Weeks are passing very quickly and I still have no free time. I may hope that this week is really the very last busy qrl week. Since the CQWW CW contest, all time went to qrl, always qrl, qrl, qrl...
And it is true, with temperatures far below 0°C and a thick layer of snow in the garden, there is no pleasure to install the 80m vertical for the contest.
This weekend, the UBA SSB contest couldn't take my interest. I had no good feeling with SSB.
On Saturday, qrl... on Sunday I started on 20m, had a nice pile-up because it seemed that the HT-multiplier was difficult to find. Then I went to 15m. Some nice QSO's with JA en VK/ZL.
After 230 Q's I stopped, completely demotivated. I had problems to log what was said. YL in stead of LY, RU/RN/RA, everything sounded the same way.
This is the first time in 15 years of contesting that this occured. Maybe a virus is attacking my body and a disease will shortly appear.
In the afternoon I found the fun to play CW on 18 Mhz. This went much better.
The OJ0V kick-off meeting took place last week. Much work to do, many things to clear out, but the team spirit looks good. I'll order the small Steppir vertical to play with on OJ0V.
This is also a good opportunity to have a backup-antenna in case my 3 element Steppir (or one of the 12 control cables) fails. During contest, it can be an aid to have an omnidirectional vertical on all bands.
My yearly DXCC update - sent to the ARRL by the new digital platform about 2 months ago - is still ongoing. Why does this take so much time ?
In the mean time I still have problems with my PS0T contacts. I worked them two times, on two different days, but still no QSL in LOTW.
I ordered a paper QSL via paypal, but still no qsl.
Nevertheless, my two QSO's appear in clublog. Very strange situation...
Let the spring begin ! I need some solar energy !
maandag 28 januari 2013
dinsdag 25 december 2012
And so it is Christmas...
Finally, a free day in this very busy qrl-time. Ok it has been foreseen in our 2008 business plan that the most crazy time would be dec/2012-jan/2013, but when working >100hrs a week and still have the feeling that so many things have to be done, this isn't funny anymore.
It's about the same feeling as the Lotw processes : the more you do, the more files arrive and the more delays occur.
Of course this has consequences on both family (the xyl does the same business so there are no misunderstandings) and hobby. My only qso the last weeks was with oh9scl, with both children listening to Santa Claus up in the north. It is a dream for years to go to Rovaniemi around Christmas time, but with all grand-parents in good healthy shape, we prefer to stay at home and collect good rememberings for later.
The results of the on-contest are published. I win the shorted (elections day) on-contest in cw with very few differences in the top-3 results. In the ssb part with more participants a third place is the result. And this is as always with a 50€ G5RV and about 400W.
Weeks after the cqww contests a mixed feeling keeps playing in my mind. On SSB the mood was changed because of the emi problem, on cw I lost hundreds of qso's due to my absence at the start.
The positive side of the game is on dxcc-level. Many new bandslots on all bands are confirmed via Lotw. I only need zone 31 (Kh6) on 40m to achieve a 40/20/15/10 WAZ. I need 5 States confirmed to achieve a 40/20/15/10 WAS.
Rbn analysis learns that being there at the right time is much more important than antennas and power. This was surprising to me. I conclude that yagi arrays are the way to go to have a bigger result range.
Merry Christmas to all !
It's about the same feeling as the Lotw processes : the more you do, the more files arrive and the more delays occur.
Of course this has consequences on both family (the xyl does the same business so there are no misunderstandings) and hobby. My only qso the last weeks was with oh9scl, with both children listening to Santa Claus up in the north. It is a dream for years to go to Rovaniemi around Christmas time, but with all grand-parents in good healthy shape, we prefer to stay at home and collect good rememberings for later.
The results of the on-contest are published. I win the shorted (elections day) on-contest in cw with very few differences in the top-3 results. In the ssb part with more participants a third place is the result. And this is as always with a 50€ G5RV and about 400W.
Weeks after the cqww contests a mixed feeling keeps playing in my mind. On SSB the mood was changed because of the emi problem, on cw I lost hundreds of qso's due to my absence at the start.
The positive side of the game is on dxcc-level. Many new bandslots on all bands are confirmed via Lotw. I only need zone 31 (Kh6) on 40m to achieve a 40/20/15/10 WAZ. I need 5 States confirmed to achieve a 40/20/15/10 WAS.
Rbn analysis learns that being there at the right time is much more important than antennas and power. This was surprising to me. I conclude that yagi arrays are the way to go to have a bigger result range.
