I almost skipped this one. It was VERY hot (32°C or more) over the last days and everything was taken down for last week’s thunderstorms. Furthermore there were new warnings for T-storms so I hesitated to put things up. By Friday night the forecast gave calm WX from early Saturday morning so I decided to go for it and raise the antennas after breakfast.
Problem: with the expansion of the garden and the big tree cut and the old fence removed, there were no branches or poles to get the elevated radials for 80/160 in the air. I dug out ye olde dual band dipole for 80/160 but I decided to stick to what I know and put up the radials anyway. They were only one meter or even half a meter above the ground but that’s not a problem. The new lot is still inaccessible so no one can trip over it or get RF burns. Strange enough the resonance points and SWR curves didn’t change much, except on 160 the dip was sharper and less pronounced. Which points to a better efficiency and less losses.
The contest went smooth and it was fun. Propagation wasn’t great yet the rate remained well above hundred. Even ten meters showed life for a while. But as always there comes a point where it inevitably slows down. The low bands were a real problem. A lot of summer noise and QRN. I had a hard time copying signals on 80m and sometimes felt like a lid. The situation was MUCH worse on 160. Add to that there was hardly anyone there…
I really like the new 3830 site. It let’s you come up with things like this:
I had a poor score in 2008 and gave up half way the contest in 2009. It’s a good thing I keep this blog because I wondered where the 2009 score was.
5 replies on “EUHFC 2013”
Great score Franki, had fun in this contest, only thing, turn computer on this morning, and gone was the log, can’t find it anywhere, Win-test work’s great but for some reason log is gone..bye bye 901 Q’s and 251 multi’s..Oh well on the bright side we had fun…73’s Ron ON1DX – OR2A
Sorry to hear that Ron. Are you sure you’re not overlooking a file?
From all that I’ve heard in the past, I wonder why they still call it ‘win’-test.
After 12 years in the business with N1MM-Logger and 185k QSO in the log, I can only say this has never happened to me (yet?).
That piece of software is the only thing that has been with me since the beginning. All else has been improved or modernized. Or thrown away.
Yes EUHFC 2013 was a fun ride. Good to hear you – CU AGN ES 73!
N1MM is used here, but also Win Test..But I think I will stick with N1MM in the future !
Ron ON1DX – OR2A
Hi – long time no QSO! All my antennas are down with pending QTH move. Just to let you know, you were the *only* station I could hear on HF yesterday using my coax as an antenna. 7031 kHz or similar. So you must be loud 😉 73, Lee G0MTN
Hi there Lee. Long time ‘NIL’ indeed 🙂
Don’t know if I must be loud but loud sure is a must!
Rotary dipole at 23m set N-S for E-W lobe , 1200W tops, probably less. This 40m antenna keeps amazing me. It works so well for ‘just a dipole’. For local stuff as well as DX.
GL with the move, hope to hear you soon from the new location?
73!