[NLRS] Contest report from EN37ed

[Bill Davis Jr]

  Thanks for the activity all, not bad!  

  Another contest is history. The contest in the end appeared to be close to what is becoming a "usual" Jan contest.( the last four years) The 2003-2007 Jan contests were MUCH better contests with about 50% more QSOs during those four years. Most but not all of the difference was in 6m QSO. (Es)  I SHOULD have had a score very much equal to the last four January's but fell short by a couple hundred points. (See the end of this posting for "sad" details if your interested).

  Some nice signals from time to time. Ray N0UY (EN18) was very good here all weekend.  Barry VE4MA Saturday night had comfortable CW signals on 2, 222, 432. Barry was not running any super power and I had good margin on all bands. Signals were too poor above 432 for any additional QSOs. Fast Eddie, VE3KPR was worked on 2m SSB with some repeats. Sunday Bob K2DRH was worked on 6m CW and digital 2-432 (sig here strong enough on 2m for CW). John W9RPM was very good in here on 6, 2, 222. Connie W0ANH was worked on 6 and 2m, decent signals.  Cletus KB0LBS (EN36) had the best non-local 222 sig I have ever heard 
for 20min or more Sunday morning. Over S9, just beautiful. QSB set in 
after 30min of so and he was down to S4 after he put his 432 station
 together for a 432 contest QSO. Thanks for the effort and Qs Cletus!! We ran the mutual bands from his Duluth home 6,2,222,432. That QTH is "over the hill" and the path is not trivial. 

  Mel and Carol were only worked once even with skeds on Saturday (2m) then Mel again alone on Sunday, very marginal signals. Chris N0UK and Holly K0HAC were worked on 2m Sunday night, I'm not sure if I had ever worked Holly on any band but 10Ghz, Thanks guys. Matt KA0PQW showed up in the log a couple of times again, been a while. I only had one 6m Es Q, spits and sputters from time to time. Almost nothing during the games, monitored and called from time to time.

  30 of my 102 QSOs were from the great frozen north. VE4MA, N0UY, W0PHD, VE3KRP, W0ANH, K0KP, KB0LBS, KD0HRO, N0KKT, W6GMT, WB0TDV and KB0CIM. Guys you ROCK!! Thanks for the effort to "fire up" and dig in the white noise from from what I am told can be QRM on VHF! Brock W6GMT I know was out in the snow, 25mph wind and minus 20deg temps to get and antenna up for a 432 QSO!

  End result .... 

   6m   32Qs   16 grids
   2m   40Qs   12grids
   222  11Qs    8grids
   432  15Qs    8grids
   902    1Q      1grid
 1296    1Q      1grid
 10Ghz  1Q      1grid

  102Qs  48grids    >> 6912pts

  Ranks 8th out of 13 Jan contests

  73  Bill  K0AWU  EN37ed


<<< For those that wish a few grins >>>

  In all the years of contesting. I have never had a  system issue during a contest operation. I know I have been lucky.  Not big issues this time just dumb and "pesty" issues.


  8 days before the contest, a TS-2000 arrived at the shack for a equipment change for 432 and 2m SSB. For the contest the SDR1000 based 2m SSB system is used providing a way to constantly have 2m for liaison regardless of band (432 included) and a 2m panadapter. There were considerable changes involved in the station. The 2m and 432 sequencer and antenna preamps rebuilt, had to have some logic and cabling modifications on the 2m amp. A new transfer relay and associated jumpers for the 2m preamp and sequencer interface for the TS-2000. The SDR1000 2m station then needed a separate sequencer and external latching PTT needed to be built for CW use there as well. All of this was done and checked out and seem very satisfactory.

    "Best laid plans of mice and men .........."

  Shortly after the contest started, the 2m SDR1000 system lost output 
... hum... I quickly switched over to the TS-2000 to salvage a QSO in 
progress. After some investigation I discovered that I had an 
intermittent mike cord on the SDR1000 mike. So I stopped operations and 
cut off 6" of mike cord and redid the connector. No big deal, running again.

  Early Saturday evening, looking for W0PHD, Dennis NT0V and Winnipeg the rotator sticks on 300deg and will not move south... I tear the rotator control apart to check for switch closure. Hummm, looks "ok" .. after messing for 15min (I need to turn the antenna for the nights skeds at least!) I discover I can move it north. Now it is -25deg and the rotator is at 55ft and it is dark.... control fix maybe, anything else ..nope. If I turn north and I can't move it I am in real trouble. I hold my breath... swing it 10-15 deg north and then try south.... it turns with no issue! I have no idea if it was mechanically bound or what... no problem since. 

  Not too much later, I was going to call CQ (CW) on 6m and discovered that 6m RF was getting back into the K3 keying circuit (again). This had happened from time to time, but in general had not been a "problem" for over a year. (Ground quality degrading during the winter?) I redressed a few keying lines and all was "ok" again . I continued to operate.

  Each contest I have around 6-8 schedule requests (as many of you do) on 6 and 2m WSJT. The TS-2000 will drive the 8877 for the skeds on 2m. Can't wait to see how it plays on 2m WSJT meteor scatter. Joe K1JT wanted to sked 6m meteor scatter followed by a 2m EME sked. Joe and I ran and then about 45min later my other skeds began and run until 2am. 6m was good on all meteor skeds and all 2m skeds were VERY poor. A few weak pings and no completions. (very very unusual) .. WOW is the TS2000 this poor?  The 8877 was doing it's thing, good power, the SWR looked good, sigs being heard, but just very poor. I had worked several stations on EME with the TS-2000 so it should be very good on meteors. At 6:30am Bob K2DRH and I work with nice sigs on 6m CW and start to run the bands.... hummmm nothing heard on 2m and that breaks the "run" when the liaison was lost. 20min later I went over to the rack to change over from the 8877 to the SDR1000 2m tropo station and I couldn't believe what I saw ...... the 2m amp was connected to the 2m EME yagi (110deg Az 17deg elevation) instead of the tropo antenna ....... "Oh CRAP" .... All that work to get the TS2000 ready for the contest,  I get it all running and blow the skeds by having the wrong antenna!!!!
  
  Sunday during the day (football games) I redid all CW keying lines with shielded cable, ground isolated intermediate connectors etc to make a better faith effort in solving the 6m RFI issue. Kenwood specified using shield cable for the key(er), I had always used twisted hookup wire without problems before. Since the issue comes and goes, it will be interesting to see if this resolves the problem long term.

  Oh well.... we will have to see what June brings now. 73  Bill  K0AWU  EN37ed