[3830] ARRL June VHF K7XC SO 3Band LP

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                    ARRL June VHF Contest - 2021

Call: K7XC
Operator(s): K7XC
Station: K7XC

Class: SO 3Band LP
QTH: DM09jh - N NV
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
    6:  83     57
    2:   5      1
  222:           
  432:   0      0
  903:           
  1.2:           
  2.3:           
  3.4:           
  5.7:           
  10G:           
  24G:           
-------------------
Total:  88     58  Total Score = 5,104

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

My primary rig suffered a driver failure rendering it useless. Tried to get the
backup Flex3000 reinstalled and supporting FT8 but for some reason it decided
not to play nice and pass audio back and forth. That forced me to bring out the
old stalwart, a very old and ailing IC-746 that on a good day with a ice cold PA
deck has 50W output power which is what I ran all weekend. Tried hard to have a
400W Harris SS 6M amplifier integrated and running in time for the contest but
it was not to be. All day Saturday I operated looking over my right shoulder
while working to finish converting the 400W Harris Module into a working device.
I was finally done late Saturday night. Waking up at 530AM I tried to get some
more rest but my mind would not stop obsessing over the amp. Needing only to
wire up the 3000W Meanwell 50V DC supple, make all the necessary connections,
turn the drive power all the way down to 5W, fire up the Bias, Relay, and B+
supplies and perform the initial smoke test... and.... A brief flash of power
out and POOF... It was DEAD! 5.2W would drive the amp to 400W out but the radio
must put out more than the advertised 5W with the drive all the way down. Had
the primary radio not died it would have not been an issue as it starts at 100mw
and scales up. With that control it would have been easy to find the correct and
safe drive level while not turning the module into a paperweight. 2M was MUCH
WORSE! For some reason unclear to me, the 16ele 2M yagi was totally FUBAR W/O
warning leaving me only my trusty 50W TR7850 to beg for Qs on FM. points is
points! Saturday would have much more productive had I focused solely on
operating as the band was open almost all day. 6AM Sunday the rocks were
awesome! plenty of full sequence burns making 6M very productive until 9AM when
the band went flat. With no propagation all day except for brief spotlight
openings it was typical Western States dead conditions. The timing wasn't there
to work the NI5P/R group as they dashed through the rare North-Western DN grids.
They had periods of great openings to the East making many FFMA types very happy
indeed. So it wasn't outstanding but it was OK. I now know the amp needs a Pi
Input Attenuator to protect the Module that will replace the dead one.
Thankfully I have a couple of spares. TY to all who managed to work my weak
signal, It was  tough sledding to log them all. 73s de Tim - K7XC - DM09jh... sk


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