ARRL 10 METER CONTEST

[KC1SA]

Great job on the 10M setup. The beams are working great and the antenna switch is also very nice.

I do have few items of feedback from operating the 10M contest:
1)Some of the operators aren't capable of going in the backyard and rotating the beams. We should investigate a way to fit each beam with a rotor. Or another idea would be to setup one beam for each major direction (North, South, East, West) so they don't have to be rotated.
2)The headset was causing the radio to get stuck in transmit. John K1VDF suggested that it might be causing RF to get into the wires somewhere.
3)It would be nice for the club to purchase a really nice Heil Pro 7 headset (or similar) for contest use. Leaning over the table and speaking into the mic for a couple hours is not very comfortable. Its also hard to operate with guys hanging out and talking in the kitchen. I certainly don't want to discourage people from hanging out, but it is very distracting to the operator. Also, I noticed that some of our members suffer from hearing loss and a nice headset would help them hear better and without distractions from others in the room.
4)The footswitch was very nice to have during the sweepstakes. It would be nice to have this setup for future contests. We need a good way to keep it from moving around on the floor.
5)We need to get everyone better trained on using the N1MM+ software. For future contests, it would probably be helpful to have a training session on the same day as the contest setup. I'd also suggest that operators arrive early before their shift so they can get up to speed on the setup, see observe the previous operator, and ask questions if needed.

73,
Joe

All good suggestions.. We should document with pictures connections/cables and such needed for each radio and put in a notebook. Should be easy to do, perhaps an activity meeting?

Lots of fun today!

73,

Steve