Nice openings on 6, 4 & 2 m with new ones

Early start this morning with the first QSO on 4 m at 7:30z into the Balkans. Beaming East 6 m provided interesting QSOs and new squares with UN7DAT/NO00 and RD6AK/KN85. I doubt that the latter is legal but as always: WFWL – work first, worry later. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Two opened to Greece around 9:30z and I was very lucky to catch Erwin, DK5EW, on his DXpedition for a rare new square (unfortunately I missed him in the other ones). A bit later we had another brief opening, this time to UA6:

------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME   CALLSIGN      LOCATOR   TX    RX   BAND   MODE   PROP.  QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
09:27  SV1CEV        KM17UW   -09   +02   2 m.   FT8    ES    1846
09:29  SV9/DK5EW     KM15WL   -17   +02   2 m.   FT8    ES    2109
09:35  SV9CJO        KM25FI   +05   +09   2 m.   FT8    ES    2139
09:37  SV1DNU        KM18VB   -15   -10   2 m.   FT8    ES    1835
------------------------------------------------------------------
11:02  UC6A          KN84PV   +08   +06   2 m.   FT8    ES    1906
11:04  R6AS          KN85TC   +17   +04   2 m.   FT8    ES    1913
11:07  R6BY          KN84PV   -04   +10   2 m.   FT8    ES    1906
------------------------------------------------------------------

Have been heard in UA3 and IT9, too! While the latter might well have been ES (the band was open to the South) I suppose the first was rather MS.

Carribean on 6 m with ZF1EJ as a new one around 13:30z, plus HI8 (FK58) added to the mix. Some more 4 m in between (EI, GM, OH) and a short 6 m opening to the U.S. around 15:30z providing EN91, FM17, FM19 squares.

Posted in DX, Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF | Comments Off on Nice openings on 6, 4 & 2 m with new ones

First 2 m ES for me this year

Four was open all afternoon. Two opened just briefly over here, good enough to work EA5BY (whom I had just worked on 4 m, too,ย  half an hour ago):

------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME   CALLSIGN      LOCATOR   TX    RX   BAND   MODE   PROP.  QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
14:50  EA5BY         IM98PG   +17   +17   2 m.   FT8    ES    2013
------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted in Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF | Comments Off on First 2 m ES for me this year

CQ WPX CW ’22

Another WPX-CW is in the books … 10 m of course, what else? ๐Ÿ˜‰ Condx worse than during the last few years, just not as much Sporadic-E this time. Thus also not that much DX although we had some multi-hop ES (or maybe ES + F2) to North America Sunday evening. But all very spotty. Else the typical southern path’ which all needed some ES to link in, too.

                 CQWPXCW Summary Sheet

    CallSign Used : DH8BQA

Operator Category : SINGLE-OP
Assisted Category : ASSISTED
             Band : 10M
            Power : HIGH
             Mode : CW
       Gridsquare : JO73CE

        Club/Team : Bavarian Contest Club
         Software : N1MM Logger+ 1.0.9546.0

        Band     QSOs     Pts  WPX  Pt/Q
          28     477     859  324   1,8
       Total     477     859  324   1,8

            Score : 278.316

              Rig : Flex-6600 + PA
         Antennas : 6 ele OWA Yagi @ 60 ft.
Posted in Contesting | Comments Off on CQ WPX CW ’22

3D2R – Rotuma as ATNO & a good 6 m opening

Worked DPร˜GVN, the German Antarctica base station, on 10 m today. Also caught the Rotuma expedition 3D2RRR as an All Time New One on a few HF slots. 6 m opened via multi-hop ES this afternoon, too, providing several stations from 5B4 (KM64/65), 9K2 (LL48/49), A71 (LL55) and HZ (LL25). But the icing on the cake was finally working 7Q7CT (KH66) for a new one! ๐Ÿ˜Ž

Posted in DX, Propagation, Sporadic E | Comments Off on 3D2R – Rotuma as ATNO & a good 6 m opening

First 4 m ES opening this year

Seems like a late start on 4 m this year, at least for me. While I usually work the first 4 m Sporadic-E opening early May, sometimes even at the end of April already, it’s been the end of May this year. Band has been open to EA2 (IN82/83) shortly around 18z today.

