ARRL DX Contest, SSB
Call: 8P50B
Operator(s): 8P50B
Station: 8P50B
Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: Barbados
Operating Time (hrs): 12
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
160:
80: 14 10
40: 410 49
20: 502 48
15: 325 48
10: 110 18
-------------------
Total: 1361 173 Total Score = 706,359
Club:
Comments:
This contest season I have been operating mainly low power. However with the
band conditions as bad as I've even known them to be, I was angry with myself
for zapping my reliable backup amp while awaiting a transformer for another.
In total desperation I decided I;'d better try and fix the trustworthy
Ameritron AL 811H. After changing out what parts appeared to be busted, I fired
it up on Friday a couple hours before the contest to be met with a fireworks
display. A few minutes later I realised that I had a bad/shorted tube as the
grid resistor was burned to carbon.
Inspired, I pulled that tube, changed the fuse and fired it up. No pops. No
bangs. Just the purring sound of the muffin fan cooling the tubes.
I put it inline and sure enough it loaded up and gave me about 400-5500watts.
And so I was ready for the start of the contest.
Overall the first day was really rough going. Noise at 59+ even with no preamps
on 80-10m. 40 was the initial band of choice and the pace was pedestrian. Lots
of repeats and many times I had to check the wattmeter to make sure the three
811a's were actually putting out power.
Daytime Saturday was wall to wall noise until I finally caught a break on 20m
around 2000z which lasted until about 2300z. Had another niice 15m opening
starting around 1300z on day two and lasting until around 1800z and the final
20m push towards the end. Just one real 10m opening around 1800z on day 2
lasting just about an hour during which we did the 100+ qso's on 10m. It was a
very selective opening centred on FL and the southern States accounting for 90%
of the Q's, half from Florida alone.
At around 2200z while working 20m a huge noise source suddenly started up. I
realised my daughter had just turned on the yard lights. A quick switch off and
I realised that the culprit was a locally manufactured LED lamp. Makes me wonder
whether there is any standard for such bulbs and if there is anything I can do.
In truth I had noticed this before with a small AM/FM receiver that's always on
in the house but always assumed it was the receiver and not the bulb. Now I have
a neighbour who also installed a PV system recently and it has increased my
noise level on 20m - which is all but unusable after dusk - I'm assuming its
some kind of inverter.
Anyway that's the story of another ARRL DX Contest. Alrogether I only got in
about 12 hours but enjoyed the 3 or 4 hours of great runs on 20 ND 15M.
gREAT TO SHAKE THE DUST OFF THE OLD aMERITRON. tHANKS FOR THE MANY qso'S AND
LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING MANY MORE UNDER MY SPECIAL CALLSIGN FOR THIS YEAR -
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF bARBADOS' iNDEPENDENCE - 8-PAPA-50-BARBADOS
73 - Dean - 8P6SH
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.3830scores.com/
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