Operator: AB5LX
Exchange: Jay TX Nr. 2545
Equipment: Kenwood TS 850S, 100 watts, 3 element yagi at 56 ft.
Band QSOs Mults. QSO points
----------------------------------
40 3 3 9
20 25 15 98
----------------------------------
Totals 28 18 107
Total Score: 107 X 18 = 1,926
This was one tough "contest" to work. First of all, it didn't help
one bit that my beam wouldn't turn away from VK/ZL. I aslo discovered about
5 minutes before the contest that the beam pointed whichever direction the
wind blew. That doesn't do you much good because the beam didn't change
direction at all during the contest. I pretty much worked people off the
side and back, and occasionally one out west. I know the FISTS' motto is
'Courtesy at all Times,' but I wasn't a happy camper after the first hour (7
QSOs).
The high point of the contest was working WP4LNY. He sent a '?'
after both of my attempts to work him off of the beam, and I ended up
working him on the 40 meter dipole.
As it stands right now, the back yard looks like a hurricane has
been through here. My 3 ele. yagi is now laying down in the back yard. My
tower is a let-down tower, and there were trees in the way. The trees
didn't affect us when we put up the antenna 3 years ago, but after 3 years
for them to grow, they wanted to bend the antenna when we let the it down.
Time for a trim. We now have a half-bald tree, and we aren't finished yet.
To make a long story short, the problem in the rotor was inside the house!
We had checked to make sure the wires were connected, but we had never
thought about untaping a bunch of wires that were taped up. We thought that
if the wires were taped up, there wasn't much of a way that they could come
loose. Wrong! There were 4 wires that weren't making any connection, and
that was what was causing the problem. It IS a GOOD thing that we had to
let the tower down, though. There was a catastrophe just waiting to happen
because the u-bolts weren't tightly holding onto the mast.
The contest was interesting and definitely not what I expected. The
few people that I did work seemed very nice.
73, Jason AB5LX
--
FAQ on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/3830faq.html
Submissions: 3830@contesting.com
Administrative requests: 3830-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-3830@contesting.com
Sponsored by: Akorn Access, Inc & KM9P
|