Posted in Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF | Comments Off on First 4 m ES opening this year

Midnight Longpath on 10 m

Upper band HF condx have been quite good recently. I was able to catch DPร˜POL/mm off the coast of South America on 10 m CW late this afternoon. But the real surprise was seeing a late night long path opening to VK/ZL during the last 1,5 hours (it’s just midnight local time over here), probably enhanced by some Sporadic-E. Great to work a bunch of VKs plus ZL4TT and had a nice chat with VK4DO on SSB with 59 signals both ways. ๐Ÿ˜Ž

Posted in DX, Propagation | Comments Off on Midnight Longpath on 10 m

May VHF & a few NODERED dashboards

Another VHF contest. Again not too motivated to operate but brought the special event call DM60UEA (60 years of Amateur Radio in Angermรผnde) onto the air on 2 m & 70 cm. Made about 250 QSOs, people had difficulties with the call even if we were CQing. Oh well …

I spent most of the time not on the radio but rather programming NODERED. I had set up a Raspberry Pi as a NODERED server and now programmed a few dashboards to make it possible to remotely rotate all our antennas just using a web browser. We’ve been able to rotate computer-based using the superb PSTRotator software for over 10 years already. Drawback was: only one connection at a time making coordinating between operators almost impossible and inconvenient (starting/stopping software, trying to avoid blocking each other). Furthermore PSTRotator only works on Windows and my approach to the remote setup is to make it OS independent, i.e. being able to control everything no matter if using a Windows computer, a Mac, a tablet or even a smartphone.

Available stuff from other hams was a useful start (there’s a very active NODERED Ham Radio group on the groups.io forums). I had to reverse engineer a few things as there were no existing flows for our use case (our rotators are network connected and use TCP/IP instead of the more common serial interface for remote control). But after I recognized how all that stuff works it was no problem to implement. Likewise for our NETIO power controllers. I found flows to control the Elecraft KPA500 and KAT500 as well so connected both with their serial interfaces to the RPi, too. The KPA500 flow still has some potential for optimization (a few ideas in my head already, hi) but it will do as is for the moment.

As always lots more ideas for additional stuff, lets see when I’ll have time again to dig a little deeper. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Here are a few screenshots of the dashboards available now:

Dashboard for our VHF rotator. As we have a 2 m yagi as well as a 10 m beam on the same mast I implemented two different azimuth maps to make it easier to turn to the right direction. Both are linked, of course. Rotator can be switched on & off from the dashboard and besides remote operation is used from the HF shack now. The rotator is in the VHF shack so no need to change between the rooms to rotate the antenna anymore. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Another dashboard for the smaller remote mast with 2 & 4 m antennas.

Dashboard for our AZ/EL rotator (which used to have the antenna group for EME). Besides there are power on/off buttons for a few things accessed remotely.

A combined dashboard for the HF rotators. The right one shows beamwidth as well but currently no rotator connected as we have to repair the control unit. They can be power controlled from the dashboard, too.

My remote dashboard to switch stuff on & off and see what the amp and tuner are doing, here just transmitting on 10 m.

Posted in Contesting, Equipment, Software, VHF | Comments Off on May VHF & a few NODERED dashboards

CQ WPX SSB ’22

Handing out a few QSOs remotely every now and then while Uwe, DL3BQA, was going for a serious SOSB80 entry as DM60UEA from our station … Mir/Peace/Frieden to *everybody* on earth!

