[NLRS] September VHF Contest preparations

[John P. Toscano]

I have seen surprisingly little chatter from the NLRS reflector about 
who is going to be active in this weekend's September VHF contest, and a 
bit more from the Badger Contesters reflector.

I'm not sure where I stand with respect to the contest myself.  Here's 
what I do know:

1) I will NOT be roving this weekend, however if there is interest, and 
if my success on the other bands is not so overwhelming that I can't 
tear myself away from the home station, it is possible that I could put 
the 10 GHz system into the back of my SUV on Sunday and do a brief rove 
in EN34 and EN35 to give out a few more contacts on the band.

2) My home station is still recovering from being torn apart and carried 
up Buck Hill for the August UHF contest.  At this time, I have 6M, 2M, 
220, and 432 put back together.  On 6M I currently have extremely high 
SWR, so it is not yet usable.  2M seems to be working like it should.  
220 is sorta working -- the transverter is putting out 20 watts but my 
ALC circuit to cut that to 3 watts, so I can drive the 100 watt PA is 
not working, so instead of getting the 3 watts it wants, it is being 
badly overdriven by all 20 watts.  This is not acceptable.  If not 
fixed, I would have to settle for the "barefoot" 20 watts, which is 
better than nothing.  On 432, I also have an extremely high SWR, and so 
the radio is not usable on that band.  On 902 and 1296, I found that 
both transverters were putting out only 3 watts instead of their rated 
power, but I figured I could adjust the drive levels to fix that.  But 
when I climbed down the ladder from my garage "attic" where the 
transverters are located, and then down two more flights of stairs to 
the lowest level of the house where the station is located, I discovered 
that my IF radio has blown its frequency readout, so I have no idea what 
frequency I am set to.  This is not good.  I had been planning to 
convert these transverters to a different IF radio, and I think I have 
all the necessary parts, but may not have sufficient time to do the 
conversions.

3) I do have a little time left today and tomorrow to tackle these 
problems, but have no idea yet what my success rate will be.  I'll 
re-post closer to contest start time if I make any progress.

Best of luck to the rest of you,
W0JT EN34js