2007 ARRL 10 Meter Contest
12/10/2007 |
KA1AMR
I was as prepared as I could be. Comfortable chair, multiple sharpened pencils, pad of paper, food in the fridge, wood by the stove. It was 0000UTC and I flipped the switch firing up the Yaesu FT101EE. CQ..CQ.. nothing. No output! Retuned...still nothing. Checked all the cables, still nothing. Stations are waiting.
Went to the backup rig, the Radio Shack HTX-100 mobile. It worked, sort of. I got a few comments of being off frequency. Who wants to be where you don't want to be. Not me during a contest!
Went to the backup..backup rig.. the Yaesu FP-301 mobile. Talk about modern stuff (20 years old and never used). Well it worked. I was on the air, finally. But, the multitudes had disappeared.
Results were not steller: less than 50 qso's, less than a dozen sections, in my 15 hours. Not like past years.
North to south conditions were spotty.
Did I tell you about the stuck 3-element beam, facing west, at 35 feet?
73's 'til 2008 -- KA1AMR
Went to the backup rig, the Radio Shack HTX-100 mobile. It worked, sort of. I got a few comments of being off frequency. Who wants to be where you don't want to be. Not me during a contest!
Went to the backup..backup rig.. the Yaesu FP-301 mobile. Talk about modern stuff (20 years old and never used). Well it worked. I was on the air, finally. But, the multitudes had disappeared.
Results were not steller: less than 50 qso's, less than a dozen sections, in my 15 hours. Not like past years.
North to south conditions were spotty.
Did I tell you about the stuck 3-element beam, facing west, at 35 feet?
73's 'til 2008 -- KA1AMR
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