DH8BQA

Superb Aurora opening

Posted on March 18, 2015 by dh8bqa

Thanks to the phone alert by Heiko, DG1BHA, I managed to get out of QRL not too late yesterday evening. There was a very strong Aurora going on and Heiko being at our station had already worked over 20 stations on 2 m SSB which is really demanding and needs very strong Aurora condx – CW sure is the easier mode for Aurora as it is much easier to decode with the raspy audio distortion. 😉 A few examples of how SSB Aurora sounds can be found on my Youtube channel. These were recorded during the great opening in July 2012.

I was right on time for when the Aurora got so strong it even enabled contacts into Southern Europe! This only happens about 3-4 times per solar cycle … if it is an intensive one! The current cycle is a rather weak one so this was just the second AU opening that I’m aware of that brought condx for Southern Europe, too. So it was very nice to see all the great VHF’ers in HA, 9A, etc. on Aurora for a change and even IK3VZO was worked! 😎

What was also interesting is I had to regularly change antenna direction. Reflection zones were scattered between 290 and 70 degrees! There were times when even the G & GM stations were only audible when beaming 70°, wow! Unfortunately there was no possibility to work any UA stations until very late in the evening. It seemed the reflection zone was so far south it also blocked DX into east. When it was finally possible to work into Russia I stumbled across RV3YM in KO63. This would have been a new square but unfortunately it was not his frequency so I lost him. Never heard him back so was quite sad for the moment. But luckily condx got better again about an hour later when I finally found him CQing and bingo, #508 on 2 m worked. 🙂

I was a bit shocked when RK9AT called me while CQing! Thoughts already started spinning … oh wow, UA9 on 2 m, fantastic, this must be a new record, a.s.o. 😮 But when he repeated his callsign a 2nd time I recognized he was /3 so “only” in UA3 but still some very nice DX! 😉

Around 20z it seemed to be over so Heiko called it a day with 32 SSB-QSOs in the log. I think we were below the reflection zone ourselves in JO73 then. About an hour later the Aurora was even visible down in Austria! Now that is neat! Sure the webcam’s height of 2.970 m ASL helped to extend the visible horizon a few hundred kilometers. Weather was also superb with clear blue sky during the day so that helped, too. Heiko reported to have seen some weak visual Aurora as well. Just click on the right hand picture to get to the originating website. Isn’t that fantastic? 🙂

I did not think of switching on the audio recorder early enough so only two recordings this time, but both being real good DX!

RV3YM in KO63PR, 1.261 km via Aurora:

RN3F in KO86RE, 1.523 km via Aurora:

I made some 85 QSOs in total, you can view the full log here. The most distant contacts, i.e. over 800 km, were made with these great guys:

------------------------------------------------------------------
 TIME  CALLSIGN      LOCATOR TX     RX     BAND   MODE  PROP.  QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
22:03  RN3F          KO86RE  55A    57A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1523
22:18  RK9AT/3       KO86QF  53A    57A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1518
18:50  EI3KD         IO51VW  59A    58A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1515
17:54  EI4DQ         IO51WU  59A    59A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1512
18:47  GI1CET        IO74DS  59A    59A    2 m.   SSB   AUR   1309
20:13  GM4VVX        IO78TA  53A    55A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1279
23:12  RV3YM         KO63PR  55A    55A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1261
22:37  GM3WOJ        IO77WS  55A    57A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1257
23:39  RA3LBK        KO64PW  56A    56A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1256
22:41  GM4PPT        IO75SK  55A    55A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1232
17:32  GM3SEK        IO74SR  59A    59A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1229
00:36  OH5LK         KP3ØON  55A    56A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1134
20:03  G7RAU         IO9ØIR  51A    55A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1094
18:05  G4MKF         IO91HJ  57A    57A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1076
18:03  G4AEP         IO91NJ  55A    55A    2 m.   CW    AUR   1043
23:28  ES6FX         KO37OW  59A    57A    2 m.   CW    AUR    970
19:23  G4DHF         IO92UU  55A    57A    2 m.   CW    AUR    969
00:00  ES5PC         KO38HJ  57A    55A    2 m.   CW    AUR    966
18:00  G4FUF         JOØ1GN  57A    57A    2 m.   CW    AUR    943
17:43  IK3VZO        JN55XA  55A    55A    2 m.   CW    AUR    922
17:29  G4SWX         JOØ2RF  57A    57A    2 m.   CW    AUR    864
18:28  HA8CE         KNØ6EN  52A    53A    2 m.   CW    AUR    858
18:12  F6GYH         JN27TS  55A    54A    2 m.   CW    AUR    854
23:24  G4CDN         JOØ2SS  57A    55A    2 m.   CW    AUR    848
22:05  SK4AO         JP7ØTO  59A    59A    2 m.   CW    AUR    829
17:48  UR5WD         KO2ØNC  55A    55A    2 m.   CW    AUR    826
23:26  SKØEN         JO99JX  59A    57A    2 m.   CW    AUR    805
------------------------------------------------------------------

