NA Sprint RTTY Contest
Call: KI6DY
Operator(s): KI6DY
Station: KI6DY
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: KS
Operating Time (hrs): 4
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band QSOs Op Time
---------------------
80: 31
40: 89
20: 50
---------------------
Total: 170 Mults = 32 Total Score = 5,440
Club:
Team:
Comments:
Well, a stupid error by me cost me operating time and points. Activity was
great
but I missed a bunch due to the following blunder.
Friday I went out a bought a PCI serial card so that I could get the 2nd
radio
under computer control. No problem, had that set-up and running Friday
night.
During the contest however, my KAM, which is the TNC for the 2nd radio and
on
COM1 kept giving me broken print. I knew I was sending correctly because
guys
would answer my CQs but their print was broken as well as my outgoing text
in
the 2nd RTTY window. I also tuned my 1st radio to my 2nd radio xmit freq and
could see that the outgoing messages were correct. Never got it corrected
during
the test so I was basically SO1R.
After going to bed and thinking about what was really happening, I decided
this
morning to check the Rx FIFO settings on COM1 because I remember at least
looking at the advanced settings on all my COM ports after installing the
PCI
card. Sure enough, inadvertently at some time I must have set the Rx FIFO
size
to 1. Duh, that ain't going to work. Set the Rx FIFO back to 14 and all is
well
post-contest.
Glad I got this figured out before BARTG next weekend.
Congrats to all that had some pretty impressive QSO totals. I guess the
decision
to keep this contest going was a good one. Maybe the threat of cancelling it
was
what brought everybody out. In fact, the activity was so good I found myself
thinking during the contest that the 3 QSO seperation rule was really not
required. There were plenty of stations to work.
See ya next week,
Bob (KI6DY)
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