January – first time out and just about
everything went well until I jumped out of the car to turn the antenna and
walked straight into the horizontal pole on the roof-rack!! Fortunately the glasses survived although the
log sheets have blood stains. So first
lesson – try things out close to home so you can get rescued (or call an
ambulance) if necessary. I ended up with
50 contacts, 28 multipliers and 10th position – not a bad start.
February / March – icy, slippy and
cold. I’ve always owned cold weather kit
but make sure you are prepared. It’s
surprising how much cooler and windier it can be at the top of a hill so wear
layers and waterproofs and a good warm hat. Feb - 54 contacts, 26 multipliers, 7th place
March – After February’s contest I was unhappy tuning
speed of the IC706, you just can’t get up and down the band to search and
pounce. So I pulled the original HGT
system out of the loft: IC735 and a homebrew transverter. Side by side with the 706, receive
performance on a weak GB3VHF beacon was very similar and a good 10W output
available on transmit. However, for the
March contest, things were not quite right with horribly distorted locals being
received. I was able to get the transverter
onto some good test kit at work revealing an oscillating input amplifier. A quick re-build was required to calm down
the BF981. While sorting the preamp, I
also noticed a 5V regulator was getting very hot and this was being caused by a
20 year old tantalum capacitor failing short circuit. The regulator was preventing the tant from
getting enough energy to go bang and was still outputting 5V. Third lesson – check your kit properly at
home before going out portable!! March - 59/32/5th
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