M1CRO :: October 2006 UHF Contest
That was a contest to remember...
We can't recall a worse weather system during the Friday setup!
Rain was torrential when (rarely) vertical and spent most of its time driving horizontally
into the personnel or under the makeshift tarpaulin shelter
that was reluctantly rigged between two vehicles.
Much valuable time was lost which would not be recouped on Saturday.
That said, on arriving back at the site at midnight after a fine Chinese meal and a beer or two (or three)
the compensations of setting up 50 metres from the 'briny deep' were in evidence under a Kleig-lamp moon
when (brief!) consideration was given to cabling the 70cms array - in brighter conditions than evidenced
during the afternoon!
'And they thought it was all over...'
...more
Oct UHF 2006 - continued
Setting up 7 band's systems on 5 masts with 6 personnel on a Saturday morning before a 14:00Z start is for the tough or the foolhardy.
We like to think the former!
We didn't make it.
The 23cm and 13cm systems took priority due to the RSGB Trophy component to the contest so other bands took a back seat while attempting to
ensure that these two stations were fully equipped with technology in advance of the start.
The higher bands needed additional 'IT' input in an attempt to level the playing field - that took up more time.
The 70cms system, incorporating an intricate change-over relay arrangement to allow for twin feeder working on the
main array and tranceive (single feeder) on the secondary, came to naught with one of the connectors on an FX-520 relay coming away
from the body on the end of a piece of Superflex. As a consequence, 70cms took to the air at 16:00Z, 2 hours after the start,
with a jury-rigged switch which did not perform properly.
And then...
Avid readers will be aware that we have had some fun with voltages in the past. This time we had taken no chances.
A 10KVA diesel generating set had been ordered, collected and run up in the rental yard. Sweet.
Running it up for test and rotator alignment on site on Friday, between squalls, was a slightly different story.
It ran up just fine, produced 235 Volts with an inspection-lamp load but was dumping a significant quantity of
liquid electricity over the bed of the trailer!
A 3-cylinder unit, it had one of it's injector feed pipes 'finger-loose'! A spanner and a bit of torque noticeably
increased the revs and provided another 10 volts of output. Mended! (again)
Come Saturday, with no adverse effects from its soaking on Friday, it ran up with 240 volts on-load and 13cms,
after earlier modifications to the LO power supply had had its chirp eradicated.
The genny ran beautifully - for just over an hour! When it appeared to run out of fuel. With more derv supplied, it started up
and ran sweetly - for another 90 minutes!
And this was the pattern for the rest of the event.
By the time we eventually closed down around 13:00 on Sunday, exasperated that our efforts to keep the power flowing had been
to no avail, the generator, having been taken in hand by 'XIS and 'IBZ, had had its particle filter bypassed, its main fuel
filter washed clean, 3 times, and was being fed diesel directly from our (clean) jerry cans via an extended fuel pipe.
It is a measure of our luck that nothing electrical/electronic was damaged by the repeated power failures. We're pretty sure
that we lost a QSO or two, though, through computers turning off just prior to record commit. If you're sure that you worked us
but you can't see yourself on our eQSL log, we're sorry - for both of us. We needed the points!
The final straw...
Of course, unbeknown to us, the ether was storing up the final denouement. It was only after we got back to our respective bases
that we discovered that the higher bands (in particular) were handed one of the best tropo openings to the east and south for
some years. We were in the stages of an early bath, dismounting gear and packing up for the journey home while 3cm QSOs of 1000KM
were being achieved!
Maybe setup for May '07 starts on Thursday....
CCG 28 Oct 2006
