DH8BQA

After other (family) activities last evening I was finally able to switch on the radio after 1 a.m. local time last night. I thought that as “fresh meat” I would quickly rack up 100 QSOs but it was really tough going with little activity and very few responses to my CQ calls …
At least I dug out K1LZ and K3ZM and worked them, K1LZ was louder later, K3ZM in good phases up to s2, but it took ages with both to get worked. The only other ‘DX’ was ED8W and even there it took forever for him to get my call correctly … somehow the 500 W felt like 20 dB less this time. 🙁
At 6 o’clock this morning my eyes were tired and I had a palindrome number in the log = a good time for QRT. That’s enough for now with 160 m I guess …

 CQ 160-Meter Contest, SSB - 2023
Call: DH8BQA
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 4:30
Remote Operation
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 111 State/Prov = 2 Countries = 30
Total Score = 15,552
Club: Bavarian Contest Club
Comments:
FLEX-6600, Electaft KPA500, 160m Lazy Loop

Did a few hours with the small remote station equipment. Except for the usual suspects from VE, who are never there (NT, YT, NU), I could work all states and provinces. Basically all came on CQ … 🙂

 ARRL DX Contest, CW - 2023
Call: DH8BQA
Class: SOSB10 HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 13,5
Remote Operation
Summary:
 Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
 160: 
 80: 
 40: (1) 
 20: (33) 
 15: (33) 
 10: 824 60
-------------------
Total: 810 60 Total Score = 145,800
Club: Bavarian Contest Club
Comments:
FLEX-6600, Elecraft KPA500 & 6 ele G0KSC OWA Yagi @60 feet

Uwe, DL3BQA, was going to do a serious entry in this one as SOSB10. So I did an SOAB entry being mainly active on 15 and 80 m. Antennas are further away from the 10 m beam thus no interference with those band combinations. The 40 m dipole is hanging directly below the 10 m antenna and even a hundred watts is producing big interstation interference (something we still did not tackle) thus only QRV there when 10 m was closed. Likewise the 20 m beam is not far away and that band combination only worked when the 10 & 20 m antennas were both beaming east. Anyway, it was just for fun and racking up as many as possible points for the BCC. 😉

 CQWPXRTTY Summary Sheet 
 Start Date : 2023年02月11日 
 CallSign Used : DH8BQA 
Operator Category : SINGLE-OP 
Assisted Category : ASSISTED 
 Band : ALL 
 Power : HIGH 
 Mode : RTTY 
 Default Exchange : # 
 Gridsquare : JO73CE 
 ARRL Section : DX 
 Club/Team : Bavarian Contest Club 
 Software : N1MM Logger+ 1.0.9811.0 
 Band QSOs Pts WPX Pt/Q 
 3,5 275 950 130 3,5 
 7 134 640 66 4,8 
 14 66 146 34 2,2 
 21 542 1399 355 2,6 
 28 1 1 0 1,0 
 Total 1018 3136 585 3,1 
 Score : 1.834.560 
 
 Rig : FLEX-6600 + Elecraft KPA500
 Antennas : 10m Dummyload ;-), 15m 6L OWA,
 20m 4L OWA, 40m Dipol, 80m GP

Did about 500 QSOs from Saturday evening until Sunday morning. Needed 4 hours for another 100 QSOs Sunday evening then had enough. Running 500 watts it was rather medium than high power. 😉

CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW - 2023
Call: DH8BQA
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 9,3 h
Remote Operation
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 602 State/Prov = 2 Countries = 48
Total Score = 129,250
Club: Bavarian Contest Club
Comments:
Flex-6600 + Elecraft KPA500, 500 watts & 160 lazy loop

Mixed condx as in WWDX-CW, much QSB, geomagnetics still/again distorted …

 ARRL 10-Meter Contest - 2022
Call: DH8BQA
Class: SO CW Unlimited HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 22
Summary:
 Band QSOs Mults
-------------------
 CW: 974 140
 SSB: - - 
-------------------
Total: 960 140 Total Score = 537,600
Comments:
FLEX-6600, PA + 6 ele OWA Yagi @60ft.

