Finally after long delays of my own doing QSL cards for my PJ4/M0SDV in March are now in the printers. I hope to receive the cards and send them out within 10-14 days.
During my stay in Bonaire I made 1,600 QSO both CW and SSB. I also took part in CQ WPX as PJ4V (Click here to see results) I also activated Curacao as PJ2/M0SDV from the PJ2T station where I took part in the Russian DX Contest making around 600 QSO’s
QSL Via Clublog OQRS or Direct
Back in March of this year I went on a trip to Bonaire along with good friend DK6SP. We spent around 2 weeks on the island in total. During this time we operated holiday style as PJ4/Homecall and we participated in CQ WPX SSB as PJ4V. Our Team for this contest was; DK6SP, M0SDV, PJ4DX, PJ4NX and PJ4KY.
We entered the Multi-Two category, High power. Using Equipment borrowed from the island residents and some of our own. The station consisted of 100% wire antennas.
Antennas: 160m Inverted L, 80m Vertical, 40m elevated vertical and Inv V dipole, Spider beam @ 12m ,MW0JZE Hex beam @ 10m
Other Equipment: Yaesu FT 2000 with Acom 1500, Yaesu FTdx 5000 with Aplha 9500, Home brew filters and 6×2 switch by DJ8OG, Laptops x2
Our claimed Score was 5859 Q’s, 1252 Pfx and 27.9 Mil Points
Our Final adjudicated score was 5653 Q’s, 1235 Pfx and 26.18 Mil points, Leaving us 2nd World, 1st South America and 1st Bonaire. I feel the team worked very well together. This is the first time Multi-Two has been attempted with these guys and it was a pleasure to operate with them. We could not have hoped for such a good result. Only Bigger and Better for the future.
Today held the EU HFC contest. This is a 12 hour contest of high rates and all about proving who is the best. This contest is Single Operator Only and QSO’s are allowed only between European stations through out the entire contest.
This year I entered All band, CW High power. Using my contest call sign M7K. So my thoughts. I had some slight equipment issues, meaning that I could not get full power output on 80 or 40m, and I had no antenna for 160. However 20-10m worked perfectly even getting a small opening on 10m for a few hours. I do not think I took full advantage of the 10m opening with such a little number of multipliers on that band.
For the first four hours of the contest I managed to hold a steady rate of 100 Q/h. It may sound like a lot but it leaves a lot of time just calling CQ. Then after four hours the rate started to slow some more. Making around 70 Q/h rate overall. I put this down to poor conditions and lack of activity. This contest is known for its high rates So you can imagine that I was surprised to be going so slow.
In the end I decided to go QRT after 9 hours, deciding that the extra 3 hour wouldn’t affect my positioning a great deal. My results are posted below. Also see comments on 3030 Scores
Equipment:
Kenwood TS590 SG, Ameritron AL572 Amplifier @400W
Hex beam @12m, 40m dipole @15m , 80m 1/4 wave vertical, No 160m Antenna
With limited time left before my DXpedition to Bonaire for RDXC and WPX SSB I wanted to write a short update, and summaries all of my previous posts into one paragraph. So here goes…
DK6SP and I will be on Bonaire from 16/03/18 to 01/04/18, We will also visit one other DXCC in the caribbean (Stay tuned). We will enter RDXC with PJ4/call and CQ WPX as PJ4V. Our WPX team is DK6SP, M0SDV, PJ4DX, PJ4KY and PJ4NX. Out side of the contest QRV as PJ4/Calls on 160-6m CW, SSB and maybe FT8. During our non contest activity we will be running Live logs Via Clublog and Wintest. Live logs will appear on this website (See below). We will focus on CW and 30m in particular to give you all a new slot. Thanks to MW0JZE for letting us use his hex beam, DXcommander and Steve PJ4DX. QSL Via Home calls and PJ4V Via M0URX
Phew!
