This was the first crack at operating N1LN for a DX contest and a 48 hour event. Bruce has the station set up for Multi-2, and that’s the way we operated. Murphy appeared before and during the contest. N1LN was in a car accident the week before, and NT4D was out recovering from an operation. Murphy took out one of the K3’s with an AGC problem at 5:00am Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, everything seems to be working according to N1LN’s expectations. It was a lot of fun running stations, but I’ve decided the most difficult thing about running stations is the boredom when things are slow. I also need to figure out how to find good run frequencies. It was very difficult at times to get a run established, especially on 20m.<\/p>\n
I’ve also decided the CW ops are right – SSB contesting stinks! (Well, sometimes.)<\/p>\n
It is amazing to hear stations that are normally not heard on the low wire antennas. I saw a spot for an HS0 on 20m, and sure enough I was able to hear him. I also heard the huge pileup of west coast stations calling him. Since the contest was about rate, I tried only as couple of calls before moving on.<\/p>\n
It was fun to be able to run EU stations on 40m just after their sunrise. I was called by a ZL, and I’m still not sure if it was off the rear of the beam or a long path gray-line contact. The timing was right for gray-line. After turning the beam 180 degrees, I was able to work a couple of ZL’s and VK’s. I put the 40m yagi back towards Europe after a few minutes, not wanting to lose the mostly clear frequency into EU.<\/p>\n
Operating is a far different proposition from such a station. There’s a lot to learn.<\/p>\n
A lot of fun too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This was the first crack at operating N1LN for a DX contest and a 48 hour event. Bruce has the station set up for Multi-2, and that’s the way we operated. Murphy appeared before and during the contest. N1LN was in a car accident the week before, and NT4D was out recovering from an operation. Murphy took out one of the K3’s with an AGC problem at 5:00am Sunday morning.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, everything seems to be working according to N1LN’s expectations. It was a lot of fun running stations, but I’ve decided the most difficult thing about running stations is the boredom when things are slow. I also need to figure out how to find good run frequencies. It was very difficult at times to get a run established, especially on 20m.<\/p>\n
I’ve also decided the CW ops are right – SSB contesting stinks! (Well, sometimes.)<\/p>\n
It is amazing to hear stations that are normally not heard on the low wire antennas. I saw a spot for an HS0 on 20m, and sure enough I was able to hear him. I also heard the huge pileup of west coast stations calling him. Since the contest was about rate, I tried only as couple of calls before moving on.<\/p>\n
It was fun to be able to run EU stations on 40m just after their sunrise. I was called by a ZL, and I’m still not sure if it was off the rear of the beam or a long path gray-line contact. […]<\/p>\n