Here I am sitting near Carraig Fhada Lighthouse (Port Ellen) with the 'singing sands' in the background. I'm out in the open and it's about 22:30BST. I'm using WinTest for logging and the light from the screen was enough to see the keyboard by (just). The midges were biting as there was so little wind, but other than that the conditions were perfect.
Here you can see the Elecraft K2/100 sitting on the trolley I used to get the battery up to this vantage point. The case I use for the carrying the K2 helped bring it up to a convenient level. Out of sight is my WinKey USB and taped to the trolley handle is my LDG Z11 pro and Elecraft BL2 switchable balun. You can just see the 300 Ohm feeder (bottom left) going to a doublet mounted on a 10m fishing pole behind me.
It wasn't all plain sailing though as Murphy visited the station just before the start of the contest. I had been in the K2 menus configuring the PA fan to run on HI continuously and accidentally changed an adjacent menu entry. The result was that there was no sidetone and no rig control! Luckily I had brought a small laminated manual (Nifty K2 manual) and after 20 mins of reading was able to return the K2 to full operation...phew!
There seemed to be a distinct lack of UK stations on air, as when I did find one they were LOUD. I can only imagine that the brilliant weather proved too much for most UK hams to stay indoors for the contest.
No comments:
Post a Comment