Almost didn’t make it.. 5 days 10 Hours, 28 minutes now! Can’t wait! See you all in the pile up
This weekend saw me making another visit to the biggest contest station in England. We had planned to do a Multi 2 entry, but due to severe Weather here in the UK and the “Beast from the East” storm some of our ops couldn’t make it. In the end we had to do Multi Single with 3 ops. Our Team was Myself M0SDV, Dave G4BUO and Kieron M0HKB.
We started out our contest on 40m. For this band we have at our disposal a 3 element full sized Yagi at 65ft high. Again, due to extreme weather we were unable to get the tower to 100ft and conditions were not in our favor. At the beginning there was a reasonable rate of around 1 Q a minute. Whilst this isn’t bad, it isn’t as high as we’d have liked for a good low band score. After a band change to 80m things started to pick up a bit. but as the night progressed on it unexpectedly slowed down. And come mid morning the bands had died. Time for a break.
During the morning quiet spell the weather was calm. This gave us chance to crank up the 40m beam to full height, and add a T vertical for 160m. Then 20m began to open.
It started slow for the first hour or two, as expected as the band started to open. But come 13:00z we had rates of 143 QSO’s per hour. The grew through the afternoon to 188 QSO per hour. And this didn’t slow until after dark when the band died out.
Another night on the low bands was very slow, however 80m held a nice size run of W’s at between 01:00z and 02:00z. But it was very slow for the rest of the night. The second day wasn’t much better either. However 15m did open for a little while bringing over 160 QSO’s. and 20m gave us some nice pile ups of up to 150 QSO’s per hour.
The multupliers (Mults) in this contest are US States and Canadian Provinces.
As shown in Worked mults to the left and the Summary below, the most Mults were on 20m. We worked 61 States/Provinces. Which is all of them except for Yukon and Northern Territory. The worst band was 160m with only 16 mults. This is expected considering the conditions.
Over all we made 3120 QSO’s with 189 Mults and a score of 1.76 Million. We found that with 3 ops Multi Single is quite enjoyable. Each person gets plenty of chair time (but not too much) and more importantly each operator gets plenty of sleep and is always ready o tale over on the radio should someone require it.
Thanks to our small Team for a good weekend, Those who stopped by to offer relief for an hour or two and a Huge Thanks to Brenda and Vernon at M6T for taking good care of us. Roll on the next contest!
Today it has been confirmed that I will be QSL manager for the DX-World.net teams Inaugural DXpedition. So far it has been confirmed that I will be managing TA0/MM0NDX and TA0/ON9CFG is also interested in using my service.
The team will be travelling to AS-201, Buyukada Island in Turkey from 7th – 11th May 2018. They will be QRV on 80 – 2m Holiday style, with the aim of having fun and working as many DX-World readers as possible.
If you are interested in using me as your QSL manager, for upcoming DXpeditions, Holiday style activations or if you live in a rare DXCC entity please click here or email Jamie@M0SDV.com
Our 2018 CQ WPX SSB Call sign has today been confirmed as PJ4V. We have 5 operators that will be with us during the WPX SSB contest in March of 2018. The category we will be entering is Multi 2 High Power.
Operators are: DK6SP, M0SDV, PJ4DX, PJ4KY and PJ4NX
QSL cards for this Call sign are Via M0URX OQRS and LoTW. Your QSL cards are not required!
Thanks to MW0JZE for allowing us use of his antenna on Bonaire
During our visit to Bonaire DK6SP and I intend to run a live log. This will upload QSO’s to Club log within about 30 seconds of them happening. The way we will do this is by using Wintest partnered with “WTClublog” by G4CLA.
WTClublog, networks with Wintest which then takes each QSO as it’s made and upload’s it to club log within a given time slot. It looks like this:
We Will be utilizing this software to ensure we maximize QSO’s and avoid Duplicated QSO’s which could stop someone getting a band slot they require. However LoTW will still be uploaded manually once daily.
Check out if you are in the log by clicking Here to see the Live log!
where to begin…
About a month or so ago I started to build/fix my station up for CQWW CW. And with the limited time I have around college and work, It was right up to the wire. Pre contest everything was going well. I had all but 1 antenna up. All extra coax runs laid out and I was in high spirits.
