Well, it seems as if my 3456 system is totally hosed. I could not make any
contacts with it. I am afraid I'll have to bite the bullet and take it down for
repair. I am sure that water has contaminated the UT-141 phasing lines and the
power divider. That requires climbing a 120 ft tower and going around a Rohn 55
star guy bracket (Its BIG) and then I have to climb on top of the tower and
snake myself up between the four 903 loop yagis and climb on the H frame, then
shinny up farther between the 2304 loop yagis and climb up the 2304 H frame.
When I climb up thru the third (1296) H frame, I will be finally up at 3456.
The height at that point is 137 ft above ground. The only problem is that there
is no easy way to lower anything down thru all the other antennas, so I have to
take everything apart in stages, piece by piece and lower it thru the H frames,
then climb down and re tie it to a larger rope near the star guy bracket to
lower the last 120 ft to the ground. I am dreading
that job! Maybe I can just replace the feedlines and power divider?
The MW Sprint was a lot of fun. When I got up to the remote shack, I turned
on the gear, but was greeted by a big flash and a loud bang when I turned on
the 144 MHz PA HV supply. The HV fuse blew out in the amp, as something arced
inside the amp. I had to take everything out of the rack and take the amp apart
and look for the cause. In between all that I got on with 60-70 watts on 144
and made a few MW contacts, but it was hard to attract attention with
everyone's beams facing SW. No one could hear me running the driver amp.
I made a few 2304 contacts, with the best ones being WA2LTM and WB2RVX. My
only 10,368 QSO was K1TEO and signals were very very weak. I wondered if my rig
was sick again, but things seem to be playing OK. The Mt Washington beacon pegs
the S meter and N1JEZ/b on Mt Mansfield in Northern VT was its' usual strength.
I could not hear K1FFK/b on Mt. Greylock. It has been missing for awhile. Is it
still on the air, or did it die in the last few weeks?
It seems that most activity was on 1296. It was great to work K2SMN in NJ.
Roger was Q5 on SSB. It was also nice to get K1PXE and KA2DRR, and WA2VNV. All
told I had 17 QSOs (I think) I'll have to go and retrieve the log to see what
my distance score is. Things slowed down at about 11:30 local time, so I re
assembled the 144 PA, hooked it back up and checked it out. It came back on
line with no explosion. I had removed a few cobwebs. I suspect water was in
there somewhere as it was a very foggy morning and had rained about 1.5"
yesterday. The remote shack did not have any heat on and everything was damp. I
ran into W1XM in Boston very late after getting the amp running and we worked
on 903, 1296 and 2304, all the bands available with them.
Sorry but I missed with a few. I never got to run with K3GNC. I never heard
K1BX in FN43. I also struck out with W1GHZ on 902 and 1296. WB2RVX and I did
not hear anything on 10 GHz, but things were so bad on 2304, I was not
surprised. Overall, I was pleased with the activity. 17 Qs from Maine is
probably a high point for me for a microwave Sprint score. Thanks to all who
braved the bands this morning!
73
Dave K1WHS
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