Saturday was a nice day in The Netherlands (sunny and warm), so I decided to change antennas again: 6m yagi out and 30/40m dipole in. After 4 hours work, in relatively high temperatures and losing a lot of sweat, the switch was complete.
Tower folded over during antenna work. The 30/40m dipole is already mounted above the 3 ele SteppIR.
I just returned from a very relaxing holiday on Crete with my wife and my two youngest kids. The picture below is taken in the beautiful Samaria gorge close to the South-West coast of Crete.
Enno, Marenne, Marja and Jard taking a break in the shade in the Samaria gorge
During the time we had a car I tried to visit Mike, SV9CVY. As I had no phone number of him available I located his QTH with the naked eye and drove to him. This is not difficult as he has a very impressive antenna set-up. In the next pictures you can see his 2 Opti-Beam antennas and a 4 ele Ultrabeam antenna with extra 6m elements.
SV9CVY's OB17-4 (foreground) and OB804020 (background)
SV9CVY's OB804020 and 4ele Ultrabeam
After returning from a marvelous holiday in Crete, I found the QSL card from BA8AG on my doormat. After missing this country several times in the good old days of F2 propagation, I managed to work China this Es season in a fantastic opening on June 20th, 2010.
BA8AG qsl
Browsing a bit to look what new equipment was presented in Dayton this year, I found this picture in a forum about the Dayton Hamvention.
How can you be proud of ignorance ?
And the back of this T-shirt looks like this:
Wrong text ... ?
Obviously this text should have read: ”No code – No way !” …
CW rulez, gentlemen. Try to snatch that weak DX signal in a spotty Es opening on 6m in CB. No way you can do that, there is only one solution: CW. (Unless you are going for those inaudible screen modes of course, but that’s a different story).
Andrea, IK1PMR, and Claudia, PA3LEO, are now active as VP2EMR and VP2ECF from Anguilla. They sent me an e-mail today stating that the 4 ele 6m yagi, which I sponsored them, is 2 meters above the wooden terrace. Take-off to Europe is relatively clear. Andrea has a K3 with 100W. Given the fact that he worked into Europe on 6m from St. Maarten with only a vertical, this set-up should certainly make it possible to cross the Atlantic. Check out their exact location at Google Maps.
Life has been good for 6m operators. Although a substantial investment timewise is needed, 6m is currently offering a lot of goodies. A nice opening to Japan occured on June 9th with SSSP propagation and great openings to the Caribbean on June 10, 11 and 12th.
On Thursday June 9 I could log 5 Japanese stations:
JE1BMJ, JL8GFB, JA5AUC, JA6GCE and JA6WFM
The last few days saw nice openings to the Caribbean. E.g. Andrea, FJ7/IK1PMR, who I am sponsoring with a 4 ele 6m yagi, could work into South Europe on June 10. He was only using a vertical and ~80W. Meanwhile Andrea is on Anguilla as VP2EMR and there the yagi will be set up, likely today June 13th or tomorrow.
June 12 yielded an afternoon and evening opening. Countries heard: FG, FS, KP2, KP4, HI, PJ2, 5J0BV (!) and VP2M.
Here are recordings of FS/K9EL (13:13u utc) and NP2B (21:00 utc). Later that night, 21.47utc, I could make a (difficult) QSO with VP2MRT for DXCC #206.
So now I can start looking for VP9GE and V3. If SSSP openings are going to happen again towards the North-East then BY and HL would be nice new ones. Only time wil tell …
This is our cat ‘Friemel’ (translates to ‘Fidget’). She loves to sleep and apparently the role of coax on “her” chair is not withholding her from taking a nap.
Friemel loves coax
It has been a while since my last blog posting. Read my tweets for more frequent small items.
Meanwhile I have put the 6m yagi back in the mast (May 19) for the 2010 season and took out my 30/40m dipole which needs some serious maintenance anyway …
As a matter of fact I should have made that switch earlier because the Eskip season is really starting early and in an impressive way. A92IO (#204) on May 25th and today E4X (#205) are exciting new ones for a start. Yesterday we had a nice opening to the Caribbean (KP2, KP4, YV and FY worked, FM heard). Other nice ones in recent days were SU, JY, A7 and TN.
If this all is just a teaser of things to come then the Es seasons looks very promising indeed.
