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Dear all - thanks for all the comments and reports chaps - and lack of them is as much of interest too/ I didnt expect much given conditions are a little early on all paths, and the Alaskan ionosphere is still a little hot, but looks like I had success down to BC (Jack) and across the Pacific perhaps.
XPQ went off at 1333z after an overnight run at >1Kw constant carrier -
The good news is I think Ive discovered the problem with one bolt joint on a feedthru and will investigate further it doesn't look like the Brass is the only culprit. Using an IR/laser sighted gun I measured the temps of the components as best I can and can localize temps to a few mm
Its around -15C out there at present in air with low humidity - Loop current 60A which is good. The "hottest" component, apart from the joint, is the 2T:13T transformer at just 9C ! All the current sharing caps are cold and around 1C - power and ERP held within 0.5dB and phase was maintained as far as I can see.
I dont have a (safe) or effective alternative for a Tx antennae here - Verticals just dont work as well in a Alaskan Birch/Spruce forest and the loop is easier, has less potential wx/tuning issues and more stable by far here in this bespoke location. This loop configuration is the same as XDW but my geographic and topological environment is very very different to Oklahoma! Still Im very happy that we can continue the tests as we move into the winter - time will tell.
Im building a doubler and interface board for the TS850 at present to provide a locked reference, The TS870 had already been modified for WOLF tests with John XES way back when - Ive been using the FT817 as the transverter source and even with the TXCO is just good, or bad, enough after a long warm up of dot 60 using it at 5.136MHz, but its sort of a guess and tweek on where the freq will actually go stable. For last nights test the Freq source was a GPS referenced HP3336B driving the Decca 5501 directly. Heatsink temps on the 3 Decca modules were around 30C, LPF inductors 37C, though I had the phase meter on top of the LPF vents so this temp should have been a little lower.
expect more playing with modes soon - Ill probably take a run at Opera 32 tonight (using the FT817 as the drive) but will be likely off air on the 24th for the SAQ test.
Laurence KL 1 X WE2 XPQ Wasilla AK
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