How people find this and other ham blogs
Blogger provides you insight into who is visiting your blog and how they found you. This can be helpful to decide how to improve your blog so it reaches the audience you are aiming at.
Using Blogger for my own blog as well as the blogs for PAFF, COTA-PA and WWFF I see some interesting and funny ways in how people end up on these blogs. The most funny ones are the Google search terms from people that are very obviously not looking for a ham blog at all.
Writing about flora and fauna of course attracts people looking for info on nature. So I find the odd links from Google where people where looking for information on specific nature parks in The Neherlands. The same applies for blog items on castles in COTA-PA blog.
Today however I saw a real funny one - in the mismatch category: "welke ham plank". This is Dutch for "which ham board" - where board refers to cutting board, I assume. So, here we have an individual trying to figure out what type of cutting board to buy for his ham. Should it be wood? plastic? I don't know.
This is the first link he got in his Google results - http://www.pa-ff.nl/2012/10/tuesday-23-oct-paff-067-planken-wambuis.html - and he clicked it.
Now what was this person thinking when he saw that page. XYL, PAFF, activation, 40m, 20m, bands, 73, PA3FYG - WTF????
It is a shame Blogger doesn't show you how long this person was staring at his screen.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Monday, November 19, 2012
40m antenna test: end fed versus inverted v
The fairy tale of the poor performing end fed vertical
Last Friday I had a bad experience with my tried and trusted end fed vertical on 40m (actually a multi-band end fed for 10-20-40m).
While listing around I stumbled upon Paul MM0ZBH on 40m. He is the one who recommended me the Sirio 4-element CB antenna for use on 10m. I was about to tell him how much I enjoyed the CQWW thanks to that beam. However he did not seem to hear me, even though I copied him with 58. After several attempts he was able to make out my call sign but there was not a chance for a decent QSO (report received: 33).
The multi-band end fed that I use is 12m long and has a coil at 10m from the network to make the wire resonant on 40m. I blamed this shorter wire for the lousy performance on that band. Frustrated I started looking at other possible antenna configurations for /P operations.
Inverted v
From all the available options the inverted v looked the most promising as it requires only one mast (as the end fed does), while you can still operate with a "full size" antenna (1/2L in this case). The inverted v would also be a candidate configuration for an 80m antenna. I do not have an 80m antenna at the moment and although I can get the 40m wire resonant on 80m when I work from my home (using the tuner of my IC-756P3), it is not a performer by any standard, nor does it help me when I am /P.
This weekend I was able to put something together that looked like it could work as an inverted v. I made the legs a bit longer so I could tune it to perfection. Today I was able to set the antenna up. It took me some fiddling to get it up in a way the Spiderbeam mast did not bend too sharply (the coax goes all the way up with this antenna, so you need to find a way that it does not pull the mast down). I decided to not use the last segment of the mast, so the top of the antenna was at about 11m. I roughly measured 11m from the mast to two opposite directions for the anchor points of the legs.
The Spiderbeam mast was fixed to the side of my car. To the other side of the car I fixed my extended Spieth mast (15m) with the multiband end fed on it. A lovely site: a car upgraded with impressive lengths of fibreglass and loads of wires.
A-B test
Testing with an antenna switch I directly noticed differences in the received signals. I also saw that the inverted v was miraculously resonant on the whole 40m band, dipping around 7.150. How this can be, with the extra wire length I cut, I haven't figured out yet (wrong measurement surely).
The other thing I saw was that the end fed was not resonant by far. The FT-857 warned me for High SWR. This was peculiar... I had this once before when one of the wire ends attached to the coil broke. I took down the end fed to find... that the wire on the other end of the coil had broken (inside the shrink tube, hard to spot). This explains why Paul was unable to copy me: the antenna was 2m short and SWR was sky high.
Would this not have been the case I would not have started with the inverted v. Now however I got both antennas up (I temporarily fixed the end fed on the spot) - so I started testing any way.
19 OMs came to the rescue to provide me with a nice set of signal reports. The reports came in from DL, G, MM, I, HB9 and S5 - roughly from 300km to 1250km.
