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CQWWRTTY

Last weekend CQWWRTTY


CQ WW RTTY - 2014-09-27 0000Z to 2014-09-29 0000Z - 414 QSOs
PA0O - Off Times >= 30 Minutes


Total Time Off 31:19  (1879 mins)

Total Time On 16:41  (1001 mins)

... 25Q per hour only  

still it is better then calling 1 hour ZD9XF at 28.012 MHz with 0 QSO result

must be doing something wrong  these DXpeditions  need EME ERP to catch



Overall propagation  very much lower then the previous year.
I remember to have worked 40 zones in RTTY .
Hoping October and November might bring some good propagation.

Saturday morning 10m very quiet.
No surprise to me  being 24*7 QRV as WSPR propagation beacon  the 10m spots from VK3 became rare last months 
But 10M USA was open often in the afternoon/ evening.  
Sunday morning 10M sounded a lot better even a few JA's heard.  

    
 I spend quite some time to end with little over 400 QSO  running 100W

 poor bands but high activity
and some nice DX 
like KH7XX 20 and 15  
VK3TXD  40 20 15

zone 6 7 8 9  30 

JA's  on 40m   just the very big guns but even in the big EU S-EU piles I could get trough easily with 100W.
How different that is in DXpedition piles VK9AN  even with max power no QSO

20140927 2035     7035.45 RTTY PA0O          599 147 14  JH4UYB           599 0            0      3
20140927 2037     7038.53 RTTY PA0O          599 000 14  JE1ZWT           599 0                   0
20140927 2039     7030.68 RTTY PA0O          599 149 14  JA1OVD           599 0                   3
20140927 2042     7029.43 RTTY PA0O          599 150 14  JM1XCW           599 0                   3
20140927 2046     7038.53 RTTY PA0O          599 153 14  JS3CTQ           599 0                   3
20140927 2120     7028.00 RTTY PA0O          599 164 14  JR4OZR           599 0                   3
20140927 2216     7062.30 RTTY PA0O          599 175 14  HK1T             599 0            0      3
20140928 0856    28100.63 RTTY PA0O          599 253 14  JS3CTQ           599 0            0      3
20140928 0903    28115.80 RTTY PA0O          599 257 14  9M2CNC           599 0            0      3
20140928 0904    28119.54 RTTY PA0O          599 258 14  ZD8RH            599 0            0      3
20140927 2016     7051.20 RTTY PA0O          599 132 14  VK3TDX           599 0            0      3 
20140927 2023     7055.32 RTTY PA0O          599 136 14  E21YDP           599 0            0      3 
20140927 2253     7049.27 RTTY PA0O          599 189 14  VK6IR            599 0                   3 
20140928 0004     3584.50 RTTY PA0O          599 229 14  NR4M             599 0            0 VA   3 
20140928 2143     7028.99 RTTY PA0O          599 404 14  9M2CNC           599 0            0      3 
20140928 2145     7038.90 RTTY PA0O          599 405 14  PY2NY            599 0            0      3 

20140928 1828    21103.83 RTTY PA0O          599 341 14  KH7XX            599 0            0      3 
20140928 1800    14108.30 RTTY PA0O          599 334 14  KH7XX            599 0            0      3 

20140928 1635    21135.50 RTTY PA0O          599 322 14  XE2FGC           599 0            0      3
20140928 1627    28134.00 RTTY PA0O          599 318 14  YS1/NP3UT        599 0                   3 

some goodies 

But some piles when competing with EA I DL  tough going  
I wonder what the competition is running but it s not all about power  being south in EU HF life seems easier.. 

In CQWWRTTY running 100W  does not get much attention  a bit boring in the end and the RTTY signals gets annoying.  
Early morning  02 local  heard 3501   very weak ZD9XF Nigel  deep in the noise high static's  I thought to hear my call not so sure.  Afterward I should have shut down to get some sleep since next evening ZD9XF was a lot stronger.

