[ADXA] VHF contest

Mon Jan 18 16:39:46 EST 2021

HA! well, there is some truth to that George! 

Its no secret that I have 1.5 KW amps for 50, 144, 222 and 432 MHz. They
are over designed and very well handle 1500 watts on those bands
BUT.......enter the world of the WSJT modes and now your not talking SSB
or CW duty cycles but 100% duty cycle just short of 1 minute key down
time for JT65! So you're key down for 50 seconds, break for one minute
10 seconds and then key down again. Of course its less on FT8 when your
key down 100% for about 13 seconds then back again after 15 seconds. I
ran continuously like that for 4 hours on Sunday on 2 meter EME then
switching back over to FT8 for an entire weekend puts a hell of a lot of
stress on an amp and its power supply and boy do they generate a lot of
heat! It can get warm here in the shack, especially in the summer time
during the June VHF contest. When Dave, NN1N comes down I have to add a
window unit air conditioner in the shack to supplement the unit
dedicated in here just keep him happy.....he's a weenie when it comes to
heat :-))) 

I've added cooling to the external power supplies and I throttle the
amps back to around 1 KW nowadays for the JT modes. Something is gonna
blow one of these days, I just hope it is not a violent eruption when it
happens! 

ZN 

Twice this weekend I opened the windows in the shack to cool it down and
in the summer during the June VHF contest  

On 2021-01-18 11:35, WB5JJJ wrote:

> Well, Steve, you got me over the 1,000 point mark (FINALLY).  I had about given up on breaking that barrier, but you were my last as well.  42 contacts, 24 multipliers.  I did get one new Grid Sq from K5QE in EM31.  So it wasn't a total bust.  Sitting at 401 in the VUCC (50Mhz) and waiting on EM31 to appear.   
> 
> Joel was stealing all the protons, electrons, neutrons or whatever from me.  So my activity was much more limited than typical.  Gotta watch out for that guy since his amps can just idle for hours at many times my maximum barefoot output.  I have to let my 7610 cool off occasionally.   
> 
> 73's 
> George - WB5JJJ 
> 
> 4 
> 
> On Mon, Jan 18, 2021 at 12:20 PM Steven Rutledge <crownhaven at bellsouth.net> wrote: 
> 
> I was able to come up with 112 contacts, some SSB and CW but the lion's share FT8, 68 multipliers, 6 - 2.3.  Not much I can do in the city with one tower.  My six meter rate slowed down quite a bit when I was transmitting into my 160 meter antenna for a couple of hours.  Ouch. 
> 
> Thanks to all members who worked me.  Joel, great effort as always.  One day, if COVID ever ends, I'd love to see you in action during one of the VHF tests. 
> 
> Hope all have a good week. 
> 
> PS, Sandy, I did jump down to 80 to see if I could catch the TZ but I just couldn't pull him out here. 
> 
> WB5JJJ was my last contact from EM35.  I saw him being worked the entire contest but never printed him.  As I was about to shut down, I noticed he was the only one calling CQ on six FT8.  I worked him on first try with 40 watts!!!!!!  Thanks George. 
> 
> 73, 
> 
> Steve, QQ
> 
> On 1/18/2021 10:54 AM, w5zn at w5zn.org wrote: 
> 
> By the way, N4JQQ tells me that ADXA is one of the club selections when you enter your log. I know W5VY was working on this a while back so glad it is now listed. If you are submitting a log for this contest, and are located within the required boundary, please select ADXA as there is a club competition associated with the January VHF contest. If you have already submitted your log simply go back and submit it again with ADXA identified as the club. 
> 
> Of course, put forth a big effort and ended with 308 Q's and 208 grids. You can go to 3830 scores and see the breakdown if interested however my SSB/CW Q's on 6 and 2 meters was a small part of the total. 
> 
> It was good to see a lot of you on the air this past weekend. 
> 
> ZN 
> 
> On 2021-01-18 09:35, Dennis Schaefer wrote: 
> 
> I didn't get finished with my VHF/UHF antennas due to cold and wind, but was able to get on 2M during the VHF contest and work about 10 grids.  I was happy to work several ADXA'ers, like W5ZN, N4JQQ, and W5VY.  I copied WZ1V and N2WK on the east coast.  This was 2 meters only - 6 meters is down and 432 didn't get installed on Friday as I hoped.  It will be ready before the next contests, I'm sure.  Maximum height will be about 20 feet, but it gets me on the VHF bands, which is more than I usually have. 
> 
> I listened around 144.200 quite a bit but never heard any SSB or CW, so everything was on FT8.  I think if there had been some better openings, SSB and CW would have been a factor, but it is January. 
> 
> I appreciate all the help. 
> 
> 73, 
> Dennis, W5RZ 
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