All OMs agreed on one point: the inverted v resulted in a stronger signal at the receivers end. The difference was not the same though. It varied from 2 s-points to "not a lot". Most of the times it was 6dB or 1 s-point difference. The same difference I saw on rx.
As the inverted v is a little less practical than the vertical end fed, I will test it a bit more before I decide whether to switch antennas for my /P operations. I am especially curious on how the difference in performance is on longer distances - as signal levels within Europe are hardly an issue worth the extra hassle.
Forgot to take pictures of the antenna park I created around my car. Will try to remember to do this next time.
To do
Next project: building the 80m version of the inverted v. With the nice results I got with the 40m version I will definitely add an 80m inverted v to my /P operating set. It will be nice to activate a PAFF or COTA-PA on 80m for the first time (for me).
Last Friday I had a bad experience with my tried and trusted end fed vertical on 40m (actually a multi-band end fed for 10-20-40m).
While listing around I stumbled upon Paul MM0ZBH on 40m. He is the one who recommended me the Sirio 4-element CB antenna for use on 10m. I was about to tell him how much I enjoyed the CQWW thanks to that beam. However he did not seem to hear me, even though I copied him with 58. After several attempts he was able to make out my call sign but there was not a chance for a decent QSO (report received: 33).
The multi-band end fed that I use is 12m long and has a coil at 10m from the network to make the wire resonant on 40m. I blamed this shorter wire for the lousy performance on that band. Frustrated I started looking at other possible antenna configurations for /P operations.
Inverted v
From all the available options the inverted v looked the most promising as it requires only one mast (as the end fed does), while you can still operate with a "full size" antenna (1/2L in this case). The inverted v would also be a candidate configuration for an 80m antenna. I do not have an 80m antenna at the moment and although I can get the 40m wire resonant on 80m when I work from my home (using the tuner of my IC-756P3), it is not a performer by any standard, nor does it help me when I am /P.
This weekend I was able to put something together that looked like it could work as an inverted v. I made the legs a bit longer so I could tune it to perfection. Today I was able to set the antenna up. It took me some fiddling to get it up in a way the Spiderbeam mast did not bend too sharply (the coax goes all the way up with this antenna, so you need to find a way that it does not pull the mast down). I decided to not use the last segment of the mast, so the top of the antenna was at about 11m. I roughly measured 11m from the mast to two opposite directions for the anchor points of the legs.
The Spiderbeam mast was fixed to the side of my car. To the other side of the car I fixed my extended Spieth mast (15m) with the multiband end fed on it. A lovely site: a car upgraded with impressive lengths of fibreglass and loads of wires.
A-B test
Testing with an antenna switch I directly noticed differences in the received signals. I also saw that the inverted v was miraculously resonant on the whole 40m band, dipping around 7.150. How this can be, with the extra wire length I cut, I haven't figured out yet (wrong measurement surely).
The other thing I saw was that the end fed was not resonant by far. The FT-857 warned me for High SWR. This was peculiar... I had this once before when one of the wire ends attached to the coil broke. I took down the end fed to find... that the wire on the other end of the coil had broken (inside the shrink tube, hard to spot). This explains why Paul was unable to copy me: the antenna was 2m short and SWR was sky high.
Would this not have been the case I would not have started with the inverted v. Now however I got both antennas up (I temporarily fixed the end fed on the spot) - so I started testing any way.
19 OMs came to the rescue to provide me with a nice set of signal reports. The reports came in from DL, G, MM, I, HB9 and S5 - roughly from 300km to 1250km.
All OMs agreed on one point: the inverted v resulted in a stronger signal at the receivers end. The difference was not the same though. It varied from 2 s-points to "not a lot". Most of the times it was 6dB or 1 s-point difference. The same difference I saw on rx.
As the inverted v is a little less practical than the vertical end fed, I will test it a bit more before I decide whether to switch antennas for my /P operations. I am especially curious on how the difference in performance is on longer distances - as signal levels within Europe are hardly an issue worth the extra hassle.
