"SAGA OF NP2J"
(apologies to CE0XA: see 1965 QST: "Saga of CE0XA" )
(My "Elmer" was W8ZCT (later W8ON) Gene Liggett (SK), a member of CE0XA,
First San Felix Operation)
or
"What a week of Screw ups!"
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Well,this story is the kind that you usually keep to yourself.
Who wants everyone to know all the dumb stuff you did in order to sooth
a case of Contest withdrawals
and chill a 105 degree fever of "Topband Disease"????
I run a pair of phased Inverted L's each about 60 or so feet high.
One of the two verticals is near edge of the hillside I am on and it
catches a lot of wind so I take it down for Hurricane season.
(See May 2021 CQ magazine page 18 for picture of vertical)
Most of the bad Tropical storms we get are late in the year; September
thru early November.
So I was waiting as long as possible to put the vertical back up.
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The Saga begins:
Monday:
I had a 70 foot mast built up laying on the ground, with the 1000+ feet
of rope for guy wires ready to go!
The bottom of the mast is 2.5" thick wall tubing, tapers down to 1.25"
Uses 4 sets of four guy ropes.
Tuesday:
The big day: Time to raise the mast up in the air!
I decided to use a falling derrick approach to raising the mast.
I use 30 feet of old 3" Telrex Boom material for either a gin pole or
pole for falling derrick method.
I am on a hillside so the guy wires are at different elevations.
So when raising a mast you have to constantly be adjusting guy lengths
as the mast is raised.
Well, I raised the mast about half way up and I didn't have a guy
tightened up properly (Big Mistake #1)....
So, a gust of wind swung the mast side ways and the mast fell into the
"Bush" that covers most of my lot.
So much for all that work.
Went inside, grabbed the Rolling stones "Some Girls" disk and fired up:
"WHEN THE WHIP COMES DOWN"
BTW during this time frame the weather was horribly hot and muggy.
It had been raining off and on,
just often enough that the humidity was horrible.
15 minutes outside working and you are soaked with sweat.
After an hour or two you are just completely drained and exhausted,
Wednesday and Thursday:
Both days were spent untangling the mess of rope and wire tangled in the
15 foot high bush.
Sweat. Sunburn. More Sweat. Even more sweat.
Go inside and jump in cold shower. Remove small Tan-tan leaves stuck all
over sweaty body.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Fun.
Friday:
OK, ready to try again!
Learning from big mistake #1, I kept the guy wires tight as I raised the
mast
Got the mast up about 80% of the way up.....
BAM!!!! Mast broke in half and came crashing down.
Back inside.... Jam to "THE WHIP COMES DOWN".....again....
Analyzing what happened, I had mistakenly used a piece of 2" tubing in
the middle of the mast
that was a piece from an old HyGain beam and it was not standard .058"
wall thickness.
There was a critcal guy attachment point where this thin walled tubing
was used.
SNAP!!! (Big Mistake #2)
Now around about this time I am questioning my sanity.
Is it really worth it?
What a crazy hobby...
Time for another Stones tune: "Shattered".....
But, My Elmer, Gene W8ZCT's favorite saying was:
"Keep plugging away"
His other favorite saying was:
"A BIG SIGNAL is a LOT of work"
(Back in 1971 when I was 13 years old,
I helped Gene put up a full size rotary 80 meter dipole up 135 feet.
He knew a thing or two about big signals)
Saturday (Contest Day):
At this point was about to say the Hell with it....
I must be crazy.... (XYL probably thinks so, but she is keeps it to
herself, hi!)
I haven't gotten this thing up all week... how can I get it up now?
And if I do, I'll probably be too tired to operate...hi!
But,the weather was getting better, the rain had stopped and the air
wasn't so thick.
The Gods were cooperating, weather wise!
W8ZCT's words haunted me:
"Keep plugging away"
"A big signal is a lot of work"
So I decided not to give up after so much effort.
Why quit when this close to finishing??
(Even if you are totally exhausted, dehydrated and delerious)
"Keep plugging away"
"A big signal is a lot of work"
Mast got up in the air at 5PM local time (2100z)
Quickly put up the elevated radial, hooked up the coax cables and
phasing line to the switch box.
( Big Mistake #3: Biggest mistake of them all!!!
Didn't check one detail, too big of hurry to get on the air)
Ran inside to check SWR, SWR OK!!! Time to get on the Air!!!
Got on, Band was noisy, signals were weak, rates were terribly low....
I just thought conditions were bad, QRN bad etc.(QRN was S7 to S9+)
I guess I must of been badly dehydrated, low on some vital nutrients or
some such thing as I kept getting cramps in my hands.
Sometimes just touching the keyboard would cause my hand to cramp in
pain.
Kept drinking fluids and ate some chili while operating and the cramps
finally disapeared.
The only Europen stations I seemed to be working were far North, SM, OH
and Russians.
Mid EU very weak.
No Southern Europe at all. Strange....not even the Italian big guns.
Things were very, very slow, best hour was only 35, snore...
Very late,about 0600z, I took a listen to NP2X to see how he was doing.
We both usually get out about the same but Fred was working European
stations I couldn't even hear!
A light finally went on in my brain.....
Something was wrong big time.....
Went outside to check the phasing switchbox.
I decided to bypass the switchbox with a barrel connector.
Went back inside and the band sounded completely different!!
Signals were loud, noise was way down!
Finally realized that the cables to the direction switchbox were
reversed!!! Duh!!
So 95% of contest the vertical array was beaming SOUTH instead of
NORTH!!!!!
Had to laugh, what else can you do!
I get 3 to 4 "S" units of Front to back with this array,
which means both RX and TX were down aoubt 20 DB!!!!!
My ERP to North was nearly QRP.....
Can I file a QRP entry??? (Just kidding!)
So if you were wondering what happened to my signal, now you know!
The array beams straight North or South, so in this case there is a back
lobe on pattern that enabled the far North EU contacts.
There is a real deep notch off the back side which nulled out all the
Southern EU stations.
Now it all makes sense. Duh.
Thanks to all that struggled with me to make a contact.
Sorry to have missed so many of my fellow Topband addicts!
Hope to see everyone in CQWW SSB and CW on 160!
(Willy UA9BA hope CU in CQWW!)
73
Dan K8RF op: NP2J
Rig: K3S, AL82 to pair of vertical phased verticals pointed the WRONG
way!
(didn't even work any SA!... came close a VE5/hp called me
but I had call as /sp not /hp and grid square I was coping didn't make
sense so I didn't log QSO, sorry OM!)
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Congrats to NP2X, who looks to be the winner of Stew Perry "Master of
all Seasons" plaque
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I sponsored a Stew Perry Plaque for highest combined Low Power score for
all 4 Stews.
The winner won't be decided util final scores are posted, but right now
W0UO is slightly ahead of my friend Brian VE3MGY.
Hats off to both these hard core Low Power Topbanders!!
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CW forever, Digital NEVER
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