[3830] CQWW CW N2GC SOAB HP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: N2GC
Operator(s): N2GC
Station: N2GC

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: NY
Operating Time (hrs): 39

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:   53    10       30
   80:  288    22       85
   40:  397    30      110
   20:  344    28       84
   15:  169    28       94
   10:   53    16       27
------------------------------
Total: 1304   134      434  Total Score = 2,093,648

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

IC756PROIII,  AL-1200
80 mtr dipole @ 40'  (also used on 160 with xmatch)
40-10 mtr fan dipole @ 35' NE/SW
20-10 mtr fan dipole @ 35' N/S

Had a blast in this contest despite having a few problems with local noise and
RF locking up the keying line when sending from the computer. Also missed about
four hours of prime EU time on 20 and 15 Saturday morning.

Thursday night while testing the station and antennas on all bands I noticed a
strange sounding noise on 80 mtrs only.  It was a low frequency pulse type
noise that sounded like an old 68 Mustang was parked under my antenna with the
motor running.  The noise which was S9, would come on for about two minutes and
then go off for about one minute.  This cycle repeated itself over and over. 
After checking everything in the house with no luck I went to bed as it was
getting late and I wanted to get a good night sleep.  Friday morning I turned
on the radio expecting to hear the noise again but it was gone.  An hour before
the start of the contest, I turned everything on to get ready and the noise was
back.  I figured it had to be something that came on at night like a street
light or some other outdoor lighting.  I went outside with my kids to walk
around looking for the culprit.  We found it right away as it was on a pole
about 300' from my 80mtr dipole.  It was a street light that would be on for
about one minute at full brightness then go off and take about two minutes to
warm up and suddenly go to full brightness.  We tried throwing some rocks at it
but we all had bad aim.  I called the town street light maintenance department
only to find out that they would reopen on Monday. 
Luckilly conditions were so good and signals were strong that I did pretty good
despite the headache with the noise.  On some of the weaker stations I had to
wait till the noise went off for my one minute window to try and work them. 
Very little running done on this band due to this noise.

The other problem with the keying line locking up, I found out when I went to
call a station in SA on my 20 mtr N/S dipole.  The computer locked up in the
key down position until I switched the amp into standby.  This was very
frustrating as I have never had any RF issues inside the shack before.  I
disconnected all non essential cables going into the computer and put ferrite
on the keying line with no luck.  I had to use the paddle to send when using
this antenna the rest of the weekend.  There were many times that I forgot and
hit F4 only to have to scramble and switch the amp to standby.  I must have
sounded like a lid tuning up on top of people I was trying to call.  A few
times I forgot to take the amp out of standby and worked a few guys barefoot.

A big thanks goes out to all the expeditions and super stations in the world
that help make this contest the best there is.

73, Mike


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