SS Shouldas - Final Summary
PaulKB8N at aol.com
PaulKB8N at aol.com
Wed Nov 15 18:05:09 EST 1995
Here's the final list of things that we shoulda done for Sweepstakes. Thanks
to all who contributed!
Computer Glitches:
- Shoulda worked 'em earlier! Started working the glitches 15 minutes before
the contest. Got 'em fixed but started the contest frazzled! (K7MM)
- Shoulda had a UPS on the computer...lost power but was lucky to not lose
log! (K3ZNV)
- Shoulda had the computers up and de-RFI-ed a week before (KZ8E -Multiop)
- Shoulda realized that doublespace caused bad CW with N6TR software and
shoulda moved the program to the uncompressed drive (N4ZR)
- Shoulda fixed logcfg.dat file before, not during, contest(KB8N)
Physical Preparation:
- Shoulda gotten more sleep both Friday and Saturday before the contest
(KE3Q)
- Shoulda gotten my code speed back up to what it was 10 years ago (W8CAR)
- Shoulda not stayed up until 1AM on Friday nite before the contest and
shoulda shot the guy who rudely woke me up at 9AM the next morning! (NI6T)
- Shoulda limbered up and checked the bands at least 30 minutes prior to the
test (KZ8E)
- Shoulda taken Friday off to recharge batteries before SS, and shoulda
gotten to bed early on Friday night (N6AZE @ N6KI Team)
- Shoulda gotten a better cushion for my chair! (K4OGG)
- Shoulda loaded the M&M dispenser before the contest instead of during!
(K7MM)
Low Band Antennas:
- Shoulda used a low-noise receive antenna on 80M, the NE and NW slopers were
very noisy, constant S7-8 noise level. (KB8N)
- Shoulda used a low-noise receive antenna for 80M (N4ZR)
- Shoulda fixed up a better 80M antenna (K7FR)
- Shoulda built better antennas for 80 and 40M (KZ8E)
- Shoulda realized that a quiet band and loud signals on receive on 80M
necessarily mean lots of QSOs (K0RF)
- Shoulda checked the 80M wire in my back yard to see if it worked, it did
not! (K7MM)
Interfaces and Cables:
- Shoulda fixed up a parallel keying arrangement...Alt K sucks! (K7FR)
- Shoulda built that whatchamacallit that allows me to wear one headphone
while listening to two radios. (KZ8E)
- Shoulda got a headphone extention cable so I wouldn't unplug my phones
every time I leaned back in my chair! (KB8N)
- Shoulda worked on interfaces (computer keying FT-1000, amps, computer net,
etc) well before the contest (KE3Q)
RFI
- Shoulda checked new amp for RFI with neighbor, had to shut down amp on 80M
due to interference with CATV, phones and alarm system (AA4RX)
- Shoulda eliminated Compurter RFI before the contest (KZ8E)
- Shoulda bypassed rotor lines with caps...screen boogies in time with
transmitter on 80M (K7FR)
Strategy
- Shoulda stayed on 40M longer (K7FR)
- Shoulda concentrated on rate, rate, RATE the first three hours...shoulda
not been lured by mults on 15 and 20 (W8CAR)
- Shoulda started on 40 and stayed there! (W8CAR)
- Shoulda made more band changes (KZ8E)
- Shoulda made firm plans on who operates first and where, shoulda been
prepared mentally and physically out of the blocks, you never catch up on
QSOs missed the first few hours! (N6AZE @ N6KI)
- Shoulda listened to W0UA's sage advice, to wit, DON'T EXPECT LAST YEAR'S
LESSONS TO APPLY TO THIS YEAR" (K0RF)
- Shoulda optimized off-time strategy, left 60 per hour rates to save time
for the BIG finish, which only produced 40 per hour rates! (K0RF)
ERGONOMICS
- Shoulda used a BIG green LED to indicate active radio, the .125" size is
just too small! (KB8N)
- Shoulda had the keyer on the left so my right hand was occupied by the
tuning knob and the Bencher. (K3ZNV)
- Shoulda set up radios and filtering so that you don't have to fix it during
off time (N6AZE @ N6KI)
Thanks for the bandwidth...hope this helps us all for next year, or even for
Phone SS. K0RF gets my vote for the most profound statement (see Strategy).
Thanks to all for contributing, hope you didn't mind my minor edits to your
inputs. For Gary, W9XT, this info is yours if you wish to use it for a
future column.
