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Photo-Story showing Contest activities of German Amateur Radio Stations
Bodo DL7AFB and DL7AKL Wolfgang
Home Videos Contest Results Contest Logs DARC IARU
2013 - October, IARU Region 1 UHF - Contest // JO62ja, 155m asl
Report: DL7AKL 432-MHz Single
Operator class
This October weekend started with typical autumnally
weather, deep grey clouds, some wind and fortunately no rain. The set-up phase
kept dry and first hours of operation started at moderate DX conditions. But the
situation changed during the night.
Mist came up and heavy drizzle started.
That was a hard proving for the antennas, cables and the power generator outside.
After the night-break the situation became clear, some of the RF connections became
clammy and the previously excellent VSWR disappeared. To prevent the PA from
destruction caused by impedance mismatching, the RF power had to be
reduced significantly. So the
second lap started with a quiet band and a low QSO rate. Luckily the rain
stopped
Sunday afternoon and the DX conditions improved fairly. More over it kept dry
during the disassembling phase, too.
The current set of pictures showing: <left> Operator Wolfgang, DL7AKL, at the UHF station using his self-made 432/28-MHz high-level transverter,
the Elecraft K2 Transceiver, the RIW power amplifier and MGF1601 pre-amp; <middle> foggy morning, ...;
<right> Raindrops ...
<new video in preparation, coming up soon (currently struggling with SONY's .mov-format :( >
Top-10 DX 432-MHz tropo: >800km: 2 x; > 600km: 8 x, details after silence period
QSOs 70cm:
2013 - July, DARC VHF-UHF-SHF-Contest // JO62ja, 155m asl
Report: DL7AFB 432-MHz Single
Operator class
What a great contest! Due to a large High-Pressure Area
covering whole North-West-Europe from Spain to Skandinavia we got partially
excellent tropospheric DX conditions, that allowed very long distance contacts
at VHF/UHF-Bands. The DX-Cluster offered contacts between Danmark and Spain as
well as between Norway and France. From my location in the Middle-East of
Germany I had the opportunity to work a lot of stations from the UK and France.
The current set of pictures showing: <left> Operator Bodo, DL7AFB, at the UHF station using DC8RI's new
432/28-MHz Transverter-System IRHX-4011a, Elecraft K2
Transceiver, the RIW power amplifier
and MGF1601 pre-amp; <middle>
early morning, 5 AM: after sleeping just for two hours, I took
the picture of the aerial in front of the rising sun and continued the contest
operation;
<right> The 432-MHz
antenna group in front of a wind power station
<new video in preparation, coming up soon>
Top-10 DX 432-MHz tropo: >1000km: F8DBF (IN78) ODX 1297km, GW2OP/p (IO71) 1207km, G3CKR/p (IO93); >800km: G5XV/p (IO91), G0OLE/p (IO93), G1ZJP (IO92), G3FJE/p (IO92), G2XV/p (JO02), G5LK/p (JO01), G3XDY (JO02), at least more than 30 QSO's over 600km giving a total score of 108 T-Points.
QSOs 70cm:
2013 - May, DARC VHF-UHF-SHF-Contest // JO62ja, 155m asl
Report: DL7AKL 432-MHz Single
Operator class
<left> The K2RIW UHF power amplifier equipped
with a pair of Svetlana's GS-36b (4xc400) valves operated at 2kV anode voltage;
<middle> DL7AKL's brand new hand build 432-MHz aerial made up of 8 stacked 10 element 25-Ohms
DK7ZB Yagis
(optimised for use of thin elements by DL7AFB). The antennas are mounted on a 12m
height glass-fibre
reinforced plastic mast (GFRP) form
www.TECADI.de ;
<right> kitchen, dining room, living room, guestroom,
bedroom, ... ;)
DX 432-MHz (TR) > 600km: I3NPF/6 (ODX-905km), 9A0Z, HA5KDQ, 9A1CMS, HB9FX, PI4Z, OM5KV, OM5XX, and further 20 QSOs > 500km
QSOs 70cm:
2012 - Oktober, IARU Region 1 UHF-Contest // JO62ja, 155m asl
Report: DL7AKL initially testing the new 432-MHz antenna set-up: 8x10 element 25-Ohms Yagi (optimized by DL7AFB)
2011 - Oktober, IARU Region 1 UHF-Contest // JO62ja, 155m asl
Report: DL7AKL during contest operation. The moon set looks like he did EME ;-)
DX 432-MHz (TR) > 600km: F6HGC (ODX 766km), F5SE/P, F1AZJ, HA5KDQ, HB9CLN, S50C, HA7P, OM5X
QSOs 70cm:
2011 - September, IARU Region 1 VHF-Contest // JO62ja, 155m asl
Report: DL7AFB on his VHF radio station, using a Elecraft K2 qrp transceiver, a high dynamics transverter and a ME-750V (GU-74) power amplifier. In the background the new GS-35b amplifier came to first operation for a short time, just to perform some initial testings at half of the recommended anode voltage. To achieve best receiving performance, no pre-amplifier was connected. In front of the SRA1-H high level mixer only a pair of BFP-193 low-noise silicon transistors with Norton-Feedback was placed, delivering about 14dB gain at 1.7dB NF and 13dBm IP3in, respectively.
