North America QSO Party - SSB
Call: VE7FO
Operator(s): VE7FO
Station: VE7FO
Class: SO LP
QTH: BC
Operating Time (hrs): 4
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
----------------------
160:
80:
40:
20: 15 12
15: 52 24
10:
----------------------
Total: 67 36 = 2,412
Club/Team:
Comments:
I have been working on a couple of things to improve my contesting efficiency.
One was to get SoundBlaster DVP program working so I would still be able to
talk at the end of an SSB contest. The other was to get SO2R functionality
with out two radios. This contest was going to be the test of how well all
this worked.
The results of this test suggest that I'm not going to graduate this year.
Got the SBDVP.exe working OK. Biggest problem was getting recordings that
didn't sound like I was either totally bored or an over-excited Pomeranian dog.
Keeping the levels the same for the various messages was a bit of a challenge
also.
I've been trying to simulate SO2R with one MkV, an old 2nd receiver and TRLog.
For background see my WAE CW story. To summarize the status as of WAE, I can
program F-Keys in TRLog to swap the run and the mult VFOs on the MkV. So,
between CQs I can tune the mult VFO looking for folks. Very slow. I call this
SO1.5R. Next, I hooked up the old 75A-4 Rx to a 40m mobile whip mounted above
the tribander. Now I could listen while CQing. Not only that, I could listen
on the same band or a different band (with some exceptions MkV Sub RX only
works on same band as Main RX). When hearing a mult I tuned the MkV mult VFO
to the frequency shown on the A4, hit the appropriate F-Key, worked him
(sometimes), hit the F-Key again and went back to CQing. I call this SO1.75R.
A major difficulty was that I had 3 audio streams, 2 sets of earphones and 2
ears.
Since WAE I've done a little more work on this.
Audio streams
I bought a Radio Shack audio mixer so now I can deal with the 3 audio streams
with one set of earphones. The CQ VFO audio in one ear and the mult VFO audio
and 75A-4 audio (individually adjustable) in the other. As the mixer output
can't drive earphones, I fed the whole works into a stereo amp and plugged the
phones into that.
Receive Antenna
The 40m whip sucks on all bands, including 40. I could hear stuff but not very
well. Now, I have something most hams don't but should have. My house has a
flat roof. Some time ago I had the old tar & gravel roof removed and replaced
with 50 mil vinyl sheet. Access to the roof is via a normal staircase inside
the house which ends in a small penthouse on the roof. i.e. I have a roof deck
with the same area as the floor below it. NEXT HOUSE YOU BUY, MAKE SURE IT HAS
A FLAT ROOF, tell the XYL that it will be great for entertaining, which it is,
and do what I did. Very liberating for antenna work. Anyway, I thought a
separate tri-bander for the 75A-4 Rx would be a good thing to try. I have an
old TH3 tri-bander along with a 10 ft length of 1" or so EMT that I bought for
something else. On the roof deck there is a patio table with umbrella. The
umbrella terminates in a rather heavy base. Hey, the EMT fits perfectly into
the umbrella base. So, cart the TH3 pieces up to the roof, assemble it there
(see what I mean by liberating?), clamp it to one end of the EMT, pick the
whole thing up, slide the bottom end of the EMT into the umbrella base, guy it
with miscellaneous rope to the deck railing and point it east.
Other preparation
The front yard end of the 80 and 40 dipoles were attached to a 12 ft 2"x2" mast
lashed to one of the neighbour's hedge trees with their permission. Permission
was easily obtained because I did something for the lady of the house which was
well appreciated. I trimmed the hedge. Hey, I didn't know they were renters
until they moved out and I saw what looked like a property manager looking at
the mast and squinting down the property line. Rather than talk to him,
because I didn't think I would have the same success, I took the mast down
after he left. In order to still have access to 40 and 80, I attached some
1"x1" sticks to the roof deck railing and attached the dipoles to them (see
what I mean by liberating?). The result was a pair of dipoles only a
chiropractor could love.
What Happened
If you were to ask the Contest Manager, he would look at my score and say, "Not
much."
Was 1:20 hrs late making the first Q. Left the DVP stuff too late because I
had been working on the 30 ft replacement for the hedge tree. Spent a bunch of
time recording and testing DVP messages. By the time I had finished that, 10
was dead so started S&P on 15. First station I called was W9BS. What the hell
is that disgusting growling on the MkV Monitor? W9BS says, "I think there's a
VE7 calling but real bad audio problems. Try again later." With a call like
W9BS, you know he's gotta be telling the truth so I started troubleshooting.
Well, with all the extra audio stuff happening, I was short of cables. The one
I ran from the computer sound board output to the MkV was one I poorly
assembled 40 yrs ago. Big RF into the audio. Made up a new cable with braided
shield as opposed to the simple spiral wrap of the existing, and RF in the
audio vanished.
Worked a few stations, went to call CQ and realized I had forgotten to do the
SO1.75R F-Key programming. Sigh. Will I ever be ready before the start of a
contest? Oh well, didn't take too long to do.
OK, we're happening on 15. Start CQing while tuning the 75A-4. Hmmm...... In
WAE while listening with the A4 on the 40m whip on the same band as CQing, I
could hear stuff. Not now, total overload. Well, the main antenna is another
old TH3 tri-bander mounted on 15' (soon to be 25') of tower bolted to the
penthouse. So the separation between TH3s was about 10'. (Chorus of
TowerTalkians saying, "Whaddya expect? Are you nuts?") Hey, it's a flat roof
and easy to try (see liberation, above). I could hear stuff on 20, but
somewhat diminished while transmitting. Here's a mult on the 75A-4. Tune the
MkV sub Rx to the same freq. Hit CTRL-F1 to do the VFO swap and call him.
Awright, it works. Hit CTRL-F1 again to return to run mode, hit F1 to call CQ
and ......... nothing. No bored or Pomeranian voice calling CQ. Now what?
Turns out that in TRLog CTRL-Fn writes whatever audio next enters the
soundblaster into the DVP file associated with memory Fn. Fortunately, I
didn't have the mike hooked up for recording. Otherwise, when I hit F1 again
we would all have been treated to hearing me saying, "What the hell is wrong
with the ##$*%&)% CQ button?" Sigh. Rerecord the F1 CQ message. Change all
the CTRL-F Key programs to ALT-F Keys. By this time 15 is dead.
Oh well, it was my intent to use this test as a shakedown cruise and I sure am
learning stuff. Switch to 20, call CQ. Oh no, the dreadful growling noise is
back. Lots of wavy lines on the monitor which I haven't seen before. I guess
the 2nd TH3 is somehow causing a lot of RF in the shack. The shack is on the
2nd floor so the base of the tower is about 10' from the operating position and
the rig is about 1/4 wave above ground on 20. Sure will be glad when the shack
in the basement is finished.
Much threading of audio cables through toroids, all to no effect. I reduced
the RF power to the point where the problem wasn't too bad and made a few Qs.
Mercifully, a buddy phoned to say our favourite band was playing at a local
bar. Quit contest, met buddy, had fun.
The SO1.75R stuff is working, albeit with a couple of minor problems. I'm in
the process of writing up a description of it which I will post to TRLog and
1000MP reflectors so anyone with a MkV and TRLog can use it. Hope to have it
done in a week but antennas come first.
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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