However, about 6 hours before the contest, Me and 2 others were lifting up the 80m 1/4 wave, when it slipped beyond saving. This vertical is made from 10m of Scaffolding and a 10m fishing type pole. It’s safe to say the top half is now in close to a million pieces across the garden. Luckily no one was hurt!
Trying to find another way, I came to the conclusion that nothing would get done in the dark on my own, so the first night i spent on 40m alone. Then in the morning between 40 going quiet and 20 getting busy i quickly chucked up a spider pole 1/4 wave for 80.
Anyway, this year on 20,15 and 10 I had 2 antennas running Via a stack match. First time I have done this. And I have to say I was pleased with the results. With a 200-300 Q total increase on 20m compared to other big contests. and a significant number more USA on 15. Not a dickie bird on 10.
40m gave some reasonable runs on the first night, and 20 was good to europe for the whole time. However I seemed to lack a number of NA Q’s on 20m. Not sure weather conditions or something I wasn’t doing but they just weren’t there. The only real Run into the US was 110 Q’s on 15m in around an hour when I got going.
The second night I had 80m too. So off I went. high noise is a problem on 80. Not as high as most but I have S5 noise on that band, whereas on others the S meter doesn’t move at all. So I made about 300 Q’d total on that band.The second day of the contest was much the same. With No real runs to the US and 15 didn’t open as well as the Saturday but was workable for European mults.
In the end my score was as follows:
Equipment:
Kenwood TS590SG & Ameritron AL572,
Hexbeam @ 12m & Hexbeam 40m add on @13m
A3s @12m
80m 1/4 Vertical with elevated radials
Array solutions stack match
Logged with Wintest
I had to borrow some equipment for this contest. So I’d like to thank all who contributed to my success and personal best contest from home! You know who you are!
Until the Next contest, 73
This weekend as I’m sure you are aware was the ARRL DX SSB contest. It’s safe to say that conditions were not in our favor. I was lucky enough to take part in the contest from the station of Don G3BJ using his contest call sign G5W. I operated M/S High power along with Kieran 2E0NCN
To start the contest 40m was exceptionally poor giving only a small handful of Q’s and very few mults. We though that this could be a problem with the antenna to start. So over to 80 we went. Using a Titanex Vertical and a beverage for RX we did manage some nice runs early on, but as expected, quickly, it went quiet. 160m held very few Q’s.
As the low bands were closing me and Don began to lower the 2 element 40 for inspection. Other than some tangled wires from Doris we found now faults with the antenna bar a few missing pop rivets. Easily fixed. We also re tuned the antenna to bring it resonant slightly higher into the SSB portion of the band. problem solved. However the A index still remained as high as 26 for the duration.
Later on 20m picked up for a very big run. Reasonable sized pile ups were leading to a fast increase in the number of Q’s in the log. and the rate continued for a few hours. 15m wasn’t very productive although we did snatch some mults on the east coast. Not much else on 15 was audible/workable.
Another night past and 40m had improved enough to get a 300 Q run.They seemed to all come at the same time! Not great but better than nothing.
After the low band closing up on the Sunday I decided to have a listen for some other DX and this is when we noticed a problem with the 3ele SteppIR. After figuring that it couldnt be fixed easier we decided to take the fixed A3s Tri bader away from the fixed tower and swap it with the SteppIR. And we did it in record time! To lower 2 towers, remove 2 antennas and put the Tri bander back in the air. Around 3 hours. So as it goes we spent alot of our rest time working on antennas. No complaints though! it had to be done.
For the remainder of the contest 20m proved to be the band to be on, supplying us with regular Q’s but no great runs. and then towards the end of the contest there was a slow rate of around 50 Q/hr.
Our over all score is
—————————————————————
Band QSOs Mults
160: 12 9
80: 277 35
40: 276 37
20 1094 57
15: 74 18
10: 0 0
Total: 1733 156 Total Score 806,832
—————————————————————
http://www.3830scores.com/showrumor.php?arg=KWanzpgmsyafx
An enjoyable albeit tough contest. I look forward to seeing the results. Many Thanks to Don for allowing Kieran and I use of his station and call sign!
