NAQP RTTY from Floyd County

Had a very limited time to operate the NAQP RTTY, due to other commitments in the evening.

During the IARU, my K2/100 had been acting up with an INFO 080 problem. I attempted to diagnose the issue further on Saturday morning, but no dice. I remove several boards, replacing them with Rework Eliminators, but the rig just seemed to get sicker. It refused to recognize the KPA100 at all, and even with it disconnected, the radio didn't sound right, and gave "not instd" on several options that were still installed. My K2/100 is a very sick radio right now.

So, I had to fall back on the venerable Kenwood TS-430S. I bought this rig new in the fall of 1985, and it has always given me reliable service. It was never designed for RTTY or computer control. (That being the role of it's successor, the TS-440S) But, an old rig is better than no rig, despite having to manually change bands in the logging software.

It was great to hear signals on 10m, and 15m open as well. Had a lot of fun S & Ping between stations. I tried several times to CQ on 20 and 15m, but only one station answered me. A few people I tried to answer CQed in my face. As a result, I'm contemplating moving the R7000 further up the hill, or perhaps hanging up some real antennas.

It seemed like conditions were generally good, just not a tremendous amount of activity. Still, plenty of fun. CU in the next NAQP.


Class: Single Op LP
QTH: GA
Operating Time (hrs): 3.2

Summary:
Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  80:   0      0
  40:   1      1
  20:  33     21
  15:  21     19
  10:  12      7
-------------------
Total:  77     48  Total Score = 3,696

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:

Antennas:
R7000 at 3m high (10-40m)
80/40m trap dipole at 3-4m high (80m, 40m)

Equipment:
Venerable Kenwood TS-430S w/ AT-250 running 75-80 watts

IARU 2012

I had set up the K2/100 the night before and everything appeared to be working fine. Got into the shack just after 1200z, and when I went to change the antenna connection, it got a "not instd"response. It was pretty evident that the K2/100 is not talking to the KAT100. Tried switching the cable, turning the system on and off many times, still the same thing.

Soon I'm getting an INFO 080 error, which every K2 owner knows means that the main microcontroller can't talk to the other microcontrollers in the rig.

30 minutes into this, I still haven't worked a contact. It's clear that I have no clue what is wrong with the K2, so I go with plan B -- the venerable TS-430S. I bought this rig in the fall of 1985, just before Kenwood came out with the TS-440S. It's served me quite well. No computer control, though, so every band change is a manual event.

Worked about 5 hours, off and on. Conditions were OK. A bit sparse on 10m. 15m sounded good. I'm thinking I need a better antenna than the R7000. There were a couple of HQ stations who couldn't really hear me. Definitely more of a struggle to make contacts on phone than CW.

Operating Time (hrs): 5

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Zones  HQ Mults
-------------------------------------
  160:    0      0      0       0
   80:    0      0      0       0
   40:    0      0      0       0
   20:   29      5      6       9
   15:   48     17     11      11
   10:    6      1      2       1
-------------------------------------
Total:   83     23     19      21  Total Score = 10,240

Club: South East Contest Club

Comments:

Antennas:
R7000 at 3m high (10-40m)

Equipment:
Venerable TS-430S w/ AT-250 running 100 watts