Merry Christmas to all !
dinsdag 27 november 2012
CQWWDX CW contest part 1
Ouf, the contest season 2012 stops here for me. No ARRL 10m nor other smaller ct in december.
With more than 10.000 qso in only 6 months, it's enough (the family complaints achieved the yellow stadium, so it's time for a break).
Before the contest :
I wasn't at home last week, so I pulled out the tower one week before the start. I normally don't do this, but now there was no other possibility. Because in Belgium they are not able to perform a good weather forecast for some days, and certainly not for a complete week, I decided to keep some reserve in height. One the height is chosen I can't change it due to the two wire antennas installed for the lowest bands.
CQWW contests always remember me the famous edition of 2002 where we had the hardest hurricane I've ever seen. With 140 kmh wind speeds the tower was dancing in the dark and we even lost our chimney. This will never happen again, I've learnt my lesson.
Also a predictable problem : I had a business event with after-party at Friday in the center of our capital Brussels. To avoid car problems, we decided to form a team of 5 people in a single car. Wrong combination : apparently there is a life outside the contest, and the majority of our "team" decided to stay until midnight. To make a longer story short : I missed the contest start, was so tired that I had to sleep in our 2nd qth and I started the contest at about 7 AM utc. OQ5M reached 700 K points had several hundreds of contacts in the log. One to one competion finished.
OK, let's start : S&P on 80m on the inverted L made for 160m. I've tested this, my autotuner was able to tune so no problem... except... when I turned on the Acom1000 I was warmly welcomed by an arc-error, and another and another,... Sh***t ! I suspect a too high voltage and the basepoint of the wire causing an arc to the metal (earth) part of the MFJ-998RT. This is a failure in the contruction concept of this box. The wire antenna must pass a hole made in the metal part. When there is wind in combination with high energy on the wire, arcs are possible. I've to find a solution to have a better isolation. On eham.net I wrote this small piece of text about it.
So no 80m on Saterday (the tuner box had to bere-attached from the 160m wire to the 80m wire) .
While speaking about Murphy (the arc problem isn't really Murphy, I had to test this with high power in advance) I've survived some other problems. Too much problems to be good.
3x computer crash with the really blue Windows screen dumping memory,
my manual keyer refused work and this could by solved by a power off/on of the TX. Here I suspect the Microham box.
2 times I suffered a non-stop cq-calling. This is really annoying : people are answering and the pc starts to call cq over and over.
But the biggest challenge was the fight against fatigue. This is the first time ever I had this issue. The last week was very hard on qrl and the so needed rest before a contest was absent. This costs my some extra hours so there was an activity degree of "only" 34 hrs. Normally I can reach easily 40 hrs.
Final score >2900 Q's, 3.7 M points. Not bad in a mode that costs me more energy and concentration than SSB.
I've encourtered a few new things :
- for the first time I've occupied a frequency at the lower part of the band, i.e. 21.015 Mhz. Very difficult to keep the frequency because many stations want to play around this point. The pile-up was very high and I've had difficulties to handle it. It's the first time that my Yaesu MKV with roofing filter installed was at its reception limits.
Normally I use the 250 Hz CW filter and if single calls come and go (and they are answering at the correct freq) I can handle this very well. But with such a pile-up this was not the case. Everybody seemed the same. I could only pick out slower of faster ones, or some chars that are sent at the end.
Better roofing filters and a 300-400Hz CW filter is the solution.
Some weeks ago I had a visu conversation with ON4CT, Dirk, owner of a FT5000. He was convinced that with this filter system he gains +10% QSO's.
I really have to agree. I lost several QSO's in the pile-up because of the reception part.
So Santa Claus : pse a FT3000 or - if possible - a FT5000 for Christmas !
On 15m I ended with 809 Q's.
- big party at 80m : although my 405 Q's due to my absence, I made 78 Q's with the USA/Canada. This surpises me because I had only 6 radials at the ground and about 800W power. No reception antenna(s).
It seems that my signal was rather strong at States site. To be confirmed by RBN statistics.
On 160m I made 7 Q's outside Europe on a total of 45.
- the biggest surprise was on 40m where the dipole was able to contact 84 countries (more then on 20m) and where I worked most multipliers on all continent at first call. Very strange because I ran on Sunday evening at a very low rate. From time to time I received an answer, not from Europe but from VK, ZL, JA, ZS. Only later at the evening the pile-up came from the US as expected.
633 Q's on 40m.
Due to my absence the battle with Mr. F - OQ5M - took not place. He wins this without any problem.
But during the contest I've put the focus on performance between our stations. With Reverse Beacon Network we can easely compare our bands.
