[UK-CONTEST] 80M CC DATA

Thu Feb 17 09:50:43 PST 2011

Roger and others

Mr Murphy has been here on an off for a few months - last night he really
struck !

I decided to try N1MM in the Data CC , having got fed up with the oddities
of MixW .
Everything tried and tested and ESM working as well -  a few on air checks
days before ...no real problems using MMVARI - once I had found out what the
AFC/Net etc buttons actually did! 
FIVE minutes before the contest suddenly no AFSK getting to the radio
(FT1000D) , then the microHAM (MKII) decided to flash between 00.000.00 and
some obscure frequency on 21Mhz, lost PTT and CAT... Reset the MKII
(Power/on-off)... all ok for 2mins ...similar activity ...reduced power to
1watt ... still the same... the air became blue ! First couple of QSOs on
RTTY all ok , then a repeat of the above resulting in QSO 3 being abandoned
.... this  continued nearly all the way through the event - so I am sorry to
anyone that worked me and I seemingly just disappeared ! Lost at least 10
QSOs because of it .  Today I spent several hours trying to recreate the
"fault" with a very low level of success ... no doubt it will be ok until
the CW event next week ! Oh, and I and found out how to stop the USB ports
(Win7/64) going to sleep - that wasn't the cause either.

I would love to hear from anyone with similar experiences !

33 Q's about 50/50 RTTY-PSK  (so maybe conditions favoured the West country
slightly !)

Robin
G3TKF
City of Bath

> -----Original Message-----
> From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:uk-contest-
> bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Roger Cooke
> Sent: 17 February 2011 16:36
> To: Steve GW4BLE; DAVID BUTLER
> Cc: uk-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] 80M CC DATA
> 
> 55 QSOs????   What planet was that contest on?
> 
> Actually, Mr. Murphy came round yesterday. Quite a nice chap really. He
said
> it would be a good day to disassemble all three computers on my network,
give
> them a good spring clean with the
> 
> air-line, put in the PCI card wireless network cards and reassemble.
>    I thought that was reasonable advice, so I pressed on with this task,
starting at
> around 0930. By lunchtime I had done all the cleaning, so I took a
lunch-break
> and then put them all back together.
> I think it was at this stage that Mr. Murphy did his "thing". Having
installed the
> router in the hall, I
> 
> found the cards were not configured and I had to call the Doctor to find
out
> what this mere G3 Luddite had done to offend the gods. I had to
reconfigure all
> the IP addresses and so on. I did
> 
> that, and found the signal was so weak I had to put the router back in the
> original place. OK, job done! It was by this time around 4 p.m.
>   I thought I had better get N1MM running to make sure all was well. It
wasn't!
> No PTT, no CAT,
> and I then spent the next 4.5 hours trying ( in vain ) to sort it! I ended
up having
> a problem with
> 
> the virtual COM ports in the MicroHam conflicting with the virtual COM
ports
> on my serial to
> 
> USB adaptor. I could not shift the latter ports and I must have tried
uninstalling,
> reinstalling deleting ad infinitum until I was blue in the face.
>   I finally managed to get PTT to work at around 2025, to find that I had
wrong
> macros, parameters and so on ( I had regressed the PC in desperation! ).
I
> won't bore you further, but suffice it to say that the air in the shack is
a nice
> shade of blue!  I finally found out this morning that my FT2000 had
reverted
> back to 38k for CAT control rather than 9.6 where it should be. Mr.
> Murphy is a force to
> be reckoned with!
> 
>   Motto?  Make sure you DON'T do computer stuff the day of the contest and
> don't mess with the
> Murphy man.   I did make 17 in the end, about 10 of which will be wrong I
am
> sure.
> 
> 
> 
> Regards from Roger, G3LDI
> Swardeston, Norfolk.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> From: Steve GW4BLE <steve.gw4ble at btconnect.com>
> To: DAVID BUTLER <g4asr at btinternet.com>
> Cc: "uk-contest at contesting.com" <uk-contest at contesting.com>
> Sent: Thu, 17 February, 2011 15:37:15
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] 80M CC DATA
> 
> What do you mean "only 55 QSO's" !!!
> 
> "I wish"
> 
> Steve
> GW4BLE
> 
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On 17 Feb 2011, at 15:25, DAVID BUTLER <g4asr at btinternet.com> wrote:
> 
> > Why do some stations give me back my serial number again?
> >
> > Why do some stations give all the details directly after I call CQ
> > without finding out who I am working?
> >
> > Why do some stations call off frequency?
> >
> > Why do some stations continue to chat? I worked three stations last
> >night whilst
> >
> > someone was still in 'QSO' with me.
> >
> > Why do more than one station call at the same time!
> >
> > What happened to the ionosphere - I blame the RSGB!
> >
> > Only made 55 QSOs,  mostly PSK with 19 on RTTY.
> >
> > 73 David G4ASR
> > _______________________________________________
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