[VHFcontesting] FW: ARRL Sep VHF N8RA Single Op LP

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ARRL September VHF Contest - 2021

Call: N8RA
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: FN31
Operating Time (hrs): 6
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
      6:    18      11
      2:    73      27
  222:    13     10
-------------------
Total:  104    48  Total Score = 5,616

Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club

Comments:

For weak signal VHF work, FT-8 is a low noise preamp built with software. It is a delight to log a station that is more than -20dB in the noise. 

My runny nose and stuffy head arrived right on time to help keep me off the voice modes. But the biggest downer was the unreliable transmitter section of my Elecraft K3 that I’ve been trying to fix over the last few months. After checking out the bandpass filters, changing the fwd and rev power meter diodes, rechecking for a bad LPA FET, checking their bias, increasing the supply voltage, running the failing transmitter gain calibration routine again and again, it still fails to reliably work at the set output power level. Sometimes it will, but a few hours later after just sitting there, it won’t. So there went 6M for the weekend. The K3 has to go back for service, and I may not see it again this year, as I’ve heard the Elecraft service department is taking over
12 weeks to get to your radio. Argh!!

Managed only a few Q’s on 6M when the K3 worked. Its transverter output also suffered, but not as badly, and I was delighted to be able to try out the 222 MHz band from my QTH. 

The Orion with an Elecraft 2M transverter worked just fine, but with the flaky
K3 for the other bands I only spent a few hours total on the air throughout the weekend. 

A spot of good news: the powerline noise that was killing reception on 6M and a bit on 2M was gone, so Eversource’s work on the poles I flagged seems to have done the job.

73,
Chet, N8RA


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