Besides my 10 m single band entry I used some time Saturday evening to try out RUMLog in contest mode and dig a little deeper into all of it’s features. After all it now has Flexradio support and connects to the radio via network including CW keying! Did so playing around a bit as DMØY on 80 m using just 5 watts. Had fun running although the “pileups” never lasted for very long. Heard E2A from Thailand with an excellent signal (and in general had the impression our groundplane works especially well dir east but that might have been just due to propagation) but unfortunately they didn’t hear me. Called it a day after 150 QSOs in the log …

 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2022
Call: DM0Y
Operator: DH8BQA
Class: SOSB80 QRP
Class Overlay: Classic 
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 2:20
Summary:
 Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
 80: 151 7 41
 40: (3) 
------------------------------
Total: 150 7 41 Total Score = 7,248
Club: Bavarian Contest Club
Comments:
FLEX-6600, 5W + Groundplane

I can only partially understand the many comments about how great 10 m was. I was rather disappointed. Geomagnetics were severely disturbed at times, which is certainly more noticeable in the north of DL than in the south, not to mention Southern Europe. I also found the north-south propagation gradient much more pronounced this time. Holger, DL7AU, just 120 km south of me, spotted stations I couldn’t hear 75% of the time, even on the supposedly easier southern path’. South Americans were also untypically weak and affected by a lot of QSB (if I heard them at all) and that direction only opened late on Sunday. Caught just one very weak JA on Saturday, hard work, but at least could log the double mult. Sunday was a little better with 20 JAs in the log but still far from what I’ve been used to during the last sunspot cycle. Similarily bad was that North America was only open an hour later on Sunday and closed an hour earlier than Saturday, effectively leaving just over 2 hours for working NA (this is where the biggest QSO potential is for us). And despite having a QRM-free frequency (Uwe, DL3BQA, checked a few web SDRs from time to time from the sofa at home with a laptop on his knees) there were somehow no real runs. Many of the spotted mults could not be heard at all …

On the other hand, some stations had strong circulating echoes, and with a few stations I first had to turn the antenna away in order to weaken the signal and then get readable Morse code out of the “continuous tone” (i.e. overlay from direct tone and echo). It also took me a moment to identify Mike, DL2OE, who lives just 80km away: troposcatter signal, F2 backscatter signal and circulating echoes … three signal path’ at once, uhh. 😉

So all in all it was kind of weird and a bit unsatisfying. But, what’s the use of whining? I could move to the south. 😀 E.g. 9A5Y was 4-5 S-levels louder than me in DX land! You can’t compensate for that no matter how much power and antennas you install up here … so we just have to live with it and compete with ourselves. 😉

Nonetheless it was still quite some fun. 😉 Now let’s see what the condx will be like in ARRL10M in two weeks. Hope good ol’ sun will have calmed down a bit by then …

 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW - 2022
Call: DH8BQA
Class: SO(A)SB10 HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 21
Summary:
 Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
 10: 1117 35 128
------------------------------
Total: 1096 35 128 Total Score = 368,054
Club: Bavarian Contest Club
Comments:
FLEX-6600, PA & 6 ele OWA Yagi @60ft.

Seems we got a golden October again, just a few weeks delayed. 😀 I was a bit late to the “tropo party” on Saturday. Heiko, DG1BHA, had already worked half a dozen stations from Belarus but when I switched on only EW7HA from KO53 was still there, nice DX nonetheless! Quite good activity in general, worked a lot of SP stations while beaming east. G4KUX was a nice surprise heard with the backside, the only G on Saturday and according to the tropo forecast for Saturday rather unexpected! Worked YO5AVN in the evening but the QSO took quite some time, no tropo enhancement into that direction, it probably was “normal” airplane scatter.

After the QSOs in WAE-RTTY on Sunday I switched back to 2 m. Propagation had shifted, we now had some tropo dir west, i.e. into the UK. Not very stable, signals in & out, but a few nice QSOs could be made. Nice to work Jim again! 😉

This morning just two contacts into Scotland again. Then propagation shifted to the north-east, good to catch OH1NG besides two SMØ’s from JO99 at about 700 km distance (they can be worked every day but now also had nice signals, hi).

