Sunday, September 30, 2007
So I've been staging/integrating the CQP station most of the afternoon.
I promised to get on the air for the CQ WW RTTY contest. Had the filters installed in the radio, the radio working, the computer attached and mostly working with the radio...
... but I couldn't get the antenna to load up. Tried a couple different things, but it still wouldn't load up.
Physically inspected it. "Oh, there it IS!" No connection from the center conductor of the SO-259 UHF connector socket and that side of the actual antenna.
No worries, I tore it apart and soldered in a new wire to make the connection.
Lo and behold! It works.
Time on the clock? 5:06 pm PDT. Six minutes after the end of the contest.
Not a single RTTY on the bands anywhere.
Oh well.
I still need to do the following things this evening:
To do tomorrow:
I promised to get on the air for the CQ WW RTTY contest. Had the filters installed in the radio, the radio working, the computer attached and mostly working with the radio...
... but I couldn't get the antenna to load up. Tried a couple different things, but it still wouldn't load up.
Physically inspected it. "Oh, there it IS!" No connection from the center conductor of the SO-259 UHF connector socket and that side of the actual antenna.
No worries, I tore it apart and soldered in a new wire to make the connection.
Lo and behold! It works.
Time on the clock? 5:06 pm PDT. Six minutes after the end of the contest.
Not a single RTTY on the bands anywhere.
Oh well.
I still need to do the following things this evening:
- Integrate the foot switch. (Into microKeyer)
- Integrate the Heathkit SB-200 amp. (Into microKeyer)
- Characterize the 10/15/20m fan dipole we'll be using. (I hope it is
- close enough so we can get away with tuning with the amp and not
- need a separate antenna tuner.)
- Possibly characterize the 40/80/160 fan dipole we'll by using.
To do tomorrow:
- Get the proper headset to rig converter adapter and integrate it.
