Author Archives: dh8bqa

Multiple multi hop openings

Posted on June 15, 2021 by dh8bqa

Six has been in great shape lately. The band was open to the Middle East on June 14 almost all day long. Noteworthy QSOs were made with UK7AL/MN41, UN7NII/MN42, 9K2YM/LL48, A65BR/LL75, A71AE/LL55, A62A/LL75, 7Z1SJ/LL25, HZ1SK/KL91, A65IN/LL74, A92GE/LL56 as well as … Continue reading →

Posted in DX, Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF | Comments Off on Multiple multi hop openings

ES openings early June ’21

Posted on June 11, 2021 by dh8bqa

The good thing being forced by the doctors to stay at home is you can monitor the bands almost continously even besides doing some QRL work. 😉 June 5 brought a nice one hour 4 m opening to the Balkans … Continue reading →

Posted in DX, Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF | Comments Off on ES openings early June ’21

WPX-CW ’21 ending in hospital

Posted on June 4, 2021 by dh8bqa

Good ES condx on Saturday last weekend, worked about 700 QSOs on day 1. A lot worse on Sunday, needed 6+ hours for another 100 QSOs. Then around 12z I went QRT as I suddenly had severe chest pain feeling … Continue reading →

Posted in Contesting, General stuff | Comments Off on WPX-CW ’21 ending in hospital

Great ES condx

Posted on May 25, 2021 by dh8bqa

Great openings today! Four was hot all day long, made about 60 QSOs in total including several low distance ES contacts around 500 km to Southern Germany enabled by high MUF ES clouds (which at the same time allowed 2 … Continue reading →

Posted in Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF | Comments Off on Great ES condx

Chasing down 2 m QRM

Posted on May 24, 2021 by dh8bqa

Occasionally we have some annoying QRM on 2 m over here making working to the south quite hard. 🙁 Tick, tick, tick. Ticks about a second apart, sometimes just s2, sometimes as loud as s7. It’s driving the transceiver’s AGC … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, VHF | Comments Off on Chasing down 2 m QRM

Another good ES day?

Posted on May 23, 2021 by dh8bqa

Statistically May 23 is not the worst date to expect some good Sporadic-E openings, even on 2 m. And indeed, I was lucky this morning: —————————————————————— TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB —————————————————————— 08:07 R3KBF KO91PO +14 … Continue reading →

Posted in DX, Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF | Comments Off on Another good ES day?

A new 4 m Band Pass Filter

Posted on May 23, 2021 by dh8bqa

Having changed the 4 m antenna to a single band one there’s no need to use my trusty coax diplexer anymore (one half of it was described here). It served very well eliminating all the interstation interference between 6 & … Continue reading →

Posted in Equipment, Stubs & filters | Comments Off on A new 4 m Band Pass Filter

Good 6 m transatlantic opening

Posted on May 19, 2021 by dh8bqa

A second post same day usually means something special. And indeed, caught a good opening tonight on 6 m. It started to the Caribbean and I was able to work Bonairian friends Bert, PJ4KY, and Steve, PJ4DX. 😎 KP2BH and … Continue reading →

Posted in DX, Propagation, Sporadic E | Comments Off on Good 6 m transatlantic opening

First 2 m Sporadic-E this year

Posted on May 19, 2021 by dh8bqa

During the last few month’ I’ve been doing most of my QRL work from home. But today I had to visit my current customer in town and guess what? Of course, 2 m opened via Sporadic-E! Luckily I had my … Continue reading →

Posted in Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF | Comments Off on First 2 m Sporadic-E this year

Go west …

Posted on May 14, 2021 by dh8bqa

More 4 m openings today, this time propagation concentrating to the west with extremely strong signals from EI/GI/GW as well as EA. And the first double-hop opening bringing up S01WS/IL46 as well as EA8TX/IL18 (3.740 km), the latter even in … Continue reading →

