2 of 3 hours from home. Quite good on 23cm. Some nice QSO on 9cm. Unfortunately no QSO on 6cm.
21/05 DUR 23cm Kartendaten: OpenStreetMap-Mitwirkende, SRTM | Kartendarstellung: OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA), DL4MFM log analyzer
21/05 DUR 9cm Kartendaten: OpenStreetMap-Mitwirkende, SRTM | Kartendarstellung: OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA), DL4MFM log analyzer
The last DUR activity of the year was out of competition due to the new restrictions with respect to Covid-19. Therefore the portable activity was low.
23cm ended with 12QSO and ODX DL1SUZ about 300km. I several times tried with HA8V without any success. Also other signal appeared quite weak. I heard Uwe on 13cm as well. Since i do not use a PA yet (only 1W) i was not able to make a QSO there. 13cm finally had 6 QSO, everything local. On 9cm i was able to reach DL6ABC and DC7QH in Berlin + DL4DTU locally.
Recently my new 23cm LNA showed up here. For the DUR activity contest today i integrated it into my transverter system. 9cm got double points this month. Therefore i also tried to be active there. Not that much activity and only 2 QSO. The 23cm result was quite good due to some nice DX with SM6VTZ, HA5UA, HA5YA and OM5CM.
23cm result October DUR // Image created by DL4MFM log analyzer. Kartendaten: OpenStreetMap-Mitwirkende, SRTM | Kartendarstellung: OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA)
New 23cm LNA
23cn and 9cm antenna
Working from home again. Only south direction 140-220°.It seems the participation in that direction was not that good. I need to put some antenna over the roof for 23cm at least.
Right side: yagies for 23/13cm, panel for 9cm. Left dish for 3cm. On the floor in the right corner dish for 6cm.
microwave rigs
| Band | QSOs | Punkte | AVG |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,3 GHz | 5 | 266 | 53.2 |
| 2,3 GHz | 7 | 178 | 25.4 |
| 3,4 GHz | 1 | 8 | 8.0 |
| 5,7 GHz | 1 | 8 | 8.0 |
| 10 GHz | 1 | 8 | 8.0 |
QSOs: 5 QSO-Punkte: 266 Punkte: 266 Durchschn. Pkt/QSO: 53.20 Durchschn. QSO-P/QSO: 53.20 Punkte/50 QSOs: 266
| DATE | MODE | TIME | CALLSIGN | TX | RX | LOCATOR | QRB | OPERATOR | REMARK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20181021 | SSB | 08.30 | DH1DM | 59 001 | 59 013 | JO60VR | 42 | DH5YM | |
| 20181021 | SSB | 08.30 | DG2DWL | 59 002 | 59 013 | JO60VR | 42 | DH5YM | |
| 20181021 | SSB | 08.32 | DG5VL | 59 003 | 59 002 | JO61WA | 14 | DH5YM | |
| 20181021 | SSB | 08.48 | DL4DTU | 59 005 | 59 013 | JO61TB | 7 | DH5YM | |
| 20181021 | SSB | 11.02 | OK1FQK | 59 006 | 59 021 | JO70NA | 156 | DH5YM |
QSOs: 7 QSO-Punkte: 178 Punkte: 178 Durchschn. Pkt/QSO: 25.43 Durchschn. QSO-P/QSO: 25.43 Punkte/50 QSOs: 178
| DATE | MODE | TIME | CALLSIGN | TX | RX | LOCATOR | QRB | OPERATOR | REMARK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20181021 | SSB | 08.37 | DO1UZ | 59 001 | 59 004 | JO60SX | 18 | DH5YM | |
| 20181021 | SSB | 08.50 | DL4DTU | 59 002 | 59 008 | JO61TB | 7 | DH5YM | |
| 20181021 | SSB | 09.14 | DO5UH | 59 003 | 59 009 | JO60WT | 34 | DH5YM | |
| 20181021 | SSB | 09.17 | DG2DWL | 59 004 | 59 008 | JO60VR | 42 | DH5YM | |
| 20181021 | SSB | 09.17 | DH1DM | 59 005 | 59 008 | JO60VR | 42 | DH5YM | |
| 20181021 | FM | 09.21 | DM4SWL/P | 59 006 | 59 009 | JO61XA | 19 | DH5YM | |
