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Author Archives: dh8bqa
Current antennas
Leaving the QTH this evening we had a wonderful blue sky for a change and after closing the gates and looking at the antennas I couldn’t resist to take a photo although not too good a quality as taken with … Continue reading
Posted in Antennas
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Holiday activities … getting things done
It’s been a while since my last blog entry. Reason is simple: I am on holiday 700 km away from home in JO73, about a hundred kilometers north-east of Berlin, where we have our contest station. Have been busy doing … Continue reading
DM5ØPCK in WPX-CW
Another WPX-CW is gone. Used the special call DM5ØPCK of our local radio club to provide a unique prefix. As I had to attend a funeral Saturday afternoon I missed most of the best run time the first day. Defined this one … Continue reading
Posted in Contesting
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Kenwood CAT banddecoder
Just got around to write a few lines concerning our Kenwood CAT banddecoder. It was published in FUNKAMATEUR issue FA 10/13 and all project parts like PCB layout, firmware, etc. are available for free for private use (sorrily no complete kits … Continue reading
Posted in Equipment, PIC projects
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ZD7 – St. Helena Island #128 on 6 m
What a nice evening! Did not do many QSOs on 6 m this season yet although there were already a few openings. Either skip was not right from “blackhole” JO73 or I was not at the station. Tonight has been … Continue reading
Melting more solder … 10×2 Antenna Controller
Last year I published a few articles on station automation in FUNKAMATEUR magazine. One of them (FA 5/13) was about a 6×2 antenna controller unit I had developed that allows using a 6×2 antenna switch from two different shacks … Continue reading
Posted in Antennas, Equipment, PIC projects
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All Elecraft remote station coming …
I have been a user of the Elecraft K3 for about 5 years now and really like the radio, UI, performance, etc. Never had a radio for such a long time (except my little “Swiss knife”, the Yaesu FT-817), usually … Continue reading
Posted in Equipment
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Automatic 4 x 1 antenna switcher page added
Having had a few minutes time tonight I decided to add another project page to this website: BX-162 automatic 4×1 antenna switch controller. I developed it a few years ago to automatically control a 4 x 1 antenna switch that … Continue reading
Posted in Equipment, PIC projects
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IARU-HF 2012 certificate received
Received the contest certificate for IARU-HF 2012 from our local club’s QSL manager. IARU contest certificates are usually sent along the national QSL bureaus. Maybe that’s the reason why it took so long or maybe ARRL, who is managing the … Continue reading
Posted in Awards, Contesting
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HA1YA transverter & DFØFA 2 m contest results May ’14
Condx were poor, lots of long and slow QSB, i.e. stations calling with s3 signals and vanishing into the noise, returning only 1-2 minutes later. Made it hard to work real DX, a lot of the usual suspects missing this … Continue reading
Posted in Contesting, Equipment, VHF
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DFØFA from JO73CF on 144 MHz this weekend
It’s time for a another major VHF contest again. 
So we will be active again with FUNKAMATEUR’s clubcall DFØFA from JO73CF as usual on 2m this weekend. Team will consist of the usual suspects, i.e. Knut – DGØZB, Heiko … Continue reading
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ARRL-DX-CW 2013 contest certificate
Was wondering why I found this strange looking contest certificate for my participation in ARRL’s DX-CW contest last year in the mailbox. I ended up #2 in Germany SOSB15 and usually only #1 is awarded. Just checked the rules again … Continue reading
Posted in Awards, Contesting
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WPX-SSB raw scores published!
The WPX-SSB raw scores (i.e. before log checking) where published today. Seems my NT3S entry @N2MM will not only win the SOSB10(A) category for USA but is also good enough for a new NA record. Of course I will loose … Continue reading
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Strange 10 m opening
During Sunday in CQMM we experienced a very strange but welcome 10 m opening to North America. The band was quite bad during the last few days. Southern lines like Europe to South America worked (although I’ve seen better condx … Continue reading
Posted in Contesting, DX, Propagation, VHF
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CQMM – The CQ Manchester Mineira DX Contest
While waiting today for Heiko, DG1BHA, to arrive for the 15 m rotator care I made a few more QSOs in CQMM. Seems to be an interesting contest although activity was not too high. Did 50 QSOs yesterday, 100 while … Continue reading
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KH8 American Samoa wkd as an ATNO
Was lucky enough to catch KH8/DL2AWG on 20 m SSB today. They were just above the noise and big QRM but have been lucky enough to do a good QSO. If you wonder what ATNO stands for: all time new … Continue reading
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Holyland DX contest & Happy Easter!
Happy Easter to everybody! Well, it’s not that happy overhere. My aunt passed away on Wednesday. So I drove 900 km to visit my grandma (87) and tell her the bad news. 
Then took her with me to my … Continue reading
Posted in Contesting, General stuff
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JIDX-CW & (bad) 10 m condx
Thought it might be a good idea to participate in this weekend’s JIDX-CW contest. I participated in the SSB leg in 2011 and had quite some fun. They make some nice contest certificates, too, see left. But condx are awful … Continue reading
Posted in Contesting, Propagation
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RUSDX 2012 certificates received
Today I had a letter from the famous Box 88 Moscow in the mailbox containing my 2 certificates for winning RUSDX 2012 on 80 & 10 m in Germany. As already mentioned you can do 2 single band entries in … Continue reading
Posted in Awards, Contesting
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SP-DX contest 2014
Was playing around a bit in SP-DX-C during the weekend. Due to my location right at the German-Polish border there is no skip into Poland on the higher bands so all contacts were entirely made via Backscatter. Most signals were … Continue reading
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