Heathkit SB-610 on "Bones"

I got a chuckle out of the latest episode of "Bones" when they pull a receiver out to monitor a pirate radio broadcast, and it's actually a Heathkit SB-610 monitor scope:

Now that's a transformer!

Yesterday I drove up to K9YC's QTH to pick up a used Ten Tec Hercules amplifier. When I got home, I opened up the power supply to see how much trouble it would be to rewire the AC primary, and my, that's a big transformer (pen sitting on top for size reference).


One thing I forgot to do is swap out the AC line fuses when I re-wired the amp to run on 120 volts. It *will* draw more than 10 amps when run full tilt, and the manual specs a 20 amp fuse when running off 120.

Having said that, I don't have sufficient power in the shack to run the amp right now. I had a talk with an electrician about running 220 out to the shack, and it doesn't look too hard - run some SO cable, which is rated to be out in the elements, bring it to a junction box, and install a wall outlet.

CQWW CW 2009

I spent a little over 8 hours playing in the CQWW CW contest this weekend:

Band    QSOs    Pts  Cty   ZN
1.8        1      2    1    1
3.5       16     41    7    9
7         81    209   31   19
14        13     35    5    6
21        20     53   11   10
28         2      6    1    1
Total    133    346   56   46
Score: 35,292

Most of my operating was overnight, when the kids were in bed, but I did get to spend some time on 20, 15, and 10 during the day. I got six new countries, which brings my DXCC worked count to 114:

Barbados: 8P5A and 8P9SS
East Malaysia: 9M8YY
Costa Rica: TI5N
Mongolia: JT1C
Nigaragua: YN2GY
Grenada: J39BS

And, although this wasn't a new country for me, as I have it confirmed from 1977, I worked Senegal, 6W1RW on 40m.

I'm just amazed at how many of the stations along the east coast of Europe and Africa were able to copy my 100 watts and a dipole (Madeira Island, Canary Islands, Senegal, Galapagos Islands, Portugal)

Here's the complete list of all the different countries (34 total):

Alaska
Argentina
Aruba
Asiatic Russia
Barbados
Belize
Bonaire, Curacao (Neth. Antilles)
Brazil
British Virgin Is.
Canada
Canary Is.
Chile
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
East Malaysia
France
Galapagos Is.
Grenada
Hawaii
Jamaica
Japan
Madeira Is.
Martinique
Mexico
Mongolia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Portugal
Senegal
Turks & Caicos Is.
United States of America
Venezuela
Virgin Is.

ARRL Sweepstakes, SSB

This last weekend was the ARRL Phone Sweepstakes. I was hoping to get lucky and make 376 contacts to go with the 624 I had during the CW contest, to make an even 1,000. As the weekend approached, though, I realized that other obligations were going to turn the contest into an overnight operating event, with no daytime operation. Even if I was operating the whole time the kids were asleep, I'd still need to keep up a rate of 37 QSOs per hour, which is pretty tough for me.

As it turned out, I made exactly 200 QSOs, and got 57 sections, almost all on 40 and 80, plus a few when 20 opened in the AM:

Call: KM6I
Operator(s): KM6I
Station: KM6I

Class: SO Unlimited LP
QTH: Mountain View, CA
Operating Time (hrs): 9

Summary:
Band  QSOs
------------
160:    0
80:  127
40:   61
20:   12
15:    0
10:    0
------------
Total:  200  Sections = 57  Total Score = 22,800

Club: Northern California Contest Club

Comments:

K3 barefoot, G5RV inverted vee at 60 feet.

Family obligations kept this to an overnight effort.

I actually had a nice 20-minute run on 80, working mostly other NCCC members. And, for the first time, I had someone deliberately QRM me. How flattering! I thought I wasn't loud enough to be a target!

But listening to the recording, I have some opportunities to crispen up my phone contesting. I tend to say "QSL," "you are," and "number" when they aren't really necessary, and the pace of my recorded exchange seems positively glacial compared to some of the better operators. On the bright side, I read numbers correctly, giving each number individually, and can more or less type and talk at the same time.

So between the CW and Phone weekends, I contributed 122,640 points to the NCCC club score. This was an improvement of 96,994 points over my scores from last year (4.75 times as many points).

Another lucky night

Tonight I was tuning around 40m and found PZ5RA (Suriname) before the hordes descended.

QSO audio

This is DXCC #105 worked for me.

A nice DX night on 40 and 30 meters

Got XR0Y (Easter Island), 5W0NM (Samoa), and TX3A (Chesterfield Island) on 40m CW tonight, around midnight local time.

Here's the TX3A QSO: Audio

My Best Hour

Here's an audio recording of my best one-hour rate (39 QSOs, mostly S&P, 40 meters) in the 2009 CW SS. Sorry about the poor quality - I forgot to readjust the audio into the computer before I started recording at the beginning of the contest, and the audio is way too hot.




Listening to this, what strikes me is:

- How little traction I got calling CQ.
- How often I got an answer on my first S&P call.
- How lazy I was moving between S&P opportunities, or moving on after I didn't make it on the first call.

For SS SSB, which will probably be an all S&P effort on 40/80, I'd better keep moving faster.