I went into this contest with a number of station improvements
A new Elecraft 2M transverter was now in place in front of the Orion. This
allowed MUCH better receiver ability to deal with a number of very loud
signals on the band not too far away from some very weak ones. The little
FT-897 that I had used previously was not too good in that regard, and the
noise blanker and transmit audio of the Orion is superior too.
Now with 2 radios available for this contest, I had decided to set up a
makeshift 2 radio setup- the Orion on 2M and the 897 on 6M. A headphone
switching box was put together to allow receive audio switching, but what to
do for logging? In the end I opted to keep the Orion on the main station
computer to allow SO2V with the N1MM logger and to connect the 897 to a
separate computer with networked N1MM loggers. This meant 2 monitors and 2
keyboards. I added a PCI serial card to the main computer to allow a quick
reconfig into SO2R if I wanted to try that too. The arrangement on the
operating desk was now getting a little crazy, and a total shack rebuild is
being planned for later this winter. But this was a good opportunity to put
a toe in the water with 2 radio operation, and pointed out what needs to be
redone in the future.
The morning of the contest I discovered that my remote 2M receive preamp was
not working. It increased receiver noise when switched inline, but did not
increase signals to the same degree. I brought it in to the house to work on
it but could not find the problem. Likely the transistor has suffered some
failure event. Bummer, my feedline length to this preamp is 260' long and I
was now forced to live with the extra receive loss.
The week had been touch and go with regard to a low level periodically
pulsing line noise that was off when we got some wet snow, then on when it
all froze, then off when the sun went down, etc. Of course Murphy kept it on
most of the weekend.
The first time I tried to make a contact on 6M, the 897 transmitter locked
up. What the heck?? This happened only when using an antenna pointed right
at the shack. I had not tried it at full power before the contest (duh!),
and spent about a half hour unplugging things, adding bonding jumpers, etc,
to no avail. So I wrote off 6M (this happened during the only E's opening of
course) and I was bummed that all the prep to try 2 radio operating was now
derailed. But Sunday morning I tried one more cable re-routing and that did
the trick- 6M was now available again. When I redo the shack this situation
will really be put to rest
I spent most of my time on 2M. With conditions being so flat, it was a good
time to practice some of the mechanics of using 2 radios. I had a great time
in spite of the bummer start. The biggest surprise was working the guy in
the White Mountains who was backpack mobile with 40 MPH winds around him! I
think my 2M grid count of 28 was my best ever, thanks to the receiver
improvements, the 3 over 3 over 3 over 3 antennas, and having the patience
to stay in the chair longer.
Thanks to all for the contacts.
Chet, N8RA
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