[RTTY] Do u know where your fuses are ...?

[Jerry Pixton]

Do you know where your fuses are in the depth of a contest?

After carefully lowering my antennas several weeks ago before being visited 
by Isabel, I saved all of them and raised them up last week. Since my 
FT1000mp has been in the repair shop all summer, I decided to start the 
contest with 1 and 1/4 radios. I was to use my old IC751 for Running (it 
still has nice rtty filters) with my Quadra amplifier(which is supposed to 
change bands) and use the IC756 Pro II for S&P.

And then the contest started. And Murphy visited fast. The Quadra would not 
change bands! Ugh. OK, I guess that the IC751 will be a dedicated 20m 
radio. But the only thing the computers control on it is FSK and PTT. And 
so it went the first night.

But the next morning, I found that I could not continue to tune the IC756 
as a S&P radio in the awkward position it was in. So mid morning I decide 
to move the radio and give up the IC751 with its amp and go SOSR. OK, stop 
the contest while I change this. Some time later, I have all the cables 
undone, radios and amps moved and try to power up the IC756 Pro II. What no 
power? The power switch will not power on the radio. Remove all cables 
except DC. Still no power up. Now I am Single Op with NO radios. Time for a 
break.

As I am cutting the lawn, I think. I wonder if there is an internal fuse. 
Back to the manual. Yes, you only have to remove 30 screws and two panels 
and there it is. And it is blown!. Now were did I put those spare fuses 
when I unpacked the radio last year? After much searching, I found a 5 amp 
fuse. Try it. Yes, power! Now to put the covers back on. OK, BUT as soon as 
I hook up my filter switching and band decoding stuff, the power goes off! 
What? At least it was the quick trip on the power supply, not the fuse. Ok, 
I don't need filters with only one radio, so leave that cable unplug.

Back into the contest. Let's get a run going to make up for many hours 
off.  And so it went. Only managed to kill the rtty window once during the 
rest of the test, but WinXP kept running and so I quickly recover.

So this morning I can find out what is wrong with the decoder and filter 
switching stuff. And re-think my station.

Good contest, lots of stations, many more 5 banders then in past. Actually 
did within 10 percent of my Single Op Two Radio performance last year in 
less hours and worse band conditions.  Even worked several new rtty countries.

Good dx.

Jerry, W6IHG
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Dr. Jerry R. Pixton, PIXOS Designs LLC
http://www.pixos.com/designs/RadioTuner/
jpixton at shentel.net
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