North America QSO Party - SSB
Call: NJ8J
Operator(s): NJ8J
Station: NJ8J
Class: SO LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 09:30
Summary:
Band QSOs Mults
----------------------
160:
80: 60 22
40: 136 32
20: 57 29
15: 74 28
10: 23 17
----------------------
Total: 350 128 = 44,800
Club/Team: SECC Team #2
Comments:
Equipment:
110' foot sloppy doublet up 15 to 35 feet (not to mention questions on
how you count height over sloped ground).
LDG AT-11MP Automatic Antenna AND MFJ-969 manual tuner
Alinco DX-77T at about 70w out (if you believe the MFJ meter)
Another entry from the Bedsprings Brigade. This was, I believe, my
first NAQP Phone. I got something of a slow start because my new LDG
tuner managed to 'automatically' tune on 10 meters to a setting that
produced a low SWR, but didn't work with the antenna very well. It
took a few minutes of not being heard at all before I twigged to the
fact that I wasn't hearing background noise. I gave up on 10 for the
moment and switched down to 15. Later I managed to manually tune the
LDG to a usable setting on 10, so 10 wasn't completely lost.
When I got down to 75 I knew I was going to have a problem. I have
previously noticed what look like "RF in the processor" problems with
the LDG tuner on 75 (oddly enough, not on 80) and I didn't have a
chance to work on it before the contest. I didn't relish dropping the
transmitter down to 5 watts to eliminate the problem, so I dragged out
the MFJ-969 tuner (which the LDG had replaced) and wired it between the
doublet and the LDG. A little strange, but it worked (and worked
better than just using the MFJ, which tends to tune rather narrowly on
75, requiring a fair bit of touch-up as you tune across the band). I
ended up losing a half hour to setting this up, but at least I ended up
being able to get out on 75 decently (for Bedsprings Brigade values of
'decently').
I think the LDG is trying to tell me "You need more wire on the
doublet, and you need more antennas"(Yeah, a tower would be nice, but
it's not in the budget for the forseeable future). But I managed to
beat my score on last week's NAQP CW, and had fun doing it.
Ben
--
Ben Coleman oloryn@mindspring.com | The attempt to legislatively
http://oloryn.home.mindspring.com/ | micromanage equality results, at
Amateur Radio NJ8J | best, in equal misery for all.
--
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