I quit…
Or at least my PC forced me to by deciding to let me down about 0630hrs in the contest. Due to a for now unknown reason the N1MM-logger + Fldigi combo froze and I had to reboot the PC. But, after rebooting and starting Windows XP, both displays stayed black. After some trying (rebooting multiple times, disconnecting and reconnecting all cables,…) I could get an image on only one of the displays but in the wrong resolution. Setting the resolution back to the correct values again gave me a black screen. This time I could not get back to the one working screen any more so after about an hour I decided to quit the contest. Yes I know, winners never quit, quitters never win… but it’s pretty hard to work a digi-mode contest without a computer, don’t you think?
but I learned a lot…
- I have to find a way to slow the tuning rate of the FT990 and the TS50S for these small bandwith modes, I know there is a mod for the FT990 but I haven’t found any for the TS50S yet => TODO
- although my FT990 gets out 100W in all -other- modes on 160m, I only get about 15W when it’s in packet-mode (to use afsk through the packet connector) => TODO
The TS50S is from the period when it was illegal in Belgium to have a rig capable of more than 10W output n 160m and has’nt been modified (yet) => TODO - using separate control boxes for the bandpassfilters and the SixPak is OK but the risk of making mistakes is very high => TODO
- using bandpassfilters helps a lot but does not stop interstation interference for 100%, even when only using 100W max. For example: when transmitting around 7040 I can clearly hear my own signal on the second radio when it’s around 14080 (second harmonic)
…and I had a lot of fun…
- once you get the hang of it, SO2R is a lot of fun even with a small station!
- I made some 210 QSO for a score of about 192k in 0630 hrs, so the average rate was about 32 QSO/hr (during night time, with pretty low dipoles and only about 15W on 160m). So I’m pretty happy with that.