Forgot to take pictures of the antenna park I created around my car. Will try to remember to do this next time.
To do
Next project: building the 80m version of the inverted v. With the nice results I got with the 40m version I will definitely add an 80m inverted v to my /P operating set. It will be nice to activate a PAFF or COTA-PA on 80m for the first time (for me).
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Four nature parks in two weeks
Activating three new PAFFs
The list of new PAFF references provides a nice incentive to go out and activate. With my youngest daughter going to school since recently I have some extra spare time.
In the past two weeks I visited four nature parks, logging 560 contacts in total:
I have posted a bit of info on these activities on the PAFF website.
The most pleasant activation by far was the activation of PAFF-061. One of the operation positions I selected using Google Maps turned out to be very beautiful and serene. Just the place to spoil with some EMF ;-)
The autumn leafs brought a lot of colour and the sun was out making it a warm 10 degrees Celsius. When I saw that the place was far from crowded I decided to operate from one of the benches overlooking a nice field. The bench was still a bit wet but nothing an old garbage bag could not solve. I stayed outside for almost 2 hours operating on 17m and 20m. Then rain came in (I was warned 15 minutes earlier thanks to a handy Android app) and I went back to the car. From the car I operated on 40m and 20m.
I was slightly worried that the electric fence around the field would generate QRM but I did not notice it, apart from S7 QRM on 40m. But that is hardly extraordinary around lunch time.
The list of new PAFF references provides a nice incentive to go out and activate. With my youngest daughter going to school since recently I have some extra spare time.
In the past two weeks I visited four nature parks, logging 560 contacts in total:
- Loenermark, PAFF-053 - 145 stations, 31 DXCCs, max QRB 8200km (YY)
- Buurserzand & Haaksbergseveen, PAFF-056 - 99 stations, 20 DXCCs, max QRB 3600km (UA9)
- Planken Wambuis, PAFF-067 - 107 stations, 25 DXCCs, max QRB 7300km (K0)
- Boswachterij Sleenerzand, PAFF-061 - 209 stations, 32 DXCCs, max QRB 9500km (PY1)
I have posted a bit of info on these activities on the PAFF website.
The most pleasant activation by far was the activation of PAFF-061. One of the operation positions I selected using Google Maps turned out to be very beautiful and serene. Just the place to spoil with some EMF ;-)
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Sunday, October 28, 2012
Great fun @ CQWW 2012
Logging new DXCCs like there is no tomorrow
As blogged before I was planning to use my new HexBeam to hunt some new DXCC during the SSB CQ WW contest. With the station manager I had agreed upon two timeslots: Saturday late afternoon and evening and Sunday morning.
I went out to a deserted large parking lot near where I live, taking both my HexBeam and my 10m 4 element yagi (the converted CB antenna) and of course the alu mast - one that does not need guying.
Checking the conditions Saturday afternoon, I saw that most of the activity was on 10m. So I set up my 4 element yagi at about 10-12m high (33-36ft) and listened around.
At first (around 16:00 CET / 14:00 UTC) I mainly copied NA stations and I worked a couple without any problems. Then I spotted DP0 on the cluster. I turned the antenna southwards and worked my way through the pile-up, logging my first Antarctic contact. Cool!
Not much later I logged another new one: V2. Then I went on to work a number of NA and SA OMs (some new DXCCs on 10m). I maintained an e-mail contact with PD7YY who lives nearby and has a 2 element 10m beam at his QTH. He was also looking for interesting DX on 10m and helped me find some new ones. Although I have a cluster app on my phone it is not as handy as my PC apps, so the extra e-mail spotting was a welcome addition. It also increased the chasing atmosphere ("hey, did you already get V3? he is on 964 now").
The Caribbean and Central America were gaining strength and I worked a lot of new entities in that area. I stayed on 10m until around 19:00 CET. I took a short break, then I started to build my HexBeam. It took me quite some time to change antennas (taking down the yagi and setting up the Hex). I was back on the air around 20:30 CET checking 15m and 20m with the Hex. It was very lively everywhere. Looking for real DX I in the end only worked 9 stations in the next (and last) hour but amongst them 1 new one and 3 "new band ones".