                    CQWW WPX Contest, SSB - 2022

Call: DH8BQA

Class: SOAB HP
Class Overlay: Unassisted Classic 
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 19:30
Remote Operation

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:    8
   80:    1
   40:  176
   20:   52
   15:  343
   10:   86
------------
Total:  666  Prefixes = 451  Total Score = 731,973

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:
Flex-6600, Elecraft KPA500, dipoles & yagis
Posted in Contesting | Comments Off on CQ WPX SSB ’22

March VHF Contest ’22

This must have been one of our worst March VHF results. ๐Ÿ™ Very low activity, bad condx … but still a respectable placement coming in as #7 Multi OP which is not bad for our remote location. Finished a few smaller things around the shack and most important: had fun being together! ๐Ÿ˜€

                VHFREG1 Summary Sheet

       Start Date : 2022-03-04

    CallSign Used : DF0UM
      Operator(s) : DG1BHA, DH8BQA, DL3BQA, DM5DX

Operator Category : MULTI-OP
             Band : 2M
            Power : HIGH
       Gridsquare : JO73CE

         Software : N1MM Logger+ 1.0.9466.0

        Band   Mode  QSOs     Pts  Pt/Q
         144  CW      44   18025 409,7
         144  USB    221   70575 319,3
       Total  Both   265   88600 334,3

            Score : 88.600

              Rig : IC-9700 + PA
         Antennas : 10 ele DK7ZB Yagi
Posted in Contesting, VHF | Comments Off on March VHF Contest ’22

CQ WW160 SSB ’22

It’s been a while since my last CQ WW 160 m contest. Played around a bit yesterday. Mainly to catch points for the BCC. After another 25 QSOs tonight I had enough and switched off …

       Start Date : 2022-02-25

    CallSign Used : DH8BQA

Operator Category : SINGLE-OP
Assisted Category : ASSISTED
             Band : 160M
            Power : HIGH
             Mode : SSB
 Default Exchange : 14
       Gridsquare : JO73CE

        Club/Team : Bavarian Contest Club
         Software : RUMlogNG 5.6.8

        Band     QSOs     Pts  StP  DXC  Pt/Q
         1,8     282    1063    0   35   3,8
       Total     282    1063    0   35   3,8

            Score : 37.205

              Rig : FLEX-6600, KPA500 + KAT500
         Antennas : 160 m lazy loop

Worked remotely this time doing it entirely on the Mac, i.e. using SmartSDR for Mac for radio control as well as RUMLogNG for logging.

Posted in Contesting | Comments Off on CQ WW160 SSB ’22

ARRL DX CW ’22

Participated in another ARRL DX CW contest. This time on 15 m and just doing it remotely. Some Aurora deteriorated condx over the weekend, thus Sunday even worse than Saturday. But good to see 15 m open at all, moving forward in sunspot cycle. ๐Ÿ˜‰

                    ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2022

Call: DH8BQA

Class: SOUSB15 HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 14
Remote Operation

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   15:  488    50
-------------------
Total:  480    50  Total Score = 72,000

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:
FLEX-6600, Elecraft KPA500, 6 ele OWA Yagi @40ft
Posted in Contesting | Comments Off on ARRL DX CW ’22

CQ WPX RTTY ’22

Uwe, DL3BQA, was going fo a serious SOSB15 entry onsite thus I only played around a bit remotely on the other bands. Regularly checked 10 m and caught a small NA opening Sunday afternoon. ๐Ÿ˜Ž Due to early QRL this morning I stopped the contest early yesterday, too, although I could see the 1.000 QSOs mark on the horizon already. ๐Ÿ˜‰ Did only start late Saturday morning, had enough sleep all nights … so a very relaxing fun radio weekend. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    CQWPXRTTY Summary Sheet 

    CallSign Used : DH8BQA 

Operator Category : SINGLE-OP 
Assisted Category : ASSISTED 
             Band : ALL 
            Power : HIGH 
             Mode : RTTY 

 Band  QSOs   Pts  WPX Pt/Q 
 3,5   290   1050  145  3,6 
   7   275   1072  192  3,9 
  14   305    754  191  2,5 
  21     5     13    0  2,6 
  28    81    218   61  2,7 
 Total 956   3107  589  3,3 

    Score : 1.830.023 

      Rig : FLEX-6600 + Elecraft KPA-500
 Antennas : 80m GP, 40m Dipole, 20m 4L, 15m 6L, 10m 6L
Posted in Contesting | Comments Off on CQ WPX RTTY ’22

ARRL 10m Contest ’21

Not much DX. A bit of Sporadic-E on Saturday, else an all Meteor Scatter weekend (although most people probably don’t even know their signals were bounced off meteor trails, hi). Hoping for better condx next year!

