[Moon] [Moon-Net] ARRL Contest (late)

[Serge Szpilfogel]

Ed tears came to my eyes reading your Email. I think the gremlins are after
you brother.
I hope you get everything back together sooonnn & be ready for the next
contest.
Happy for you that 6M is doing well & that in itself is a measure of success
Serge VE1KG

-----Original Message-----
From: Moon-net [mailto:moon-net-bounces at mailman.pe1itr.com] On Behalf Of
Edward R Cole via Moon-net
Sent: January 21, 2019 04:28
To: moon-net at mailman.pe1itr.com
Subject: [Moon-Net] ARRL Contest (late)

Computer problems kept me off the moon yesterday-evening.  Com ports keep
changing and soundcard lost modulation to radio.  Move s/c to different USB
jack and finally thought to use my K3 Utility program to find the correct
com-port.  Use to be com-5 then it was com-4 then it moved to com-6 and
finally found the radio on com-8.  Time to retire the old winXP machine.

Ran from MR at 0140utc Jan. 21 till about 0345utc when new 2m amplifier quit
putting out RF.  Quick check of bias (OK) and 50v B+ (not there).  Aparently
the 50v FET switch failed (probably shorting to ground).

worked six stations for the contest:

Also MAP65 is 2-MHz off frequency, my Hpol preamp appears failed (no gain),
and the SWR protection ckt in the amp was triggering too soon.  Suppose to
shut down at 100w reflected but was triggering at 50w.

Been off eme for almost a year.  Typical "start up" gremlins.

Only getting 800w on Hpol and 700w on Vpol so that is another thing to look
into (expected 1000-1100w).

New azimuth rotator seems to work OK.  Wired my RazTrak auto tracking system
to handle both 2m and 6m pointing.  Still in test mode for auto-track.  New
digital elevation encoder is nice (MAB25).  Its on the 6m-eme array, too.

Finally, the 6m LFA antenna picks up nearly two s-units less local nose than
my 3-element 6m yagi (measured with the same radio).  Waiting for tower guys
to help with stuck 6m azimuth rotator.

Sorta kinda back on eme!


73, Ed - KL7UW
   http://www.kl7uw.com
Dubus-NA Business mail:
   dubususa at gmail.com 

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