11/24/2004 | N2NHN I hope you all had as much fun as I did operating the ARRL Phone SS this past weekend. I put in about 8 hours, starting Saturday evening, with a few more Sunday afternoon and evening. I had company Saturday evening from Bruce KC2MCN, and Justine KC2KHY (Harmonic #1) peeked her head in Sunday, accommodating me in her busy schedule. I netted 79 sections and approximately 305 QSOs, missing only NT for the sweep. Every time I listened to one of the NT stations, they were way down in the noise. It didn't help that I noticed that my noise blanker was on late in the day on Sunday. When I turned it off, my noise floor dropped. It appears that the noise blanker caused pulsing and clicking in the heavy conditions. I don't know if it made a difference on the NT stations, but it certainly didn't help.
I wish I could have put in more, but the Boss had some other small items that she wanted taken care of. -- N2NHN