| 20181021 | FM | 09.22 | DM7MM | 59 007 | 59 005 | JO61UA | 9 | DH5YM |
QSOs: 1 QSO-Punkte: 8 Punkte: 8 Durchschn. Pkt/QSO: 8.00 Durchschn. QSO-P/QSO: 8.00 QSOs/Stunde: 1 Punkte/Stunde: 8 Punkte/50 QSOs: 8
| DATE | MODE | TIME | CALLSIGN | TX | RX | LOCATOR | QRB | OPERATOR | REMARK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20181021 | SSB | 08.53 | DL4DTU | 59 001 | 59 001 | JO61TB | 7 | DH5YM |
QSOs: 1 QSO-Punkte: 8 Punkte: 8 Durchschn. Pkt/QSO: 8.00 Durchschn. QSO-P/QSO: 8.00 QSOs/Stunde: 1 Punkte/Stunde: 8 Punkte/50 QSOs: 8
| DATE | MODE | TIME | CALLSIGN | TX | RX | LOCATOR | QRB | OPERATOR | REMARK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20181021 | SSB | 08.54 | DL4DTU | 59 001 | 59 001 | JO61TB | 7 | DH5YM |
QSOs: 1 QSO-Punkte: 8 Punkte: 8 Durchschn. Pkt/QSO: 8.00 Durchschn. QSO-P/QSO: 8.00 Punkte/50 QSOs: 8
| DATE | MODE | TIME | CALLSIGN | TX | RX | LOCATOR | QRB | OPERATOR | REMARK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20181021 | SSB | 09.44 | DL4DTU | 59 001 | 59 002 | JO61TB | 7 | DH5YM |
DH5YM – DUR1809
Part time qrv from new QTH. Good takeoff direction south and nord. Only working direction south with very limited setup.
23cm 15W 14ele
13cm 1W ringfeed
Locator:: JO61UC
Band QSOs Points average
1,3 GHz 8 318 39.8
2,3 GHz 6 203 33.8
Band 1,3 GHz
Polar map for 1,3 GHz
| DATE | MODE | TIME | CALLSIGN | TX | RX | LOCATOR | QRB | OPERATOR | REMARK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20180916 | SSB | 09.11 | DG0LFF | 59 001 | 59 009 | JO61VC | 5 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | CW | 09.19 | OK1FJZ | 599 002 | 559 011 | JO60WD | 107 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | SSB | 09.23 | DG5VL | 55 003 | 45 010 | JO61WA | 14 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | SSB | 09.24 | OK1IEI | 55 004 | 59 007 | JO70EC | 120 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | SSB | 09.27 | DH1DM | 59 005 | 59 008 | JO61TB | 7 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | SSB | 09.30 | DG2DWL | 59 006 | 59 025 | JO60VR | 42 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | FM | 09.56 | DG4VL | 59 007 | 59 004 | JO60VX | 15 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | FM | 10.27 | DG1VT | 59 008 | 59 001 | JO61UC | 0 | DH5YM |
Band 2,3 GHz
Polar map for 2,3 GHz
| DATE | MODE | TIME | CALLSIGN | TX | RX | LOCATOR | QRB | OPERATOR | REMARK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20180916 | SSB | 09.32 | DO5UH | 59 001 | 55 009 | JO60ST | 34 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | SSB | 09.33 | DG2DWL | 59 002 | 59 012 | JO60VR | 42 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | SSB | 09.35 | DO1UZ/P | 55 003 | 55 007 | JO60RP | 53 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | SSB | 09.36 | DL9NCI/P | 55 004 | 55 007 | JO60RP | 53 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | SSB | 09.58 | DG4VL | 59 005 | 59 002 | JO60VX | 15 | DH5YM | |
| 20180916 | FM | 10.29 | DG1VT | 59 006 | 59 001 | JO61UC | 0 | DH5YM |
This year i was on vacation again during the June DUR weekend.
So i took the 23cm transverter + FT-817 + my 16ele Yagi with me to do some aircraft scatter QSO.
My location was balcony on the 8th floor but with decent takeoff towards JO60/61. Takeoff more towards west was slightly better.
