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ARRL Sweepstakes Contest, SSB
Call: NJ8J
Operator(s): NJ8J
Station: NJ8J
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 8
Summary:
Band QSOs
- ------------
160: 0
80: 66
40: 39
20: 8
15: 5
10: 0
- ------------
Total: 118 Sections = 36 Total Score = 8,496
Club: South East Contest Club
Comments:
Equipment:
Alinco DX-77T
LDG AT-11MP Automatic Antenna tuner, MFJ-969 Antenna tuner
Antennas:
Even for Bedsprings Brigade Manor, You Don't Want To Know
Yes, Bedsprings Brigade Manor is back. It's been a couple of years
since I've done any contesting. Part of that is because when some work
was done on my house a year and a half ago, I had to pull down all of my
antennas. I've been slow to put antennas back up because there is some
source of S9 QRN in the neighborhood that I don't have the equipment to
track down. Sounds just like normal background static, but too loud to
be that (Marietta Power hasn't implemented BPL when I wasn't looking,
have they?), covers 80-10, at least, and is there 24/7. I had thrown a
bit of wire out the window to try to at least be able to get WWV, and
the QRN generally covered up WWV. This does not bode well for pleasant
operating.
Friday, on a whim, I (literally) slopped the remains of my old 100'
ladder-line fed antenna up into the trees. Even for Bedsprings Brigade
Manor, this is a far from ideal antenna.
Saturday, I decided to jump onto Sweepstakes at the beginning to see if
I could actually make any contacts. I could (even on 15), and stayed
until midnight. Despite the poor antenna, the QRN made me feel like an
alligator.
One quirk - after a little more than an hour on the air, I realized that
the times showing for QSOs didn't look right. The contest started at
2100Z, right? Then how come over an hour into the contest, my current
QSOs are showing 21xxZ times? Well, I'm using an old version of NA,
which dates back before the DST change, and it thinks DST is still in
effect. A quick adjustment of the times for the QSOs already in the
log, and setting the computer an hour ahead so the GMT time in the log
comes out right, and I'm back at it.
Now if I could just get the QRN traced down and dealt with. Anyone in
the Marietta area got a portable SW receiver with an S-meter, or have
experience in tracing these types of things down?
Ben
- --
Ben Coleman nj8j at benshome.net
"I love the way Microsoft follows standards. In much the
same manner that fish follow migrating caribou."
Paul Tomblin
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