2009 ARRL 10 Meter Contest
12/15/2009 |
VK8AA
The December weekend away in Darwin for the 2009 ARRL 10m event was threatened from many quarters this year. Changing jobs three times this year, one involuntary, one short term contract and one long term contract and tough work project committents made it almost impossible to secure the 4 summer days off.
Arriving in Darwin a couple of days prior to the event to find a tropical cyclone warning in place - has happened a few times in the past, but this year was different. There was no sunshine, no debilitating heat, in fact I was cold ! The locals were scathing in the media about the poor weather warnings issued by the responsible authorities. You would have to conclude that I came ill prepared and under dressed, and genuinely question the base data where some have concluded it is global warming. With the heaters on, the business to get prepared for the contest event started in earnest.
Operating from the same industrial yard in Berrimah (adjacent to the Hidden Valley motor racing circuit) as 2008 was familiar and simple, except that the big 180 tall crane was unavailable. Using a tiny 70 tall Franna crane and some custom steelwork akin to a fly jib, the antenna was elevated to 80 above ground (all up about 300 above sea level). The configuration with the Franna crane was to mount the antenna at the very top of the jib with rope attachments for rotational control, providing unrestricted 360 degree rotational coverage. In past years the rope rotator was a great souce of walking exercise.
Because the antenna was mounted at te top of the crane, the antenna had to man handled onto the jib, and with just 2 people available to do this taskk, the old 180kg massive 9 element yagi was hacksawed back to just 7 elements on a 50 boom which was readily lifted by one person and subsequently pinned to the Franna by Greg VK8HLF. A quick VSWR check showed all was in order and we stowed the antenna Friday night, ready to start the contest event Saturday morning (9:30am local is 00:00z for an almost business hours start to the event).
A full equipment test was run on Friday as well with a list of issues that ech could have nearly stopped the operation. You see, I literally just upgraded to an IC-7600 (thanks to Bob at the HRO store in Oakland), and sold off the IC-756pro3. Surprise - surprise, the isolated linear interfacing lead did not function.. so the old lead was cut up and re-connected, and yes, the 7600 linear interface menu setting were all tried. Luxuries like correct tools, new connectors, heat shink were not available to properley terminate the interface of course managing its own short circuit.
Blowing up the brand new IC-7600 was never on the agenda, but hey, it caused the heart to race to 172bpm and visions of me sitting at the Wharf cafprecinct reading a book for the weekend. Dipping into something seen on the web circulating a few years back where the IC-756pro3 had an undocumented internal fusible link, and just hoping the Icom engineers had used the same approach in building the 7600.. so 40 screws and a few covers later and a trip to the local electronics store, the 7600 burst back into life. It is rated at 5 amps by the way.
Saturday morning arrives, and an hour before start time, with signals about 30dB down aghh ! - the coax to the antenna was short circuit. Lowering the crane, removing and testing the balun, doing a feel test of the 60m long coax feedline showed no issues. Three hours later the antenna went back into the air with a new set of coax plugs fitted. It turns out that a little moisture had penetrated both plugs during the past 12 months in storage, and whatever bug was living in the connectors was now carbon fibre from the Friday equipment test. The connectors looked almost brand new, but the multimeter showed them to be short circuit! You can imagine the sinking feeling of having a reasonably expensive trip stalling for $10 of connectors.
Starting the contest late around 03:00z, and missing a good VK/ZL opening was frustrating, at least the equipment was working now ! On day 1, I had worked just 3 VKs, with two of those local here in VK8, and just one ZL station. Conditions with the small 7 element yagi were demoralizing. I did manage some good contact runs to JA using sporadic E, meteor scatter and luck, and a massive run to EU. The goal of 50 QSOs on day 1 seemed ambitious.
