11/30/2008 | K6XN Bob, W6JCW, and Ted, K6XN, had an interesting SS Phone weekend. This SS we wanted to run SS from a cabin in a wilderness area in the Sierras at 5000 feet using batteries, solar cells and a Honda EU-2000i generator. We rehabilitated an old rack mount home brew 3-1000Z amplifier for our 40M downstairs station instead of our old reliable ICOM IC-2KL solid state 500W amplifier and we decided to run a separate 220V only generator just for the amplifier. We placed a 5KW antique generator about 100 feet from the cabin and ran a 100 foot length of 12/3 220V wiring into the cabin. Prior to the contest everything worked perfectly then we realized that the antique 5KW generator was burning a gallon an hour in fuel and we didnt have enough gasoline fuel for the full contest period at that fuel consumption rate but we did have a lot of diesel fuel. We quickly rewired the 220V feed lines to our backup diesel generator. The amplifier *loved* the diesel generator. Everything was working perfectly until the beginning of the contest when after Bob made one or two contacts on 40M with the 3-1000Z amplifier our logging computers and our software logging programs went crazy. After 4 hours +/- of playing with the software, fixing the multiple data bases, adding RF chokes, improving grounding and multiple false starts we finally solved all the problems. Then the high winds started (we were on top of a 5000 foot mountain). Luckily only one large tree blew down Saturday night that we had to chain saw out the next morning and all of our antennas stayed up. Bob, W6JCW, had to leave around noon on Sunday so Ted, K6XN, carried on although Ted was losing his voice by then. Bottom line, we had a lot of fun, we fixed all the problems but K6XN is going to buy at least one voice keyer for the next voice phone contest. We plan to do much better next time although we are pleased that we could still add some numbers to the Northern California Contest Club score with this effort. Bob and I have been friends for over 49 years and we met as Ham radio operators on the air when we were both teenagers in High School and we have been friends ever since. Bob actually saved my life when I was attacked by the high voltage supply in a DX 40 transmitter when I was 17 (Bob can tell you the full story). Boy can Bob kick! 73, Ted, K6XN -- K6XN