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<font size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman">Hi Dave:<br>
<br>
I worked you, or the other "N9FN-Dave" on 80 CW about 2300Z!
Thanks for the only MERCer county contact!<br>
<br>
"Testing things out before hitting the road?" You gotta be
kidding! :)<br>
<br>
In earlier daze of my ham radio career, I'd put everything
together, including a 50' mast and wire beam, which I could
erect myself, figure out the settings on the transmatch, make
sure there weren't any glitches in the equipment, take along
duplicates (or triplicates) of everything possible, etc.<br>
<br>
Now, I have a couple of "go boxes" and a list of other
components, which I throw in the automobubble, filler up with
petrol, and trundle off. <br>
<br>
</font></font><font size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman">This
included a backup on everything except main rig. In the
extreme, if my trusty 1984-ish Drake TR-5 failed (which is has
never done in its 25+ years of operation), I had an itty bitty
QRP rig which operated on 40/30/20 metres, with which I could
have made enough contacts to qualify for a "new record" in QRP
for HENRy county.</font></font><br>
<font size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman"><br>
</font></font><font size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman">The
J-38 was the backup for keying. It has never failed me in some
59 years of hamming. The second backup would have been a couple
wires, contacted together with my fingers to make "almost
acceptable code". I've used to emulate a key if I was just
testing something and didn't have the J-38 handy. :)</font></font><br>
<br>
<font size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman">I forgot to say that I
gave away my very simple but working keying circuit, a couple
years ago when I visited a friend and used his rig and setup for
another effort @ OQP. The circuit is so simple I never figured
it would give me a problem. two resistors and a transistor -
optional couple of diodes...... I've thrown this one together
numerous times and it always worked, unless I screwed up the
(very simple wiring.)<br>
<br>
So in the true spirit of an old bumble-brain geezers ham, </font></font><font
size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman">I put the keying circuit
together in the motel in Napoleon on Friday night. Testing
could wait until Saturday morning! Switching to the J-38 wasn't
really traumatic - I know it works! :)</font></font><font
size="+1"><font face="Times New Roman"><br>
<br>
Anyway, I had fun! Was delighted with the venue @ McClure. The
Village park is exceptional operating as a portable station!
The mayor was a ham in the 60's or 70's (I forget which), with a
novice license which he didn't upgrade before it expired. The
RF environment was great - no man made noise on 80/40/20 metres,
at least not enough to drown out the normal atmospherics. If
anyone has a hankering to activate HENRy county again, contact
the mayor, I'm sure you can get permission to do so.<br>
<br>
73 de n8xx Hg<br>
</font></font><br>
On 8/31/2010 9:36 PM, David Bunte wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:COL108-W32706035AA0535C71EEDE8A08B0@phx.gbl"
type="cite">
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<br>
Bummer about your computer not keying the rig... was it working
properly when you tested things out before hitting the road?<br>
<br>
Did you make the trip without backup hardware?<br>
<br>
<snip><br>
</blockquote>
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