73,
Paul, KB8N
>From barry at w2up.wells.com (barry) Wed Nov 15 23:05:03 1995
From: barry at w2up.wells.com (barry) (barry)
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 95 18:05:03 EST
Subject: NCJ RTTY ARTICLE
Message-ID: <5aRmeD1w165w at w2up.wells.com>
kp4xs at ix.netcom.com (Kenneth Ramirez ) writes:
> The W3LPL contest station has such a vast array of
> antennas,towers,etc.,that a RTTY contest becomes simple. You just call
> CQ,have the loudest signal when calling and saturate the 5 bands with
> the call. I could have typed on the rtty keyboard and sent,
> "CQ de pl", and the response would have been,"w3lpl w3lpl w3lpl 599
> 599 599 kkk". Frank's station is a killer in a RTTY contest! Call it
> the "KODAK" station. You just point and shoot! Takes all the fun out of
> getting squashed by all the other powerful RTTY stations. You don't
> have to worry about band conditions. You make your own. I guess I'll
> have to give RTTY another chance using 100 watts and a small tribander
> and see if there IS some skill involved in RTTY contesting and If the
> boredom is relieved. It probably won't hurt to keep a bottle of Tylenol
> handy too. 73 Ken kp4xs AKA-kh2f
>
Ken - If operating from LPL is such a no-brainer, why did you guys get
beat last year? A group of RTTY contesters operated M/M from a station in
1-land (K1NG perhaps, I'm not really sure) and beat LPL.
--
Barry N. Kutner, W2UP Internet: barry at w2up.wells.com
Newtown, PA Packet Radio: W2UP @ WB3JOE.#EPA.PA.USA.NA
Packet Cluster: W2UP >WB2R (FRC)
.......................................................................
>From SHAWN LIGHTFOOT <shawn.lightfoot at lun.lis.ab.ca> Wed Nov 15 23:50:00 1995
From: SHAWN LIGHTFOOT <shawn.lightfoot at lun.lis.ab.ca> (SHAWN LIGHTFOOT <shawn.lightfoot at lun.lis.ab.ca>)
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 95 16:50:00 -0700
Subject: Amplifier Heating
Message-ID: <8B503F2.00650007F7.uuout at lun.lis.ab.ca>
Hi all. In the season of amplifier heating (and overheating), I just
thought I would pass along and interesting tidbit that you may or may
not already know.
I have recently changed microphones, to a microphone that emphasizes the
highs and cuts the lows. The first thing I noticed is that after
extended use, the amplifier does not get as hot as it used to. This is
due to the fact that the new microphone cuts the low audio freq's which
in turn seems to lower the inherent duty cycle of the modulated RF, in
other words the
>From kp4xs at ix.netcom.com (Kenneth Ramirez ) Thu Nov 16 01:29:55 1995
From: kp4xs at ix.netcom.com (Kenneth Ramirez ) (Kenneth Ramirez )
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 17:29:55 -0800
Subject: RTTY Contest
Message-ID: <199511160129.RAA14389 at ix4.ix.netcom.com>
You wrote:
>
>kp4xs at ix.netcom.com (Kenneth Ramirez ) writes:
>
>> The W3LPL contest station has such a vast array of
>> antennas,towers,etc.,that a RTTY contest becomes simple. You just
call
>> CQ,have the loudest signal when calling and saturate the 5 bands
with
>> the call. I could have typed on the rtty keyboard and sent,
>> "CQ de pl", and the response would have been,"w3lpl w3lpl w3lpl 599
>> 599 599 kkk". Frank's station is a killer in a RTTY contest! Call it
>> the "KODAK" station. You just point and shoot! Takes all the fun out
of
>> getting squashed by all the other powerful RTTY stations. You don't
>> have to worry about band conditions. You make your own. I guess I'll
>> have to give RTTY another chance using 100 watts and a small
tribander
>> and see if there IS some skill involved in RTTY contesting and If
the
>> boredom is relieved. It probably won't hurt to keep a bottle of
Tylenol
>> handy too. 73 Ken kp4xs AKA-kh2f
>>
>
>Ken - If operating from LPL is such a no-brainer, why did you guys get
>beat last year? A group of RTTY contesters operated M/M from a station
in
>1-land (K1NG perhaps, I'm not really sure) and beat LPL.
>
>--
>=======================================================================
>Barry N. Kutner, W2UP Internet: barry at w2up.wells.com
>Newtown, PA Packet Radio: W2UP @ WB3JOE.#EPA.PA.USA.NA
> Packet Cluster: W2UP >WB2R (FRC)
>.......................................................................
>
>
Barry,
Like I said, I tried the RTTY contest ONCE and it was a couple of
years ago.
