[PVRCNC] A sweepstakes to forget.

[Guy Olinger K2AV]

636 x 77 = 97,944  SO assisted (not my usual CW SS class B, see below)

It surely was not intended this way, but...

I got up Saturday, with one of those bugs where you don't stray too
far away from the watercloset.  Decided to spend morning and a little
bit of afternoon in bed for strength.

Due to difficulties in not being able to install N1MM version 10 on
Windows 7 64 bit, I had been running TR4W.  TR4W had been behaving
itself.

The place for the amp (the AL1200) is now on the left at desk level,
rather than on the right and on upper shelf. This is part of an
on-going reorg since I got the big 32 inch monitor and have the radios
under it right in front of me.  Much better place ergonometrically for
the amp.

Try a phantom contact or two with K3 in test mode.  Erase the
contacts. Check the tune on 40 meters, send my call from the Function
keys.  Everything is working.  Finally a contest where everything has
been shaken down and ready to go at the start of the contest, feel of
the gut notwithstanding.

<yeah, right...who's this guy Murphy?>

Contest starts and seven contacts into the test TR4W locks up when I
try to correct a mistyped entry.  Can't get it to go.  Still don't
know what is up with that.  It also started sending a miscellaneous
dit on the transmitter every ten or fifteen seconds.  Aha.  Maybe it's
gotten RF into computer.  Restart the program.  Still sending misc
dits.  Locks up again when try update.  Kill power to K3, microham
box, reboot computer.  Comes up looks OK, but locks up when I try to
edit. Starts sending misc dits again.

Now I don't have a logging program that works in SS.  I have no idea
what I did to make it mad.  Panic.

Wonder if I can install an old download of version 9 N1MM I had here
that worked.  Spent some time digging around for it in some archives.
Oops. I install it and it turns out to be an update and it goes down
over the top of the non-working version 10.  Well I thought, that
should really be a hoot, but let's try it anyway. Who knows.  It comes
up, it initializes. I put the K3 in test mode and set configurer
settings for K3, and it drives!

Triumph #1.  Something may yet be salvaged.

Copy the seven Q's from TR4W (it WILL come up and let me look at the
log) into N1MM

Back to work.  Power, yayy!  40m dipole is not underneath an 80 vee
anymore and it works well.

I call someone and they come back and give me an exchange.  I send my
exchange and in the QSK I hear them sending, turns out to be his
exchange over when I drop out.  I hit a dit and got no power on the
output.  Hit it again and look at the amp, but currents are wrong.
Amp not connected to the antenna.  By this time the guy calling CQ
again.  Move up a bit and hit carrier.  No out on SWR meter, but K3 is
keying and there is plate and grid current in the AL1200.

Amp has gone bad.  I've already locked in high power because of
opening Q's. No point doing low power.

I've got more amps.

Pull it out and put the Alpha 76A in the slot.  Go to plug it in and
the power cord won't reach the socket.  Measure Loudenboomer and SB221
cords and they won't reach either.  THEN I remember that I lengthened
the AL1200 power cord right after I bought it.  That was why I didn't
bother to put a 220 outlet under the new slot.

Maybe I can fix the AL1200. I think from symptoms that maybe the
vacuum relay has gone bad.  Take cover off AL1200.  Hunch is verified
with ohmeter. "Make" contact is gone. And it sounds funny when keyed,
relay has too much noise in it.  Well, I have one of those Kilovac
vacuum relays here, but turns out it's the larger body and won't fit
in the space. Shove AL1200 to the side. We'll repair that next week
with one of the smaller ones off the internet.

Go to electrical junk box.  Found the right stuff, so I build a 220
extension cord and plug the 76A in.  Triumph #2.  Go up to 40 meters
which by now is starting to sound a little long.  But I get a nice run
going, lot of stuff to out west and some CA, but then it just goes way
long.

Down to 80 meters.

Tune up and go for it, doing well on the end-fed.  But after about 15
minutes I notice the SWR is climbing higher and higher.  This is not
good.  I stop, sacrifice my run frequency and go down in the garage to
have a look at the toroid matcher and see if it's on fire or
something.  I smell it as I go into the garage.  No smoke but very
hot.

I had reconfigured the 80m antenna as prep for a small-lot, no radial
80/160 antenna I am working out and constructing, and I had a hard
time matching it with the network I previously used, voltage too high
for the toroid, but I thought I'd give it a try.  I DID get it to
match, though.  Not going to redo the wires back to where they were.
Particularly not in the dark.

So that's it.  I've been just barely compos mentis all day, and now
I'm getting light-headed.  Toroid fumes?  So I go to bed. Lights out.

Got up a little late (slept 10 hours) and get back on 40 meters.  I
feel better than yesterday.  The morning run is really good.  Then you
can sort of hear the mob move up to 20 meters.

I go up and switch in the beam and it doesn't sound right.  Uh oh.
Beam is normally fixed at 285, but had forgotten to check orientation.
Go out and have a look-see.  It's been blown due SW, and it has a good
pattern.  Can only work the west coast when noone else calling.  Not
nearly feeling strong enough for tower climbing and the quick
reorient.

I'm really tired again anyway.  Go take another nap.  Out like a light.

Wake mid afternoon and go listen to 40.  There's stuff there again.
Get on and have best run of the contest, but after dark it starts
getting weak again and I can tell when the mob goes to 80.

Then it occurs to me how to make a small mod to the matching network
that should cut the heat stress maybe down to 1/3. That should keep
the toroid below the runaway heat level.  Go do it and retune.

Back on 80m.  Watch the SWR.  A little drift but settles down.  Good
run on 80m.  But won't make it to 100K points.  Quite a comedown from
the 1000+ Q's and sweeps of previous years.  When I realized I was not
going to get a sweep the old-fashioned way I turned on the spotting
network and went and got three or four that came up.

Lots of cleanup needed before SSB sweeps. The lesson with the toroid
is a good one, and will get folded into the antenna design -- some
wire lengths to stay away from.  The fast QSK that W2CS and I put in
the AL1200 is a good one and worth repairing.

And 97K is 97K which is better against NCCC than if I'd been smart and
just gone to bed and stayed there.

73, Guy.