I decided to call it a day at 1:30 A.M. while the Aurora was still in full swing, although moved up North. This sure was a real fun evening! I was indeed a bit exhausted after 10 hours in QRL and another 7 hours straight on the radio but it was definitely worth it. 😉

Posted in Audio recordings, Aurora, Propagation, VHF | Comments Off

Again two ATNOs wkd :-)

Posted on March 14, 2015 by dh8bqa

Haven’t been very active lately. Handed out just a few points during ARRL-DX-SSB last weekend and didn’t switch on the radio at all during the week … QRL taking it’s toll. This morning was a little different. Decided to chase the current DXpeditions like E3ØFB, 7QAA, 9QØHQ, etc. for a few new LotW slot confirmations. Doing so I ran across E51UFF on 20 CW. He was not very loud but good to see the path over the Northpole open at all. Checking qrz.com later I discovered he was on North Cook rather than South Cook. I had worked the latter a few times already but North Cook indeed was an ATNO. 🙂

Half an hour later I stumbled across H44NT on 15 SSB. He had a big pileup so it was rather listening listening listening with an occassional call every now and then. Caught him about 10 minutes later for another ATNO, so up to #304 now. 🙂

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ARRL-DX 2014 certificates received

Posted on March 13, 2015 by dh8bqa

Two times post from the ARRL contest committee during the last few days. Received the ARRL-DX-CW participation certificate for doing more than 500 QSOs as a DX participant as well as the winner certificate for winning SOAB Unlimited Germany in the ARRL-DX-SSB last year. 🙂

Posted in Awards, Contesting | Comments Off

CQ-WW-160-SSB

Posted on March 2, 2015 by dh8bqa

Well, I did not plan to take part in that one. As reported earlier I have an RFI problem using the remote on 160 m. Practically this means I’m limited to about 15-20 watts output if I want to reliably transfer TX audio through the line without loosing packets or even the complete connection. Nevertheless it was itching to do some QSOs Friday evening. 🙂 Thus I decided to do at least a few contacts with 5 watts for a small QRP entry and see what happens. After all it meant catching a few points for the club competition for the BCC, too. But 160 m, SSB & QRP does not sound like a winning combination, does it?

Well, I will certainly not go for it again. It was quite painful and I swore like a trooper several times not getting people’s attention. 🙁 Uwe, DL3BQA, told me on Saturday about the current German QRP record and asked if I might not want to go for it. Initially I did not want to, it should be just a leisurely participation with a few QSOs here and there. But seeing it really getting in reach provided some additional motivation so I put in a few extra hours.

Condx were not favourable for DX. Besides my QRP signal not reaching very far (most of the QSOs were in a 1.000 km circle) I did not even hear much DX. Two UA9’s Saturday evening (no contacts) and only two U.S. stations heard Sunday morning, both just above the noise so did not even call. But then I stumbled across a very loud HK1T who came right back to my first call. Wow, almost 10.000 km, SSB QRP on 160 m, unbelievable! Being so impressed I started the audio recorder to at least record him afterwards.

HK1T with a real 59 signal on 160 m:

If you’re asking what about the QRP record – yes, I made it, even with a good margin. 🙂 Let’s see what the result is good for …

                    CQ 160-Meter Contest, SSB

Call: DH8BQA

Class: Single Op QRP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 15

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 272    Countries = 41    Total Score = 46,822

Club:
Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:
Elecraft K3, 5 W + full size Lazy Loop @ 18 m

Next contest for me will be WPX-SSB at the end of March. Will be back in JO73 then with a week of holidays afterwards to do some antenna work with the guys …

Posted in Audio recordings, Contesting, DX | Comments Off

ARRL-DX-CW 2015

Posted on February 23, 2015 by dh8bqa

It does not feel that long ago since I wrote about 2014’s ARRL-DX-CW contest in this blog. Another year is gone … wow, time’s really flying by! So I practised my poor CW again last weekend. 😉

Had a good night’s sleep Friday to Saturday. With lots of heavy QRL during the whole week I was not in the mood to start the contest right away at 0z. But I set the alarm clock to 4z to at least take advantage of the greyline propagation on the low bands. And boy, condx were really great! Made some 60 QSOs into North America in just one hour on 80 m! This is what I usually work during a whole contest on that band – if I’m lucky! 40 m was great, too, propagation even reached to the West Coast and a few AZ & CA guys were really loud. Went back to bed at 8z.

