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I was surprised to receive a first place award for the East Bay Section. When I researched it, I discovered I was the only one to submit a log for my category in the East Bay! Woohoo!
Well, it seems that we were blessed with a small blessing of somewhat better conditions over the weekend. Worked an number of new ones including T27A - worked him on 40 meters the first day, catching him on my second call. Couldn't seem to push through the pileup on 20, but at least it's in the log. Worked a three or four new ones, most on 40 using an inverted vee up about 35 feet.
Was planning to put up another wire for 80, but year end closes are a P-I-T-A for accountants, and there were just too many late nights at the office to allow for building one, let alone putting one up!
JA's were strong and the first I've heard in quite some time, but then again my operating habits of late haven't really been conducive to working much of anything. Could have worked PY's for another week!
Only downside was 10 only opened up briefly for brief periods late in the contest, and what was heard on 15 I worked. 40 was wall to wall from .025 to the top of the cw portion and beyond! Forgot how much fun that band is -- got to make a mental note to spend more time there. Wish I had a few more hours to operate, but the honey-do list and a few soccer games to referee cut in quite a bit.
Learned a lot more about the TS-2000 I've been using over the past two years and found I could really cut out unwanted signals quickly and easily.
All in all a helluva nice weekend to spend in front of the rig. Hopefully next year the bands will be a lot better and 10 will open for a more extended period.
ps -- Didn't hear K2PS all weekend.
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The pileup was HUGE and completely overloaded my receiver. Imagine a steady squeal due to all the stations calling once a QSO was finished. It was often difficult to pick out even a few characters. Once the pileup worked down some, the rate picked up quite a bit.
I enjoyed the short time I was able to operate, and look forward to next year and being able to devote more time to the contest!
More details are available at www.ak0m.com.
73, Steve
Hi, dr cw-fans!
Had agn only a couple of hrs to operate - but did meet agn mni friends :-)) So I enjoyed the test one more time.
Tnx for every contact - hpe cuagn dr frnds!
Vy 73, gl es cwfe de Sascha DD1IM (member of DARC, DOK K27).
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Vy 73 Silvio
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Just relaxing holiday activity to give few points to stations from NA.
Only K2/100 and simple HM mono-band vertical antena made of fibreglass fishing rod and wire.
During daytime horrible QRN 599+10 produced by some sparking engine. During night time silent band with strong and clear NA stations.
QSL cards to OK1HDU via buro, please.
visit http://logbook.599.cz
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One contest with 3 different call signs
The ARRL DX Competition is one of my favourites. If only the atmospheric and ionospheric conditions in this part of the world could be beneficent, this contest would be real fun. This year I was curious to check out the new antenna my friend Sture, OH0JFP has built for 7 MHz this winter. Friday morning was sunny and still in Stockholm. I decided to go to Aland Islands. A few hours later, on board the ferry boat, I almost got seasick and the islands were white and slippery when we landed in Mariehamn. As usual, I could say, storm and snow. Friday night no sign of any opening to North America on the 40 meter band so I decided to get some sleep instead. Saturday early afternoon I picked weak Long Path signals of K5GO and N2IC. Strong signals came from ZL, KH and T32. Incredible! I checked the 20 meter band and it was wide open to East Coast so I logged some Big Guns while running honest 100 Watts to the 5 element 14 MHz Yagi. Sometimes I had to call 5 or 10 times before I got through other 100-Watts-stations. I used my own call sign portable OH0. At 18.00 Z the first East Coast stations made it through on 7 MHz to Scandinavia. The rate was very low throughout the night and at 01.30 Z on Sunday morning virtually no one heard me in North America. Extremely strong stations from Italy, France and Balkans were running like mad, several South Americans were kept occupied by callers I heard nothing of. Sunday noon local time I was back on the ferry to Sweden. Got home around 4 P.M. local time and extended the fishing rod on the balcony of the apartment I live in. The 20 meter band was hot and I managed to get several QSOs using my 100 Watt transceiver and the 20-ft helical radiator. I have submitted 3 logs for The ARRL DX Competition CW 2008 - OH0JFP 40 meter HP, OH0/SM0JHF 20 meter LP and SM0JHF 20 meter LP - and 3 photographs to the Soapbox.
Henryk SM0JHF
The 5 element 14 MHz antenna used as OH0/SM0JHF in ARRL DX CW 2008 |
The new 7 MHz antenna at OH0JFP - a home made HB9CV array - used as OH0JFP in 2008 ARRL DX CW |
Back home in Stockholm on Sunday afternoon running 14 MHz with a fishing rod helical antenna of 20 ft as SM0JHF |
I know I haven't got a proverbial snowball's chance in Aruba of ever winning this thing, but boy-o-boy, what an absolutely great excuse to get on 160-meters & work nothing but DX stations...!
I've always liked the low-band / mono-band thing with my infrequent particpation in contests lo these past few years: this year I could practically FEEL the Europeans on Top Band SEETHING with envy when 4U1UN came on the air...being a "DX" station, of course, all he was allowed to work was the VE/W crowd. Pity the poor REAL DX stations "out there" who may well have needed the UN HQ station on 160-meters, but who weren't allowed to exchange reports!
Oh well, another contest, another time, I s'pose...
My thanks to all who worked me this year --- all 42 of you! Hi Hi
~73!~ Eddy
H7/K9GY with FT-857D, computer, and FT-817 (on 10m QSX). |
Near the Granada Central Park area |
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