10 June 2000
On Thursday 01 June, I discovered how powerful a prop pitch gearbox is... I set up my station before going to work, so that I could come home at lunch time to work OX2K. When I got home the dish was pointing a different direction to where I had left it and the azimuth drive was running continuously. I soon discovered that the dish had rotated as far as it could before running out of free cable. The smaller cables were broken and the larger coaxial cables were badly damaged and in the process of having their connectors pulled off.
It took several hours working up a ladder by floodlight to repair the damage, which included shortening the feeder cables and joining the broken control cables. Everything appeared to work after the repairs, but I was unable to test the system until the weekend. Fortunately, no other damage had been done and all that was required was re calibration of the az/el indication.
I was active for most of the weekend and everything worked great from the start... my log looks like this:
03 June
OK1CA (549/559), JA6CZD (559/579)# 99, HB9BBD (59/56) ssb - amazing signal like tropo !!, OX2K (559/569)# 100, GW3XYW (559/559), F5PAU (559/559), K0YW/5 (569/559) same as K5JL, OX2K (57/57) ssb, W5ORH (569/569)# 101, W7SZ (539/549), SM2CEW (559/559), K2UYH (53/55) ssb, G3LTF (54/54) ssb, W7QX (529/439), K3AX (529/549), HA5SHF (529/559)# 102, PA3DZL (429/449) # 103.
04 June
JA4BLC (539/559)# 103 (initial #68 void), JF3HUC (539/549)# 104, GW3XYW ssb, ZS6AXT (549/569), G4DZU (549/559), K2UYH (55/55) ssb, G4DZU (53/53) ssb and very easy !!, W7CS (529/549)# 104, LU8EDR (529/559) same as LW5DX ??, W1ZX (559/559), VE6TA (539/559)# 106, F5CGJ (569/559), HB9Q (559/559) # 107, W7GBI (549/559), W2UHI (559/559).
08 June
OZ6OL (559/569), CT1DMK (549/549)# 108.
10 June
IK2RTI (539/539)# 109, OH2DG (549/559)# 110, K5JL (569/569), K4QI (559/559), OZ6OL( 549/559).
I have had QSO's with LU8EDR, LW5DX, and LU4DHD, can someone tell me if these count as separate stations or do they operate from the same station.
During the last two activity weekend I have increased my total initials by 26!! bringing my totals to 110 Initials, 27 Countries, 6 Continents and 18 US States.
I am for the first time in the situation that I have a backlog of QSL's to send out... I will try and clear this before the next activity weekend in July. Also, if anyone prior to May 2000 needs a QSL from me... sorry, and please E Mail me at howard.ling@g4cch.co.uk
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