At the station again at 10:30z to work the high bands. Did about 98% only S&P or rather C&P (click & pounce) 😉 on Saturday and concentrated on collecting all the juicy mults, i.e. US states and Canadian provinces. Condx on the upper bands were not really good, only made some 130 QSOs on 10 m on Saturday. The band opened just very selectively. Back to bed at 20:30z with 675 QSOs on the first day.

Got up at 0:30z Sunday morning for another low band session. Condx not as good as the day before anymore but still quite nice and lots of folks to work, good activity! Would not have thought it would ever be possible to work over 500 low band QSOs into North America in one single contest! Might be low figures for others but big score for me … just using low dipoles overhere (80 m dipole Inv-V at 16 m height, 40 m Inv-V @ 14 m) that have a high elevation angle and are rather suited for NVIS than for DX. 😉 Back to bed at 7:30z.

Into the game again for the “final spurt” at 11:15z. High band condx much better now! Had some great fun running on 10 m Sunday afternoon. Even worked a few West Coast guys although I cannot compete with the guys in Southern and Western Germany on that matter. Yes, location matters! 😉 Went down to 15 m after 10 m had dried out at 18z and had lots of fun there, too. Fantastic signals from the West Coast, maybe I should have changed bands an hour earlier already. Whole Sunday about 85% run operation. Down to 20 m after 15 m had died (20z) and could still run there until 22:30z. Would not have expected that. Another short C&P session through the bandmap before QSYing down to 40 m for the last 2 hours with an occasional QSO on 80 m in-between. Rate dropped a lot so was short of quitting. But kept my butt in the chair until the end using small motivation techniques, i.e. setting reachable goals like working a full 300 Q’s on 40 m (was at 290 then with rate near zero), then 310 afterwards … or 1.650 Q’s in total, then 1.666 Q’s for a nice number, a.s.o. 😉

All in all lots of fun and an enjoyable time. Sure with a little less sleep and also some running on Saturday 2.000 QSOs would have been in reach. Also some optimization potential concerning breaks. After all it does not matter as much on CW as on SSB if you’re eating pizza while operating radio, does it? 🙂 And sometime we *really* have to install some DX-optimized low band antennas …

                    ARRL DX Contest, CW

Call: DH8BQA

Class: SO Unlimited HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 34

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Mults
-------------------
  160:   15     9
   80:  182    41
   40:  311    48
   20:  378    57
   15:  342    55
   10:  440    52
-------------------
Total: 1668   262  Total Score = 1,311,048

Comments:
Elecraft K3, KPA500 & low dipoles (80/40) plus beams (20/15/10).

SH5 analysis available here.

Posted in Antennas, Contesting, DX | Comments Off

TI9 – Cocos Island #302

Posted on February 21, 2015 by dh8bqa

Just saw that working TI9/3Z9DX was another ATNO so up to 302 now. Seems a great start into the new DX year with 4 new ones within 6 weeks but I suppose it will not continue at that speed being over 300 now. 😉

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Weak and short Aurora opening this evening

Posted on February 17, 2015 by dh8bqa

Had a very small and weak Aurora opening on 2 m this evening. Did not last longer than 20 minutes. The SK4MPI Aurora warning beacon was barely audible via Aurora which is quite unusual even in weak openings. Elsewise only heard & worked 2 stations, both big guys who are normally much much stronger …

------------------------------------------------------------------
 TIME  CALLSIGN        LOCATOR TX      RX      BAND  MODE      QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
18:55  SM4IVE          JO79SD  57A      55A    2 m.  CW        667
18:59  SM4GGC          JO69RK  52A      55A    2 m.  CW        696
------------------------------------------------------------------

Lars, SM4IVE, CQing on CW via Aurora:

Posted in Audio recordings, Aurora, Propagation, VHF | Comments Off

CQ-WPX-RTTY 2015

Posted on February 16, 2015 by dh8bqa

Another RTTY contest is history. After I was rather disappointed after last year’s CQ-WWDX-RTTY this one was real fun! Uwe, DL3BQA, was going to use our station as the 1st OP again and had the choice of band. He decided to go single band for several reasons and chose 15 m. I had not planned to do a serious effort, just handing out a few points remotely every now and then besides other weekend activity plans. To maximize points for our BCC club entry it should be an SO4B (Single Operator 4 Bands ) entry then.

