W4KAZ

Murphy.

I had saved Friday afternoon for some nice relaxing antenna maintenance time.  It is time to replace the K9AY wires.  Both loops have suffered a lot of damage from the odd falling branch, and the loops were made from fairly thin 18ga tinned automotive wire, I normally use for other reasons.  Time to put up loops made of heavier gauge wire, because the RX antenna is a keeper.  The 15m/10m loop also needs some work.  It needs to be adjusted for better SWR if kept, but it will more likely be replaced with simple dipoles.  Also need to check out some of the support lines, etc., etc. etc.

The wx did not cooperate with this plan.  A big thunderstorm moved in, and there was a mini monsoon, the likes of which I’ve not seen very often here in NC.  It was more like the spring storms more common on the gulf coast.  “Torrential downpour”.  “Monsoon”.

Anyway, with half of the XYL’s landscape floating away to the accompaniment of claps of thunder, the antenna plan hit the crapper.  The occasional light shower continued through the afternoon, and the wx radar kept me from plugging into the antennas(aka “lightning attractors”) until about 0400Z.  It would probably have been OK to operate sooner, but there was no reason to take the risk.

So, Friday resulted in a whopping 13Q’s of disinterested S&P.

Slept late Saturday(see where this is going?).  Still not much interest.  More half-hearted S&P on a mostly dead 20m band.  A 10 minute 20m run produced zilch.  Had more fun texting N4YDU than operating.  In the early evening, 40m sounded good.  Worked A73A, and hope he finally copied my number. He got the call on the first transmission, but needed fills on the number.  But if they could hear me in Qatar, it must be worth giving running a shot.  A forty minute 40m run produced about 50 Q’s, and some skimmer spot activity.  Operated “assisted, low power” to test out the packet connections.  Figured on a mostly S&P weekend, and figured it would be interesting to watch the band map.  Somewhere in that time the N/S 40m dipole became disfunctional[after nabbing a lot of russians while S&P].  Bailed early again.

Sunday, more Q’s were made running than S&P.  20m was a lot more fun than on Saturday.  15m stunk using the 40m dipole, although it looks like it stunk for bigg gunz too..  The N/S 40m dipole showed intermittent, so I guess that huge branch that fell in February must have given it a good wack on the way down.  Another repair project.  Running stations was pretty easy on both 40m and 20m, so conditions on Sunday were much improved over those on Saturday.

The station was good to go inside the shack.  With the skimmer spots being fed from the Reverse Beacon Net’s server, the band map was well populated.  The filters established were adequate.  The only part missing there were skimmer spots from a truly LOCAL skimmer.  The SO2R arrangement was also good-to-go, although the lid operator was not motivated enough for “S&P2R”.  If band conditions ever really break open again, with activity from 40m though 10m, the two radio capability is going to be more useful.  However SO2R was mostly a learning project – figuring out how to accomplish it was the real goal.  Time to revisit those filter projects again.

The Good:

• Nice to hear 20m sound better.  Saturday was like sunspot minima.  Sunday-much better.
• N/S 20m and E/W 20m dipoles produced good results in the expected directions, up to three S-units difference on weaker signals.  Definitely worth having both
• Ditto 40m.  Before it broke, the N/S 40m dipole was hearing  many fine Russian ops much better than the E/W dipole, that is normally the  first choice.  The N/S works well into the GA/FL/Carribean/SA direction too.
• Packet set-up will work when it is wanted
• CW skimmer is every bit the game changer I expected.
• Pulled the 40m antenna switch box to debug for possible intermittent.  Replaced broken connector on unused position, all seven positions on switch re-checked, switch good to go.

The Bad:

• CW skimmer is every bit the game changer I expected[depends on mood]
• didn’t get the repairs done
• bad attitude.  Just not feeling the force
• No real game plan going into the contest

The Ugly:

• Washout on Friday afternoon.
• Broken antennas:  K9AY, N/S 40m, 15m/10m loop
• New problem on 40m switch box

The final “Final”:

Call: W4KAZ   Operator(s): W4KAZ   Station: W4KAZ
Class: SO(A)AB LP                  QTH: NC
Operating Time (hrs): 12.5

 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:
   80:   10
   40:  132
   20:  208
   15:   15
   10:    1
------------
Total:  366  Prefixes = 260  Total Score = 215,540