Day two, and things improved significantly, with some far better propagation into JA, VU and central Asia and EU. Nothing heard from NA. Final QSO count was around 148, and have yet to work out a score estimate. Had a flying visit by John VK8JM looking at the 7600 (very rare in VK8), and in the process broke my bodgy linear interface lead. Easily fixed, but completely isolated the 7600,and cast an evil eye on it (again).
In the background to all this, tropical cyclone (also known as Hurricane) Lawrence was declared for Darwin, and during the contest event, around 350mm of rain fell (that is 14 inches), and many roads blocked by fallen trees. Operating in wet clothes with a puddle around my nare feet with 240Vac power is not recommended (well not without RCD's), exacerbated by the manual means of rotating the yagi every 20 minutes or so in the torrential rain. This really felt like a Survivor Challenge, and doubt if any script writer could have came up with this scenario.
The station was dismantled around 09:00z on day 2, which coincided to the local Sunday evening here. Missing a possible operating window for the last 3 hours of the event was the risk, but given the poor conditions, not much risk in reality. The propagation was checked at Marks VK8MS station with little being heard.
Others questioned whether there was any value in doing this trip at all, but hey, it was an adventure, had a weekend away from Sydney, and how could you substitute meeting the colorful characters in the top-end, and tackling a series of hi-tech and time critical repairs with a $10 multimeter.
An impromtu face to face catchup with Les SP2POI and Christina SP3HDB and Rich VK8RR was a surprise to round out the bunch of SP/SQ stations in my 10m log.
Overall a better year than 2008, with decent openings, but suffered at the hands of my feet by having the station off-line too long. Many thanks to Mark VK8MS and Greg VK8HLF for the fantastic logistical support again.
73, David Burger VK8AA (VK2CZ)
PS. This report with be incomplete without something on the IC-7600. The noise blanker adjustments are in fact better than Icoms bigger radios and were brilliant, but sadly the DSP noise reduction did not come close the 756pro3 performance... in fact the 7600 DSP really behaved like a tone control (on SSB).. and even in the presence of millivolts of noise, I never did turn on the DSP NR. Here is hoping software upgrades beyond 1.01 fix this embarrassing problem. Id recommend waiting a little before you acquire this radio the perceived improvements over the 756pro3 do not stack with the cost. -- VK2CZ
Arriving in Darwin a couple of days prior to the event to find a tropical cyclone warning in place - has happened a few times in the past, but this year was different. There was no sunshine, no debilitating heat, in fact I was cold ! The locals were scathing in the media about the poor weather warnings issued by the responsible authorities. You would have to conclude that I came ill prepared and under dressed, and genuinely question the base data where some have concluded it is global warming. With the heaters on, the business to get prepared for the contest event started in earnest.
Operating from the same industrial yard in Berrimah (adjacent to the Hidden Valley motor racing circuit) as 2008 was familiar and simple, except that the big 180 tall crane was unavailable. Using a tiny 70 tall Franna crane and some custom steelwork akin to a fly jib, the antenna was elevated to 80 above ground (all up about 300 above sea level). The configuration with the Franna crane was to mount the antenna at the very top of the jib with rope attachments for rotational control, providing unrestricted 360 degree rotational coverage. In past years the rope rotator was a great souce of walking exercise.
Because the antenna was mounted at te top of the crane, the antenna had to man handled onto the jib, and with just 2 people available to do this taskk, the old 180kg massive 9 element yagi was hacksawed back to just 7 elements on a 50 boom which was readily lifted by one person and subsequently pinned to the Franna by Greg VK8HLF. A quick VSWR check showed all was in order and we stowed the antenna Friday night, ready to start the contest event Saturday morning (9:30am local is 00:00z for an almost business hours start to the event).
A full equipment test was run on Friday as well with a list of issues that ech could have nearly stopped the operation. You see, I literally just upgraded to an IC-7600 (thanks to Bob at the HRO store in Oakland), and sold off the IC-756pro3. Surprise - surprise, the isolated linear interfacing lead did not function.. so the old lead was cut up and re-connected, and yes, the 7600 linear interface menu setting were all tried. Luxuries like correct tools, new connectors, heat shink were not available to properley terminate the interface of course managing its own short circuit.