It seems that on 20/15/10 we stayed very close to each other both on contacts as multipliers. This looks good for future battles. The biggest difference seems to be the 80m band although at first sight my signal arrives stronger in the US.
So Santa Claus : pse my long asked 80m vertical (Titanex or DXE is ok) for Christmas.
Pse xyl : give me some free time to install the K9AY loop that resides in my shack for several months.
On 160, I made to few Q's in order to compare.
Thanks to all of you for giving the points and the patience to copy ur call correctly !
Thank you D4C and RRDXA friends from CR3L for contacts on the 6 bands.
And to the LYxxx and UR0xx stations that disturbed my JA run on 20m and my US run at 40m without qrl? and without qsy'ing when asked : I keep your calls in mind. We meet again one day !
With more than 10.000 qso in only 6 months, it's enough (the family complaints achieved the yellow stadium, so it's time for a break).
Before the contest :
I wasn't at home last week, so I pulled out the tower one week before the start. I normally don't do this, but now there was no other possibility. Because in Belgium they are not able to perform a good weather forecast for some days, and certainly not for a complete week, I decided to keep some reserve in height. One the height is chosen I can't change it due to the two wire antennas installed for the lowest bands.
CQWW contests always remember me the famous edition of 2002 where we had the hardest hurricane I've ever seen. With 140 kmh wind speeds the tower was dancing in the dark and we even lost our chimney. This will never happen again, I've learnt my lesson.
Also a predictable problem : I had a business event with after-party at Friday in the center of our capital Brussels. To avoid car problems, we decided to form a team of 5 people in a single car. Wrong combination : apparently there is a life outside the contest, and the majority of our "team" decided to stay until midnight. To make a longer story short : I missed the contest start, was so tired that I had to sleep in our 2nd qth and I started the contest at about 7 AM utc. OQ5M reached 700 K points had several hundreds of contacts in the log. One to one competion finished.
OK, let's start : S&P on 80m on the inverted L made for 160m. I've tested this, my autotuner was able to tune so no problem... except... when I turned on the Acom1000 I was warmly welcomed by an arc-error, and another and another,... Sh***t ! I suspect a too high voltage and the basepoint of the wire causing an arc to the metal (earth) part of the MFJ-998RT. This is a failure in the contruction concept of this box. The wire antenna must pass a hole made in the metal part. When there is wind in combination with high energy on the wire, arcs are possible. I've to find a solution to have a better isolation. On eham.net I wrote this small piece of text about it.
So no 80m on Saterday (the tuner box had to bere-attached from the 160m wire to the 80m wire) .
While speaking about Murphy (the arc problem isn't really Murphy, I had to test this with high power in advance) I've survived some other problems. Too much problems to be good.
3x computer crash with the really blue Windows screen dumping memory,
my manual keyer refused work and this could by solved by a power off/on of the TX. Here I suspect the Microham box.
2 times I suffered a non-stop cq-calling. This is really annoying : people are answering and the pc starts to call cq over and over.
But the biggest challenge was the fight against fatigue. This is the first time ever I had this issue. The last week was very hard on qrl and the so needed rest before a contest was absent. This costs my some extra hours so there was an activity degree of "only" 34 hrs. Normally I can reach easily 40 hrs.
Final score >2900 Q's, 3.7 M points. Not bad in a mode that costs me more energy and concentration than SSB.
I've encourtered a few new things :
- for the first time I've occupied a frequency at the lower part of the band, i.e. 21.015 Mhz. Very difficult to keep the frequency because many stations want to play around this point. The pile-up was very high and I've had difficulties to handle it. It's the first time that my Yaesu MKV with roofing filter installed was at its reception limits.
Normally I use the 250 Hz CW filter and if single calls come and go (and they are answering at the correct freq) I can handle this very well. But with such a pile-up this was not the case. Everybody seemed the same. I could only pick out slower of faster ones, or some chars that are sent at the end.
Better roofing filters and a 300-400Hz CW filter is the solution.
Some weeks ago I had a visu conversation with ON4CT, Dirk, owner of a FT5000. He was convinced that with this filter system he gains +10% QSO's.
I really have to agree. I lost several QSO's in the pile-up because of the reception part.
So Santa Claus : pse a FT3000 or - if possible - a FT5000 for Christmas !
On 15m I ended with 809 Q's.
- big party at 80m : although my 405 Q's due to my absence, I made 78 Q's with the USA/Canada. This surpises me because I had only 6 radials at the ground and about 800W power. No reception antenna(s).
It seems that my signal was rather strong at States site. To be confirmed by RBN statistics.