I was thrilled with this experience - accustomed to working from home with a sloping wire (no chance on getting through a pile-up towards DP0 - or even copying him). With the beam I could always work a station if I could hear him. With a bit of patience (only using 90w) I could find my way through every pile-up.
The next morning I went out again to the same spot. Again 10m was alive, so I set up the yagi once more. I started around 9:00 CET (8:00 UTC due to winter time) and heard lots of DX. PD7YY was online as before and we exchanged results and spots for the next three hours through e-mail.
It was amazing how easy I could work new ones with the beam, even exotic ones like North Mariana Islands (never heard of them before), Guam and Hawaii. Even VK was "no worries mate - too easy".
One thing I did not manage to do is to rigorously test the HexBeam. There was just no time (and no point) to put it up with 10m going berserk.
All in all I logged 95 calls in 27 zones during the two time slots (7 hours radio time in total). They represent a smashing 24 new DXCCs to me and another 14 new band DXCCs.
DX worked: 6Y, 7Z (HZ), 8P, 9V, 9Y, A7, AH0, AP, B, BM, C5, CN, DP0, DS, E2 (HS), EX, EY, HK, HQ, J3, JA, JT, KG6, KH7, KP2, LU, NH2, NP4, P4, PJ2, PJ4, PU, RW0, T6, TO, TR, UK, UN, V2, V3, VE1/2/3/5/7/9, VK, VP5, VR, VU, W0/1/2/3/4/7/9, XE, XV, YV, ZD, ZF, ZS
The most challenging pile-ups (at least the way I remember them) were towards 9V, V3 and AP.
It sure was fun. I wish I could have an antenna like that at home....
Thanks to PD7YY for the e-mail support!
As blogged before I was planning to use my new HexBeam to hunt some new DXCC during the SSB CQ WW contest. With the station manager I had agreed upon two timeslots: Saturday late afternoon and evening and Sunday morning.
I went out to a deserted large parking lot near where I live, taking both my HexBeam and my 10m 4 element yagi (the converted CB antenna) and of course the alu mast - one that does not need guying.
Checking the conditions Saturday afternoon, I saw that most of the activity was on 10m. So I set up my 4 element yagi at about 10-12m high (33-36ft) and listened around.
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| PH0NO - with 4 element yagi @ >10m (>33ft) |
At first (around 16:00 CET / 14:00 UTC) I mainly copied NA stations and I worked a couple without any problems. Then I spotted DP0 on the cluster. I turned the antenna southwards and worked my way through the pile-up, logging my first Antarctic contact. Cool!
Not much later I logged another new one: V2. Then I went on to work a number of NA and SA OMs (some new DXCCs on 10m). I maintained an e-mail contact with PD7YY who lives nearby and has a 2 element 10m beam at his QTH. He was also looking for interesting DX on 10m and helped me find some new ones. Although I have a cluster app on my phone it is not as handy as my PC apps, so the extra e-mail spotting was a welcome addition. It also increased the chasing atmosphere ("hey, did you already get V3? he is on 964 now").
The Caribbean and Central America were gaining strength and I worked a lot of new entities in that area. I stayed on 10m until around 19:00 CET. I took a short break, then I started to build my HexBeam. It took me quite some time to change antennas (taking down the yagi and setting up the Hex). I was back on the air around 20:30 CET checking 15m and 20m with the Hex. It was very lively everywhere. Looking for real DX I in the end only worked 9 stations in the next (and last) hour but amongst them 1 new one and 3 "new band ones".
I was thrilled with this experience - accustomed to working from home with a sloping wire (no chance on getting through a pile-up towards DP0 - or even copying him). With the beam I could always work a station if I could hear him. With a bit of patience (only using 90w) I could find my way through every pile-up.