Blowing up the brand new IC-7600 was never on the agenda, but hey, it caused the heart to race to 172bpm and visions of me sitting at the Wharf cafprecinct reading a book for the weekend. Dipping into something seen on the web circulating a few years back where the IC-756pro3 had an undocumented internal fusible link, and just hoping the Icom engineers had used the same approach in building the 7600.. so 40 screws and a few covers later and a trip to the local electronics store, the 7600 burst back into life. It is rated at 5 amps by the way.
Saturday morning arrives, and an hour before start time, with signals about 30dB down aghh ! - the coax to the antenna was short circuit. Lowering the crane, removing and testing the balun, doing a feel test of the 60m long coax feedline showed no issues. Three hours later the antenna went back into the air with a new set of coax plugs fitted. It turns out that a little moisture had penetrated both plugs during the past 12 months in storage, and whatever bug was living in the connectors was now carbon fibre from the Friday equipment test. The connectors looked almost brand new, but the multimeter showed them to be short circuit! You can imagine the sinking feeling of having a reasonably expensive trip stalling for $10 of connectors.
Starting the contest late around 03:00z, and missing a good VK/ZL opening was frustrating, at least the equipment was working now ! On day 1, I had worked just 3 VKs, with two of those local here in VK8, and just one ZL station. Conditions with the small 7 element yagi were demoralizing. I did manage some good contact runs to JA using sporadic E, meteor scatter and luck, and a massive run to EU. The goal of 50 QSOs on day 1 seemed ambitious.
Day two, and things improved significantly, with some far better propagation into JA, VU and central Asia and EU. Nothing heard from NA. Final QSO count was around 148, and have yet to work out a score estimate. Had a flying visit by John VK8JM looking at the 7600 (very rare in VK8), and in the process broke my bodgy linear interface lead. Easily fixed, but completely isolated the 7600,and cast an evil eye on it (again).
In the background to all this, tropical cyclone (also known as Hurricane) Lawrence was declared for Darwin, and during the contest event, around 350mm of rain fell (that is 14 inches), and many roads blocked by fallen trees. Operating in wet clothes with a puddle around my nare feet with 240Vac power is not recommended (well not without RCD's), exacerbated by the manual means of rotating the yagi every 20 minutes or so in the torrential rain. This really felt like a Survivor Challenge, and doubt if any script writer could have came up with this scenario.
The station was dismantled around 09:00z on day 2, which coincided to the local Sunday evening here. Missing a possible operating window for the last 3 hours of the event was the risk, but given the poor conditions, not much risk in reality. The propagation was checked at Marks VK8MS station with little being heard.
Others questioned whether there was any value in doing this trip at all, but hey, it was an adventure, had a weekend away from Sydney, and how could you substitute meeting the colorful characters in the top-end, and tackling a series of hi-tech and time critical repairs with a $10 multimeter.
An impromtu face to face catchup with Les SP2POI and Christina SP3HDB and Rich VK8RR was a surprise to round out the bunch of SP/SQ stations in my 10m log.
Overall a better year than 2008, with decent openings, but suffered at the hands of my feet by having the station off-line too long. Many thanks to Mark VK8MS and Greg VK8HLF for the fantastic logistical support again.
73, David Burger VK8AA (VK2CZ)
PS. This report with be incomplete without something on the IC-7600. The noise blanker adjustments are in fact better than Icoms bigger radios and were brilliant, but sadly the DSP noise reduction did not come close the 756pro3 performance... in fact the 7600 DSP really behaved like a tone control (on SSB).. and even in the presence of millivolts of noise, I never did turn on the DSP NR. Here is hoping software upgrades beyond 1.01 fix this embarrassing problem. Id recommend waiting a little before you acquire this radio the perceived improvements over the 756pro3 do not stack with the cost. -- VK2CZ
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