[SECC] WPX Contest

[David L. Thompson]

I have been rearranging the shack the past week to get the two FT980's in
SO2R mode with the FT920 set up as low band /6 meters
with the 8877 amp (the amp only takes 60 watts drive and its not a powerful
as the 980's which have the same amp as the 1000D but without the big
supply.  They do run 120 to 130 watts out compared to 90 or so with the 920.

My main HF amp is the LK500NTC which is nice as you can switch bands and
transmit plus it has separate positions for 75 and 80.
However calling VP6DI on 20 the old Drake 1000LP blew out (I have fixed) and
I switched to a Bencher 5KW PEP just to be safe.  However
since then the SWR limiting circuit trips on 10 cutting the amp off at the
exact wrong moment.  My first contact was 9M6BG in the WPX on 10
but I had to repeat several times to keep the amp on.   As long as you could
hear the station fairly well I could work it.   The amp problem continued so
I switched in the tuner to make the SWR to the TX look flat but that only
improved the situation with cutting out still occurring
every third or forth transmission.  I got the same result into the dummy
load.

I talked with Carl KB1H who used both the LK500 and NTC and he says Bill at
Omega has a fix for the problem (Carl says his fix is to remove the SWR
limiting circuit.  But since there was a discussion on the cQ-contest
reflector a couple of years ago about SWR limiting
I have decided I still like the idea as it stops you from blowing the amp
when there is an antenna problem (1.2 SWR on 10 is NOT a problem).

I finally cut the power back to 700 watts and worked a few just to make sure
and it still cuts off on occasion.   I have to replace a disc cap on 160 so
I guess my next move is to send it off to Omega and move the 8877 back to
main operating position.

10 was strange as 9M6BG was 5/9 until 0300Z but the BW3, VR2MY, and 4W6MM
were ESP.  I also heard nothing from EX2T, the AP2, and the BD4  west coast
was working,  ZL was in at 0100Z but no where to be found at 0200Z.   I
heard NJ4U (+40 with my beam NNW)
and he was working JA and then South America.  After 0300Z the JA's were
very weak and so were the PY's but FY, FM, PJ, and J6 were loud.  I scared
PJ2T as he was straining for weak sigs (he was 50+30) when I called!    700
watts is quite enough when 10 meter conditions are right on.  I feel that
300 to 350 Q's were possible between 00 and 04Z especially if you could get
a clear freq to run JA's.
There was contest operation from 28300 to 28710.

Listened on 20 and 40 (the wife told me 2 or 3 hours to play) but just
garden variety stuff although I did work JY on 40 and heard 3V8BB.
Seemed like plenty of Dx to work so hope those who went after the contest
had a good evening.

73 Dave K4JRB