                    ARRL 10-Meter Contest - 2021

Call: DH8BQA
Operator(s): DH8BQA
Station: DH8BQA

Class: SO CW Unlimited HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 24

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
   CW:  354    63
  SSB:  (2)      
-------------------
Total:  354    63  Total Score = 89,208

Comments:
FLEX-6600, PA & 6 ele OWA Yagi @ 60 ft.
Posted in Contesting, Meteor Scatter, Propagation | Comments Off on ARRL 10m Contest ’21

CQ WWDX CW ’21

Another WWDX-CW is in the books. Checked the 10 m condx on Thursday morning: a few reasonably loud VKs, but nothing from Asia. Hmm. Next check Friday afternoon: a few South Americans, no USA. 15 m also looked pretty meager, a few very weak stations from W9, but the typical East Coast not much louder either. Difficult decision … Lowbands no, not enough sleep. 20 m no way, far too small station. If 15 m doesn’t really work then I can stay on 10 m as well. It’s always exciting in terms of propagation even or especially in such conditions and I’m a 10 m addict anyway as you know. So decision made, another 10 m SOSB entry. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Saturday morning 6z at the station, band still closed. Around 6:30z the first scatter signals from the Balkans, somehow that always works. After 7:30z the band opens for the first time for DX, a few UA9/0 and VKs come into the log, signals all pretty thin. In between also Thailand and various Europeans via scatter. 3B8M is a good signal, shortly after 9z 3B8BAP comes back to my CQ. Keep picking mults if they rise above the noise.

Around half past nine Zulu there is Sporadic-E to Spain and France, the opening is quite long and also allows QSOs to South America from time to time via F2 extension. Without openings like this within Europe things quickly get boring, there’s just not enough DX. At 11z, the antenna is still pointing towards South America, VR2XAN is suddenly 599+20! Antenna turned to Asia, only s6. Back to South America, again s9+++. Awesome long path signal! Excitingly, however, only he, no other stations. But well, up on the mountains in Hongkong with a long yagi it’s a lot different than at sea level with small equipment. Very interesting in terms of propagation anyway.

CQing myselfย  is of little use, but at least some callers create a smile on my face, such as calls from FY5KE, TZ1CE, or VP8NO. ZD7BG is reasonably loud, but the pileups are just insane. Watching the spectrum & waterfall on the Flex helps identifying new signals immediately and being able to jump to them quickly. At 14:20z I can work N4XD who has a nice s5 signal. K1LZ comes back to my CQ but is extremely weak, rather unusual. I can work W3LPL, N4WW & ZF5T (all just above the noise), then the band closes at 16z, nothing to listen to except noise.

N4XD (right hand side in the spectrum) the only signal on the band Saturday afternoon.

I allow myself an hour extra sleep Sunday morning and start again at 7z. Good decision, band is still closed. At 7:15z the first signal appears in the spectrum and is also quite loud: JE6RPM. Wow! Quickly caught the double mult, a few minutes later the signal disappeared again. He should remain the only one from Japan … UA9/0 is doing a little better today, a few Chinese find their way into the log. JT1CO delivers zone 23, good boy. VK4BAP replies to my CQ, very weak. His qrz.com page suggests he is running QRP. If that’s the case his signal was ufb! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Again a little ES to the southwest (also on 6 m), so a few more stations make it into the log. After 10:30z a long path opening towards Asia again, this time in addition to VR2XAN also various Chinese. At 11z a loud DL signal with extreme echo: DL5NEN. Sorry Tom it took a moment. The signal probably found its way once around the world. As interesting as this is in terms of propagation I already “fear” the better condx in the next few years when circulating echoes will make decoding really difficult in some cases. But that’s definitely complaining at a (very) high level. ๐Ÿ˜€

