Category Archives: DUR Activity Contest

DUR April 14

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2014 04 DUR 23cm setup

2014 04 DUR 23cm setup

rotor control + hiqsdr

rotor control + hiqsdr

With hiqsdr, transverter and new rotator control on 23cm. Low activity but nice weather.

I decided to try some new setup. The recently completed rotator control was used with VUSC to turn the antenna to the destination automatically. I was first time using my HiQSDR setup portable with a 23cm-10m transverter borrowed from DL3JAN. Therefore i skipped 13cm/9cm.

The last picture shows a screenshot of the signal from DL1DXA at the end of the DUR test.

Screenshot DUR 04/14

Screenshot DUR 04/14

DUR activity 2013 October

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After 2 month of inactivity from my side another trial with 3 bands. I had 23/13/9cm with my 1.5m dish.
Meanwhile i integrated the 5W PA for 9cm. This time Murphy tried to do its very best.
I had to tear down the antenna 3 times in between. First i had troubles to find the correct lengths of the ropes for the mast.
When testing the transverters i experienced 9cm was not switching to TX. During my mast trouble i accidently disconnected the 9cm power cable at the mast unit.
After that operation was going relatively smooth. This time i was heard very well by the others on 9cm. But i experienced that my RX seems to be really poor. I always gave much better reports than i got. I did not check the sensitivity so far. Everything you dont check will not work ;)
In the end i had 17 QSO on 23cm, 9 QSO on 13cm, 5 QSO on 9cm.
ODX on 23cm was HA5UA/p. Thanks for the patience during that weak signal QSO.
Next steps with improving my setup will be a new rotator control. The original KR600 controler has some issues and i somethimes do not get correct heading. 23cm would need to be mounted to the mast. Unfortunately i dont think that i can get the mast up then. It would be too heavy.

setup during october 2013 DUR activity in JO61XA

setup during october 2013 DUR activity in JO61XA

July DUR Contest

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This morning i tried my dish as 3-band station from jo61xa. Low participation and strange conditions. No chance with ok2uyz and ha8mv but a nice qso to om. This time new was 9cm but not yet with pa. Therefore only 1 qso with DL4DTU.
Now sitting in the sun with ice and coffee ;)
image

image

DUR Contest May & WebSDR

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This time DUR contest together with Steffen DJ5AM.
QRV on 23cm, 13cm, 10GHz, partly 24GHz.
Not very much DX on 23cm this time but some nice 10GHz QSO with the station of Steffen.
I made a short video receiving my 23cm signal with the WebSDR located at my home QTH.

DUR Contest May 2013 - receiving myself on my 23cm websdr
Watch this video on YouTube.

The WebSDR is a test and receives 23cm & as well as 10GHz using 2x RTLSDR USB sticks.
PA3FWM kindly added support for these types of USB receiver sticks which makes it very easy to setup WebSDR receivers for the bands between 24MHz and 1700MHz. One is connected to a crystal stabilized sat LNB which makes the receiver for the narrow band section of the 10GHz ham band.

As long as the receiver is online you can find it here:
http://dh5ym.hopto.org:8901

The following pictures show my 23/13cm equipment after then end of the DUR test ready to go home and the 10GHz and 24GHz station of Steffen, DJ5AM.

DCIM100MEDIA

DCIM100MEDIA

Oct. 2012 DUR Contest

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QRV again after a long time beeing absent.
This was the first time i was QRV on 13cm. Although i had just 1W on this band i made some very nice contacts.
There were still good conditions because of a very nice tropo.
Despite foggy wheather in the morning it turned out to be a very nice DUR test this time.
Unfortunately the activity from Stations from within a 100km radius is getting less and less. Without ON4KST chat its rather difficult.
The picture shows my 1.5m dish with the 13cm box below. Many thanks for all the QSO ! Hear you next time, hopefully !

1.5m dish with 13cm transverter box


a few cables


DUR10_12_DH5YM_129.edi
DUR10_12_DH5YM_232.edi

DUR October 2011

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Last weekend another DUR activity from Triebenberg JO61XA. This time 23cm only. I did not modify anything in my setup.
The conditions were better than usually but degraded during the 3 hours. I was able to work OZ3ZW, HA8MV/p and also DL7QY just to name the 3 most far stations out of 22 QSO.
In the end this was a new record for me from JO61XA with a sum of more than 3000km.
The other side of the medal: usually the far stations are just workable after a ping in KST chat. Fortunately i could work OK2UYZ and DH7OT random this time. On the other hand this activity contest should gain some activity on the bands and this it achieves with and without chat.
I think now i need to improve my station again now. Probably some more power on 23cm. 10GHz and 24GHz are in the pipe but it depends on my spare time when i will complete them. At least W1GHZ promised to send me one of his nice dual-band feedhorns.

September DUR

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Last weekend i had another try in the DUR activity. I was qrv on 23cm only. The result was quite good. First time i was able to work HA8MV/P with my 15watts. When bringing down the antenna i faced strong rain.
Before the contest i fixed the RX part of my transverter and i made the voice keyer system as well as the headset connection working. Now operation is much more comfortable.

/p shack

/p shack, many wires

June 2011 DUR activity

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Today DUR activity contest. From JO61XA again. Some nice QSOs. (14 on 23cm, 2 on 24GHz)
Surprisingly i did not get wet this time. The most rain was at the other side of the city.
Find some pictures below.

much equipment ...


dish and sun ...


view direction Elbsandsteingebirge