FFF-081 Causses du Quercy

This afternoon (around 16-18h CET) I will be active from Causses du Quercy, a large nature park in the south of France (departement Lot, 46).

Propagation predictions are very poor, I just hope it won't be as bad as it looks..

Radio-active from France

Temporary shack @ department Lot (46)

Just like last year I have decided to take my radio stuff with me on holiday. Provided I take on all family duties (i.e. no 24/7 operation) the Station Manager (aka Internal Affairs) has OK-ed this.

I am never sure how people will react to a radio station on their camp site so I keep a low profile. The shack is in or around the tent (using a laptop and digital modes) and the antenna is behind it - just look at the zoomed in pictures behind the tent: my tried and trusted half wave end fed is up in the trees again.
 

Innocent camping set-up

There is something in that tree there...?

... oh no, it's the HyEndFed end fed wire

Using fishing line I can take down the antenna and change the wire to move to a different band.

Already worked a number of EU stations and several DX stations (JA, CX, CE, PT) on 10m and 20m on PSK.

In about a weeks time I will go over to a nearby nature park that is on the WFF list and has not been activated before: Causses de Quercy (FFF-081). Still have to find a nice low profile spot as I am not sure I have the necessary permit papers with me.

If you see anything like F/PH0NO/P on your waterfall - give me a shout.

73, Lars - F/PH0NO/P

Short activation of De Biesbosch (PAFF-002)

Reasonable conditions on two bands

With an unexpected gap in my schedule I headed over to PAFF-002 (De Biesbosch), as it is one of the most wanted PAFF areas. It is a very beautiful park with lots of water situated in a densely populated area (near to Rotterdam).

On my way into the park I found out there was a lot of restructuring going on. This also affected the main road I had chosen. Losing a lot of time finding an operating spot I had about one hour left for the activation.

Operating spot @ PAFF-002

I decided to focus on two bands: 17m and 20m. The higher bands were too quiet, so 17m seemed like the best band with DX potential and 20m is the most lively band for WFF.

This meant giving up on 40m and possibly disappointing a couple of nearby stations (notably DL and ON) - sorry!

On 17m I was greeted by 40 OMs. DX came in from the east (JA, R0/9 and UN). Signals were okay but not too strong - mostly around 57. On 20m an early VE3 came by as well as more than 50 EU OMs.

All in all I worked 95 stations from 26 DXCCs in about one hour of radio time with the max QRB set to 8700km by a JA OM.

Gerard F1BLL, Luciano I5FLN, Lada OK2PAY and Oleg UX1IM came by on both bands.

Thanks all for calling in.
Lars, PH0NO/P

Sunday antenna afternoon (2)

Lousy propagation - test partily completed

 

As planned I went out with my new aluminium mast, the home made Cobwebb, the yagi and the usual end fed wires, poles and radio stuph.

The goals today:

• testing my new telescoping mast to see if it would hold the Cobwebb and the yagi without guying
• comparing the Cobwebb to my usual half wave end fed vertical to see which of the two makes a better DX antenna

It took me far more time than I expected to set up the station. The Cobwebb was a mess and setting up the telescoping mast proved quite a muscle job. In the end I did not have the time to raise the yagi, but I was able to test the Cobwebb vs. the half wave end fed.

The first antenna I got up in the air was the Cobwebb. The aluminium mast stayed almost completely upright (just a tiny bit of tilting) without guying, carrying the 2kg antenna. I was able to push the mast out to 12m (40ft). That was good news!

Cobwebb @ 12m (40ft)

 The big disappointment today were the propagations. The solar widget told me this:

..and indeed, when I fired up the radio 10m was dead, 12-15-17m were quiet with some EU stations and QSB and even 20m was not very good with strong QSB.

I settled for 20m as it was the most lively band, hoping to catch some DX there. I set up the 20m end fed wire (12m high, feeding point @ 2m) next to the Cobwebb to be able to compare the two antennas.

This was the resulting /P set-up:

One car, two 12m high antennas

About 20 OMs participated in the test. Only one of those counts as DX (UA9 - 4000km), the rest of the stations were EU stations within the 2000km range.

QSB was strong, making a comparison dificult. Switching quickly between the two antennas I was able to get a fair idea however, both on RX and on TX. Almost all of the stations reported one S-point difference of the Cobwebb over the vertical. I noticed the same on RX. The difference was more apparent when the other station used horizontal polarization. When the other station was using vertical polarization the picture is somewhat fuzzy (sometimes the Cobwebb was stronger, sometimes the vertical).

If the difference I got in this test (+1 S-point) is the typical difference on all bands and all distances I would not consider switching to the Cobwebb as my /P antenna as it is far less practical to use. However I was not able to assess the DX performance - the reason to even consider using another antenna than the end fed wires - of the antennas, nor was I able to test the higher bands. I would expect the Cobwebb to perform better on the higher bands as its relative height increases when the frequency increases. 

So, enough reasons to repeat this test. If I can find another few hours to slip away from other duties at a time that propagations are good enough for serious DX-ing I will post an update on the results.