These are the contacts made with QRB > 800 km:

------------------------------------------------------------------
 DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR BAND MODE PRO. QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
12/11/2022 09:58 EW7HA KO53IQ 2 m. FT8 TR 1092
12/11/2022 11:01 G4KUX IO94BP 2 m. FT8 TR 1063
12/11/2022 18:46 YO5AVN KN17WW 2 m. FT8 TR 897
------------------------------------------------------------------
13/11/2022 16:33 G4KWQ IO92AQ 2 m. FT8 TR 1082
13/11/2022 16:35 GM4FVM IO85WU 2 m. FT8 TR 1092
13/11/2022 16:38 G4FVP IO94FM 2 m. FT8 TR 1041
13/11/2022 16:42 GØLTG IO81RF 2 m. FT8 TR 1159
13/11/2022 16:48 G3XDY JOØ2OB 2 m. FT8 TR 885
13/11/2022 16:55 G4DDK JOØ2PA 2 m. FT8 TR 880
13/11/2022 16:56 G4TRA IO81WN 2 m. FT8 TR 1120
13/11/2022 17:08 2EØFQT IO93QN 2 m. FT8 TR 983
13/11/2022 19:15 G8JLY IO82WG 2 m. FT8 TR 1102
13/11/2022 19:16 GØJDL JOØ2SI 2 m. FT8 TR 856
13/11/2022 19:52 MØXVF IO94EQ 2 m. FT8 TR 1047
13/11/2022 20:15 GW7SMV IO81LN 2 m. FT8 TR 1181
13/11/2022 20:45 G4HGI IO83PL 2 m. FT8 TR 1121
13/11/2022 21:02 G7DCT IO93GT 2 m. FT8 TR 1036
13/11/2022 21:15 2EØFQT IO93QN 2 m. FT8 TR 983
13/11/2022 22:10 GØBNR IO92WL 2 m. FT8 TR 964
13/11/2022 22:37 GØXDI IO91RQ 2 m. FT8 TR 1011
------------------------------------------------------------------
14/11/2022 08:36 GM4FVM IO85WU 2 m. FT8 TR 1092
14/11/2022 10:03 MMØZBH IO86IB 2 m. FT8 TR 1167
14/11/2022 10:15 OH1NG KP1ØPL 2 m. FT8 TR 979
------------------------------------------------------------------

Also worked a lot of PA/ON stations in the range of 500 to 700 km (especially yesterday), most of them running just 50 or 100 watts into short yagis or even verticals according to their qrz.com profiles! All in all about 120 QSOs made during the last two-and-a-half days …

Made a few QSOs in this weekend’s WAE-RTTY contest today basically to try out a mixed Windows/iOS setup for the Flexradio after the troubles before WWDX-SSB. This time used an iPad for TRX control, i.e. tuning, finding stations, a.s.o. while having an old Macbook Pro with an Intel processor and Bootcamp running Windows 10 and using just SmartSDR CAT & SmartSDR DAX there for CAT control and digital audio. Worked like a champ! A bit of running on 10 & 15 m and a few S&P contacts on 20 m, then switched off again on HF …

 WAE DX Contest, RTTY - 2022
Call: DH8BQA
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 1:10
Summary:
 Band QSOs QTCs Mults
-------------------------
 20: 10 14
 15: 20 28
 10: 30 26
-------------------------
Total: 60 0 68 Total Score = 4,080
Club: Bavarian Contest Club
Comments:
FLEX-6600, KPA500 & 4L 20m, 6L 15m, 6L 10m Yagis

This one was tricky! When last onsite at the station in September I recognized my N1MMLogger+ installation on the local Windows machine wouldn’t start anymore. Getting really strange error messages. So I had planned some time on Friday to do a reinstall. Unfortunately it didn’t work! 🙁 Deinstalled everything, deleted every single file and folder belonging to N1MM and even cleaned the registry before installing again … no luck. 🙁 Really strange. But what to do now?

Luckily I had my Macbook with me. Besides other stuff I’m running Parallels on it with several virtualized Windows machines and had already prepared one for all the radio stuff. N1MM was working fine and it’s new feature to connect to the Flex via the network for CAT control was very helpful, too. But how to get my canned audio into the radio? Usually you install the Flex SmartSDR software on Windows which then provides SmartSDR DAX with virtual audio adapters you can then choose as the sound devices also in N1MMLogger+. BUT: SmartSDR for Windows does not work on ARM chips and my Macbook is running on Apple silicon, i.e. the M1 processor, no Intel based chipset anymore. Note to myself: take Intel based hardware with you next time, you still have a (very) old one, don’t you? 😉

