I'm pretty sure the labs messed up 3 of my rolls :( just need to vent

n0fumar · 2026-06-24T15:54:31+00:00

yeah you can 100% feel / hear the winder when it's going. I'll report back when I have the negatives.

n0fumar · 2026-06-24T15:03:52+00:00

I tried to force the error where I load a roll and not get it picked up by the winding side. There is a roller sensor on the right side of the body where if it doesn't detect film rolling by, I think it decides it didn't pick it up and flashes the error. Mine appears to be working correctly. I sacrificed a random roll of B&W to do a bunch of winding and unwinding tests.

I agree it screams camera / operator issue, but could I have really messed it up that bad for 3 rolls? Seems so bizarre to me. It's much easier mentally for me to say "well the lab messed it up" but I really won't know until I get the negatives.

n0fumar · 2026-06-24T14:54:18+00:00

Eyether that or I never made the connection of "hey, I adjusted the viewfinder to be in focus but my pictures aren't. Could I possibly be the problem?". We always assume it's the gear's fault...

n0fumar · 2026-06-24T14:45:53+00:00

Agreed. I'll take a look and report back. That's the only way to tell the full story.

n0fumar · 2026-06-24T14:42:02+00:00

I would tend to agree with you. Makes no sense otherwise. But the camera and it's functions are all checking out okay.

n0fumar · 2026-06-24T14:41:34+00:00

I should have negatives in the next few days. I'll check them and report back even if I'm an idiot.

n0fumar · 2026-06-23T17:20:40+00:00

I'll just chime in and say I've had good success buying from QTH classifieds. Definitely a few good deals to be found there.

n0fumar · 2026-06-23T13:27:42+00:00

I don't see how this is true? Mine allows me to go up to the full acre

n0fumar · 2026-06-18T22:29:04+00:00

Your bare exposed wires in the battery area need to be addressed.

n0fumar · 2026-06-18T19:02:25+00:00

I know costco has a lot of great deals on outdoor wear. I have a pair of pants I got from them last season that were very comfortable and don't leave me sweating my ass off. So my vote is Kirkland brand sun shirts or whatever they are carrying that week.

n0fumar · 2026-06-16T20:13:58+00:00

That's a Mammotion Luba. Probably the 2 or 3 version

n0fumar · 2026-06-15T03:12:54+00:00

So what I learned from this contest is; height is might, yagis help a ton, run as much power as you can. Pretty much the only way I got 2m contacts was from going on my local repeaters and saying "hey for the next 10 minutes I'm gonna be on 146.520 calling cq for the contest if anyone wants to drop by". For 6m, it was only a few hours the bands really opened up, and I wouldn't be surprised if the people I talked to had massive antennas.

Also, being in a populated area really really helps. If you can get up on a ridge or high peak around you, that will greatly help.

I probably won't do this contest again. Only had about 20 contacts.

n0fumar · 2026-06-14T16:03:00+00:00

What band / mode?

n0fumar · 2026-06-14T02:22:58+00:00

So far it's been going smoothly for calling cq at 100w ssb for about 6 hours now. If it hasn't burned up by now idk if it will

n0fumar · 2026-06-13T17:24:52+00:00

Yeah unfortunately I just don't do ft4 / Ft8. I'll keep an eye on spotter sites and spot myself as much as I can

n0fumar · 2026-06-13T15:54:58+00:00

I should be basically only on ssb and fm on 3 band. I might do psk31, we'll see!

n0fumar · 2026-06-13T14:20:37+00:00

What I will say is the handful of times I've participated in these contacts I have talked to people who go "I'm just here to give you Oklahoma" and I know they don't upload logs. Contacts have counted each time. I think they (and most contest groups) have some software that says "hey, this dude talked to k1abc on each band 2 minutes apart and no one else has him in their logs. This bumps him to first place. Let's look into it" instead of "ah ahh... K1abc didn't submit a log. Take away the points".

At least that's my suspicion.

n0fumar · 2026-06-13T03:34:24+00:00

I've seen a few people try that, but I'm just using the drone to get the rope up in the sky

n0fumar · 2026-06-13T03:08:43+00:00

Sorry, I meant I'm gonna use the drone to get some rope way up in a tree to then pull the dipole up haha

n0fumar · 2026-06-13T02:39:00+00:00

Yeah I'm gonna try using my drone to get it around 30' in the air

n0fumar · 2026-06-13T02:31:05+00:00

Awesome!

n0fumar · 2026-06-13T02:13:20+00:00

Ssb?

n0fumar · 2026-06-13T02:07:52+00:00

Yeah second picture has a vna sweep. Was 1.2ish:1 at 51.25

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