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| Another day, the same yagi... |
The next morning I went out again to the same spot. Again 10m was alive, so I set up the yagi once more. I started around 9:00 CET (8:00 UTC due to winter time) and heard lots of DX. PD7YY was online as before and we exchanged results and spots for the next three hours through e-mail.
It was amazing how easy I could work new ones with the beam, even exotic ones like North Mariana Islands (never heard of them before), Guam and Hawaii. Even VK was "no worries mate - too easy".
One thing I did not manage to do is to rigorously test the HexBeam. There was just no time (and no point) to put it up with 10m going berserk.
All in all I logged 95 calls in 27 zones during the two time slots (7 hours radio time in total). They represent a smashing 24 new DXCCs to me and another 14 new band DXCCs.
DX worked: 6Y, 7Z (HZ), 8P, 9V, 9Y, A7, AH0, AP, B, BM, C5, CN, DP0, DS, E2 (HS), EX, EY, HK, HQ, J3, JA, JT, KG6, KH7, KP2, LU, NH2, NP4, P4, PJ2, PJ4, PU, RW0, T6, TO, TR, UK, UN, V2, V3, VE1/2/3/5/7/9, VK, VP5, VR, VU, W0/1/2/3/4/7/9, XE, XV, YV, ZD, ZF, ZS
The most challenging pile-ups (at least the way I remember them) were towards 9V, V3 and AP.
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| Stations worked - red = 10m, orange = 15m, yellow = 20m |
Thanks to PD7YY for the e-mail support!
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Finishing and testing portable hexbeam
Folding antenna by DL1ELU
(UPDATES: links to multiple posts to share my experiences at the bottom of this post)
Okay, so that is what the kit I posted earlier has become: a hexbeam - a 6 band antenna (6-20m) with 2 elements per band. It took me about 2 days to build it using the kit designed and produced by DL1ELU (http://www.foldingantennas.com). He produces custom build plastic parts making this a very well built antenna (much much better than my home brew cobweb).
DL1ELU has an eye for details. This is not only apparent from the antenna parts but also from the manual. Each and every step is described and comes with a tick box - so you know where you left off. This works very well for me as I tend to race things, ending up with making the wrong decisions, not measuring accurately or putting things together in the wrong order. No chance for mistakes here.
To give you an example of Christian's approach: he knows that it is difficult to measure a long piece of wire accurately. He thinks it might be a good idea to put a small plastic pin in the ground, use some copper wire and attach both your measuring tape and the wire to this pin. To support this idea he actually put a small piece of fibreglass and a piece of extra copper wire in the kit and shows you in pictures how to use them.
Brilliant.
Note that the kit really is a kit: everything needs to be handled, prepared, put together, etc. The plastic parts are still connected together, the way they came out of the mould. Reminds me of those little toy plane kits I had as a kid.
That kept me busy for two days but without the normal frustration (thanks to the manual). It was a pleasant pass-time.
I am aiming to use the antenna in the CQ WW contest this weekend. Before today I was able to put the whole antenna together except for the elements. I did already add the support wires and the element clamps and I prepared all the elements (collection of wires of the right length combined into drivers and reflectors per band).
This morning was my only time slot for testing this antenna this week. So I started this morning with unpacking the folded antenna, adding the elements and getting the whole thing up in the air (using my home brew alu mast).
Using my FT-817 as analyzer I quickly checked the SWR on all bands. It was really acceptable, <1.5 on all bands. I think the antenna can still be improved on a few bands (the dip is now outside the phone segment on several bands) but I did not have the time now to tweak the antenna - I wanted to do some on the air testing.
The first test I did is one to bring a smile to a ham's face: I fired up the FT-857 (abt 90W output) and listened around. I heard a couple of stations from Asia and Oceania. So I pointed the beam north-east and started calling DX on 15m. The first station to answer was Ben, ZL1CAH.
Imagine that!
I have never worked ZL using phone before (not counting an old 11m QSO 20 years ago). Ben was not very strong - an indication conditions were not super - but he gave me a 55 anyway.