Condx were really good! Who would have expected that 10 m would still be this good and even open to the US West Coast? Japan was easy going Saturday morning already, that was a first indication of how good propagation would be going to be. Neither sunspot numbers nor the solar flux were extraordinarily high but a calm sun, low A- & K-index and no Aurora helped to provide good propagation. Sorrily I could only spent 2 hours Saturday morning so missed most of the fun dir East. Was back when the band opened into the U.S. and had lots of fun running on 10 m. No, I won’t repeat now for the umpteenth time that I’m a 10 m addict, you certainly know that by now. 😉 Rates were good enough to keep me awake. 🙂 I have been told by seasoned RTTY operators that participating from DL everything > 50 QSOs/hour is really good and > 60 fantastic and seldomly seen. Well, my best hour was 68/h, best 30 min 80/h (details are here). If I did the math right I had an > 4 hour average of 62/h while running one frequency from 13:07z to 17:22z doing 262 QSOs in that time frame. 😉 Clearly speaks for great condx and people enjoying 10 m as long as it lasts!

Although there were fewer JA contacts on Sunday compared to Saturday I felt Sunday had even better propagation. The band was open almost an hour longer and had more and stronger West Coast signals. In total 40 “zone 3” stations were worked, wow! Really didn’t expect that. I could even decode KH7XX a few times on short path (albeit skewed path, best at 330° instead of the direct 352°) Sunday evening! U.S. runs were “not as good” as on Saturday but hey, who am I to complain about a 50/h average over 4 1/2 hours on RTTY? 😉

After I returned to the station Sunday evening and Uwe had already left (he had completed his max allowed op time of 30 hours) 15 m still showed activity so I could even do a few QSOs there making it effectively an SO4,5B entry. 😉 The band was still nicely open after 21z but did not produce any runs so I soon QSYed down. 20 & 40 m were not much better. Both bands full of stations but I couldn’t get a run going. Using 500 W into a 4 ele Yagi simply does not cut it on 20 m during contests. The combination works quite nicely when chasing DXpeditions, though! So I QSY’ed to 80 m for the last 1 1/2 hours of the contest and could maintain an average of 61/h. Maybe I should have gone there earlier already …

All in all a total of 1.283 QSOs were made “casually” 😉 in less than the allowed op time. Sorrily there were a number of dupes who called Saturday and Sunday and both times confirmed they had my call correct! Wonder why … would understand that in CW or SSB and people possibly paper-logging but in RTTY when you are running the computer anyway I would expect people to use a computer log, too?! Weird …

                    CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest

Call: DH8BQA

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 28:30

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:  191
   40:  114
   20:  138
   15:   12
   10:  800
------------
Total: 1255  Prefixes = 638  Total Score = 2,325,510

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:
Elecraft K3, KPA500, beams & dipoles

Now keeping fingers crossed condx will hold until next weekend. Should be fun in the ARRLDX-CW then. 😉

Posted in Contesting, Propagation | Comments Off

Tropo – the final

Posted on February 12, 2015 by dh8bqa

Taking the F5LEN tropo forecast into account I anticipated the tropo would move further east this morning and then start to vanish. Today is Fat Thursday in the Cologne carnival which means we only have to work half-day. What a nice coincidence! 😉 As I’m not much into all the carnival stuff I used the chance to be back home early and switch on the remote station again. Early enough to still be able to do a few more tropo QSOs. 😉 As forecasted the tropo moved further East again but it also started to vanish already. There was much QSB this time, especially in all the QSOs into Lithuania. OH2 and ES seemed more stable but these guys soon started to disappear, too. Didn’t expect to work Jussi, OH5LK, at that time anymore, as the OH2VHF beacon had vanished about an hour earlier. Interestingly it returned about 20 minutes after the QSO with Jussi for a few minutes being very strong (see audio recording below) before going down into the noise again. All tropo was gone by 14z overhere so I was very astonished to find YL2GD CQing in the evening. Did a quick QSO and he was gone about 5 minutes later again and since then the band stayed “dead”. So some nice tropo finally ended with 70 QSOs in the log. I really enjoyed it! All QSOs were done with about 650-700 W into a 9 ele LFA Yagi. This afternoon I switched down to shortwave once after I saw K1N beeing spotted on RTTY. Heard and saw the mess and immediately switched back to 2 m. VHF, Yours is My Heart Alone. 😉