Looking to the Airscout software revealed very few planes. This resulted in weak and very short reflections. In the end 3 QSO. Best signal was from DJ5AR this time which was the most distant QSO.
Unfortunately i found no other station for a QSO in the north.
Antenna mounted to rainfall pipe. Baltic sea in the background.
my portable station. You can see the arm of my 3year old co-op “operating” the chat PC ;)
Just before the May DUR competition i got my new 6cm Transverter working. Before I faced some problems with the multiplier chain.
Murphy made that saturday afternoon i burned the control circuitry of the SMA bistable relay – poff. So i had to exchange it with my own sequencer circuitry that needs some highside FET switch to do that job.
I used a dual-band ring feed i made for tests and connected it to a old 60cm dish. The result you can see on the photo below. Very beta version ;) The PA is still missing and therefore i had only about 250mW.
I also wanted to take 3cm with me. In order to limit the amount of equipment i decided to minimize effort for 23cm. 13cm is out of order at the moment anyway. That means only using the former Wimax patch antenna for 9cm.
The following result i can claim:
23cm 12QSO 772P
13cm —
9cm 4QSO 481P
6cm 2QSO 351P (x2)
3cm 4QSO 489P
Sum 2444P
Next steps for 6cm will be adding driver (ordered from China) and the PA (10W, already here) as well as creating some better feed suitable for the mesh dish.
My goal is to operate 23/13/9/6 with one mesh dish.
This time i had a neighbour in JO61XA. DM4SWL was operating few meters away on 23cm FM only. Thanks for taking the foto !
6cm rig
after May 2017 DUR test
I was not qrv from JO61XA for a long time. Now there was the chance to take all the equipment to Triebenberg again. During the last months i tried to repair some things here and there. The 9cm transverter got a new alignment and is working now. Saturday morning i collected all the stuff and partly assembled it. I wanted to go for 23/13/9cm and 3cm eventually. This time i used the 1m dish that i bought last year in order to save some time during the mast construction. In the end i was qrv 1 hour after beginning of the activity. So what… The goal is to test the hardware. First observations were not that promising: 1) bad connection of the DC supply for the mast transverters 2) control unit for the rotator was not working.
The later one was really bad. Later at home i noticed that i partly disconnected the cable for the display / keypad unit when fixing some loose screws few weeks ago.
For 3cm i picked a second IF transceiver. Unfortunately the wrong one. The IF is 432MHz but i took the FT-290 instead the 790R2 ;) RX/TX switching via the mimic for the 2m based transverters from the FT-817 was not working but it took me almost until end of the test to find out what was going on. So only 1 QSO there.
Also 23cm seemed to have some oscillation in the RX LNA. I got some very strange sounds from time to time when releasing the PTT. Maybe some feedback from the 13/9cm transverters because of the PTT mimic i use (i switch all chains to TX but only transfer the IF to the one i want to use. Decoupling is only 50dB which might be an issue. I need to investigate there).
Finally, when deconstructing the mast, i was a bit optimistic on the way to remove the ropes and had a very robust takedown of the antenna and transverters. The main impulse was taken bei the box of the 13cm transverter. Fortunately only the plastic box splitted into several segments. The transverters are still working fine… lucky operator ;) I anyway want to put it into a common box with the 6cm i am going to build and the new 9cm i have flying around as components here.
Hope to hear you again next time.
damaged 13cm transverter box
40cm camping dish used for 10GHz. The feed is the W1GHZ duoband feed.
camping dish mounting
Rest of the equipment
Total: Only 3 QSO but only 30 minutes QRV during the DUR test.
This time a completely different setup again.
23cm 15W with Quados, 13cm 1W with double quad element (i had nothing better, sri), 9cm 5W with Wimax-Patch antenna, 6cm with dish (the green one) borrowed from DL4DTU (TNX !), 10GHz/24GHz 5W/130mW with 6cm offset dish (transverters borrowed from DL4DTU).
This time Harald, DG3UH joined and we did a number of QSO on almost all bands. Only 24GHz did not work well with DL4DTU and there was no other station activa on that band.
If i remember correct: 23cm 9QSO, 13cm 5QSO, 9cm 1QSO, 6cm 3QSO, 3cm 1QSO, 1.2cm 0QSO.
DUR201405