[3830] ARRL Sep VHF W3SO Limited Multi-Op HP

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                    ARRL September VHF Contest - 2019

Call: W3SO
Operator(s): W3BC W3BTX W3SF W3XOX W3YOZ W3IDT
Station: W3SO

Class: Limited Multi-Op HP
QTH: wpa
Operating Time (hrs): 16

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  186    49
    2:  194    53
  222:           
  432:   50    24
  903:           
  1.2:           
  2.3:           
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  430   126  Total Score = 60,480

Club: Potomac Valley Radio Club

Comments:

We had two visitors to W3SO this weekend:
One very welcome,
the other, well, not so much.

Joe, W3BC, the ARRL WPA Section Manager, stopped by to operate and to update his
local constituents on ARRL affairs. Thanks, Joe.

The other visitor, named Murphy, was not very welcome; he insisted on coming and
staying though. 
1. We already had some problems going in: The 222MHz band was not going to be
available (it's usually one of our major point generators).
2. Very early Sunday morning, one of our distant ops, wa3tts, on his way to
arrive at about 7:00am, had his muffler and tail pipe break off his car.
3. After the first contact on 144MHz Sunday am, the amp stops working: No high
voltage. Check 220v breaker: ok; Check power supply fuses: All seem ok. Find the
correct power supply manual (we have several versions of LunarLink amps and
power supplies).
Tom, w3sf, does careful circuit tracing and with ear to power supply listens to
various timing relays engaging / disengaging. 
Finds a likely suspect relay. Traces circuit. Wow: There is a fuse inside this
particular power supply. Off to the work bench, in an auxiliary building. 
Eventually the power supply comes back for the real test: Is there a problem in
the RF deck? Turn every on, and all seems fine.
4. Gremlins got into the 6m PC. Early Sunday it starting skipping FT8 decode
cycles. That is, for example, transmit CQ at 00; no decode at 15; maybe a decode
at 45, maybe not. Time synchronization is fine. CPU load steady at 20%, then
jumps to 70% for minute or two, then back to 20%. Still not sure, but it appears
to be some Microsoft search or indexing operation; doesn't happen on the other
PCs. Sorry for all the FT8 potential contacts messed up.

No real sustained Eskip or Tropo. A few brief Es on FT8 to CO, TX, and FL on
6m.

For the Wopsononock Mountaintop Operators

Bob, w3idt
w3idt at arrl.net
w3idt at comcast.net


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