NA

[g.elliott1 at genie.com]

Can anybody tell me if there is a NA reflector to discuss the NA contest
program like there is for CT ?  If so can you give me the correct
subscription request.  Thanks

73 Gary K7OX


>From K. Caruso x226-6935 <caruso at netcad.ENET.dec.com>  Fri Feb  2 07:01:07 1996
From: K. Caruso x226-6935 <caruso at netcad.ENET.dec.com> (K. Caruso x226-6935 <caruso at netcad.ENET.dec.com>)
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 96 02:01:07 EST
Subject: WO1N 160M results/story
Message-ID: <9602020700.AA01905 at us1rmc.bb.dec.com>

      
      Call: WO1N                     Country:  United States
      Mode: CW                       Category: Single Operator
      Power: Low Power

               QSO   QSO PTS  STATES COUNTRIES
     Totals    420    1105      52      20    =   79,560

Club Affiliation: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Equipment: Yaesu FT757GXII, Timewave DSP59+, Inverted L at 55'
*****************************************************************************
  WO1N 1996 CQ 160M CW or How I beat Murphy with 10 minutes to go...
 
 I planned my most serious contest effort from my own shack to date 
 for this one. I really enjoy 160M and the 36hr length coupled with day hours
 off works for me/the family. One key element to success was putting it 
 in BOLD letters in the family calendar long in advance so there were no
 surprises. I even took the day off from work to be ready for its 2200Z
 start time. So far so good.
 
 I run a pretty modest station as you can see from my equipment list, but its
 slowly improving. After a large investment (DSP59+) but half hearted effort 
 at the ARRL 160M CW I listed two things that needed updating. Lower my 
 sidetone volume (easily done) and buying an external keyer.

 So, I picked up a Jade products Curtis keyer kit and put it together a week
 prior to the test. I had it running, set up CT and basically tested the
 combo all week long. No problems.

 About 2100Z I go to the shack, fire up the rig and start playing around. I
 throw the Bird on the output. "Hmmm, its only showing 90W, could of sworn
 I've seen 100w before" I muttered to myself. "I wonder if I'm getting any
 significant IR drop on my DC power when I key up?" So, I get the DVM at T 
 -30min and counting. Gee, a good place to measure this would be the coaxial
 power connector on my cool Jade products keyer with large Radio Shack widget
 content. Easy, done. No IR drop. OK, I live with the indicated 90W.
 
 I plug the keyer power back in and what! NO CW! I start yanking cables,
 flicking switches, reseting the rigs cpu. No dice. Put the Bencher
 directly into the back of the rig, turn on its internal keyer and guess
 what? It does dahs, but it won't do dits! It is now T-15min to start and I'm
 starting to hyperventilate while reviewing my options: 1) Blow off the 
 contest 2) Key it all by hand with a straight key 3) Maybe, just maybe, swap
 my keying path over to the dah side. I fire up the soldering iron swap one
 little wire over and guess what it works! T-10min. Heck, time to spare.
 
 Murphy didn't leave totally. About 0800Z (Sunday AM) the high intensity
 lamp over my operating position blew up with a nice bright blue flash. That
 was good for 3 or 4 extra q's that hour. But, everything else was smooth
 as glass. We even shrugged off 40-50mph winds all day Saturday with no ill
 effects despite power failures all around town.
 
 I highly recommend the DSP59+, it got a major work out during this test.
 Helped me find holes to run in that, without, would have been impossible.
 Pulled RK2FWA out of total chaos Saturday evening for a new mult. In all 4
 or 5 new countries for me for what I believe were some of the best conditions
 this winter. Missed a bunch of DX that 500-600W would have gotten me, but
 it is impressive what can be done with 100W (well, OK, 90W) and modest
 antenna's on Topband.  I did leave a couple of mults on the table including
 HB9, FG5, OK1, 9A that better antennas/more strap would have easily worked.
 Missed 4 states (ND, ID, NV and NE). Even had some DX work me while I was
 running. I was working G-land as late as 0800Z Sunday morning.

 Again a pat on the back go to us all for keeping the DX window clean. It didn't
 feel like anyone encrouched on my run frequency all weekend, but the
 bandwidth settings on the DSP box got pretty tight at times. Got asked to
 move once, so I did. I found South Dakota way up the band in the wee
 hours of Sunday morning. Someday I'm going to move to the Dakota's so I
 can be rare DX too. Best of all, I had total support from the family. My
 wife even brought me down dinner Friday evening. It just doesn't 
 get any better. 

