ARRL September VHF QSO Party
Call: K4LY
Operator(s): K4LY
Station: K4LY
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: EM85
Operating Time (hrs): 26
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
6: 123 52
2: 78 34
222: 31 23
432: 54 27
903:
1.2:
2.3: 4 2
3.4:
5.7:
10G:
24G:
-------------------
Total: 290 138 Total Score = 53,406
Club: Carolina DX Assn
Comments:
The Murphy complaint- if it weren't for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at
all. Several contests in a row had gone very smoothly, and I wasn't ready for
Murphy's revenge! It started August 15th operating WSJT when somehow while
unplugging the computer line-in from the FT-736R auxiliary speaker jack, I
heard a squeal and lost all audio output from the 736R and, as I learned during
the contest, when I tried a WSJT sked, my computer sound card. I was lucky that
a friend only 150 miles from here was able to fix the 736R, but when, upon
returning here, I switched it to 1296, I smelt smoke and lost that band. My
contest plans had been to have better 6M and 222 antennas and to add 10' to my
55' Rohn 45 tower. I took the antennas and BA25G plate off the top of the 55'
tower, and with a neighbor's help, added a 10' section a week before the
contest. Then I picked up the disassembled CC 617-6B yagi for 6M. Four days
before the contest I tried, unsuccessfully, to assemble it. I didn't have a
manual and the CC online manual was so fuzzy, I couldn't read the dimensions
plus the pictorials on element spacing were obviously not to scale. The next
day I got a friend with better eyesight to download the manual, but he couldn't
read it either. He suggested I call Cushcraft. Did that and after an endless
menu got a message to email them! On Thursday, I climbed the 65' tower 5 times
replacing the BA45G top plate, installing the Tail twister rotor which replaced
the small AR-22, and dragged up the 12' mast. On Friday, after many false
starts I got the 617-6B assembled as close to spec as I could determine. With
24 hours to the contest and no way to test a 34' boom length antenna on the
ground, I hauled it up to the tower by myself; it was resonant at 51 MHz and
was over 3:1 at 50 Mhz. Yikes. I hauled up two lengths of hardline and with
the 140' of feedline the SWR was 2:1 in the shack, and the JST-245 was only cut
back to 125 watts, but the rotator, thoroughly checked out at ground level,
wasn't working. Oh yes, I had forgotten. The ring gear had suffered damage in
the high winds of Colorado. In the dark Friday night I made my 10th trip that
day up the 65' Rohn tower and with a flashlight replaced the Tailtwister with
the little AR-22. I was sore all over, had a rotor that probably wouldn't work
in the wind, and still didn't have the 222 antenna up above the 6M beam. Also
my 2304 and 902/3 transverters were still on the test bench (never did get the
902/3 working during contest) where I had hoped to fix some intermittent
problems. When I woke up Saturday morning my neighbor was at the door and had
remembered our plan to take down the old 40' tower. I climbed that tower 4
times getting the top two sections down. Now it was 10 AM, and I carried the
8/8 222 skeleton slot in 3 pieces up the 65' tower, stood tiptoe atop the 6M
antenna boom and with great difficulty got it put together and aligned and
hooked up to hardline. The SWR was fine, but it was a dummy load, this same
222 antenna which worked so well a few weeks earlier on FSK meteor scatter
during the Perseids. I climbed the tower to check out the connections. Still a
dummy load. I climbed again and hooked it to some RG8 and other hardline, etc.
Still a dummy load. I climbed again pulling up a different 70' section of
hardline. Still adummy load. I climbed again to check the connections. It
was now half an hour before the contest and I had not yet eaten breakfast. I
had climbed the tower 16 times in three days. I gave up on the 222 skeleton
slot which is 6 db better than the 4 el 222 antenna with a high SWR on my other
tower. I almost gave up on the contest completely. After finally eating, I
felt a dull, numb pain all over, the sort of tired achy feeling I always felt
after running a marathon. I set up the computer logging software and began the
contest...
Doug K4LY EM85wb
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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