|
After a bit of internet digging, and a few helpful e-mails, I turned up references to the website of N0SS. Tom’s web site is a trove of good advice on a variety of things. One of those things is the Samlex 1223 switching power supply. It just so happens that the Yaesu FP-1023 is a re-branded Samlex(i.e., made for Yaesu by Samlex). I have put together a separate page to document some of this power supply information. That page will be updated as new info rolls in. Enough said here for now. Well. So much for my favorite contest this year. My power supply let all of the smoke out right at the beginning of the evening. I wound up with just over a hundred Q’s at 1900 local. Game over. After an hour long break around 1730 local (pizza and a nice coffee), I found a spot on 40m and set off on a nice little run. Then ka-blewie. It didn’t take long to find the source of the problem. I thought about rolling the truck battery up and hooking it up to get through the contest. OK, I considered it for all of five seconds. I then decided to chalk it up as a learning experience and bag it for the night. Hmmm. It seems like the NASA guys predicting the ‘big-un’, Hathaway & Wilson, are sticking with their story(as recently as last month) even though the cycle 23 sunspot trough has been dragging on. We’ll see. Anyway, the ARRL version of the story is a good read, even if only for the “you are here” graphic of sunspot cycle 23. The 2007 IOTA provisional scores have been posted and it looks like the N4A expedition to the South Core Banks did well in the low power category. The scores for low power expeditions shows that N4A (N4YDU & W4KAZ) placed 24th worldwide, 13th worldwide for mixed mode, and #1 in North America for low power expeditions.
The mast pictured in the photo on the right is 1.785 (45mm) military surplus mast obtained from K4TMC, The Mast Company. The N4A website has more photos of the gear used. Continue reading IOTA 2007 – N4A Draws Wood The following poetic adaptation is by Will, AA4NC. I’m just preserving for posterity. 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through PVRC, Not a creature was stirring, on CW or eS eS Bee; The antennas were strung from the chimney with care, In hopes that some sunspots soon would be there; The contesters were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of Top Ten scores danced in their heads; And 'QPL with his Orion, and I with my FT, Had just settled down for a QSO on 40, When on the bottom of the band there arose such a clatter, I tuned the VFO to see what was the matter. Into the pileup I flew like a flash, Fired up the amp, sent a dot and a dash. Continue reading A PVRCNC “Night Before Christmas” de Will, AA4NC The subject of sleep schedules comes up often in contest circles. Conventional wisdom says that sleep should be taken in 90 minute chunks. Most sleep research I’ve read seems to corroborate conventional wisdom. The Jan. 2008 issue of “Wired” magazine sent me off again on a bit of digging on the subject, specifically on “Polyphasic Sleep”. Here are a couple of snaps of my LogiKey CMOS4 kit from Idiom Press. It was a joy to build and it is a FB keyer. It was one of the easier to assemble kits I’ve fooled with, and the supplied instructions are detailed and complete. This keyer is also available fully assembled. In my opinion, soldering the kit requires a fine tipped soldering pencil. My smallest soldering iron was almost too big, but with a magnifier and bright lighting at hand, I muddled through. Every year, Thanksgiving week coincides with the beginning of a mass migration that is a pestilence upon mankind. Taken as individuals these migrants are benign. They travel no great distances in their migrations, yet they do tend to congregate together in an unseemly manner. All year long they bide their time, picking the worst possible moments to make their vertical pilgrimage. There are those among us who make a great fuss over their inherent beauty, right up until the moment that they show their true nature. Continue reading They Seem Innocent Enough….. Such a masochist I am not. I planned on using the ARRL 10m weekend as family time, so for the few minutes I turned the radio on, I found my decision to be justified. O’Course, just two weeks earlier, the W3LPL crew logged 6500+ Q’s in CQWW DX – but only 150 Q’s on 10m. I suspect the antennas and ops at ‘LPL are somewhat more adroit than ‘KAZ, so the decision was EASY. I made 6 Q’s in about 15 minutes. I figure that to be 6 more than my goal of ‘zero’ . Hot Dog! After struggling with mastering the use of ‘paddles’ and ‘keyers’ for the purposes of Modulating the Continuous Wave, I decided to upgrade both my paddles and keyer. For some reason it never occurred to me to try using my paddles with the radio’s internal keyer. When it finally did occur to me recently, it turns out I had less trouble sending legible CW using the internal keyer in the radio than with my “Common Brand” keyer. Go figure. So, having found a good bargain on a set of nice Kent paddles, and having a thumbs up from trusted sources on the Idiom Press Logikeyer – I made those two items my xmas present to myself. I got the Logikeyer CMOS4 kit, so some assembly was required. I got the kit put together last week. The Logikeyer is a well done kit. I got lucky and it worked on the first try. 🙂 I’ve been eyeing up the Idiom Press SCAF-1 audio filter, and now I’m pretty sure I’ll get one of those too, sooner or later. I’m sure it will be a high quality item also. Anyway, it sure is easier to send CW with a good set of paddles and a keyer that works! (I’m no paddle expert, but I really like the Kent paddles.) I’m still a lid, but I might actually be able to learn how to use paddles now. If I can, then I work on the second long range goal – training the left hand to send CW. |
||