Here is a soundclip of E4X (starts at May 28, 09:03z. My QSO is at 1:06 from the start ). Recording courtesy of Peter, PA2V.
Today the 8R1DB QSL came with the mail. What a great 6m DXpedition that was, huge sigs for many days in a row. Thanks again !!
8R was my 200th country worked on 6m and it is the last QSL I was waiting for to get all worked countries confirmed, 203 in total. So, this certainly gives a very satisfying feeling. Just get them accepted with the ARRL, but that is a task I will shift into the new year as I already filed a major DXCC application this year, and I hate to pay an extra application fee …
8R1DB fold-out QSL, front and back
8R1DB fold-out QSL, inside
This morning I finally succeeded to get XR0Y in the log on 40m / CW. An e-mail from Aart, PA3C, told me that they have a serious problem hearing stations after 20hrs local. Some sort of switching device is causing QRN but thay are unable to trace it.
Here is a long MP3 with my QSO at the end. XR0Y 40m CW 13-nov-2009 0701utc
The Conway Reef crew (including my countryman Ronald, PA3EWP) arrived at their destination and are active since Sep. 30th. Worked them right away on 20m/CW. 30m is a different story. Yesterday the band was open the whole day and in particular in the morning (7utc and later) they were putting out strong signals into NW Europe. Unfortunately they were apparently not aware of this as they only worked JA stations. This morning it started out similarly. However they switched to EU around 10 utc. A bit too late as signals were down a bit, but still better than yesterday. It took me another one and a half hours to work them for a new bandpoint.
Listen here.
Today the QSL card from Dennis, 5J0BV, was delivered by the mailman. Thanks again Dennis for this difficult DXpedition and our QSO.
As reported earlier, the rubber boots which fix the glass fiber poles to the EHUs, were almost torn in two pieces (after only 3 years). Probably as a result of decreased mechanical strength due to UV exposure and some mechanical stress (bending of the poles). Enquiry at the local DIY store led me to a local plumber & sanitary installation company who could deliver suitable replacement boots. These boots are produced by Mücher Dichtungen GmbH and are probably available throughout Europe. See this datasheet for detailed information. The one you need is the MAC 0502. They do not come in cheap though … per piece € 16.oo excl. VAT.
The material of the boots is EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer) which is supposed to have a good UV resistance, so I just hope that these ones last longer than the Mission boots originally delivered by SteppIR. As an extra precaution I have covered the boots with standard PVC electrical tape to protect the rubber from direct sunlight. I also included a safety tie-wrap which will prevent the pole from falling in case the rubber boot will tear again.
Old Mission boot after taking it from the SteppIR
New Mücher boot with safety tie-wrap
Although I was not a strong believer of the Logbook of the World at the time of introduction, I upgraded my DXCC awards (Mixed, CW and 6m) last week via LotW. In the past I already integrated my current, paper QSL checked awards into LotW, which is a fairly easy procedure.
First I tried it with my QSO with 7O1YGF (free of charge). It was accepted and added to my awards within one day. I then applied my pending LotW credits for the awards and, again within one day, all were accepted. This sets my standings at:
Current DXCC countries for Mixed / CW / 6m : 334 / 321 / 192
(My actual standing is 335/ 331 / 203 due to QSOs confirmed per paper card only or QSLs not received yet)
All in all I have the feeling the LotW service has matured considerably over the last period and I hope many more hams – in particular DXpeditions – will enter their QSO records into LotW. Of course a real paper QSL of a DXpedition is a meaningful collector’s item, but the DXCC award crediting is much easier and reliable using the LotW system.
Now that the Es season is more or less over, it is maybe nice to inventorize your score of the last couple of months. Every year there are people going on DXpedition in order to give us a new one. In particular the Caribbean is a popular destination among the DXpeditioners. Some of us, who have quite a few years of activity behind them including many Es seasons and maybe one or two solar peaks with good F2 propagation, have most – if not all – of the island countries in the log. But those of you who who started on 6m more recently might still be in need of a few relatively “easy” ones.
So, fill in the poll in the right pane and let’s see what the result will be. I will leave the poll on at least until Christmas in order to give everyone the opportunity to vote. Please vote only once. Thanks !!