Today there is also a whole bag of EA8s in the log and two EA9s call me, I didn’t hear any with CQ. 9J2BO calls me too, very nice. After 12z there’s also a few Caribbeans, these mults generate crazy pileups again, most times I stop calling and just try again 10-15 minutes later. A risky strategy, sometimes the condx are gone again and the mult slipping through the cracks. ๐Ÿ™ But at least the standard mults like PJ2, PJ4, P4, KP2, KP4 finally get into the log. PZ5CO is extremely weak but has good ears. After the contest I read that he probably also did QRP. With this Caribbean opening F2 backscatter is reasonably good for the first time this contest so a number of EU mults make it into the log, too. I’ve been chasing LA and OHร˜ all weekend, now the signals finally came up. V48A calls me, I’m grateful for that, his later pileup is just crazy.

Around 13:15z VY2TT pops up with a 319-419 signal and has a nasty pileup, too. I’m not sure if the QSO was okay, if in doubt the log checkers will delete it. At 14:30z I finally work a ZS. You’d think South Africa is easy, the simple southern path, but no, not so this time. But the double mult is in the bag. EA8AQV follows at 14:40z, then the band closes towards the south/southwest. I leave the CQ loop running, suddenly a loud K7GM calls from North Carolina. I did not expect that. So turned the antenna towards North America and continue CQing on the dead band. Every now and then a weak signal appears in the spectrum. Click, listen, call if necessary. This is how NR4M gets into the log. On CQ there are still a handful of stations from NC, VA, MD, WV with weak signals, sometimes I have to ask 5-6 times until I have identified the calls properly, in addition to the faint signals also pretty awful QSB. I’m grateful that people are taking the time. K3LR suddenly appears on the spectrum, louder than the others but still weak. I’m one of only 3 DLs they’ve worked (tnx info to Sandy, DL1QQ). All very patchy. When VE3NNT and CF3A call with s7 signals there is a bit of hope that maybe a little more would be possible now but … nope. Only 3 more Americans from AL, GA & NC, then the band closes just before 16z, not a beep in the spectrum.

Not much better Sunday afternoon …

I monitor the band for another hour, but nothing happens anymore. So I do another half an hour on 80 m handing out points, just for fun. Then switched the station back to remote operation (two cable connections) and did a few other things around the shack. At 18:30z a thick red stripe appears in the 10m spectrum: IR9K via ES with s9+10. Of course he’s already in the log. Then a few LUs & PYs pop up, but all relatively weak and worked before, no new ones. After 20 minutes the spook is over, I switch off and drive back into town …

Now what do we learn from this? Something is always possible, but you have to be there. And there’s no chance for high QSO numbers with such condx, the potential of stations in high population areas and an open path to them is just limited. And in the north everything is more difficult anyway. Still, I always have fun! ๐Ÿ˜Ž See you in the ARRL-10m next weekend …

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2021

Call: DH8BQA
Operator(s): DH8BQA
Station: DH8BQA

Class: SO(A)SB10 HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 22

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
   80: (50)
   10:  371    29       89
------------------------------
Total:  371    29       89  Total Score = 72,570

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:
Flex-6600, PA + 6 ele OWA Yagi @ 60 ft.