So I was running SmartSDR for Mac (highly recommended if you are a Mac user!) as my base user interface to the Flex radio. It provides a DAX solution under Mac OS, too. I always wanted to try SkookumLogger for contesting on the Mac but learned now it depends on transceiver built-in voicekeyers which it triggers via CAT but does not provide it’s own voice keying solution. Ugh. Setting up RUMLogNG as an alternative was easy, it has a built-in voice keyer for contesting etc. BUT: Again a but. While it keyed the radio perfectly the radio needs to be in DAX mode to accept sound through the DAX channels. But then I would need to toggle DAX on/off manually if I wanted to use the microphone to answer somebody! No way … N1MM is doing that through CAT commands when playing a canned voice file, i.e. puts the Flex into DAX mode, plays the audio file, then switches DAX off again so you can continue using the microphone to answer somebody. Need to get in touch with Tom, DL2RUM, author of RUMLogNG, maybe he can add that to his code, too, then everything would be perfect and I could do everything under Mac OS …

So trying around a bit I came up with a very creative solution! I coupled the SmartSDR for Mac DAX audio input/output into a VAC (virtual audio cable) solution which I then defined as the standard audio interface into the virtual Windows machine. I could then trick N1MM into using this new standard Windows audio device and think it’s a transceiver internal sound card so it would switch DAX on/off automatically. Phew! A few more on-air tests to make sure audio levels were right and everything was working as expected and I was finally ready to go after spending way too many hours to get a working setup …

Concerning the contest itself: lots of fun! Nice to see the upper bands finally well open again! As I’m going to do the ARRL-10M contest this year Uwe, DL3BQA/DM0Y, had asked if he could therefor do 10 m during WWDX-SSB. So I chose 15 m knowing right from the beginning I would have no chance to even win in Germany as good friend Oliver, DL2ARD, was going to do 15 m, too. 😉 But anyway, always strive for the best!

Propagation was much better on Sunday. For comparision: I worked 12x Japan on Saturday but 172x JA on Sunday! Likewise with zone 3 (US West Coast): just 1x on Saturday but 24x on Sunday! Both path’ are very close to the North pole from up here in Northern Germany so very sensitive to solar activity and magnetic disturbances.

Working all the JA’s was fun although some were tough copy due to their low signals at times. Here’s an about 12 minutes audio snippet from Sunday morning if you want to check for yourself. 😉

Working JA on Sunday morning:

While Sunday had the better conditions I had the feeling there should have been more QSOs but it seems everybody was on 10 m 😉 and I also had lots more QRM on Sunday compared to Saturday which made it difficult to catch certain multipliers or work a pile-up with weaker stations …

Catching FK8GM under heavy QRM:

Working NA on Sunday afternoon with lots of QRM (8:30 min):

All in all enjoyed it a lot and keeping fingers crossed condx will be as good in the CW part in 4 weeks (and I will probably be on 10 m again then) …

 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB - 2022
Call: DH8BQA
Class: SO(A)SB15 HP
QTH: JO73ce
Operating Time (hrs): 27:30
Summary:
 Band QSOs Zones Countries
------------------------------
 15: 1740 36 135 (incl. dupes)
------------------------------
Total: 1703 36 135 Total Score = 686,394
Club: Bavarian Contest Club
Comments:
FLEX-6600, PA + 6 ele OWA Yagi @40ft.

Final results are out! 😎 Now eager to see what the trophy looks like. 😉

One day too late! 😀 Good ol’ sun was quite active lately so we were regularly checking the Aurora predictions and Space Weather websites during the contest. Unfortunately nothing during the competition but the band finally opened late this afternoon lasting well into the evening. Would have been a great score boost one day earlier. 😉

------------------------------------------------------------------
TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
15:56 SM6VTZ JO58UJ 59A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 600
15:59 SM4HFI JP7ØTO 59A 56A 2 m. CW AUR 829
16:02 SM5EPO JP8ØMC 53A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 788
16:06 SM4IVE JO79SD 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 667
16:14 RA1WU KO47ES 55A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 1025
16:20 EW6FS KO35LB 57A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 855
16:21 LA3EQ JO28CJ 53A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 850
16:25 ES4RM KO49AL 41A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 1099
16:27 GM4YXI IO87WK 59A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 1132
16:29 YL2AO KO16DK 53A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 631
16:34 YL2FZ KO37QI 41A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 952
16:40 SM7GEP JO77IP 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 497
16:44 SM4GGC JO69RK 59A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 696
16:54 SM4HCM JP7ØRL 55A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 814
16:59 LA3BO JO59CD 55A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 707
17:01 SM6YNO JO67GG 57A 55A 2 m. CW AUR 466
17:11 SM4ONW JP7ØQN 57A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 823
17:18 LAØBY JO59FW 59A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 784
17:26 YL2FZ KO37QI 53A 57A 2 m. CW AUR 952
17:31 ES4RM KO49AL 55A 59A 2 m. CW AUR 1099
17:39 UA1AJY KO49TW 41A 53A 2 m. CW AUR 1201
------------------------------------------------------------------