(KP1/5 and YV0 have been left out because everyone will need those …)
Today we enjoyed quite a long opening to the Caribbean (J79PAK, KP4EIT, WP2B). In particular J79PAK was audible for more than 2 hours starting aroung around 15:30 utc until approx. 18:00 utc. Pierre operated SSB but also CW every now and then, which enabled him to work the smaller station. Aurelio, PC5A, could work him using an ATAS-120 vertical and ~75W output … ! Listen to this recording.
[Edit 25-Aug-2009] After return from my holiday in Greece, I found a very sad comment in French to this blog. It reports that Pierre, HB9CUA/J79PAK, age 46, drowned in the violent waves of the Dominica coast, while saving his 8 years old daughter. My sincere condolences go to the family he is leaving behind. May he rest in peace …
This weekend was the CQ VHF contest. Hopes for some transatlantic openings were high, but in vein … Nevertheless there were some short openings to the Middle East: 5B4, 4X and A7. I missed the Saturday morning opening but in the early evening another opening made a contact with A7/M0FGA possible.
Here is a recording of that QSO.
While we are heading towards the end of the Es season, we were pleasantly surprised by a very good opening to the Caribbean. Heard or worked: KP4, 9Y, FG, FM, J6, PJ4, VP2M, and J3. Highlight was working J39BS for #203. Unfortunately I only heard VP2MSJ CQ-ing once but he then disappeared again in the noise. He was worked west of me …
Recording of QSO with J39BS, 15-jul-2009 17.57utc CW.
[Edit 21-Jul-2009] Received the following e-mail from Derek:
Hello Enno,
I am very glad we did make the QSO at last. Yes it really was a fabulous opening and I was really pleased to finally work Europe as I knew many stations needed J3. I was at first using an Icom 706 but made so many changes to antenna position, length of Coax, etc and finally got the FT-950. The antenna is 6MX5 which was donated by UKSMG. I have to tell you that my location is not the best. I have some mountains in the NorthEast direction to Europe, but hope to get the antenna higher in the future. I was really frustrated when I could not get to Europe, but now I think all are happy including myself.
Thank you very much for the recording. Very nice. The opening really took me by surprise and am very sorry that I was unable to record some QSO's as was very busy with the pileup hi. All signals from Europe were S5 and better at the peak of the opening and you were very easy copy here.
Thank you and best regards,
Derek - J39BS
Dennis, K7BV, was active again this year from San Andres Island as 5J0BV. This is a difficult path and last year (as 5J0M) he was worked in The Netherlands by only 2 or 3 stations. Today was his last day being active from the island. What a sheer luck that it opened to W-Europe. Extremely spotty opening though. I was busy in the house and just happened to walk into the shack to see on the ON4KST chat that Dennis was on and being heard with short burst in my area.
After a while his CW signal came suddenly out of the noise. Apparently nobody else could hear him at that time. He came back to my call, gave 569 and I could quickly QSL and give him 559 TU => in the log as #202 !! Then he disappeared into the noise and I never heard him again except for a few dots and dashes. Thank god he was in CW. Think about the mess when he would have been in SSB … Thanks Dennis !!
Phew, talking about keeping your nerve together … But that’s 6m DXing alright !
[Edit 08-Jul-2009] Just received an e-mail from Dennis stating:
Enno,
Thank you for being one of my last QSOs from the island. I had to QRT very soon after our contact. The QSB was very very deep that final morning.
Again, thanks for the QSO!
73
Dennis K7BV
Having missed V29JKV on July 1st due to a family BBQ, I was pleased to hear the band being in good shape on July 2nd.
In the early evening I made a more solid QSO with TZ6EI at 17.18utc than the QSO on June 29.
Later that evening it opened up to the Caribbean and the sigs from Antigua where Jimmy, W6JKV, has set up his yearly DXpedition, became audible. The opening was quite wide-spread so the pile-up was kind of chaotic. Many people were banging in their callsigns whereas Jimmy was clearly calling somebody else.
My first QSO with V29JKV was on 18.17utc. Listen for yourself to this recording from my end, and to this recorded by Jaap, PA0O.
Fortunately Jimmy became much stronger a bit later, so I made a second, solid QSO at 18.38utc (I had not Jaap’s recording at my disposal at that time). Although Jimmy initially copied me as PF5K, he quickly corrected that to PF5X as you can hear on this recording. The same QSO was recorded by Peter, PA2V. Listen here.