------------------------------------------------------------------
 TIME  CALLSIGN        LOCATOR TX      RX      BAND  MODE      QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
11:32  ES1CW           KO29HK  529     599     2 m.  CW        944
11:33  ES3RF           KO29IF  559     569     2 m.  CW        932
11:38  YL2FZ           KO37QI  549     579     2 m.  CW        952
11:46  YL3IQ           KO17OD  539     599     2 m.  CW        720
11:49  R2FAD           KOØ4FW  549     579     2 m.  CW        452
11:51  LY2LE           KO24OQ  559     579     2 m.  CW        738
11:58  LY1CO           KO15XG  539     539     2 m.  CW        674
12:01  LY1CR           KO15CL  569     579     2 m.  CW        577
12:03  OK1FFW          JN69JK  539     559     2 m.  CW        428
12:07  OH2AUK          KO19TX  579     599     2 m.  CW        948
12:19  YL2AJ           KO16OX  579     559     2 m.  CW        710
12:23  OH2AXH          KP2ØOK  52      52      2 m.  SSB      1045
13:00  LY2CH           KO15OV  559     579     2 m.  CW        653
13:02  YL2QW           KO17OD  529     559     2 m.  CW        720
13:04  LY2HM           KO15CX  519     559     2 m.  CW        601
13:07  SKØEN           JO99JX  57      59      2 m.  SSB       805
13:10  SMØFZH          JO99HI  57      59      2 m.  SSB       737
13:14  SP1JQJ          JO73GJ  59      59      2 m.  SSB        32
13:27  OH5LK           KP3ØON  55      55      2 m.  SSB      1134
18:15  YL2GD           KO37ML  529     559     2 m.  CW        939
------------------------------------------------------------------

Jussi, OH5LK, CQing on CW:

OH2VHF/B, very strong for a few minutes:

Posted in Audio recordings, Propagation, Tropo, VHF | Comments Off

More tropo and square #507 on 2 m

Posted on February 11, 2015 by dh8bqa

Seems I was correct with my yesterday’s assumption concerning tropo moving. 😉 Sorrily I was rather under the duct tonight thus the really big distance contacts where done i.e. from LAØBY down into 9A & S5 over 1.600 km, and between G/PA and OH, even on 70 cm! EI3KD reported hearing the SK1UHF 70 cm beacon on Gotland, that’s a whopping 1.800 km! A pity nobody of the SM1 guys was on to provide him with a QSO. These are the moments where I wish to be QRV on 70 cm again but taking it seriously, is it worth it for that one big tropo once every 10 years? 😉 Also read that EI3KD finally worked SP4MPB on 2 m, that’s almost 2.000 km on tropo! Amazing …

Only did a few QSOs myself as I had some other things to do besides radio. But signals were great most of the time! Did a few more audio recordings, see below. Nice to catch SM4DXO in JP71! It’s been a very long time since I worked a new square on tropo. 😉

Also remembered reading about a new tropo forecasting website in the past. A quick Google search revealed F5LEN’s refractive index forecast for Europe. It seems to be much more accurate than Hepburn’s tropo index. The two pictures above show the forecasts for 18z and midnight and are sorta identical to my experience on the band.

------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME   CALLSIGN        LOCATOR TX      RX      BAND  MODE      QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
17:17  OZ5AGJ          JO47IA  59      59      2 m.  SSB       551
19:40  SM4GGC          JO69RK  59      59      2 m.  SSB       696
19:46  SM4BDQ          JP8ØFG  59      59      2 m.  SSB       799
20:20  SM4DXO          JP71SB  57      59      2 m.  SSB       879
20:44  LAØBY           JO59IX  59      59      2 m.  SSB       785
21:14  LA6LCA          JO59FE  59      59      2 m.  SSB       706
21:53  OH1UM           KPØ1UL  59      59      2 m.  SSB      1024
21:56  OH1ND           KPØØXL  59      59      2 m.  SSB       936
22:04  OH1XT           KPØ1UK  559     599     2 m.  CW       1020
22:11  SM7WW           JO65OR  59      59      2 m.  SSB       290
22:15  OH1OP           KP1ØGL  52      59      2 m.  SSB       954
------------------------------------------------------------------

