On 11/9/2013 10:38 PM, Larry Benko wrote:
What is failing on the relays? Is it the coil opening up, the
contacts sticking, the receive side contact appearing open, or the
pivot getting sloppy and the contacts bouncing too much?
My symptoms have been sticky contacts, mostly RX, but also TX. Since I
stopped doing QSK with my Titans (about 2007) I've yet to replace a relay.
As to operations -- an active, aggressive contester will either CQ
constantly and hopefully send an exchange every 20-40 seconds, or will
search and pounce and do the same. I typically operate 24 hours for
Sweepstakes, 24-30 hours for DX contests, 14-16 hours in RAC, IOTA, and
WRTC contests and I work at least 12 such contests in a year. As Bill
has shown, that's a LOT of relay operations if you're full QSK.
As a competitive contester, it's not the cost of the relay or even the
time to replace it, but simply that I don't want to have to lose 90-120
minutes of contest operating time while I do it. Being analytical about
it, the relays I've replaced have mostly been those that came with the
three 20-30 year old Titan 425s I bought used, so perhaps it's only my
contesting that pushed them over the edge. :)
73, Jim K9YC
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