You'll have to direct your question to someone who was there for that
contest but I can tell you that there was a lack of operators for that
particular effort. Ken
>From kp4xs at ix.netcom.com (Kenneth Ramirez ) Thu Nov 16 01:39:44 1995
From: kp4xs at ix.netcom.com (Kenneth Ramirez ) (Kenneth Ramirez )
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 17:39:44 -0800
Subject: RTTY CONTEST
Message-ID: <199511160139.RAA28310 at ix.ix.netcom.com>
Barry,
Like I said,I tried the RTTY contest ONCE and this was a few
years ago.
You'll have to direct your question to whoever was there for that
particular contest . I do know that there was a shortage of ops for
that particular effort. Ken
>From millersg at dmapub.dma.org (Steve Miller) Thu Nov 16 02:05:00 1995
From: millersg at dmapub.dma.org (Steve Miller) (Steve Miller)
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 21:05:00 -0500 (EST)
Subject: One person antenna installations ??
Message-ID: <m0tFthE-0002AuC at dmapub.dma.org>
> Don't know where I heard, saw, or what, but does anyone know of any
> articles, what have you, on putting up reasonably big antennas
> by ones self ?? Say something like a 204BA. YCCC newsletter
> article ?? Rumor I got was that Mike Staal (sp?), when he was
> with KLM, was known to put up the KLM test antennas either
> by himself or himself and maybe 1 guy on the ground.
> (This was at the test range, in the early days before computer
> modeling, where the cut and try method was utilized.)
>
> NO, I DON'T plan to TRY to do it myself!! I just want to see how it
> might be done. Could get some ideas on how to handle big
> antennas up on the tower.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Tom KY2T (FRC)
> KY2t at AOL.COM
N4AR has done alot of one-man antenna farming.
--
Steve Miller
millersg at dmapub.dma.org
WD8IXE - Ridin' the aethereal waves
>From Frank Donovan <donovanf at sgate.com> Thu Nov 16 02:18:30 1995
From: Frank Donovan <donovanf at sgate.com> (Frank Donovan)
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 21:18:30 -0500 (EST)
Subject: TS-850 External Receive Antenna Mod
Message-ID: <Pine.OSF.3.91.951115211708.22369A-100000 at jekyll.sgate.com>
This modification was developed by Brian WA3WJD
TS-850 Separate Receive Antenna Modification
Make a short loop of white telfon cable with a male and female BNC connector.
Loop it out of the back of the rig so just enough of the coax sticks
out so the BNCs can be joined with a barrel connector.
Locate the little header connector on the filter board in the TS-850 that is
on the receiver side of the TS850 antenna relay. Pull that connector loose.
Spend a little time tracking down male and female header connectors
that match what Kenwood uses. Install those on the ends of the white
teflon coaxes sticking in the back of the radio.
For normal use, just connect the BNCs with a barrel connector and the rig
is normal. For Beverage use, connect an extra antenna switch common and
ant #1 to the BNC connectors, and put ur Beverages on the other positions.
>From kf3p at cais.cais.com (Tyler Stewart) Thu Nov 16 02:44:51 1995
From: kf3p at cais.cais.com (Tyler Stewart) (Tyler Stewart)
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 21:44:51 -0500
Subject: NCJ RTTY ARTICLE
Message-ID: <199511160244.VAA25946 at cais.cais.com>
>kp4xs at ix.netcom.com (Kenneth Ramirez ) writes:
>
>> The W3LPL contest station has such a vast array of
>> antennas,towers,etc.,that a RTTY contest becomes simple. You just call
>> CQ,have the loudest signal when calling and saturate the 5 bands with
>> the call. I could have typed on the rtty keyboard and sent,
>> "CQ de pl", and the response would have been,"w3lpl w3lpl w3lpl 599
>> 599 599 kkk". Frank's station is a killer in a RTTY contest! Call it
>> the "KODAK" station. You just point and shoot! Takes all the fun out of
>> getting squashed by all the other powerful RTTY stations. You don't
>> have to worry about band conditions. You make your own. I guess I'll
>> have to give RTTY another chance using 100 watts and a small tribander
>> and see if there IS some skill involved in RTTY contesting and If the
>> boredom is relieved. It probably won't hurt to keep a bottle of Tylenol
>> handy too. 73 Ken kp4xs AKA-kh2f
>>
>
>Ken - If operating from LPL is such a no-brainer, why did you guys get
>beat last year? A group of RTTY contesters operated M/M from a station in
>1-land (K1NG perhaps, I'm not really sure) and beat LPL.
>
>--
>=======================================================================
>Barry N. Kutner, W2UP Internet: barry at w2up.wells.com
>Newtown, PA Packet Radio: W2UP @ WB3JOE.#EPA.PA.USA.NA
> Packet Cluster: W2UP >WB2R (FRC)
>.......................................................................
>
Yeah, and K5ZD was one of the Op's! hi hi Ask him if he's going back for more!
73, Tyler KF3P
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