[3830] NAQP RTTY K3FIV Single Op LP

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                    North American QSO Party, RTTY - February

Call: K3FIV
Operator(s): K3FIV
Station: K3FIV

Class: Single Op LP
QTH: CA
Operating Time (hrs): 9

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   80:   49    18
   40:  133    42
   20:   78    31
   15:   96    36
   10:   25    12
-------------------
Total:  381   139  Total Score = 54,483

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Team: 

Comments:

Nice contest!  Lots of stations but there always was room somewhere to grab a
frequency.  I think I like the NAQP formats - long enough for a serious effort
but short enough to not require a week in rehab afterwards.  With (almost!)
everyone at 100W or less, signals were pretty uniform.

As usual, daytime on the high bands is a bit of a challenge for my dipole. 
After dark, 40 was great - open from here on the edge of the Pacific all the
way to the East Coast and most places in between.  I spent some time on 80, but
kept coming back to 40 as most productive.  S&Ping up the band with the
Panadapter on the Flex-3000 was a blast - better rate than running.

Halfway through, I was having trouble making contacts, and one station said
"SRI NO DECODE".  Then I noticed I was only transmitting about 6 watts.  SWR
had also gone to 2:1.  So I went outside to check the antenna - it's been windy
today.  Nope, still up there at 35 feet.  So I put a dummy load on and tried
again.  No change, still doesn't work.  I figured the constant RTTY probably
blew an output transistor.  I noticed that I could run fine anwhere from 0 to
40 watts, but going above that would drop the power back down to 10 or less. 
So, looked like dead radio, end of contest.  

Then I brought up the voltage/temperature window and noticed that, when I
transmitted above 40 watts, the voltage dropped from 13 to 5.  Not good. 
Further investigation... the bad news is that the power supply has died; the
good news is that the radio didn't.  It just acts a little weird when you choke
off its oxygen-volts.

Rummaging around in the barn loft turned up another power supply, and a few
minutes of rewiring and it all worked again.

So, back to 40.  Lots of fun, even got a CQ answered by a CO2.

73,
/Jack de K3FIV
Rig: Flex-3000
Antenna: 135' Carolina Windom at 35', all bands


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