This time remembered to switch on the built-in audio recorder in the IC-9700 so can provide a few audio snippets (it’s been a looong time since I last posted some). Unfortunately it was configured wrong, i.e. started new audio files whenever RX changed to TX and vice versa thus no complete QSOs in a single file. Will have to change that setting next time. 😉

LA0BY/JO59 via Aurora:

YL2FZ/KO37 via Aurora:

Part of my ES4RM contact via Aurora:

Part of my UA1AJY contact via Aurora:

Once again active with the guys, luckily the last time with the “tongue twister” special event call DM6ØUEA. 😀 I have been mainly active on the radio on Saturday and used Sunday to fine-tune the Node Red installation, i.e. adding options to turn the microwave antenna by 1 or 10 degrees or putting in a locator and then turning the antenna into the right direction. Will have to take a few new screenshots sometime. Also repaired our front door and enjoyed a nice bbq …

 VHFREG1 Summary Sheet
 Start Date : 2022年09月02日
 CallSign Used : DM60UEA
 Operator(s) : DG1BHA,DH8BQA,DL3BQA,DM5DX
Operator Category : MULTI-OP
 Band : 144MHz
 Power : HIGH
 Mode : MIXED
 Gridsquare : JO73CE
 Band Mode QSOs Pts Pt/Q
 144 CW 22 12014 546,1
 144 USB 336 111394 331,5
 Total Both 358 123408 344,7
 Score : 123.408
 Rig : IC-9700 + PA
 Antennas : 10 ele DK7ZB Yagi

Only a few QSOs during the Perseids Meteor shower this year, but at least over five times more than last year. 😀 Kidding aside, just too much QRL again so only QRV every now and then for short time periods. Although most of the stations have been worked before I always enjoy every single MS contact, it really has something special to it!

------------------------------------------------------------------
 DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR BAND MODE PRO. QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------
10/08/2022 07:38 RA3LX KO65RE 2 m. MSK144 MS 1267
11/08/2022 08:46 RA6DE KN96DQ 2 m. MSK144 MS 1857
11/08/2022 09:11 F6APE IN97PI 2 m. MSK144 MS 1239
11/08/2022 21:11 YO3YKT KN34CI 2 m. MSK144 MS 1315
11/08/2022 21:55 IU4FKR JN63GV 2 m. MSK144 MS 1040
12/08/2022 09:40 F6EBF JN24KD 2 m. MSK144 MS 1214
12/08/2022 09:56 IQ5MS JN54AA 2 m. MSK144 MS 1064
12/08/2022 10:41 EA3BTZ JN11BI 2 m. MSK144 MS 1596
12/08/2022 21:00 RK3AF KO75WO 2 m. MSK144 MS 1422
12/08/2022 21:10 YO5CRI KN16TS 2 m. MSK144 MS 979
12/08/2022 21:34 YO9HP KN35BA 2 m. MSK144 MS 1252
------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s been a very long time since I last caught a 6 m opening to the US West coast. Actually this opening tonight was just my second West Coast opening at all! And as it happens during all multi hop openings we’re usually additionally challenged by our “black hole location”. This time it was even worse as I could not switch on the KPA500 so had only 100 watts available meaning it was even more frustrating! 🙁 In over one hour with a few dozens of W6/7 stations heard only one QSO was made: W7MEM/DN17. Switched off very frustrated …

Marc, DO4DXA from JN58, asked during the contest if I could come to 6 m as it was open to Scotland. Did so after the contest was finished and easily worked him on CW with the KX3 matching the ZS6BKW with it’s built-in tuner. 😎 A few more CW-QSOs followed (10 in total) but activity was very limited. I then switched over to the IC-705 again (no noise on 6 m from the USB connection!), put the Elecraft T1 antenna tuner in line and matched the ZS6BKW on 6 m again. Astonishingly it worked quite well! Could then do a few more digital QSOs (15) and even worked DL3BQA and DL3BUA from home! 😎 All very spotty but nice to do some VHF contacts from abroad, too. Finally started disassembling the station after about 14z …

Actually, the IOTA contest would have been a non-event for me this year. Since my wife and daughter only got vacation for the last 2 weeks of July, I had already written off the contest in my mind. The plan was a week of holidays in London and then another week with friends in Edinburgh. The return flight would have been right during the contest.

