07/20/2005 | NU1AW/3 W9ZRX IARU Odyssey


My IARU odyssey began in March with a phone call from Tim, K3LR asking me to help operate 80M and put together an Internet Link between NU1AW/3s 15 & 20M CW Stations at Penn State University, and the balance of the operation at the K3LR campus. Id set up such a link two years ago for his W1AW/3 operation using Dave, K1TTTs WinTelnetX software, so it would be easy to duplicate. The only problem was that my xyl and I were going to be in Maggie Valley, North Carolina at the time of the IARU Contest! Leaving my xyl, Diane stranded 2000 feet up the mountain without a car for 5 days was obviously not an option! So airline, hotel, and rental car reservations were made way back in March.

Experience has shown the only way to reduce the rate at which my hair turns gray (and continues to leave with the comb) is to supply all of the computer equipment. The computers bound for Penn State had to be tested before we left for North Carolina in June. To insure they arrived in one piece, I did not want to entrust them to the tender mercies of UPS or FedEx. So Tim and I worked out a plan to ferry the computer equipment to the Dayton Hamvention and then, with the help of Joe, W3JTV, move it on to Tims QTH in western Pennsylvania for pre-positioning. That meant the PCs had to be tested in late April and packed in early May. Fortunately with the help of Scott, N3RA firing up K3LRs 20M RUN PC, and access to the Penn State Dialup Server, a complete Network Check was run in early May so all of the Penn State equipment could be boxed with a high degree of confidence.

On 6 July my xyl drove me to the Asheville Regional Airport for a flight to Charlotte, NC, and on to Pittsburgh, PA. I rented a car and drove to Tims QTH in West Middlesex, PA to pick up the pre-positioned PCs and turn on the Router and 20 RUN PC. From there I drove on to State College, PA.

Of course the very first thing I did after settling in the motel in State College was to seek out the staples of life Diet Pepsi and Double-Stuff Oreos. I also needed a cheap cooler to ice down the Diet Pepsis, so my first stop for all these essentials of life was the nearby Wally-World. While walking the aisles I got a call on my cell phone from Frank, W3LPL. He had taken a second lightning strike in a couple of weeks and this one took out another Cable Modem and the Ethernet Port on his Clusters Motherboard. The backup Cluster PC Id built was on-line and working, but some of the software needed to be setup and updated after I returned to the motel. Then while I was eating dinner, John, AD8J called with another lightning-related problem to the Cable Modem and Router that links the AD8J Cluster. Fortunately the motel room had High-Speed Wireless Internet. I was able to get AD8J going pretty quickly. The W3LPL issue was easy as well, but we went ahead and updated the PC and ended up taking to 11:30PM. I was glad this happened there rather than in North Carolina where we all we had was Dialup!

The next morning I met Dr. Jim Breakall, WA3FET for breakfast and we then drove to the Penn State Club, K3CR operating site in the country. Later Alex, LZ4AX who was the NU1AW/3 20M CW Operator, joined us. You can see the pile of equipment and cables (except the monitor!) that was unboxed and ready for installation and the ever-present Diet Pepsi.

Jim and Alex cleaned off the operating table and made room for the extra rig and the extra computers. All of the connections went quite smoothly and we were essentially ready to go before noon. Jim had a crew of students climbing to relocate some wire antennas, so we left and to get submarine sandwiches for everyone. When we returned, Scott, N3RA went to K3LRs where we performed a full-up test to verify that we could pass SPOTS and GAB between the two sites.

Because of electrical storms in the area, the equipment was disconnected once tested. Once the link was reestablished an hour before the start of the Contest, it never dropped once.

I wanted to make sure I got a picture of Alex at the 20M position. Unfortunately W2RQ, NU1AW/3s 15M CW Operator didnt come down until Saturday do I dont have a picture of Bill.

After taking all of the photos, I was ready for the drive back to West Middlesex. Everyone agreed it would be quicker to route me to I-80 on back country roads, but no one thought I could remember the complicated directions! I said let Delorme, my laptop, and GPS route me and sure enough it picked their backcountry route. The only trouble was that Delorme doesnt seem to give VERBAL directions if the Route starts with a Start Point designated by the START TOOL only when the Start Point is a specific Address. So I had to watch the laptop display closely for all of the turns to different back roads! And after all of that, when I got back on the US Highway that I knew led to I-80, and was speeding along congratulating myself on the computer navigation, I got to a town that decided to pave its streets at RUSH HOUR. Traffic was backed up for MILES. I could probably had driven via Philadelphia just as quickly!

Tim and I had planned on setting up the station starting early on Thursday evening. About the time I was going to call Tim to say Id be late, Tim called to say the Dallas Airport had temporarily suspended operations due to lightning! So in the long run we arrived at about the same time. Scott, N3RA had already connected all of the PCs so we had a leg up. I began loading the PCs with latest versions of CT.EXE, CTY.DAT and MASTER.DTA. After I finished with a PC, Tim hooked up the IC-781 and verified the PC / 781 Interface was operational. This went pretty easily I think only one CT-17 needed repair.

What caused Tim the most grief, which seems par for the course before every Contest, were the TIC-Ring Rotators. Just a little electrical damage 3-747 Op-Amps, a bunch of Tantalum Caps, a couple of Pots, and heaven only knows how much tower work to get the gears properly meshed so the indicators would work smoothly. Surely these are creations of the Devil!

But by a miracle, come Friday evening, everything was ready to rumble. Dave NN1N, Greg K8GL, Mike W9RE, and Pat N9RV arrived and we went for a traditional feast at one of Tims favorite hangouts - the Quaker Steak and Lube. This Lube features a variety of Wing seasonings some of which have been known to result in extended lubrication on an undesirable kind as our 40M team of NN1N and K8GL learned!

The next morning Phil, K3UA and George, N3GJ joined us with N3RA making an appearance about noon. Not being used to being awake at 8:00AM, and looking through bleary eyes, yours truly tried to jump start the Contest. Fortunately Tim was close at hand to whack me on the back of the head! The Contest went remarkably smooth. There were no fires, no one died heck not even one good high voltage arc! 24 hours later, Tim got donuts for everyone so we could end the Contest with a good sugar fix.

After a quick group picture, everyone cleaned up and was on their way. I drove down to Pittsburgh and caught a flight to Charlotte, and then back to Asheville where I actually arrived a few minutes early. Diane and I had joked when this trip was planned that nothing can go wrong . can go wrong . can go wrong. But it was kind of important that I get back that afternoon because it was our 40th Wedding Anniversary! Only a special kind of woman would have pulled ropes, occasionally climbed, and put up with this sort of thing for 40 years. -- W9ZRX