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| Looks like a CW contest...nope pileup for CY0S |
The other day I was checking DX Heat cluster and saw CY0S was operating on 40m at 7.005. This time unlike on 15m and 20m I could hear them very well. I put the rig into split doubling checking as I did not want to repeat my Murphy moment of the recent past of transmitting on their call frequency. BUT Murphy did show up
again.....The pileups on 15m and 20m have been huge but this morning on 40m it was almost vacant of callers. It was easy to follow his calling pattern in the pileup. I kept dropping my call but nothing! I tried with no word of a lie for 20 minutes and at times CY0S faded in and out. I thought I was losing a good opportunity to get them in the log. |
| CY0S pileup on 40m I was very lucky |
All of a sudden my Murphy moment occurred to me...yesterday I was adjusting my 9A5N solid-state paddle. I turned the power to ZERO as I tested the paddle and the freaking power was still at ZERO!! Turned up the power to 100 watts and on the first call I was in the log! Murphy had blinded me and I did not notice the 7610's very large power meter sitting at ZERO for 20 minutes! Oh well, I had a good laugh and entered my prize in the log.
6 comments:
Now that's a QRPppp effort!
How do you like the 9A5N paddles, Mike? I've had mine about 3 weeks now - man, they're heavy, aren't they?
73,
John
Good morning John very nice to hear from you, yes the 9A5N paddles are heavy and in one of your posts I saw it on a POTA activation. I sure would not want to be hauling it around on outdoor adventures. I do find it does not wander on the desk while operating due to it being heavy. Do I like the paddles..yes and no? Yes due to the weight and its stability on the desk as I am a bit heavy on the dits and dahs. Very well constructed, the battery life is very long and easy to adjust the sensitivity of the paddles. The no part has nothing to do with the paddles I believe just has to do with me. I have had a very hard time getting used to the "touch" aspect of the paddles. With spring or magnetic paddles I would rest my fingertips on the paddle fingers. This habit has plagued me with the touch paddles. At times I inadvertently send dits or dahs. Have to make sure you remove your fingers from the paddle after you have done a letter or when composing a letter or you will send a new and inventive letter (confusing those on the receiving end). One thing I found is as my speed increases I have to adjust the sensitivity of the paddle for a lighter touch but if too light dits go missing as I don't touch with enough force. So this whole touch thing has been frustrating. The only other issue was because it's electronic and at the time I was using my EndFed antenna and RFI was affecting the paddles. A toroid on the cable from the rig to the paddles fixed that.
Hope that was not to long winded,
73,
Mike
VE9KK
There is a learning curve, alright. My problem is that I need to use the paddles consistently - I keep switching between the new and the old paddles. If I can do that, I know I'll find the sweet spot between sensitivity settings and how to manipulate them. The lack of any movement at all feels a bit weird, totally unlike any paddles I've ever used!
No problems yet with RF feedback.
73,
John
These are a very well made paddles and I do as you said have to use them consistently or I find myself out of the groove. No movement and no clicking of contacts does take some getting used too.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
Hello Mike, Your new Blog VE9KK is finally in my the list of Blog's. Thanks for informing me. I had to re-discover how to add a new Blog in my list. Hi. 73, Bert
Good afternoon Bert and very nice to hear from you, glad to have you back.
73,
Mike
VE9KK
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