 CU in the ARRL DX,
 Ken - WO1N
 Here or Compuserve (75260.3652 preferred)

>From w7ni at teleport.com (Stan Griffiths)  Fri Feb  2 10:07:06 1996
From: w7ni at teleport.com (Stan Griffiths) (Stan Griffiths)
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 02:07:06 -0800
Subject: PRB-1, DXers, Contesters and ARES
Message-ID: <199602021007.CAA07119 at desiree.teleport.com>

>during Mexico City earthquake).  I got on with a Spain speaker and passed 
>some traffic.  Did same for several hurricanes and CA earthquake.
>
>This is our duty.  Think about it.
>73, Charlie K4VUD

I was on a bit for the California quake and a LOT for the Mexico City quake.
N0AX stresses the importance of knowing procedure and I agree that it is
important.  Absolutely NOTHING replaces being loud, though, even perfect
procedure.  During the Mexico thing, since I was not up to snuff on
procedure, I did not participate in any organized net, thinking I might do
more harm than good for them.  Rather, I freelanced on my own frequency,
developed a rapport with a Mexico City station, and he stayed with me
because he could copy me with his lousey antenna and right through everybody
else!  There was a rather massive number of U.S. stations constantly trying
to break in and I had my own agenda an so did my Mexico City contact.  We
had all we could handle without more traffic from would-be breakers.  (I
live in Aloha, OR which is just 5 miles from Hillsboro, OR where thousands
of Mexican farm workers live so you can see why I had my hands full.)  I got
phone calls from all over the U.S. from hams pleading with me to take their
traffic for Mexico City.  The called me on the phone because they heard me
being successful on the air and they could not seem to break in.  One guy
who phoned me from somehwere in the Southeast said a local TV station had
announced an offer by the Red Cross to take health and wefare messages since
he had offered his services to the Red Cross.  He said the Red Cross called
him with 900 messages!  He had traffic, all right, but he did not have the
ability to get through during that mess.  I had to turn him down, of course!
I was already working at 100% capacity.

The moral to this story is that being LOUD can be much more important than
procedure.  Being LOUD is what contesters specialize in . . . and their
procedure ain't bad either because they tend to use common sense.  They are
understandable, fast, efficient, loud . . . exactly the same stuff is needed
for contests and emergencies.  To some guys I know, the risk of coming in
second place in a contest IS an emergency!  Don't underestimate your ability
to help.  Just use good sense in how you do it.

Stan  W7NI at teleport.com


>From peterj at netcom.com (Peter Jennings)  Fri Feb  2 10:47:02 1996
From: peterj at netcom.com (Peter Jennings) (Peter Jennings)
Date: Fri, 2 Feb 1996 02:47:02 -0800
Subject: C31LJ CQ160 Report
Message-ID: <199602021047.CAA24340 at netcom.netcom.com>


Murphy was certainly an active participant in this particular
exercise. After telling everyone I would be here and asking
for advice on how to tackle top band, the final results were
a bit disappointing.

Wednesday morning, ten minutes before sunrise, just after hearing that
my signal was building nicely in the US, it began to snow. The snow
here often is highly charged, and no sooner had I begun to hear arcing
in the tuner than I realized that the final in my FT-757 was zapped and
the output was down to 25 watts and dropping fast. Several diodes need
replacing, and probably one of the final transistors.

Thursday, the backup TS-50 also went south, and now puts out a half watt.
I'm still looking into that one, and could use some help.

Thanks to the generosity of Fred, C31HK, I was able to borrow his ageing
TS-830 in order to get on the air for the contest. Fred is a non-CW
op who is also rabidly anti-contest. The lack of a narrow CW filter was
not a big problem given the effective VBT and IF shift and external audio
filters. However, the rig only has one VFO, so I could not CQ in the
window and listen elsewhere as planned. There was no point in trying
to listen in the window from here, as several humungous European signals
pretty well clobbered it. BTW, I did not hear a single US station CQ in
the window.

In the end, most of the US stations worked were from S&P. Most of the
Europeans were from running.

High Points:
Just being able to get on the air from here at all.
Working dozens of US stations on Sunday sunrise with great signals
all over the band. Too bad I could not establish a good run frequency
and work a bunch more.

Low Points:
Not working VP9AD despite calling for 10 minutes at my sunrise.
Hearing stateside stations begin to CQ on my run frequency, indicating
I was not putting enough RF over there.
Hearing Europeans with beverages working stateside stations on my run
frequency that I couldn't hear.

Still, it was a fun contest, and given the location here in a valley
which resembles the bottom of a barrel, I shouldn't have expected too
much. Thanks to everyone who worked me before, during, and after the
contest. As I am now without a rig for a few weeks, don't expect to
see me on for any 160 skeds.

Please QSL via VE3GEJ. (5197 Second Ave, Niagara Falls, Canada L2E 4J8)

    512 Qs    2707 pts   14 states   44 countries   =   157,006

    TS-830, TL-922
    Dipole held up by 2 stakes in the ground on the side of a mountain
    with the center angle about 150 degrees brought to the roof of
    this 8 story building. Try to picture that one!

If I can fix one of the rigs, look for me in the ARRL CW test on Feb 17.
Has anyone got a TS-50 service manual who could help with some questions?
All I have is a schematic.

Peter
AB6WM/VE3SUN/C31LJ

--                                                peterj at netcom.com
         URL: http://mall.turnpike.net/~jc/