[Mldxcc] WX6V ARRL RTTY RU - Murphy Pays A Visit

[Jim Venneman]

ARRL RTTY Roundup

Call: WX6V
Operator(s): WX6V
Station: WX6V

Class: Multi-Single (Single Op HP, Assisted)
QTH: Auburn, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 20

Summary:
Band  QSOs
------------
  80:    79
  40:  141
  20:   258
  15:   230
  10:     62
------------
Total:  770  State/Prov = 57  Countries = 41  Total Score = 75,460

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments: Spent time in the RU practice session Friday afternoon getting 
everything ready.
Got off to a good start right when the opening bell sounded. About 1.5 hours 
into the event - the
SWR started going screwy on some of the antennas - first on 10, then on 20, and 
then (Yikes!) all bands.
What the....? Started investigating the source of the problem and eventually 
discovered that my electronic  
antenna switch was no longer switching. In fact - it wasn't connecting to 
anything. Still have not discovered if  

the problem is the band decoder or the relay box. Regardless - spent several 
hours re-routing all of the coax 
through the wall and into the shack to an old (1960s vintage) B&W manual coax 
switch at arms length away from
the operating chair. Total time for re-grouping cost me 3 hours of operating 
time during prime time on the
high bands {sigh}. At least the weather outside was nice. Started rolling again 
only to have my packet connection 
dropping frequently after only being connected for 15 minutes or so. Error 
messages like "Attempt to connect timed out" 

or "Host Not Found" became common sights. Had to start up a laptop next to the 
logging computer dedicated
to VE7CC and watched the spots as I operated. Sure missed those nice color-coded 
spots on my bandmap
to tell me which ones were mults. No "click and pounce" operating for this 
contest! Limped through Saturday with a
paltry 350 Qs in the log and went to bed. Murphy must have left my house and 
went to visit someone else on
Sunday, because everything played fine today. My packet connection stayed on all 
day and there were no 

more surprise issues to deal with. Sure missed the instant band switching 
though. Thanks for the Qs, KBs, and
to WE6Z for the one and only time I was ever spotted by anyone all weekend. 
Enjoyed the packet pileup that followed
with great joy after what happened on Saturday. My next planned full-time effort 
is the WPX RTTY contest one month
from now. I've got some work to do. Until then - seeya in the DX pileups.

Jim  -WX6V-