At some point my lovely wife asked if I was aware that the UK was an island and if I could do radio from there? After all, at the end of July there is always this "strange island contest" where I go away. Good wife! 😀 So we rescheduled a bit and I took the girls to the airport on Friday, then Mr. BQA had time for himself. 😎

Equipment carried along: An Icom IC-705 & Elecraft KX3 with a ZS6BKW antenna on a 10 m Spiderbeam mast, the small one suitable for flight luggage with a pack size of just 70 cm. The whole stuff with accessories already weighed 15 kg, but it must not be more than 23 kg in total for checked luggage and I also needed some clothes for 2 weeks (don’t ask: the girls’ suitcases were as heavy even without radio equipment, rearranging was no option, hi). So only QRP. Why is that important? Well, if QRP then maybe seriously fight for the trophy which is also available for QRP for UK Islands Expeditions, unclaimed last year. I had selected a few good looking QTHs in Scotland, some of them really nice locations, but it would all have been EU-005 “only”. A quick inquiry to the organizer revealed that I could take part in the DXpedition class, despite EU-005 which is home to thousands of “fixed” stations, if I transported everything there myself. That was a given. After all quite an interesting idea and yes, compliant with the rules. So it would have worked. 😉

But: With low power operation the QSO potential is mainly concentrated on Europe anyway. And with only a 10 m high wire as inverted V far away contacts on the low bands would certainly be out of reach, too, but probably quite a lot of UK on 80 & 40 m. But as “same island” stations they would only count 5 points while from another island it would be 15 points! Strategically much smarter! So I researched a bit further (AirBnB is your friend!) and found what I was looking for on the Isle of Arran, EU-123: a small caravan (with a camping toilet and without running water, for the purists, hi), on top of a cliff right on the Sea, clear take-off from north-east over south to west. It should also fit with travelling there (once across Scotland), ferry, the booked return flight, etc. And it did, ufb!

Station setup on Friday afternoon went smooth. Weather was fine, mast and antenna went up quickly. Happy camper. 😎 A few transceiver issues though, see below.

It was quite stormy during the night from Friday to Saturday with heavy rain. Hoped the antenna installation would hold up to it but unfortunately it didn’t! Luckily it was an easy fix.

GM7M always works the IOTA from Arran, too. According to the last reports and maps on their website I had mentally located them in the middle of the island on top of the mountains. The QRM by them on the low bands was extreme. The KX3 lived up to its name, as a direct mixer it pretty much mixed every signal with that of GM7M. 🙁

It worked ok’ish when running myself, I could minimize the problem by clever frequency selection. On the high bands it was less bad, but still quite obvious. I had expected more from the KX3, at 15km distance it shouldn’t be an issue at all. The sideband nulling procedure will probably also have to be carried out again.

Sunday morning Zabdi, my landlady, came and said that there were 3 masts like mine at the campsite 600 m down the road, and if that might be radio amateurs like myself, too? As it turned out GM7M with high power was right next door, not even a kilometer away! Wow, then the KX3 did really well in these circumstances! It’s all a question of perspective. 😀 When I went to the campsite in the evening to take a shower after dismantling the station there were no signs of GM7M anymore, seems they qickly took down everything, too. Pity, could have been another interesting talk. 😉

It would have been exciting to see how the 705 would have performed in these conditions. I had tested the setup with a USB cable for rig control at home on a dummy load and configured everything and all worked fine. But then in the field noise with S9 on the HF bands with the USB cable connected?! Damn … The ferrites I brought along didn’t help. Communication via WiFi and/or Bluetooth with the computer is no problem for CAT, audio, etc. I had that configured easily. But CW doesn’t work with it (or I haven’t figured out how yet, if anyone has any tips, I would be grateful). Oh well. 🙁 Good thing was I had the KX3 as a spare (tnx Heiko, DG1BHA, for the loan, I wasn’t sure if the 705 would be delivered in time for the trip) as I didn’t want to leave anything to chance with the goal of “winning a trophy”. Seems I was perfectly right doing so. 😉

Overall I’m very satisfied with the result. Various mults slipped through my fingers due to the QRM issue, so it could have been even a bit better. With QRP as a mult you can also do running which works quite well (though not as well as as a high power station, hi).

