[3830] CQ WW RTTY N4JIK SOAB LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Call: N4JIK
Operator(s): N4JIK
Station: N4JIK

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Phenix City, AL
Operating Time (hrs): 5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Pts  State/Prov  DX  Zones
----------------------------------------
   80:                                
   40:  30    61      11      14     9
   20:  45    74      17      13     9
   15:  11    29       2       9     5
   10:   5    15       0       3     3
----------------------------------------
Total:  91   179      30      39    26  Total Score = 17,005

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:

FT-897D/100watts/Windom - Well this one once again shows why I like working CW
more than Digital. Lots of problems to work through this go round -- Major
issue I had just gotten two wisdom teeth removed and was pretty well
incapacitated by Percocet off and on during the contest. But given that I had
time off during a contest I decided to give it the good ole boy try none the
less. 

Started right on time Friday - a first in a LONG time - worked a three US
stations on 20m right out of the gate but was having issues with RF getting
back into the radio causing it to lock up, beep and have just about 10 watts of
RF output. So I examined the station to determine if I could resolve this one
pretty quickly and as it turns out attempting to do this on narcotics is NOT
the best decision I had during this contest - hi hi. Well I tried swapping
everything around that I could think of from settings on the radio to settings
on the computer to settings on the microwave to settings on the stove and
nothing seemed to work - But I did get the time set on the Microwave (hi hi).
Well I went on to confirm more or less that the problems was caused by a lack
of grounding in the shack, so early on Saturday I ran outside ran an old ground
rod into the ground and grounded the radio only (by this point I had removed
every antenna switch and wire NOT Digital related from the shack) and this
seemed to do the trick. So off I went, was working pretty well S&P tried
working a few runs never got anywhere. Then mouth started hurting so I turned
in kind of early. 

Woke up Sunday morning (6am) and decided that I was going to fix this problem
once and for all. So I started a narcotically induced rearranging frenzy. At
0730 I find myself sitting in front of Home Depot waiting for it to open so I
can buy some connectors for grounding everything else in the world. At 0800
Home Depot opens I run around get the parts I need spend a whopping $9 and get
back to the house and proceed to ground just about everything -- my 3 year old
would stand still long enough for me to attach the alligator clamps to him so
he is as of yet ungrounded ;) Jump on the radio and its just magical not a
problem one in the shack! I move up to 15 and 10m to work some of the stations
up there for my 5 band DXCC since I have determined that I am not going to get
anything spectacular in my scores. Did pretty good up there jumped back down to
40m and pulled a few surprises out that late in the morning. Then moved on to
20m and was finally starting to get some momentum going when I started hearing
this rumbling sound, thinking that I had already eaten recently it must be
something else so looked out the window just in time to see some really
beautiful cloud to ground lighting. So off the air I go to wait the storm out.
During the time that I am waiting I take a few more pills to help the throbbing
pain I was having and sit down in the bed to watch TV. Next thing I realize its
7:45PM and the test is over at 8pm. So I managed to sleep way some great
operating time. But none the less learned a few very valuable lessons, grounded
the station and seen a few pink elephants along the way. Looking forward to next
year and I will somehow be in the High Power class since I forget this is not a
100watt contest which makes life miserable for those of us not running a KW or
more. 

Jeremy 
N4JIK


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