Saturday, July 9, 2011

PAFF-019 for the second time

Yesterday I was back at PAFF-019 for one and a half hour of air time. I brought my FT-817 (5W output), an end fed wire for 20m and my Spieth mast. Conditions were not very good, I think even a bit worse than last time. I did work 107 different stations from 24 different DXCC entities in 100 minutes, so I was not bored at all.

The maximum distance was this time around 3500km in the direction of Ekatarinaburg in Asiatic Russia. Apart from a few stations from Asiatic Russia I logged only European stations. Most replies came from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Italy and Germany.

The weather was very pleasant with temperatures around 23 degrees and the view nice as always. The only downside was a strong and gusty wind. One gust of wind took down the antenna after 10 minutes of operation. Luckily everything was still in one piece, so I was back on the air in no time.

Thanks to all OM's who took the time to work my small portable station.

73 44,
Lars.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Activating near home: PAFF-019

Veluwezoom - PAFF-019

After the experience at PAFF-014 I decided to try and activate Veluwezoom, PAFF-019. I took my FT-817 and a LiFePo battery with me. First I tried my new AlexLoop but did not get any response on my calls. Then I put up my Spieth mast with an end fed wire (by HyEndFed) for 20m. This gave me a couple of replies at first with a lot of QSB. It turned out conditions were rather poor. 

After a few minutes however more and more OM's found their way to my calling frequency. This time a milder pile up than @ PAFF-014 but still a nice steady stream of contacts. Conditions seemed to decline so I quit after only 45 minutes of activity. Total amount of logged contacts is 48 from 20 different DXCC entities this time. There was one VE station that made it through the European pile up.

Although I did not have my log with me (only took a few blank sheets to log new calls) I recognized a number of callsigns from the activation of PAFF-014 last Monday.

I will return to the Veluwezoom when I find the time and conditions are a bit better.

73, 44
Lars.