[NCC] K2UA CW Sprint
Healy, Rus
RHealy@mdsroc.com
Tue, 16 Feb 1999 09:06:51 -0500
> SPRINT SUMMARY SHEET
>
> Contest Date : 14-Feb-99
>
>
> Callsign Used : K2UA
> Operator : K2UA
>
> Category : Single Operator
>
> Default Exchange : # Rus NY
>
> Name : Rus Healy
> Address : 5960 Canadice Hill Road
> City/State/Zip : Springwater NY 14560-9643
>
> Team/Club : North Coast Contesters
>
> BAND Raw QSOs Valid QSOs Points Mults
> __________________________________________________
>
> 80CW 96 96 96 9 -- three-element
> parasitic vert array
> 40CW 83 83 83 24 -- 40-2CD at 96 ft
> 20CW 20 20 20 8 -- Tribander at 103 ft
> __________________________________________________
>
> Totals 199 199 199 41
>
> Final Score = 8159 points.
>
> What an amazing contest! I wasn't able to get on until 0125 because
> the household was suffering from a nasty stomach virus. The baby was
> pretty much over it, but my wife had spent the whole day balled up on
> the couch, so I offered to defer my starting time until the baby was
> in bed. In retrospect, I sure wish I hadn't missed that first 105
> minutes--this almost certainly would have been my first over-300-QSO
> CW Sprint--but family must come first.
>
> Sure enough, the virus hit me three hours after the contest ended, and
> I was up all night worshipping at the porcelain throne. I was the one
> who spent Sunday balled up on the couch . . ..
>
> In addition to enjoying the great time I always have in the CW
> Sprints, I wanted to shake down some new hardware I've built before
> the ARRL DX Contest this coming weekend. I also wanted to get more
> experience with TR Log; although I used it in making a few hundred Qs
> in the NAQP CW and in the ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes, I lacked
> comfort using it in high-rate contests. My new automatic antenna
> control box and the accompanying relay box are working great, although
> it took a good bit of added bypassing to get all the RF out and keep
> the computer noise in the computer. The control box fully incorporates
> TR's ability to use the radio A/B, CW, and PTT outputs, the inputs for
> paddle and foot switch (which I'm using for radio A/B selection), and,
> of course, serial-port radio control. The box also auto-switches
> band-pass filters. The automatic antenna selection, filter switching,
> PTT function and the parallel-port paddle inputs are the only new
> features to my station, but what excellent additions they are!
>
> I did have some frustrations with TR that I need to better understand,
> but overall I was quite pleased with the way it played. The worst
> thing that happened was when someone asked me for the QSO number I had
> given them on another band, and I couldn't figure out how to pull it
> up! (Sorry, John!) That's seriously frustrating, coming from someone
> who has a long background with CT, in which it's super-easy to look at
> or edit anything in the log. I'm sure that after a season of using TR,
> it'll be second-nature, but right now it really keeps me on my toes.
> On the other hand, I did manage to tweak the logcfg.dat file to do
> everything I wanted--before the contest!
>
> Can't wait to see how all this stuff plays in ARRL CW! See you all on
> the bands.
>
> Now to go put connectors on the hardline to the new monobanders for 20
> and 15 . . ..
>
> --73, Rus, K2UA (ex NJ2L)
>
> __________________________
> Rus Healy
> Senior Systems Engineer, Microwave Data Systems
> Web: http://www.microwavedata.com
> Tel +1-716-242-9600
>
--
Submissions: ncc@contesting.com
Administrative requests: ncc-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems: owner-ncc@contesting.com