Author Archives: dh8bqa

Another tropo opening to the west

Posted on March 3, 2023 by dh8bqa

Another great tropo opening today! Map shows the 65 QSOs on 2 m in blue plus the 12 QSOs on 70 cm in red: Mark, EI3KD, was the furthest on 144 MHz with 1515 km distance while Dave, G7RAU, provided … Continue reading →

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Short Aurora

Posted on February 27, 2023 by dh8bqa

Short Aurora enabling the following two QSOs on 2 m: —————————————————————— DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR BAND MODE PRO. QRB —————————————————————— 27/02/2023 21:09 SMØMDG JO99AH 2 m. CW AUR 721 27/02/2023 21:11 SKØCT JO99BM 2 m. CW AUR 744 ——————————————————————

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CQ WW 160 SSB ’23

Posted on February 26, 2023 by dh8bqa

After other (family) activities last evening I was finally able to switch on the radio after 1 a.m. local time last night. I thought that as “fresh meat” I would quickly rack up 100 QSOs but it was really tough … Continue reading →

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ARRL DX CW ’23

Posted on February 19, 2023 by dh8bqa

Did a few hours with the small remote station equipment. Except for the usual suspects from VE, who are never there (NT, YT, NU), I could work all states and provinces. Basically all came on CQ … 🙂 ARRL DX … Continue reading →

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Good tropo to the west

Posted on February 14, 2023 by dh8bqa

Had some good tropo on 2 m during the last 3 days. Great to work John, OY9JD, again. It’s been a few years since I last heard/worked him on VHF. Of course he also provided the ODX with 1578 km. … Continue reading →

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CQ WPX RTTY ’23

Posted on February 13, 2023 by dh8bqa

Uwe, DL3BQA, was going to do a serious entry in this one as SOSB10. So I did an SOAB entry being mainly active on 15 and 80 m. Antennas are further away from the 10 m beam thus no interference … Continue reading →

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CQ WW 160 CW ’23

Posted on January 31, 2023 by dh8bqa

Did about 500 QSOs from Saturday evening until Sunday morning. Needed 4 hours for another 100 QSOs Sunday evening then had enough. Running 500 watts it was rather medium than high power. 😉 CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW – 2023 Call: … Continue reading →

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Short lived tropo on 2 m

Posted on January 25, 2023 by dh8bqa

Some short-lived tropo allowing 2 big distance QSOs to western France last night while it was shortly open to the east this evening: —————————————————————— DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR BAND MODE PRO. QRB —————————————————————— 24/01/2023 22:03 F6EGD IN88HR 2 m. FT8 … Continue reading →

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ARRL 10M ’22

Posted on December 19, 2022 by dh8bqa

Mixed condx as in WWDX-CW, much QSB, geomagnetics still/again distorted … ARRL 10-Meter Contest – 2022 Call: DH8BQA Class: SO CW Unlimited HP QTH: JO73ce Operating Time (hrs): 22 Summary: Band QSOs Mults ——————- CW: 974 140 SSB: – – … Continue reading →

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IOTA Trophy

Posted on December 6, 2022 by dh8bqa

After winning the IOTA contest this year I was eager to see what the trophy looked like. Imagine how disappointed I was when I heard I will never receive it as it must not leave the country! What? 🙁 Indeed, … Continue reading →

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DMØY SOSB80 QRP – CQ WWDX CW ’22

Posted on November 28, 2022 by dh8bqa

Besides my 10 m single band entry I used some time Saturday evening to try out RUMLog in contest mode and dig a little deeper into all of it’s features. After all it now has Flexradio support and connects to … Continue reading →

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DH8BQA SO(A)SB10 HP – CQ WWDX CW ’22

Posted on November 28, 2022 by dh8bqa

I can only partially understand the many comments about how great 10 m was. I was rather disappointed. Geomagnetics were severely disturbed at times, which is certainly more noticeable in the north of DL than in the south, not to … Continue reading →

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Golden October … in November ;-)

Posted on November 14, 2022 by dh8bqa

Seems we got a golden October again, just a few weeks delayed. 😀 I was a bit late to the “tropo party” on Saturday. Heiko, DG1BHA, had already worked half a dozen stations from Belarus but when I switched on … Continue reading →

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WAE-RTTY ’22

Posted on November 13, 2022 by dh8bqa

Made a few QSOs in this weekend’s WAE-RTTY contest today basically to try out a mixed Windows/iOS setup for the Flexradio after the troubles before WWDX-SSB. This time used an iPad for TRX control, i.e. tuning, finding stations, a.s.o. while … Continue reading →

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CQ WWDX SSB ’22

Posted on October 31, 2022 by dh8bqa

This one was tricky! When last onsite at the station in September I recognized my N1MMLogger+ installation on the local Windows machine wouldn’t start anymore. Getting really strange error messages. So I had planned some time on Friday to do … Continue reading →

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IOTA final results

Posted on September 14, 2022 by dh8bqa

Final results are out! 😎 Now eager to see what the trophy looks like. 😉

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Good Aurora Opening

Posted on September 4, 2022 by dh8bqa

One day too late! 😀 Good ol’ sun was quite active lately so we were regularly checking the Aurora predictions and Space Weather websites during the contest. Unfortunately nothing during the competition but the band finally opened late this afternoon … Continue reading →

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September VHF Contest ’22

Posted on September 4, 2022 by dh8bqa

Once again active with the guys, luckily the last time with the “tongue twister” special event call DM6ØUEA. 😀 I have been mainly active on the radio on Saturday and used Sunday to fine-tune the Node Red installation, i.e. adding … Continue reading →

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Just a little Perseids activity

Posted on August 14, 2022 by dh8bqa

Only a few QSOs during the Perseids Meteor shower this year, but at least over five times more than last year. 😀 Kidding aside, just too much QRL again so only QRV every now and then for short time periods. … Continue reading →

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US West Coast Opening on 6 m

Posted on August 6, 2022 by dh8bqa

It’s been a very long time since I last caught a 6 m opening to the US West coast. Actually this opening tonight was just my second West Coast opening at all! And as it happens during all multi hop … Continue reading →

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