SM4BDQ:

OH1XT:

OH1ND:

SK1VHF/B, the Gotland beacon:

SK4MPI/B, the Aurora warning beacon, this time on tropo for a change: 😉

Posted in Audio recordings, Propagation, Tropo, VHF | Comments Off

Nice 2 m tropo opening tonight

Posted on February 10, 2015 by dh8bqa

Coming home after work today I saw a few spots on the cluster that looked like a bit of tropo enhancement between the UK and Western Europe. So I switched on the radio to check condx and boy, was lucky I did so! 😉 Had a nice tropo opening and made some 40 QSOs, the “better ones” are listed below. Nice to experience a small “mini pileup” from western France with great distances! Interestingly the closer UK stations, i.e. G4SWX from JO02, came in best from 240°, i.e. beaming central France. It seems there was a very strong tropo scatter point down there or maybe the entry into the duct. John reported the same, he had to beam more southerly to get me strongest. There’s still something magic to VHF … I like it! 🙂

------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME   CALLSIGN        LOCATOR TX      RX      BAND  MODE      QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
16:37  G8GXP           IO93FQ  57      59      2 m.  SSB      1042
16:43  GØODR           JOØ2OP  51      53      2 m.  SSB       872
16:45  G4RRA           IO8ØBS  54      55      2 m.  SSB      1263
16:47  G3SMT           IO82KV  59      59      2 m.  SSB      1156
16:48  FØGWK           IN88CM  57      55      2 m.  SSB      1361
16:53  F6KHM           IN78RJ  549     55      2 m.  SSB/CW   1416
16:53  F1AKK           IN78RJ  549     55      2 m.  SSB/CW   1416
16:54  F6FGQ           IN78QJ  52      52      2 m.  SSB      1421
16:56  F8BRK           IN99VF  56      55      2 m.  SSB      1094
16:56  F8FKJ           IN78RJ  51      51      2 m.  SSB      1416
16:57  G4SWX           JOØ2RF  59      59      2 m.  SSB       864
16:59  FØGWK           IN88CM  55      57      2 m.  SSB      1361
17:11  PA4VHF          JO32JE  599     599     2 m.  CW        512
17:13  F5DQK           JN18GR  529     519     2 m.  CW        954
17:17  G4DHF           IO92UU  559     559     2 m.  CW        969
17:34  G4DCV           IO91OF  559     559     2 m.  CW       1043
17:39  G7RAU           IO9ØIR  579     579     2 m.  CW       1094
17:48  G4MKF           IO91HJ  549     559     2 m.  CW       1076
17:56  DK9TF           JO31NF  599     559     2 m.  CW        529
17:58  F4JVG           JN16NL  41      52      2 m.  SSB      1088
18:00  DL4EBV          JO31HK  55      56      2 m.  SSB       551
18:02  FØFIG           JO1ØJE  51      51      2 m.  SSB       853
18:07  F5XU            JN15MT  52      52      2 m.  SSB      1147
18:12  DFØFHK          JO3ØLW  559     539     2 m.  CW        555
18:15  PD1AHM          JO21WF  57      55      2 m.  SSB       608
18:39  G4EAT           JOØ1HR  57      57      2 m.  SSB       933
18:41  GØGXT           IO82RF  52      55      2 m.  SSB      1130
19:20  PAØDDB          JO32KE  55      55      2 m.  SSB       506
20:36  G4EHD           IO93BS  55      58      2 m.  SSB      1064
20:58  GM8FFX          IO87WB  55      56      2 m.  SSB      1120
21:07  F6DCD           JN38RQ  55      57      2 m.  SSB       688
22:13  G4WJS           IO91NP  52      55      2 m.  SSB      1035
22:25  F4EHG           JN18EQ  53      55      2 m.  SSB       966
22:35  ON5AEN          JO1ØVW  56      56      2 m.  SSB       754
22:43  GM4AFF          IO86TS  539     519     2 m.  CW       1127
22:46  GM4AFF          IO86TS  56      57      2 m.  SSB      1127
------------------------------------------------------------------

Didn’t think of switching on the MP3 recorder until late in the evening so just a few audio recordings this time …

GB3ANG/B, beacon 1.158 km away:

GM4AFF, Stewart, 1.127 km away, working Sandro, DD3SP:

GM8FFX, 1.120 km, struggling to work SQ1FYB QRP station:

