[UK-CONTEST] Scunthorpe Steel ARC NFD G4OGB/P

[G4FNL]

Hi Peter

This was one of the best NFD reports that I read - congratulations. Perhaps
you should be writing for one of the radio magazines!  I was sorry to hear
of your adverse conditions, and considering the amount of lost time and the
fact that there were just the two of you operating, I reckon that your QSO
total is fantastic.

I hope you both make it back next year................

73  Graham G4FNL




-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of peter Jackson
Sent: 17 June 2009 20:25
To: uk contesting
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] Scunthorpe Steel ARC NFD G4OGB/P


Here is a belated report on FD, hoping it brings more stories from others.
We intended operating in the open section, but when we arrived at the site
there were only four members there. The strong cold easterly wind blew
across the site and the low black clouds threatened to open up any moment.
So the decision was made to go in the restricted.

The station was erected with no real problems, no rfi troubles, it seemed
that Murphy was staying away. We have only two operators these days Les
G4OGB and myself, we are both 75 years young.

Conditions seemed good but very little ES on 10M. On Saturday evening Murphy
came a visiting, the IC756pro3 died. We unplugged the power cable from the
rig and we could measure 13.8 volts at the end, so we assumed that the rig
was at fault. The spare rig was sent for (IC746) and connected using the
pro3 cable, no good. We thought maybe it was wired differently, connecting
it's own cable it worked fine. This lost us 30mins or so. Later we checked
the pro3 cable and found the positive lead had a resistance of 180 ohms!
disconnecting the fuse and reconnecting it cleared the fault, we changed
over the rigs early Sunday morning and it was fine for the rest of the
contest.
I enquired about this on the Icom reflector and it would seem that drawing
20amps through the fuses for a long period can melt the solder at the end
leaving you with a dry joint, but this doesn't explain why disconnecting and
reconnecting cleared it.  Murphy is now getting very devious.

Our normal operating procedure is for me to work through the night while Les
goes home for some sleep, he then takes over from me in the morning while I
do the same. After about 2 hours kip my wife wakes me up, have you ever been
woken up after working all night? I didn't know if it was Christmas or my
birthday, all I could hear was her saying Les has to go
home......emergency......mobiles phones switched off etc.
I got the message to Les via our repeater, he then left the site, I returned
as quickly as possible but we lost about an hour.
We had by now some good runs especially on 20M and 40M. Then the auto atu
played up so we had to resort to manual tuning.

Tom G4JRY as normal provided the food under difficult conditions, cooking in
a tent which due to the high winds was at half height and threatening to
depart in a westerly direction at any moment. Why is it that Bacon Sausage
tomatoes and egg taste so much better than at home?

We made 940 Q's 3360 pts. If we hadn't had the interruptions we would have
hit the magic 1K, nevertheless this was our best score ever in the
Restricted section, not bad for a couple of Old Timers.
The rain never materialised, and as we left the site the heavens opened up
and it poured down all evening.

Each year I think this will be my last NFD, so God willing, like a certain
politician/film star once said "We will be back"

73 Pete G3KNU
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