It was time to get on the air. A convenient UKAC 2m contest was later in the day and first hand experience had shown that 100W really does not cut it from IO84. It nearly didn't happen because of storm Barra, which raced across 'WGV-land at a rate of knots during the afternoon, forcing me to luff my tower over. As the 8pm start time approached thing seemed to be calming down, so I decided to risk raising the tower and give it a try.
Yes, definitely an improvement. Conditions were pretty flat but QSOs were easier to come by and with less waiting around while all the other stronger stations made it ahead of me. A total of 25 QSOs was a bit better than I have managed in the past but importantly almost everyone I called I was able to make a QSO with and I even got a few replies to my CQs that hasn't really happened before.
A few minor problems emerged. The lash-up arrangement meant that RF was getting into places it shouldn't, making monitoring of power output and SWR difficult. I already knew that I would have to write software to perform peak hold/slow decay functions on the various meters and the contest proved that emphatically.
Post contest I have spent some time on the peak hold/decay software and that is now more or less working. I've probably reached the point at which I need to put more effort into the hardware, completing the front and rear panels and getting the amplifier into its case. Why do I always end up doing these projects in mid winter when the garage is more appropriately a place for the car to live in rather than a freezing cold workshop?
Generally the software is now usable but working on that is a lot more warm and comfortable so no doubt that will continue. I know I have to fix some RF ingress issues and the heatsink temperature monitor is not reading correctly but those are (probably) minor issues.
Drilling big holes for fans is next I think.
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