Taking the weather reports into account the tropo will certainly shift eastwards tomorrow. So it might be possible to work into Scandinavia then. Keeping fingers crossed and looking already forward to returning from QRL tomorrow evening. 😉

Posted in Audio recordings, Propagation, Tropo, VHF | Comments Off

ZL7 – Chatham Islands #301

Posted on February 8, 2015 by dh8bqa

Worked another ATNO today! 🙂 ZL7/F8FUA is currently on holiday there and took a K3 and a Buddipole with him. Already heard him yesterday on 20 m SSB but lots of QRM and weak signals. He was still weak today, i.e. 41 on average and peaking 52 a few times, and had a big pileup. Couldn’t get through so left for the kitchen to prepare lunch. When getting back I was astonished not hearing anything anymore when he suddenly starting CQing again without any pileup! Took my chance to put him in the log then although I had to repeat my call 2 times until he got it okay (500 W + 4 ele Yagi here, 100 W and the shortened dipole overthere). He was spotted about 30 seconds later on the cluster and hell broke loose again. Lucky me! 😉

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KP1 – Navassa Island #300

Posted on February 7, 2015 by dh8bqa

Now that the Navassa expedition has been on for a few days I found a little time to chase them. Pileups are immense and it took a while to put them in the log for an ATNO. But what really bothers me is the bad pileup discipline. Even if the guys are calling particular stations everybody is still calling and calling and calling making it worse for everybody as it really slows things down! Equally bad are all the “cops” on the expedition frequency. They make much more QRM than the poor guy that forgot to switch on split or forgot to switch VFOs again. And not to forget the intentional QRMers! 🙁 And then we got all the cluster spots! The packet cluster used to be an aid to find rare DX and unusual stations in the past. Nowadays most spots are of the “Hey, see I’m a hero, I just worked them!” fashion and only attract more lids! More than once I wished the cluster system would simply be switched off. It’s a shame what can be heard in the pileups nowadays. This weekend is especially bad. I took some time to just monitor the spectacle and finally switched the radio off as I was really ashamed and disappointed. 🙁

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Nice trans-polar 10 m opening this morning

Posted on February 7, 2015 by dh8bqa

Had a great trans-polar 10 m opening this morning. Worked KL7XU who was peaking 59 and said he was waiting for that opening for 12 years. 😉 WL7E had a nice signal on CW, too, but was only working (or not) FOC members in the closed FOC contest. Both had nice auroral flutter on their signals! Made a few audio recordings so you can listen for yourself. A pity not more guys were on …

KL7XU, Frank, 10 m SSB, suffering from bad pileup discipline, then getting upset:

WL7E, 10 m CW, FOC members only:

Posted in Audio recordings, DX, Propagation | Comments Off

RUSDX 2014 contest certificate

Posted on January 29, 2015 by dh8bqa

Well, it’s been a busy time receiving awards recently. 😉 After it took well over 2 years to receive my RUSDX 2012 certificates the guys from Russia where much faster this time! RUSDX 2014 sure was fun but I did not expect to receive a contest certificate as I just placed 2nd in Germany. Maybe the “certificate of merit” when doing more than a certain number of QSOs as written in the rules looks exactly like the 1st place certificates. 😉

Posted in Awards, Contesting | Comments Off

Triple Play WAS received

Posted on January 26, 2015 by dh8bqa

Another award received a few days ago was my Triple Play WAS (Worked All States) Award requiring LotW (Logbook of the World) confirmations of all 50 USA states in CW, phone & digital modes. Having just recently started using RTTY more intensively it was quite a challenge to first work all 50 states on digital modes and then also be lucky to have worked guys who confirm thru LotW. What made it a lot easier were the W1AW portable activities that provided about 80% of all needed QSOs & confirmations. Now waiting for ARRL to open the application process for the W1AW portable WAS award, too …

Posted in Awards, DX | Comments Off

EURD-TROPHY

Posted on January 26, 2015 by dh8bqa

It’s a been a few weeks already since I received my EURD trophy but no time for a photo yet. 😉 It’s the highest class of the EURD – the “Europa-RTTY-Diplom” issued by DARC requiring confirmations of RTTY QSOs with 250 different prefixes from 50 WAEs. Applied for it through DCL again using just electronic confirmations imported from LotW. Really easy going and although it sounds difficult to achieve in fact it was quite easy doing a few RTTY contests last year. Big advantage is that most RTTY operators are “naturally” using electronic QSL means, too. The trophy is made of 10 mm thick plexiglass but looks like massive glass. It’s only “drawback” is as it is transparent you need some “contrast” in the background to get it’s full beauty. 😉

