Contest Stuff

[Jim Worsham]

Well, the unanimous consensus of the group seems to be that I am a whimp and
that I need to quit whinning and get my butt up to the mountain.  So I guess
we are going to the mountain.  www.weather.com is still predicting
thunderstorms all day Friday but I guess we can ride it out if we have to.
Just to make one thing clear though.  At the first hint of a thunderstorm in
the area we are going to suspend any antenna construction or on the air
operating.  We have had enough accidents for this year.  There has been some
talk of burning some steaks Saturday night.  I am all for this but we will
need someone to bring a grill, charcoal and lighter fluid.  On the other
hand I seem to remember there being a grill somewhere around the site in
which case we would only need the charcoal and lighter fluid.  Anyway, I
need someone to handle this.  Any takers?  A final update on my
WriteLog/Voice Keyer problems.  After some time on the telephone with K4EA
we worked out the problems with the software and got it both recording and
playing back voice messages.  Thanks for the help Neal!  Problem now is that
on the air testing with WB5APD this evening indicates a high level of noise
and hum on the audio from the laptop.  I am using a cable with an isolation
transformer that K4SZ gave me between the laptop and the rig but nothing I
could do would get the noise down to an acceptable level.  I am not going to
mess with it anymore (I have packed the computer and cables away) but if
anyone has any ideas/fixes let me know and we can try it out on the
mountain.  If I can't get it fixed, then there will be no voice keyer on the
2 meter station.  A pain, but not the end of the world.  Tim will be at my
house around 9AM and then we are going to pick up the tower trailer.  I plan
to be on the road by 10AM.  I think Neal is planning on leaving his place
around 9AM.  I don't know about anyone else.  Communications will be the
146.835 (+600) repeater as far as it will carry us then 146.55 simplex.
Thats it for now.

73
Jim W4KXY
w4kxy@bellsouth.net




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