[3830] ARRLDX SSB KK1L M/S HP

[kk1l at arrl.net]

                     ARRL DX Contest, SSB
                    
Call: KK1L
Operator(s): KK1L, K1KD, K1LI
Station: KK1L

Class: M/S HP
QTH: VT
Operating Time (hrs): 38
 

Summary:
 Band     QSOs  Mults
----------------------
  160:     15     13
   80:     79     43
   40:    134     54
   20:    369     86
   15:    478     80
   10:    807     79
----------------------
Total:   1882    355  =  1,997,940

Club: YCCC

Comments:

Good news first! I had my first crack at a real honest-to-goodness solid
nonstop EU pile up. For about 15 minutes for every QRZ there was just a
hoard...COOL! Sure I have had good hours before...2 or three stations
calling at the same time is great fun, but no "pile up". It went very
well and the rate stayed high. I must have been doing something right. I
wish I had it on tape to replay and analyze.

I worked T32RD on 160m at 0919Z on Saturday morning. I am not a student
of 160m, but I was pretty pumped to get that mult on that band.

The bad news next! After a few hours on 10m Saturday morning smoke
started pouring up and out of the Dentron 160-10L. The transformer had
overheated in my recently reworked amp! Awww man right in the middle of
great 10m conditions. I had been having trouble getting the power I
thought I should be getting on that band for the amount of plate
current...shoulda known something was going to give. I even had an extra
fan running over the transformer compartment. (I pulled the transformer
out later and other than an open primary it is not obvious to my
untrained eye that this event happened!) Having been up for 28 hours I
was in no condition think straight enough to complete the worked
required to get my spare amp (30L-1) on the air. I went to bed while
K1KD continued to operate barefoot.

Later in the afternoon after some rest I got the 30L-1 on line with the
four 572Bs from the smoked Dentron. I made sure not to let the plate
current go over 800mA, and made sure a fan was running over the
transformer (again). We used it until midnight when we shut down until
sunrise. The heretofore trusty 30L-1 worked great until about 45 minutes
into another 10m run! I had taken my daughters skating and when I came
back the rate meter was at 18/hour! Huh! It is 3'oclock in the
afternoon, what's up? Well I was told the meters on the L1 all read zero
and the transformer seemed hot. Ohhhh not again :( :( I replaced the
fuses and fired it back up...for about 1ms. Oh well another one bites
the dust. It was S&P the rest of the day. I have not opened up the L1
yet, so I don't know exactly what went wrong.

Oh well enough typing. You guys have read enough. Time to visit the
Peter Dahl website.



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