Friday, March 8, 2013

More Hexbeam activity in the sun

Hunting rare DX on my Wednesday morning off

Last Wednesday conditions for a /P operation were good: not too much to do around the house and good weather. So when I got the kids in school I collected and loaded all my /P stuff in my car to drive to my favourite low profile /P location just north of Arnhem.

It has been a long time since we had weather like we had on Wednesday. It was 16 degrees Celsius and standing in the sun I did not need to wear a jacket to stay comfortably warm. Quite a change from the last time I was out and almost froze my feet from standing outside in the cold for 1,5 hours.

The hexbeam needed a bit of time to unfold as the wires got a bit entangled but once unfolded all wires were still in place and kept the spreaders in the right shape (thanks to the tape I placed on the spreaders). Due to the extra time spent on the beam it took me about 45 minutes to get the station installed.

Hextbeam at about 12m (40ft)
I started out calling CQ on 15m. There I was greeted by OMs from TA and JA. Apart from those OMs it remained rather quiet. Then Marcel PD7YY (my human DX cluster) sent me a Whatsapp message to inform me about a DXpedition @ XT. At that moment they were active on 12m CW (so they had not appeared on my phone's DX cluster app as I filter on phone only) but not much later they appeared on 17m. First they focused on JA long path but half an hour later I was in their log.

In the mean time I came across two other interesting DX stations: 3B9 on 12m and Z81 on 10m. Z81 was working by number but I did not get through on the first and rather short "0" slot. The 3B9 DXpedition was working JA exclusively every time I came back to their frequency. I kept going back and forth making a contact with JX on 15m in the mean time (new band). The next time Z81 came back to "0" I was ready and managed to get through after two or three calls. Another new one.

FT-857, Heil head set, LiFePo batteries and paper log - not on the picture is my mobile amp + car batt.
3B9 was still focussing on JA and Asia, so time to look around for other DX. Then ET3AA appeared on 15m. I must say that having an all band antenna really is brilliant - nothing else to do then just change the frequency on the radio and I am set to go (keep in mind I am used to work with EFHW antennas where I have to change the wire to change bands). After some calling I was in the log of ET3AA as well.

Time was running out and 3B9 was no where to be found any more.  I did see XT spots on 20m. So I gave that a try and was in their log on this band as well without much trouble. Then it was time to break up the /P station to be back at school in time to pick up the kids. Timing this I found it takes me just under half an hour to get everything nicely packed & in the car.

All in all a very nice /P morning. Perfect weather, three new DXCCs and two new band DXCCs.

6 comments:

  1. Hallo Lars, wel een heel gedoe om zo een antenne op te zetten maar dan heb je ook wat. Weer mooie DX gewerkt in korte tijd! 73, Bas

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    1. Als AZA moet je toch wat...
      Volgende uitje wordt waarschijnlijk WPX. Moet ook wat halen zijn om mijn lijstjes aan te kunnen vullen.
      73, Lars

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  2. Lekker! Helaas nu weer kou. Groet yy

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    1. YY! Pcies. Deze week maar niet meer op pad. Vriezen mijn vingers weer vast aan het alu van de mast. Gr, Lars.

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  3. Hallo Lars,

    Het was ideaal testweer. En je hebt wederom mooie vernindingen gemaakt.
    Zelf heb ik lekker buiten kunnen sleutelen aan mijn pas gebouwde kruisyagi.
    Die testplek van jou is een mooie lokatie daar om te testen en /p te werken. Geen last van MP of groene mannetjes?

    73 de Hans, PE1BVQ

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    Replies
    1. Hallo Hans, kruisyagi voor 15m toevallig? Die wil ik wel lenen. :)
      MP, groene mannetjes, gemeente en reguliere politie op bezoek gehad. Allemaal min of meer onder de indruk. Maar niet meer dan dat.
      Prima plek totdat de bomen weer helemaal groen zijn. Dan is er een natuurlijk filter aanwezig (tenzij je een mast van 20+ meter hebt).
      73, Lars.

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