ARRL RTTY Roundup
Call: K4VU
Operator(s): K4VU
Station: K4VU
Class: Single Op LP
QTH: The Alabana Republic
Operating Time (hrs):
Summary:
Band QSOs
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80: 17
40: 25
20: 51
15: 50
10: 22
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Total: 165 State/Prov = 42 Countries = 14 Total Score = 9,240
Club:
Comments:
my first real RTTY contest just turned out to be a nasty, bug-ridden weekend:
+ the new antennas were blowing away every television in the house on 15, 40 and
80 meters, so had to resort to using the existing 'Crap-O-Wire 100' (100 feet of
crappy wire at 25 feet through a tuner) -- which suddenly decided to not want to
cooperate. it was a struggle just to get a reasonable match. spent an hour
chasing down a new ground for it.
+ the computer kept locking up whenever i would key on 20 or 10. it had never
done that before, so spent a couple of hours chasing that. i had just replaced
the mouse with a new logitech, and on a whim, plugged the old one back in. the
problem went away.
+ of course, i didn't take the sage advice from other contesters and tried to
learn/configure the N1MM Logger two hours before the contest (big mistake). it
had been a busy week, so i just kept putting it off until the last minute. it
was well into the weekend before i had all of the configuration bugs worked out,
and felt comfortable piddling with all of the settings. but tell you what, the
N1MM gig is da bomb!!! it only crashed once (prolly due to my configuration
issues), though the MMTTY receive decoder did stop a few times for no apparent
reason (again, i suspect the logitech mouse for some reason). much respect to
N1MM and his crew for all of the work they put into that dandy little piece of
code. i'll be using it again for sure.
+ my AFSK output audio was continually distorted, regardless of what i tried to
do to remedy it. even more confounding was that it distorted even when the ALC
was flat and the compressor was turned off. so i spent the better part of
saturday night tweaking MMTTY, mic gain on the icom, my soundcard and the MFJ
interface. when i finally thought i had it fixed, i noticed that i was only
putting out 10 watts! increasing the audio at any stage in the chain -- even by
just a small margin -- brought back the distortion. still trying to track down
that issue.
+ no ssb filters in my rig (only cw -- i don't really do phone), so had to deal
with all of the desensing issues associated with that.
+ disappointed my fiance, who just got her ticket and was really looking forward
to working a multiop with me, and learning first-hand about contests. instead,
she had to listen to me fuss at uncooperative inanimate objects for most of the
weekend.
but it wasn't a total loss. when things were working correctly, it was a lot of
fun -- and i discovered a new mode to work with. i feel pretty comfortable with
the N1MM program, and discovered that my fiance was actually interested in
contesting -- not just going along with it to make me happy.
lessons learned:
1. when you make changes to your station, check out every nook and cranny for
performance issues and possible environmental impact (read: RFI).
2. listen to others who have been there. the N1MM software is awesome, but i
figured since i was a pretty smart software engineer, i could just pick it up on
the fly. not a chance, and i was duly warned. there's a bit of a learning
curve and a lot of tweaking to do -- but it's well worth the time and effort.
3. when using a digital mode that you've barely touched before, take the time to
make sure that you've worked out all of the bugs in your setup before the
contest starts. Plug'n Play is only for MS Windows (and that concept itself is
still largely contested there).
4. don't be such a cw snob that you won't 'lower' yourself to buying an SSB
filter for the rig. you never can tell when it might come in handy.
5. oh yes, and try to always keep your promises to your fiance. believe it or
not, she was really disappointed at not getting to try out the contest. now i'm
prolly gonna have to fork out some cash for a trip to PZ or somewhere, just to
make it up to her.
73/robin/k4vu
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