It was the first real test for N1MM+  beta  RTTY contest.

I was using N1MM+  for a while   one contest the SAC CW worked fine.
maybe  the keying timing different?  could be imagination.
But it worked well  keying speed can be set to 99 wpm !

Set up no problem.
After a while RTTY contesting  i noticed interruptions  in TX and RX 
the Windows  circle cursor was turning at every TX after a few characters
the TX was hold up for a second or so.
After restart it worked well for a while but then again delays.
Could be my relative slow Dell D420 notebook? but that works well with N1MM clasic.
Then  exported the ADIF  CQWWRRTY  to the clasic N1MM
and continued  the contest.
I have seen occasional  wait circle signs but only a few times.  
RTTY code responds quicker to the keypress.

ZD9XF  was open on 17 and 80
Next day evening  heard ZD9XF on the 17M  reasonable signal on the 30m dipole.

But just as I was ready to call he said QSY 3501  well 80m also missing.
Then bit later ZD9XF showed up on 3501  noisy and still Statics but much stronger then the night before.
Not to many callers in the start the QRI folks where not alarmed yet since no cluster spot...
So almost no one was tuning his rig on 3501 extensively as usual
QSO was easy.   


Before I had to repair the K3 KPA3 having low output with HI-CUR  message at 3500 kHz
symptoms:
Low output  10 and 6m max 60-80W   no stable level.
High current at 80m   23A+ !  no matter what load / tuning.

TX 5W calibration failed indicating  LPA malfunction.
The middle R15HVF1 output FET  of the LPA  had low / short Gate-Drain
That happened before 2012 July I got 2 spare R15HVF1  1 left

deja vue:
http://pa0o-jaap.blogspot.nl/2012/07/4m-wspr-24-hours-top-list-unique.html#uds-search-results


Replaced  the defective R15HVF1  and  then runned the 5 and 50 Watt calibration procedure. Nice feature just wait and automatic all bands are calibrated if everything is well.

Now all bands power displays 110W  with decent current 16-18A 
50MHz 106W   12.8A 13.2V 168W DC  would mean 62% efficiency 

My DAIWA NS660p say 90W = 53% n   more true.
power measured by DAIWA NS-660P @ 50Ohm dummy. 
100W @ 10M 16A  48%   that is the efficiency to expect .
109W @ 24.905  16A   52%
103W @ 21.012  17.4A   45.5%
108W @ 18.086   16.9A   49 %
108W @  14.012  17.8A  47%
110W @  10.105  18.8A  45%
110W @  7.070    18A A   47%
115W @ 3.513      16.5A   53.6%
105W @  1.836     16A    50%   power is dropping after 20sec 

remarks
K3 current display not stable  when transmitting 
DAIWA  not so optimistic  measuring.

       
Strange that with the faulty LPA  the current raised to over 23A  one would expect lower current.  Only 1 phase driven  I guess. 

But next time when I have to replace one of the RD15's   I just cut the leads
long enough to weld the new RD15 to the existing leads. Not removing the leads from the PCB trough holes that is too difficult.



  

Comments

PE4BAS, Bas said…
Hallo Jaap, N1MM+ mag dan wel geen beta meer zijn. Problemen (kinderziektes) zijn er nog wel. Daarbij komt inderdaad dat het prog een stuk langzamer lijkt te zijn. En ik heb dan nog niet eens zo een langzame computer een baudrate van 38400 met de FT-817 is al een probleem. Heb ik bij geen enkel programma ooit last van gehad. TX blijft bij mij telkens hangen in MMTTY. Ik gebruik gewoon de geluidskaart (AFSK). Heb je nog wel gezien een paar keer op 40m. 73, Bas
pa0o said…
Ja ik ben terug gegaan naar N1MM clasic na een uur.
geen probleem de export en import van de contest liep goed
Ik heb mijn bedenkingen tegen de dot net gebaseerde programma's
typisch MS groter en tragere programma's .com naar .net

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