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CQ-WW-160-CW & BARTG-Sprint contests

Posted on January 25, 2015 by dh8bqa

Managed to squeeze in a few Top Band QSOs every now and then besides other obligations. Could only do S&P using the TRX internal memories (called up by CAT commands from N1MMLogger+) on 160 m as I was producing RFI into the remote, i.e. could not get remotely generated CW over the line. A known problem overhere and tried to cure it already but no joy. A problem with the router but only that model available/supported by the provider. No biggie for the few QSOs I might do on 160 remotely anyway. 😉

                   CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW

Call: DH8BQA

Class: Single Op Assisted HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 5:30

Summary:
Total:  QSOs = 333   State/Prov = 0  Countries = 48

Total Score = 73,872

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:
Just a bit of S&P'ing ... Elecraft K3, KPA500 + 160m lazy loop.

Besides this also did a few QSOs in the BARTG sprint contest. Would have expected more activity so was a bit disappointed. Had a good time Saturday evening on 80 m with good rates and then again on 20 m during the last hour. Besides this it was rather boring …

                    BARTG RTTY Sprint

Call: DH8BQA
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 6:30

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   80:   88
   40:    5
   20:  117
   15:   84
   10:   25
------------
Total:  319  Mults = 61  Continents = 6  Total Score = 116,754

Comments:
Elecraft K3, KPA500, beams & dipoles

Posted in Contesting | Comments Off

EP – Iran #299

Posted on January 12, 2015 by dh8bqa

Just saw that working EP3HF after the 10 m contest on 15 m SSB yesterday provided another new DXCC for me … #299 in the log. 🙂 I’m certainly not going to send $10 + 1 IRC to get a card from him but will wait for the upcoming EP6T expedition instead and try to work them for a safe LoTW confirmation as well as using the great MØURX OQRS service for a paper card then. 😉

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First contest of the year: DARC-10M

Posted on January 11, 2015 by dh8bqa

Many thanks to Heiko, DG1BHA, for leaving this “contest slot” to me. Normally he’s using our station for this one as it does not make much sense to drive 2 x 700 km for a 2 hour contest. Sure, I’m crazy for contesting but certainly not *that* crazy. 😉 This weekend was different as I was overhere (JO73) anyway as I’m going to visit my grandma at the Baltic Sea who turns 88 tomorrow. Due to some other circumstances, too, I thus had the chance to do the contest.

You need to work lots of German DOKs for mults thus have to rely on good backscatter. Best scatter points are between 80° and 120° this time of the day but we still have some noise into that direction that makes weak signal copy difficult. Besides this I used a frequency that was obviously used by somebody else, too, whom I could not hear (there were a number of callers out of sync, ooops). And then the radar set in, too. So I really had a bad start for the first 20 minutes wasting precious time until I finally got going higher in the band. Rate was okay then beaming 230° for the second best backscatter direction without additional noise (despite 2 short phases with static noise of S9 due to heavy rain which made copy difficult, too). Spent the last 15 minutes on CW (after the rate dropped significantly on SSB) and hoped for a nice pileup being fresh meat there but that didn’t happen either. At least a few new mults called in …

I had 2 goals: a.) Doing 200 QSOs and b.) reaching 20k points. I surpassed 20k points with a good margin but was short of QSOs compared to my goal. Well, reasons are above … isn’t it good to have some excuses? 🙂

Let’s see, if all goes well it should be good enough for a TOP10 spot …

                    DARC 10-Meter Contest

Call: DH8BQA

Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 2

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
   CW:   13
  SSB:  166
------------
Total:  179  Mults = 137  Total Score = 24,523

Posted in Contesting | Comments Off

Superb Aurora opening

Again two ATNOs wkd :-)

ARRL-DX 2014 certificates received

CQ-WW-160-SSB

ARRL-DX-CW 2015

TI9 – Cocos Island #302

Weak and short Aurora opening this evening

CQ-WPX-RTTY 2015

Tropo – the final

More tropo and square #507 on 2 m

Nice 2 m tropo opening tonight

ZL7 – Chatham Islands #301

KP1 – Navassa Island #300

Nice trans-polar 10 m opening this morning

RUSDX 2014 contest certificate

Triple Play WAS received

EURD-TROPHY

CQ-WW-160-CW & BARTG-Sprint contests

EP – Iran #299

First contest of the year: DARC-10M

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