2008 ARRL November Sweepstakes (CW)
11/03/2008 |
N2EY
This year I did things a little differently. My first SS was 1968, when I made 81 QSOs.
This year I had the loan of a Kenwood TS-940SAT (quite a change from my 1968 DX-20/VF-1, thank you, W3RV), so I built a keying interface, pulled a Win98 PC off the shelf and used that setup for 16 hours. Quite a difference from my 100% homebrew hollow-state Southgate Type 7 transceiver - the knobs on the '940 are so tiny!
Lack of sunspots didn't mean lack of activity; everybody just moved down a band or two. Biggest thrill was working AK; just don't hear Alaska very often. Only missed 5 sections: NT (no surprise), PAC, NL, EWA and (this one hurts): NLI.
Only bad part was being plagued by some sort of odd noise on all bands that even the '940's two blankers couldn't touch. It came and went - not sure if it's line noise, from a switching supply or plasma TV or what.
Big thing learned this year:
Don't wait till Saturday to set up the station and build the keying interface. Even if everything works perfectly on the first go, the op needs practice actually using the setup.
Wait till next year!
73 de Jim, N2EY -- N2EY
This year I had the loan of a Kenwood TS-940SAT (quite a change from my 1968 DX-20/VF-1, thank you, W3RV), so I built a keying interface, pulled a Win98 PC off the shelf and used that setup for 16 hours. Quite a difference from my 100% homebrew hollow-state Southgate Type 7 transceiver - the knobs on the '940 are so tiny!
Lack of sunspots didn't mean lack of activity; everybody just moved down a band or two. Biggest thrill was working AK; just don't hear Alaska very often. Only missed 5 sections: NT (no surprise), PAC, NL, EWA and (this one hurts): NLI.
Only bad part was being plagued by some sort of odd noise on all bands that even the '940's two blankers couldn't touch. It came and went - not sure if it's line noise, from a switching supply or plasma TV or what.
Big thing learned this year:
Don't wait till Saturday to set up the station and build the keying interface. Even if everything works perfectly on the first go, the op needs practice actually using the setup.
Wait till next year!
73 de Jim, N2EY -- N2EY
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