At some point on Sunday morning I needed a little break (sleeping, peeing, making coffee … 2 hours).

Condx have been mixed, the start on Saturday was really slow, later things got a little better, high bands only really usable on Sunday thanks to a bit of Sporadic-E, had some decent rates in that time frame. Tnx to all callers!

When handing out number 666 there was still too much contest time left (almost 8 minutes). Thus I continued. 😉 At number 670 the net counter stood at 666 and I saved myself the last 50 seconds. 😉 Made a handful of SSB QSOs, too (which are in the log, of course, but counted out below), but I entered CW-only. Now let’s see if it was good enough for the trophy. Even if not: great weekend, lot’s of fun, recommended for imitation. 😉

 IOTA Contest - 2022
Call: MM/DH8BQA
Operator(s): DH8BQA
Class: SO(A)24CW QRP
QTH: IO75kk
Operating Time (hrs): 21,5
Summary:
 Band CW Qs CW Mults Ph Qs Ph Mults
----------------------------------------
 80: 102 28 
 40: 208 43 (2) 
 20: 184 35 (4) 
 15: 98 21 
 10: 68 8 
----------------------------------------
Total: 660 135 0 0 Total Score = 726,300
Comments:
Elecraft KX3, 5W + ZS6BKW on 10 m Spiderbeam fiberpole

Summer time = holiday time! This year the three of us decided to spend a week in London, then move on to Edinburgh for another week together with a few friends making it a group of seven. Had a very enjoyable time although we nailed it with walking a few kilometers through London on the hottest day ever recorded in British weather history! Oh well … 😉

When deciding to visit Edinburgh I also looked up a few of the well known VHF DXers in Scotland to see how far they are away. I do like to meet the locals if time permits (which is sometimes rather tricky when travelling in a group). As it turned out Jim, GM4FVM, whom I had already dozens of QSOs with (see QSL below as an example … everybody active on 4 m will certainly have QSO’d him already 😉), is just an hour’s drive away so I asked him if he was okay with a short visit. And he was! 😎

We had a very pleasant afternoon with him and his lovely wife Sue. Thanks for the awesome tea and original scones, very delicious! 😉 While the girls had a walk through their fantastic garden exploring all the “green stuff” I’m not as interested in 😉 Jim and I, after visiting his small efficient antenna farm, made it to the shack and discussed a lot of things. We are very like-minded on so many topics and interested in the same stuff I often had the feeling I was sitting there with one of my best long-time friends! Really great and after all one of the many things that make Amateur Radio stand out as a hobby: finding friends over the air and maybe even meeting in person like in this case.

Many thanks Jim & Sue for the very enjoyable time! Will sure meet you on the bands again but hope to meet in person in the future again, too, maybe next time in Germany. 😉

Caught another Sporadic-E opening to the Balkans on 2 m early afternoon:

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TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB
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11:55 LZ1AG KN22ID +02 -06 2 m. FT8 ES 1454
11:58 LZ2CM KN13OJ +01 -06 2 m. FT8 ES 1274
11:59 YO7FWS KN24EK -01 +01 2 m. FT8 ES 1222
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4 m was open into the South, too, and even opened nicely via double-hop ES to the Canaries with EA8AVI (IL28) and EA8BFK as well as EA8JF (both IL38) making it into the log. Like these 3.500 km+ openings! 😎

Sporadic-E, Aurora, now some Tropo for a change! Love the summer month’ as there are so many different possibilities to catch different propagation modes on VHF, it’s just amazing! Certainly one of the reasons why I fell in love with VHF DXing many many years ago. 😉

There was some good tropo from Western Central Europe and the U.K. down to Southern France and Spain. We were way too far away from all of it but once in a while signals popped up enabling the following two contacts: 😎

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TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE PROP. QRB
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08:27 F1NZC JN15MR -17 -15 2 m. FT8 TR 1154
09:17 F4BKV IN95PP -18 -13 2 m. FT8 TR 1362
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