Thanks to the OMs that participated in the test.

Sunday antenna afternoon

Testing my new mast, Cobwebb vs end fed and possibly the 10m yagi 

Tomorrow I will be testing my new home made portable aluminium mast. I have constructed it using various widths of aluminium loosely fitting pipes and clamps. Theoretically it should be able to reach 13m (42ft). I will update my Projects page with more info and pictures later. 

I hope to be able to set it up attached to my car without further (guying) support and reach at least 10m (33ft). It will be interesting to see if it can hold my 10m 4-el yagi (6kg) at that height. 

If it works out well enough I will raise my Cobwebb 5-band antenna (only 2kg) and compare it head-to-head with my half wave end fed wire antenna to see which of the two is the better /P DX antenna. I just hope conditions on the higher bands are favourable tomorrow. 

A dipole's effectiveness depends a lot on its height above ground. With the Cobwebb's lowest band being 20m, a mast that goes up to 10m does not make it a DX killer on the lower of the five bands. However, I think it is fair to say that 10m is very reasonable height for a /P operation.

More later..

PAFF-041 Bargerveen

Zoo on 40m, good conditions on 15m and 20m and even some contacts on 6m

Yesterday I was in the northern part of the Netherlands together with some people who were going to watch soccer all night. As I don't care for that game, I went out to a "most wanted" PAFF that was reasonably close (less than 30 minutes drive): Bargerveen.

PAFF-041 (bordering on DLFF-076)

I had already checked out the area on the map and found an entrance road into the park. I started out on 15m as 10m seemed rather dead - it was already past 19:00 local time.

15m was lively but quickly suffering from quite some QSB. I still worked 41 stations in half an hour. During that time I was pleasantly suprised by a visit from JA and from YB - both putting in a 57.

After 30 minutes I went down to 20m. It was rather crowded with a contest going on (I am not used to activate WFF in the weekends - normally 20m is a lot quieter). I stayed on 20m for 45 minutes, greeting a lot of familiar callsigns. Here I was greeted by another JA station.

Multiband HyEndFed on 15m high pole

As usual I decided to go down to 40m when things slowed down on 20m. However I was not prepared for the state of things on 40m at that time. I think it was due to the contest (Portugal contest?) and some other WFF activities but I could not find a clean frequency in the entire band. Tuning up and down I decided to settle for a noisy but just bareable spot. I got a couple of answers but it was clear to me that it was as dificult for others to copy me as it was for me to copy any station. Normally a WFF activity on 40m generates a pileup but I only copied a handful of stations. What might have contributed to a lower activity level - apart from the crazy QRM - was the fact that a soccer game with the German team had started (normally a lot of German OMs call in on 40m).

After only 7 contacts on 40m (a new record I think) I decided to use my last 15 minutes to try 6m. I saw some spots that indicated I might be able to work a few European stations. Ofcourse you won't come across a lot of hunters but I just discovered this band and I like its unpredictability. A few calls brought me into contact with 5 stations in 10 minutes - ER, 9A and YO.

All in all I was on the air for about 90 minutes in which I logged 103 contacts from 30 DXCCs. One third of the OMs passing by were new contacts to me. The maximum QRB was set to 11.500km by an OM from YB (a new record during a PAFF activation for me). DX came in from the east only. I did not copy any DX from the west (like the usual VE or east coast USA).

Luciano I5FLN, Manuel EA2DT, Axel DL1EBR and Jean-Louis F1NZC came by on two bands.

Thanks all for calling in.

Lars, PH0NO/P

PAFF-046 - Odoorn Boswachterij

Good weather in a nice park - activating 4 bands

This afternoon I was in the northeastern corner of the Netherlands to activate one of the most wanted PAFFs. There are a number of parks that have only been contacted by a handful of OMs in the northeast. On special request I focused on PAFF-046 (Odoorn Boswachterij) - number 2 on the most wanted list.

The weather was very good today allowing me to operate partily outside - the last time I was able to do that was in October last year (PAFF-042).

Hondsrug - part of Odoorn PAFF-046

10m seemed very quiet so I started on 15m. There was quite some QSB. I worked some 24 stations before going down to 20m where I worked 66 stations. Then I went back up to 17m to check for some more DX. 17m is never very busy so after 11 contacts I went down to 40m for short distance contacts. 40m was rather busy - I only found a quiet spot near the end of the band. I worked 32 stations before I had to pack up and head home.

With the weather and surroundings being as pleasant as they were I took my time changing antennas and chatting to a curious passerby (who turned out to listen to local 80m ham rounds). Out of the 2,5 hours I was in the park I was active for about 100 minutes.

Pleasant temporary QTH

In this period I confirmed 133 contacts with OMs from 31 DXCCs. Maximum QRG was set by an N4 OM in North Carolina to 6700km. 25% of the contacts were first time contacts.

Manuel EA2DT, Alexander RV9UCN and Yuri RZ9OC came by on two bands. Luciano I5FLN came by on three bands in between eating his birthday cake.

Thanks all for giving me a report.
Lars, PH0NO/P