Posted in Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF | Comments Off on Go west …

4 m ES – new antenna seems to work

Posted on May 13, 2021 by dh8bqa

The new antenna seems to work. 😉 Caught the first 70 MHz ES opening to Greece on 7/5/21, another one on 8/5/21 to Spain with EA9IB/IM85 as the highlight and a new country. Four has been open this afternoon as … Continue reading →

Posted in Antennas, Propagation, Sporadic E, VHF | Comments Off on 4 m ES – new antenna seems to work

Antenna work during VHF contest May ’21

Posted on May 3, 2021 by dh8bqa

We had planned to do a multi op entry in May’s VHF contest last weekend again. Besides this I also wanted to do some antenna work. It turned out antennas were more interesting 😉 and we were not in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Antennas, Equipment | Comments Off on Antenna work during VHF contest May ’21

CQMM ’21

Posted on April 18, 2021 by dh8bqa

Good memories about my first and only entry in CQMM 2014. Been thinking about entering it again for a few years already but never found the time. Well, different this year, at least some time available but the band (10 … Continue reading →

Posted in Contesting | Comments Off on CQMM ’21

CQ WPX SSB ’21

Posted on March 29, 2021 by dh8bqa

Used almost all of Saturday to identify & fix some station interference issues. Uwe, DL3BQA, was doing a serious SOSB15 effort while I “only” wanted to hand out some QSOs and gain points for the BCC’s “Frequent Contester” program again. … Continue reading →

Posted in Contesting | Comments Off on CQ WPX SSB ’21

ARRL DX CW ’21

Posted on February 27, 2021 by dh8bqa

Below are the results of my entry in this year’s ARRL DX CW Contest, this time on 80 m as our GP antenna was still up and I felt fit enough for the nightshifts. The “fit enough” has been confirmed, … Continue reading →

Posted in Contesting, Propagation | Comments Off on ARRL DX CW ’21

CQ WPX RTTY ’21

Posted on February 15, 2021 by dh8bqa

Well, no radio activity after ARRL-10M in mid-December until last weekend when entering the WPX-RTTY. There’s a simple reason: We were moving house again. So lots of other priorities (besides some heavy QRL as well) during the last few weeks/month’. … Continue reading →

Posted in Contesting, General stuff | Comments Off on CQ WPX RTTY ’21

World Win in ARRL-10M last year!

Posted on December 15, 2020 by dh8bqa

It was just by coincidence after uploading my contest log from last weekend yesterday that I looked around the ARRL contest webpages seeing some new contest awards for download and got excited quite fast: Now how cool’s that? My 5th … Continue reading →

Posted in Awards, Contesting | Comments Off on World Win in ARRL-10M last year!

ARRL-10M & trying out some MacOS software

Posted on December 14, 2020 by dh8bqa

No big entry in this year’s ARRL 10m contest. Besides other commitments over the weekend I used the chance to play a bit with the new MacOS version of SmartSDR released by Marcus, DL8MRE. Compared to the free-of-charge Windows version … Continue reading →

Posted in Contesting, Software | Comments Off on ARRL-10M & trying out some MacOS software

CQ WWDX CW ’20

Posted on November 30, 2020 by dh8bqa

Another World Wide DX Contest in the books, this time Single Band on 15 m. Quite unhappy on Saturday. Couldn’t get much going, no good runs, best hour was 90 QSOs and that was not even running but search & … Continue reading →

Posted in Contesting | Comments Off on CQ WWDX CW ’20

IARU VHF CW aka Marconi Memorial Contest ’20

Posted on November 10, 2020 by dh8bqa

It’s been a few years since I last participated seriously in the Marconi Memorial Contest on 2 m. I tried to be QRV for some hours and hand out some points at least during the last few years. It’s always … Continue reading →

Posted in Contesting, Propagation, Tropo, VHF | Comments Off on IARU VHF CW aka Marconi Memorial Contest ’20