[NLRS] June VHF Contest, W0JT

[tosca005 at umn.edu]

In brief:

Pretty far from my best results in a June VHF contest.

Band  QSO's  Points  Grids
  50    12      12     4
 144    13      13     5
 222     0       0     0     (zero power output)
 432    13      26     5
 902     0       0     0     (hearing OK, not heard even 5 miles away)
1296     0       0     0     (hearing OK, not heard even 5 miles away)
---------------------------
Totals  38      51  x 14 = 714 points total

In detail:

Apparently, my 222 transverter system did not survive the trip up from 
Texas. Instead of 100 watts out of the PA, I initially measured a maximum 
of 15 watts out. Traced this to a problem with the IF drive into the 
transverter, which is normally capable of 25 watts out unassisted and was 
putting out well under a watt. (Not surprising, since my 222 PA needs only 
2 watts in for 110 watts out under normal circumstances.) Then I got the 
bright idea of pulling out my other 222 PA and installing it in series to 
raise the 15 watts to 150 (or 10 watts to 100 to stay in the SOLP 
category.) I made the connections and now the power out was close to zero 
instead of 150. Hmmm. Took it out of series and put it in place of the 110 
watt PA. Still no measurable output. Took both of them out and measured the 
output of the transverter. No measurable output (without dragging out my 
fancy HP power meter that measures down to microwatts). Weird. Well, with 
near zero coming out of the transverter, it's no surprise that even two 
PA's in series could not make any power of consequence. I'm just stumped as 
to what happened to my "original" 10-15 watts of output. So, in any case, 
scratch that band.

The 902 and 1296 systems never left Apple Valley, so I had every reason to 
believe that they would work. Something is hosed up, however, because both 
of them could hear with no difficulty, but no one could hear me, not even 
W0ZQ (W1AW/0) who is only 5 miles away from me. So either the T/R relay in 
my interface box is stuck, or the PTT signal is not getting into the 
interface box, or some such thing. Troubleshooting is a little bit of a 
challenge, with the IF radio and band select switch down in the basement 
with me, and the transverters and interface box are up in the attic of the 
garage, right under the rooftop tower for low feedline losses. Oh well, I 
was too preoccupied with other stuff to discover the problem last week, 
when I could have possibly fixed it. So, scratch those two bands also.

This left me with only 50, 144, and 432 bands. Hey, I've worked that way in 
the past, so it's not the end of the world. But Saturday's thunderstorms 
seemed to chase most of the active stations off the air. In between static 
crashes, I managed to work a few, but not many. To be honest, I was also 
not feeling the greatest, and so with uncooperative equipment plus 
uncooperative weather, I gave up too easily.

I was able to sweep all 3 bands with almost everyone I worked except for 
one station who only had 6 meters. Worked KC0P/R and N0HZO/R in EN33 and 
EN43 on Saturday on 2 and 3 bands respectively; worked KC0P/R, KA0CRO, 
KD0VWT, and KB0MRK in EN34 on Sunday on "all" 3 bands. Thank goodness for 
rovers and for the family rule! Also swept KA0RYT, W0UC, KC0IYT, and W1AW/0 
(a/k/a W0ZQ) on my three working bands. Didn't hear many others on. Called 
a few of the usual suspects whom I didn't hear on but was hopeful of 
reaching, but without reply.

I will know by the end of this week if we are putting my Apple Valley home 
on the market and moving to Texas all year around, but it is looking pretty 
close to a definite thing. If so, I'll be thinking more about dismantling 
my home station than repairing it here for the rest of the summer contests. 
But I should be good to go for both weekends of the 10 GHz contest, at 
least, since none of that equipment is attached to the house. ;^)

73 de John, W0JT
Thanks for being out there!