[ARC5] Classic Exchange Comments

[Mark K3MSB]

Between the BC-456’s Dynamotor humming along, the BC-442 Relay making a
racket, and my ill-fitting headphones, I managed to make 27 QSO’s yesterday
with my SCR-274N on bands that from my QTH were less than stellar.

I made 13 QSOs on 40M and 14 QSO’s on 80M.   Most of the contacts were in
PA, NY, NJ, MD, OH, and NC, with my farthest being in MN on 80M.

The CX was over at 3 AM EDT and I had plans to stay up until the wee hours
of the morning to try and work some of the west coast gang, but conditions
were such that I shut down around midnight EDT.   I heard a faint W7
station calling CQ (W7E…) and I called him but no response.  Aside from
that, no west coast stations heard and only one Midwest station heard (and
worked) on 40/80M.

Mil Gear worked:   ARC-5 to ARC-5 QSO with N2AK on 40M;  K9VKY with his
PRC-1 on 80M.   I heard K3MD on 40M stating he was running an ARC-5 TX but
didn’t work him.

This was the first time I had my BC-456-A on the air with its dynamotor
running.  After about a good hour of working stations and calling CQ I put
my hand on the dynamotor and, as the old saying goes “you could fry an egg
on that thing!”.   Well, maybe not quite that bad, but I didn’t want to
keep my hand on it for more than a few moments.   A fan blowing air over
the dynamotor solved that problem nicely.

I was also running a dynamotor with my BC-455 but used an HP-23 (with
dropping resistor) for the BC-454 as it has a nasty hum when running it’s
dynamotor and I haven’t had time to investigate.   So, on 40M it was two
turnin’ and no burnin’!!

The BC-456 worked fine, but as I found out last month my Homebrew 28V
supply isn’t stout enough for the BC-456.   Key down my initial Ep is
around 525V and very quickly drops to about 460 volts.   On 80M I had 460V
Ep and 160 mA Ip and a power output of 30W.  On 40M I had an Ep of 460V and
140 mA of Ip and a power output of only 15W – ugh - I’m not sure what’s up
with that.   Screen and Osc voltages were pretty solid  at 200 and 300V
respectively.

I do not mute my receivers;  I use them for side tone monitoring.  The tone
on 40M drifted noticeably during initial key down and I’m attributing that
to the drop in Ep mentioned above.  I noted no drift on 80M.

Chirp was there on 40M; I received several 5x9C or 5x8 reports.   This
happens regardless of using the dynamotor or my HB HV power supply.

I need to find a way to incorporate a SPOT function into my system.  I
think this has been discussed before on this group and I’m pretty sure I
saved the thread.

Side Tone monitoring.  I need to find a better way for this.  Currently I
physically disconnect the antenna from the RX terminals and turn the gain
on the BC-450-A down almost all the way.   This works, but takes a few
seconds each time I go from RX to TX and back again.

I’m seriously considering using my HB power supplies instead of the
dynamotors for non special event usage.    My concern is that the
dynamotors are mechanical devices that will wear out.  While the receiver
dynamotors are out there,  that’s not the case for the BC-456 dynamotor.
I’d prefer to use the dynamotors for the CX Event, AWA contest, SKN, etc.

73 Mark K3MSB

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