Then I worked 2 JA's before I had to pack everything together and get back to my normal duties.
One test is not really statistically significant so I will have to do some more tests and probably some A-B with my tried and trusted HyEndFeds. Theory and gut feeling tell me however that this antenna is worth the hassle of bringing a larger mast and the folding and unfolding process if I want to hunt DX.
About the folding: I still have to figure out how to get the unfolding done efficiently. Today was my first try with the folded antenna - without the elements but with the support wires. It took me 30 minutes to get the thing untangled. I am not looking forward to doing the same again now the antenna has an extra 80 meters of wires attached to it.
UPDATE: Being more experienced with the folding process I am now a lot quicker in setting up the antenna. Description of how I do the folding is here.
Will post more in the future when I have more experience with this antenna.
Like this post: more experiences with the portable hexbeam (December 2012)
or this one: out with the hexbeam, having fun (December 2012)
or this one: more hexbeam activity in the sun (March 2013)
or this one: out with the "hex" again - logging a lot of "new ones" (August 2013)
or this one: a few hours fishing DX - catching new ones (October 2013)
or this one: is it worth taking the hexbeam on short activities? (April 2014)
-- I have become a very enthusiastic user of this DX-chasing-yet-portable-antenna.
Together with my team members I have used the hexbeam in PACC contests for 20m/15m/10m in a 24h field day set-up. We won this contest three times in a row 2016-2017-2018.
(UPDATES: links to multiple posts to share my experiences at the bottom of this post)
Okay, so that is what the kit I posted earlier has become: a hexbeam - a 6 band antenna (6-20m) with 2 elements per band. It took me about 2 days to build it using the kit designed and produced by DL1ELU (http://www.foldingantennas.com). He produces custom build plastic parts making this a very well built antenna (much much better than my home brew cobweb).
DL1ELU has an eye for details. This is not only apparent from the antenna parts but also from the manual. Each and every step is described and comes with a tick box - so you know where you left off. This works very well for me as I tend to race things, ending up with making the wrong decisions, not measuring accurately or putting things together in the wrong order. No chance for mistakes here.
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| From the manual of DL1ELU |
Brilliant.
Note that the kit really is a kit: everything needs to be handled, prepared, put together, etc. The plastic parts are still connected together, the way they came out of the mould. Reminds me of those little toy plane kits I had as a kid.
That kept me busy for two days but without the normal frustration (thanks to the manual). It was a pleasant pass-time.
I am aiming to use the antenna in the CQ WW contest this weekend. Before today I was able to put the whole antenna together except for the elements. I did already add the support wires and the element clamps and I prepared all the elements (collection of wires of the right length combined into drivers and reflectors per band).
This morning was my only time slot for testing this antenna this week. So I started this morning with unpacking the folded antenna, adding the elements and getting the whole thing up in the air (using my home brew alu mast).
 |
| Alu mast attached to the car - pushed out to abt 9m (30ft) |
The first test I did is one to bring a smile to a ham's face: I fired up the FT-857 (abt 90W output) and listened around. I heard a couple of stations from Asia and Oceania. So I pointed the beam north-east and started calling DX on 15m. The first station to answer was Ben, ZL1CAH.
Imagine that!
I have never worked ZL using phone before (not counting an old 11m QSO 20 years ago). Ben was not very strong - an indication conditions were not super - but he gave me a 55 anyway.
Then I worked 2 JA's before I had to pack everything together and get back to my normal duties.
 |
| Nice sight: the result of hard work and a good kit |
One test is not really statistically significant so I will have to do some more tests and probably some A-B with my tried and trusted HyEndFeds. Theory and gut feeling tell me however that this antenna is worth the hassle of bringing a larger mast and the folding and unfolding process if I want to hunt DX.
About the folding: I still have to figure out how to get the unfolding done efficiently. Today was my first try with the folded antenna - without the elements but with the support wires. It took me 30 minutes to get the thing untangled. I am not looking forward to doing the same again now the antenna has an extra 80 meters of wires attached to it.