On 160m I made 7 Q's outside Europe on a total of 45.
- the biggest surprise was on 40m where the dipole was able to contact 84 countries (more then on 20m) and where I worked most multipliers on all continent at first call. Very strange because I ran on Sunday evening at a very low rate. From time to time I received an answer, not from Europe but from VK, ZL, JA, ZS. Only later at the evening the pile-up came from the US as expected.
633 Q's on 40m.
Due to my absence the battle with Mr. F - OQ5M - took not place. He wins this without any problem.
But during the contest I've put the focus on performance between our stations. With Reverse Beacon Network we can easely compare our bands.
It seems that on 20/15/10 we stayed very close to each other both on contacts as multipliers. This looks good for future battles. The biggest difference seems to be the 80m band although at first sight my signal arrives stronger in the US.
So Santa Claus : pse my long asked 80m vertical (Titanex or DXE is ok) for Christmas.
Pse xyl : give me some free time to install the K9AY loop that resides in my shack for several months.
On 160, I made to few Q's in order to compare.
Thanks to all of you for giving the points and the patience to copy ur call correctly !
Thank you D4C and RRDXA friends from CR3L for contacts on the 6 bands.
And to the LYxxx and UR0xx stations that disturbed my JA run on 20m and my US run at 40m without qrl? and without qsy'ing when asked : I keep your calls in mind. We meet again one day !
vrijdag 23 november 2012
Not for dummies
Just a few hours to go before the start of the biggest morse in the world. My final Morserunner session ended in a one-hour single call exercice at 40wpm. It's the first time I copy this speed with almost no errors. Before there was always a battle to copy the difference between S-H, D-B and U-V.
Now this is over. Somewhere in the brains a connexion is finally established to take the right char.
In my beginning years this was the weekend where I closed the shack and didn't make one single contact. Too difficult and too high cw speeds. Exercice during years is the only way to survive this fear.
See you the coming hours/days on the band !
Now this is over. Somewhere in the brains a connexion is finally established to take the right char.
In my beginning years this was the weekend where I closed the shack and didn't make one single contact. Too difficult and too high cw speeds. Exercice during years is the only way to survive this fear.
See you the coming hours/days on the band !
maandag 19 november 2012
I'm ready for CQWW CW
A short message to all competitors in SOAB assisted : I'm ready !
Even on 160m this time, but still with limited < 1 KW power on both 80m and 160m.
I can't sleep on Friday because of a business event, so this will cost some hours of extra sleep in the weekend, but the motivation is high.
A few new countries on 80m and 160m are always welcome.
Even on 160m this time, but still with limited < 1 KW power on both 80m and 160m.
I can't sleep on Friday because of a business event, so this will cost some hours of extra sleep in the weekend, but the motivation is high.
A few new countries on 80m and 160m are always welcome.
zondag 18 november 2012
Listening up : 21285 to 21360...
Yes, finally I worked PT0S. A hell of a job !
They were only active in SSB today, and I'm not at home the coming days, so this was the unique day to work them.
The experienced operator was running split over almost the entire 15m band. And like always there were southern EU stations calling all the time in the complete band segment of 75 Khz... and like always, they were not listening at all.
If you intend to participate an DXpedition, and if you intend to go to a rare one, please be prepared and do some exercice in advance !
And please : do it in CW !
They were only active in SSB today, and I'm not at home the coming days, so this was the unique day to work them.
The experienced operator was running split over almost the entire 15m band. And like always there were southern EU stations calling all the time in the complete band segment of 75 Khz... and like always, they were not listening at all.
If you intend to participate an DXpedition, and if you intend to go to a rare one, please be prepared and do some exercice in advance !
And please : do it in CW !
Hurray on 17 meter !
On Friday I received a direct QSL : Cuba on 4 bands, including 18 Mhz.
Finally I have enough countries for a DXCC on 17m. Hurrah on 17 meter !!
Nothing to boast on the other WARC bands : only 50 confirmations on 24Mhz, and even worse, 27 countries on 10 Mhz. This is the disadvantage of using the same Optibeam connection for both 40m or 30m. During the contest season there is simply no 30m antenna... and between the contests I don't have the time to play...
Finally I have enough countries for a DXCC on 17m. Hurrah on 17 meter !!
Nothing to boast on the other WARC bands : only 50 confirmations on 24Mhz, and even worse, 27 countries on 10 Mhz. This is the disadvantage of using the same Optibeam connection for both 40m or 30m. During the contest season there is simply no 30m antenna... and between the contests I don't have the time to play...
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