[3830] ARRL 160 K0TV M/S HP

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                    ARRL 160-Meter Contest

Call: K0TV
Operator(s): N1IW, WO1N, K0TV
Station: K0TV

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

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 1170  Sections = 77  Countries = 37  Total Score = 300,276

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

Best 160 contest ever. Conditions were excellent.

We got really burned by Murphy for this one. The day before the contest, the
Orion PLL wouldn't lock so I swapped out that rig for an IC-756PROII. During the
contest, one of the verticals in the phased array started having very high swr.
I went out and found that one of the wires in the tuning unit at the base had
shorted out and was arcing against the variable cap. Then we started smelling
something burning. What I originally thought was the L-7 power supply turned out
to be the CRTL board in the PROII. The SWR went through the roof and there was
no output. There's a 2 cm burned place on the board. Luckily I was able to
download the service manual and figured out where to put a jumper to get the rig
back on the air. Then the other 756PRO receiver got toasted.

On the good side, the new beverages worked wonderfully. We can now hear loads of
stuff that can't hear us. The new off center fed dipole with the custom balun
from N1IW works like gangbusters. With one rig on the OCFD and the other on the
phased array we were able to work a bunch of new countries too.

Can't wait for the CQWW 160 and maybe the Stew Perry.

73, Jerry


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