible use of voice keyers . What's wrong with appending to the end of
a "CQ" message these three simple words: "please call now.?" (And this is
the novel part) then actually listen for stations to call?
I realize this is only three lessons, but I'm really sleep deprived and my
creativeness is waning. Thanks to all who made positive and affirming
comments about my first release, but even more thanks to those of you who
showed great restraint and didn't tell me what you really thought of my
drivel. More lessons later.
73,
Scott, KB4KBS
------------------------------------------------------
Scott Straw, CTS-D, CTS-I, EMT-I
scottstraw at mindspring.com
A/V Engineer
SPL Integrated Solutions, Inc.
Norcross, Georgia 30093
sstraw at splis.com
Technical Director of Contemporary Worship
Northside United Methodist Church
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
scott.straw at northsideumc.org
Firefighter/EMT
Roswell Fire Department
Roswell, Georgia 30075
sstraw at ci.roswell.ga.us
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