Hard work! Band very patchy, you had to be there all the time to
catch the "micro openings". A bit of Sporadic-E every now and then
enabled a few more QSOs at least. Relying solely on F2 propagation
would have been much more boring.  Anyway, nice propagation study
again and despite the low QSO numbers still lots of fun.
Posted in Contesting, Propagation | Comments Off on CQ WWDX CW ’21

Marconi Memorial VHF Contest ’21

I really like the MMC. Being CW-only on VHF it provides plenty of opportunities to work DX while using your own brain to decode the signals. And it’s always good for a surprise. Being in autumn it’s “usually” some tropo (as last year) but not so this time. Tropo condx were OK with about 35% of all QSOs being over 500 km distance, the TOP10 all over 800 km. But this year’s surprise was: Aurora! While working a few tropo skeds to the north I was called by Jan, SM4HFI, with that cool distorted Aurora CW sound. ๐Ÿ˜Ž It was not very intense and nobody else was worked. Jan later reported that he monitored the band with his SDR spectrum display and I suddenly popped up via Aurora as the only signal in JP70 after I had turned my antenna north for the skeds. It went on for a while but nobody else could be reached, pity.

------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME   CALLSIGN      LOCATOR   TX    RX   BAND   MODE   PROP.  QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
18:31  SM4HFI        JP7ร˜TO   52A   55A   2 m.   CW     AUR    829
------------------------------------------------------------------

I logged the contest with RUMlogNG on the Macbook again to try out how good it works with CAT control to the IC-9700, CW keying via USB,ย  a.s.o. While that worked out quite well and I do like how RUMlogNG works I’m really missing some reporting for the contest results. At least you can draw some nice maps (see below) but some structured results export with QSOs worked, squares, countries, total result, maybe even Top10 distances, etc. would be really nice. I could of course import the log into N1MM+ or even the old DOS-based TACLog to generate something but it usually means some data fiddling to get it all right, no time for that this time. So a simple listing will have to do:

336 QSOs, 72 Grids, 16 DXCCs, 130.441 total points
ODX 923 km with F6DWG/P in JN19bq

Posted in Aurora, Contesting, Propagation, VHF | Comments Off on Marconi Memorial VHF Contest ’21

CQ WWDX SSB ’21

Nice condx! Great to have some F2 propagation on 10 m again. Saturday was good to JA, worked almost exactly 100 of them. On the other hand North America was only open for about 45 minutes in the afternoon with 50 QSOs. Sunday the other way round: only 10 JAs but 200 x W/VE in the afternoon!

Band full up to 28.800 … it’s been a while since it last was like that! ๐Ÿ˜‰

However, it was much worse and shorter here in the northeast than in the south and west of DL. Been listening to Ulli, DD2ML, for a while when he started running US pileups. Nothing at all up here! About an hour later it opened for us too, but also closed much earlier than west/south. Even 100 km made quite a difference. The old saying “location, location, location” is true, but I would not move for that reason only. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Thanks to Ulli, DD2ML, for the exciting race in the online scoreboard. Until Sunday noon I was able to keep him at a distance with a lead of up to 120 QSOs but with the start of the NA opening he passed by quickly. I fought hard but could never catch up again. My best hour was only 126 QSOs. I couldn’t hear 15 of the multipliers spotted. Summing it up there were over 130 countries workable on 10m, not bad.

Now let’s keep our fingers crossed that condx will be similar in WWDX-CW where telegraphy gives an additional advantage. ๐Ÿ˜‰

                 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2021

Call: DH8BQA

Class: SO(A)SB10 HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 24,5

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
   10: 1073    34      118
------------------------------
Total: 1073    34      118     Total Score = 377,568

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:
FLEX-6600, PA + 6 ele G0KSC OWA Yagi @60ft
Posted in Contesting, Propagation | Comments Off on CQ WWDX SSB ’21

Small tropo opening & 70 cm QSOs

Driving from Hamburg to Schwedt along the German Autobahnย  A20 last night I listened to Swedish FM radio all the way from about Rostock to Stralsund! There seemed to be a nice tropo lift across the Baltic Sea. I kept fingers crossed it would hold and indeed, arriving at the station this afternoon there still was a lift although not too stable and not extending land inwards on the other side. Worked the following QSOs:

------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME   CALLSIGN      LOCATOR   TX    RX   BAND   MODE   PROP.  QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
16:35  OH1ND         KPร˜ร˜XL   -16   -15   2 m.   FT8    TR     936
17:08  OH1ND         KPร˜ร˜XL   -07   -07   70 cm. FT8    TR     936
17:13  OHร˜AZX        KPร˜ร˜IF   -05   +01   2 m.   FT8    TR     877
------------------------------------------------------------------

Nice to work a 70 cm DX contact (besides Charly, DF5VAE, as a local), too, after we had put up a small 70 cm Yagi recently (the whole 70/23 cm setup is still very QRP but if there’s a lift it works). ๐Ÿ˜Ž

Posted in Propagation, Tropo, UHF, VHF | Comments Off on Small tropo opening & 70 cm QSOs

WAG ’21

Back from Bonaire right at the start of the contest (school’s starting again on Monday, else I would have like to do the WAG as DX, too, hi). But first a few other duties on the list so only Sunday morning a few QSOs with the small remote setup. Added a few more contacts Sunday afternoon after the high bands were in good shape and 10 m surprisingly opened to North America!

                   WAG Summary Sheet

        Band   Mode  QSOs    Pts   DXC  Pt/Q
          14   CW     40     132   19   3,3
          21   CW     30     100   13   3,3
          28   CW     70     232   25   3,3
       Total  Both   140     464   57   3,3

              Score : 26.448
Posted in Contesting | Comments Off on WAG ’21

PJ4/DH8BQA: Holidays & Makrothen Contest ’21

My second time on Bonaire! This time as a family holiday with a bit of radio, too. Been there for the first two weeks of October after we had to postpone the trip three times due to all the Corona circumstances (and travelling still had it’s challenges this time, too). But we enjoyed ourselves very much, such a bigger holiday was really overdue. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Made shy of 2.900 QSOs holiday style during the two weeks. In between was the Makrothen RTTY Contest which I had participated in a few times in the past. So a good opportunity to try it out as DX! ๐Ÿ˜Ž And it was a nice one, lots of fun! Really like the distance based scoring and exchange of gridsquares (maybe as I’m primarily a VHF guy at home, hi).

Part time effort only as sharing the antennas with neighbour Steve, PJ4DX, who was also working in the SAC-SSB this weekend. So could have been an even better result. ๐Ÿ˜‰

80 m was very noisy so not many contacts there, 40 m had to provide the low band QSOs. High bands condx were quite nice! 10 m was wide open to the US on Saturday with very loud signals, just nobody on! What a pity (and waste of time). 15 m rocked especially on Sunday. 20 m less good than 15 m (seems typical for the Caribbean).

Many thanks to Steve (PJ4DX) and Eva (PJ4EVA) for letting me use the antennas during our holiday stay again, and all the nice talks and time spent together, much appreciated! ๐Ÿ™‚

                   Makrothen RTTY Contest

Call: PJ4/DH8BQA

Class: SO/Single Xcvr LP
QTH: FK52ud
Operating Time (hrs): 19
Location: South America 

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:	18
   40:	172
   20:	198
   15:	224
   10:	19
------------
Total:	631	Total Score	4,017,993

Comments:
Elecraft K3, 100 W, Spiderbeam, Inv-V, GP

As it turned out the result was good enough for the world win! ๐Ÿ˜Ž

They used to have plaques for the winners but put down with it due to Corona as posting them seems currently not possible. What a pity. ๐Ÿ™ Anyway, a few more impressions:

Paul, DL5CW, sent me a copy of a recording he had made when I was running CW on 12 m (we had some good high band openings). Not too bad for just a hundred watts but the Spiderbeam certainly made up for the low power. ๐Ÿ˜‰

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September VHF Contest ’21

Been active as DFร˜UM Multi-OP (DG1BHA, DH8BQA, DL3BQA) from the clubstation in JO73ce again. Made a bit over 300 QSOs with 100k points. No detailed report this time, just too little time. ๐Ÿ™ Uwe has a short German write up here.

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