Today another DUR contest. I tested my new 1.5m mesh dish made by DG0CN. Some new qso were possible with the higher gain of the antenna. Also did some qso on 24GHz. Overall a good result. After the contest i also heard fragments from HA8MV. This was never before possible. Otherway around i would need some more output power i guess.
Special thanks for the qso to DL7QY, OM5CM, DJ1LP.
The first DUR activity contest this year. DL4DTU borrowed his spare 24GHz transverter to me. DG2DWL convinced me also to take 23cm with me. I was not very active in calling CQ on 23cm, just worked the stations that i heard.
The rest of the time i used to try some QSO on 24GHz. For the contact to DH1DM and DG2DWL i had to move up the hill a bit.
The wheather was really nice and the conditions appeared to be better than usual.
24GHz station, view direction of eastern ore-mountains
24GHz station at Triebenberg
A short video that shows the Elbsandsteingebirge on Sunday morning:
Receiving the 24GHz beacon DB0TUD at Triebenberg JO61XA:
Hope to hear you next time !
Last weekend: Another times DUR activity. Another time from Triebenberg JO61XA. This time i used my new power generator. Unfortunately i missed some extra fuel and so i had to go qrt a bit earlier.
Highlight was a qso to DR3M north of Hamburg.
Etwas noch: Wenn man sich ueber die Signalqualitaet eines anderen OM beschwert, dann bitte qualifiziert. Denn nur dann kann man auch tatsaechlich etwas unternehmen. Ein “Scheiss Signal.” ohne weitere Information hilft vor Ort wirklich nicht weiter.
23cm equipment + generator + packet radio
This time from JO61XA (Triebenberg) again. The activity was ok but the wheather was poor and stormy during the activity. Only in the end there was some sunshine. This time i did some CW contacts as well. Overall i had 17QSO but quite low average km. Thanks to DL6ABC for the ODX. Until next activity i will try to build a new antenna, hopefully ;)
parts of my 23cm rig
packet radio equipment
This was my first DUR activity this year. I found time to participate from Hirtstein/JO60OM. DL2LCE and DL8WQQ were there as well and operated some hundred meters away. This was the first time i tried my FT-817 together with the transverter and a new LNA stage as well. Surprisingly heard no beacons before the contest started. But a test with DG0VOG showed that all things were working properly, puuh. Unfortunately there were complaints about my signal by DL2LCE which i have to follow up now. So i did not call CQ on my own and just worked stations. In the end i had 18QSO and around 1200km in sum.
BTW. the small panel antenna is for 5GHz WLAN as it can be used for Hamnet.
DUR Apr10, JO60OM
I was once more QRV from the Triebenberg in JO61XA. The activity was a bit sobering but at least the wheather was nice. I got 13 QSO with a ODX of around 100km. Surprisingly there were some local stations active in FM on 1297,5MHz. The week before the contest i modified the transverter to solve the thermal problems with the built-in PA. This works quite well now without running away 10kHz anymore. Additionally i repaired an old 16Ele Yagi i got from DG2DWL. This antenna is around 6dB better than my old bi-quad. The biggest surprise came 15 minutes before the end of the contest. A beep from the voltage converter that supplies the antenna rotor told me that my car’s battery was empty. No chance to start the engine anymore. It was the first time i was happy that there are so much people hiking at the Triebenberg (and of course coming by car beeing able to help me starting my own one) ;)
Hear you next time !
Transverter, FT857D and voice keyer inside the car
I participated in the July DUR Activity contest. This time i decided to be qrv from the Triebenberg in JO61XA. Because the hill is not open for everybody (there is an external laboratory of the Technical University of Dresden) i had to build up the antenna at the base of the hill. The Triebenberg is the highest hill in the area of the city of Dresden. The activity during the contest was much better than last time. This was mostly because of the OM´s from DF0MTL beeing active from JO61JF. Therefore i had only few time for 2m operation but i had only a bigwheel antenna with be anyway. At 23cm i am still using my tiny hybrid-quad antenna which appears not to be competitive ;) Next time i might use another QTH and another antenna, of course. After the contest i had to hurry up because the rain front came close really fast. Two minutes after i had all the stuff in the car heavy rain started.
Hope to hear you next time !
Tiny antennas in JO61XA
Dark clouds over the Triebenberg
Today there was another DUR activity contest and i used it to test some equipment. Because the OK/OM activity is in parallel i tried to setup my 2m Tonna yagi. Surprisingly this was a easy job. The only problem was that asseble the antenna took much longer than expected.
The activity on 23cm in the DUR test was low. I had 5 qso only. But i did some qso on 2m as well. ODX was a 9A station. I also heard a french station and some german’s calling a EA station. Maybe some sporadic E ? I did not hear anything from Spain.
For 23cm i have to build a bigger antenne until the next test. The single hybrid quad element is only good for some local qso.
DH5YM in JO61RB
all the equipment
I tried to participate in the activity day of the “Dresdner UKW Runde” (DUR) last sunday.
So i drove to the Bayerhoehe (JO61RB) which is some km west of Dresden close to Wilsdruff.
Testing the equipment one day before gave me a good feeling but unfortunately the RX/TX relay of the transverter did not switch reliably with the 12V battery supply.
So i was just able to do two qso. Also the antenna was a bit tiny. So i have to look for a small Yagi before the next test. What worked fine was the antenna rotor driven by a 12V to 220V switched converter.
73s de Mario
DH5YM in DUR test from JO61RB