Hello again es welcome from a pleasantly warm Crete where the temperature today hovers around the 33C mark. [July 1st – Ed] Well, the tourists continue to invade and the locals continue to serve them cool drinks and Raki.
So, I guess that you’ve all seen these ‘Happy Train’ things that run round holiday resorts and other such places. You know the sort of thing, an ‘engine’ followed by two or three ‘carriages’ full of happy holiday makers. The local one is in Elounda and runs to Plaka, then up the hill to us where it stops and the folk on board wander round the Church.
Recently we passed the train as it was coming up the hill and when we stopped outside our house and had just about finished unloading all the shopping, the train went past. As usual all the people waved but the person sitting at the very back of the last carriage shouted out that she would pop round on the way back! This turned out to be a friend of the wife’s’ whom she went to Greek Classes with.
Around 20 minutes later the empty train pulls up near the house. This is normal while he sits and waits for his passengers to return. Seeing this, the XYL wanders out and up to the Church to see her friend.
They chat. The XYL says “Come back to the house as you have not yet seen the garden”
Her friend says “Ok”. On hearing this, the rest of the trains’ passengers assume that the invite is for them as well!
I am upstairs on the rig and just about to call someone on 18Mc/s when I hear the front door open and hear several voices. In fact, more than several voices! By the time I have wandered downstairs the back balcony, the steps down to the garden and the lounge are full of strange people including the ‘courier’ lady who ushers everyone round!
After a short while, enough time for everyone to get a good view of the garden and all the downstairs rooms, they file out and get back on the train. Everyone was very pleasant and thanked us profusely for letting them see how we live out here. Most were from the UK but there were a couple from the US and a chap from Queensland who wanted to know all out our folding anti-mossy screens.
I tell you – It is the last time I ever let the XYL out of the house on her own!
Following on from my comment last month about the Max 25-NF power supply, the full story is this: When I returned from the UK, prior to receiving the 590, I used the new power supply to run the 735 in a contest one Sunday morning. The XYL commented that even from downstairs, it sounded like it was trying to take off! I did not hear it as much as I was under the headphones but have since re-instated the SEC-1223 to powering the rig and demoted the 25-NF to powering the CG-3000 auto-ATU. As this only takes about 750 mA while tuning, I thought the 25-NF could just about cope with this without creating a fuss.
However, I was wrong!
Avid readers of the LEFARS Magazine will recall that back in 2006 I wrote about another W&S power supply that gave me similar problems, especially with fan noise. This new PSU has the same problems.
After three days of the fan whirring away while just supplying very low current to the auto-ATU, I could take it no more and opened up said supply and removed the wires for the fan. Now, before anyone jumps up and down, if the 25-NF power supply, rated at 22 amps continuous, cannot supply 750 mA once in a while without trying to spin itself off the desk, then it should not really be on the market.
Looking back through the Club magazines to the Winter 2009/2010 edition, I see on page 37 that Richard, 2E0XRS, used to use a similar one. I wonder if he had the same problem, even though he was running QRP?
Update: I hear someone else has also had similar problems. His answer is to turn the beast on and off a few times and then the fan seems to behave itself. (Sri but have lost the email with name and call!)
It pays to keep checking! If I work a Russian on CW, especially during a contest, obviously there is no time to ask for their RDA and so I keep a simple spreadsheet of Russian calls worked along with a space for the relevant district. When I go down to the I/net Cafe I can look up their RDAs (http://rdaward.org) and add them to my claim. However, not all calls are listed and so sometimes I draw a blank.
This is not really a problem as when the QSL card arrives, it will have the RDA on it but I keep the calls in the spreadsheet as every so often I re-check them. This past month I have ‘found’ three new Districts as the stations RDA info has only recently been added. One of these QSOs was over 2 years ago, so it pays to keep on checking!
This past month has been busy for us as, amongst other things, we have attended out first Greek Wedding out here. This was the wedding of George, SV9DJO, as was totally different from any other wedding we have attended. Not just the service but the ‘reception’ afterwards where we left at 2.00am but others we know stayed ‘til well past 4 o’clock! It seemed that half of the SV9 Club were there which made it even more ‘fun’.
That’s about it for now. I will now go and help to get the Greek economy out of its mess by ordering another beer. The extra tax revenue is bound to help . . .
Yammas.
Dick. SVØXBN/9.
1 Response to Cretan Blog – July 2011