UPDATE: Being more experienced with the folding process I am now a lot quicker in setting up the antenna. Description of how I do the folding is here.
Will post more in the future when I have more experience with this antenna.
Like this post: more experiences with the portable hexbeam (December 2012)
or this one: out with the hexbeam, having fun (December 2012)
or this one: more hexbeam activity in the sun (March 2013)
or this one: out with the "hex" again - logging a lot of "new ones" (August 2013)
or this one: a few hours fishing DX - catching new ones (October 2013)
or this one: is it worth taking the hexbeam on short activities? (April 2014)
-- I have become a very enthusiastic user of this DX-chasing-yet-portable-antenna.
Together with my team members I have used the hexbeam in PACC contests for 20m/15m/10m in a 24h field day set-up. We won this contest three times in a row 2016-2017-2018.
Friday, October 19, 2012
New project @ PH0NO
A few weeks ago I got myself some new HAM material.
Now I have found the time to work on it. Let's see if it turns out to be as good as it looks on paper.
Okay, bets are on.. what is this:
Now I have found the time to work on it. Let's see if it turns out to be as good as it looks on paper.
Okay, bets are on.. what is this:
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Third new one: PAFF-069
Four band activation of Ugchelen Hoenderloo
Knowing I had some time to spare at the end of the day yesterday I studied the map of PAFF-069 and found an operating spot that would allow enough room for setting up an extended fibreglass pole (for 40m). PAFF-069 is a forest, hence not the most friendly environment for setting up antennas.
The weather was not very pleasant with rain and gusty winds. This makes operating from a park less attractive. On the other hand there are not a lot of people in the park with this kind of weather, assuring that there is at least some room left in the few open spots (free of trees) of the park.
The spot I selected on the map was very suitable so I was able to operate all bands including 40m. This time the antenna wire stayed in place even though the wind did its best to blow it of the extended pole (see picture).
I started out on 10m. Although I heard a couple of stations I did not work any. Going down to 15m activity level started to increase. It still was not very busy - logging 24 OMs in 20 minutes and DX was sparse. Bob WX4QN in Tennessee set the maximum QRB to 6900km.
On 20m activity was plenty as always. Signal levels were good although there was also little DX on this band. I logged 93 calls in about 50 minutes before going down to 40m. 40m was 200khz of QRM. Using two different frequencies - trying to get away from the QRM - I was able to log 25 calls in about half an hour. When I had enough of the QRM there was still some time left. So I tried 10m once again and logged one call from CN. Then I finished the actvity on 20m with another 30 contacts.
In total I logged 173 calls from 31 DXCCs in about 2 hours radio time. A lot of familiar OMs passed by. Sandro I0SSW and Luciano I5FLN came by on 3 bands. DX came in from W4, W1, UA9, UN, 4X and CN.
See you all next time.
Knowing I had some time to spare at the end of the day yesterday I studied the map of PAFF-069 and found an operating spot that would allow enough room for setting up an extended fibreglass pole (for 40m). PAFF-069 is a forest, hence not the most friendly environment for setting up antennas.
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| Ugchelen Hoenderloo - PAFF-069 |
The spot I selected on the map was very suitable so I was able to operate all bands including 40m. This time the antenna wire stayed in place even though the wind did its best to blow it of the extended pole (see picture).
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| Strong winds |
I started out on 10m. Although I heard a couple of stations I did not work any. Going down to 15m activity level started to increase. It still was not very busy - logging 24 OMs in 20 minutes and DX was sparse. Bob WX4QN in Tennessee set the maximum QRB to 6900km.
On 20m activity was plenty as always. Signal levels were good although there was also little DX on this band. I logged 93 calls in about 50 minutes before going down to 40m. 40m was 200khz of QRM. Using two different frequencies - trying to get away from the QRM - I was able to log 25 calls in about half an hour. When I had enough of the QRM there was still some time left. So I tried 10m once again and logged one call from CN. Then I finished the actvity on 20m with another 30 contacts.
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| Operating spot @ PAFF-069 |
See you all next time.
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