DX 144MHz (TR) > 700km: 9A1ACD (ODX 801 km), UW5Y, G8P, 9A4M, LA6VBA, HB9DUR, IQ3AZ, S59DEM, 9A2L, HA6W
QSOs 2m:
2011 - May, DARC VHF-UHF-Contest // JO62ja, 155m asl
Nice sunny contest weather - as we like it ;-)
Report: (left) 2m-station 4 x 9 element Tonna yagis next to the huge metal tower of a Mega-Watt-Wind-Turbin. (right) 70cm station 8 x 8 element yagis.
DX 144MHz (TR)
> 700km: IW3INQ/3
(ODX 793km),
F5FNY/P,
HG3A,
9A1P,
HB9STY/P,
IW3AJN/3,
IQ3AZ,
S53WW,
9A2L,
HA6W,
HB9T
DX 432MHz (TR) > 500km:
PE1EWR (ODX
639km),
HB9GT, F1IMY/P,
DF0OVH,
ON4PS/P,
HB9CXK, ON4HRT/P,
DF9PX,
OE3GWC,
LX/PE1ITR/P, DL8GP,
DK8VS
QSOs 2m:
QSOs
70cm: 
2010 - October, IARU-Region1 UHF-Contest from JO62ja, 155m asl
Contest weather: Indian summer with high pressure core over Scandinavia brought reasonable DX conditions in all directions
Report: (left) DL7AKL and his brand new radio shack inside a trailer. Equipment used: Elecraft K2, Transverter, tiny transistorised PA ;-) (middle) 8 stacked 8 elements DL6WU Yagi, delivering about 19dB gain above Dipole. The LNA Pre-Amplifier is mounted directly at the feed point of the antenna, whereas the TX has to bear down about 10m ECOFLEX-15 coax line. (right) morning impressions, jet streams blurred in the sky just before sun rise.
DX 432MHz (TR) > 500km: F8KCF/p (ODX 810km), F5OAU/p, HB9XC, F1AZJ/p, HA5KDQ, HB9TTY, HB9CLN, S50C, HB9BA, HA7P, ON7WR, HB9GT, OM5KM, HB9JNX, F1IMY/p, ON4PS/p, F6KQV/p, DL0BLG, DF5GZ/p, HB9CXK, ON4HRT/p, OM6A, LX/PE1ITR/P, DJ5NQ, OE3JPC, DK1MG, OZ9PZ, DL8GP, DK8VS, DF2VJ, SP9EML, DL1A,OM3KMA
QSOs 70cm:
2010 - September, IARU-Region1-Contest from JO62ja, 155m asl
Contest weather: mix of clouds, rain and sunshine as in April, nevertheless DX conditions 360° more than 600km
Report: Since, the system keeps on running more and more stable, almost the same equipment came to operation as last times (see below). The 4 stacked 9 element Tonna Yagi Array was once again located close to a wind power station to improve the co-existence to my closest neighbour station DF0YY (JO62gd) by spending some dB of extra isolation. The shack was built up in a more comfortable trailer than the times before. The well proved K2 (Elecraft) and DL7AKL's homemade high-level transverter came to operation, as well as the ME-750 Amplifier with a GU-74 (4CX800). As transmission line 10m of Times Microwave 1/2" Coaxial-Cable was used, giving just 0,3dB attenuation to the antenna. Therefore no low-noise preamplifier was required at the antenna.
DX 144MHz (TR) > 600km: I5PVA/6, E74EBL,
QSOs 2m:
2010 - July,
DARC VHF-UHF-SHF-Contest
from JO62ja, 155m asl
No Camera - no pictures =:/
DX 144MHz (TR) > 650km: I5PVA/6 (ODX 941km), IK4WKU/6, LY2WR, 9A1ACD, 9A5Y,
9A1IST, HG10P, F6KCP/P, 9A9D, 9A1I, OM3KHU, S59DEM, HA6W, HB9CNY/P, S57Q,
HG7KLF, HB9DPY/P, HB9TTY, S53D, S50C, RK2FXB, HB9BQU/P
QSOs 2m:
2010 - May,
DARC VHF-UHF-SHF-Contest
from JO62ja, 155m asl
Preface: since VHF propagation is mainly influenced
by the weather, that contest weekend was dominated by several low pressure
systems over central Europe. Although some remarkable tropo DX QSO's were made,
the propagation conditions in general were moderate and in addition to that the
activity quite low - perhaps due to the heavy rain falls all around.
DX 144MHz (TR) > 600km: IK6LZA,
LY2WR (listen to audio
sample on YouTube), YL3AG, S56FQC, 9A2EY, IQ3AZ, HB9N, HG6V, S57Q,
HA5KDQ,
F4CQY/P, S50C, HB9BQU/P, S53O, S57O, HB9CQL, OZ/DG3XA, HG1W,
Beacon ON0VHF (listen to
audio sample on YouTube)
QSOs 2m:
2010 - March, Visiting
DF0MTL
Since we both, DL7AFB and DL7AKL, are active at nice and warm
weather only, the March-Contest is a good time for making a visit to some other
contesters in the neighbourhood. This year we visited the club station
DF0MTL operating from the "Deditzer Hoehe",
in JO61JF. Stefan, DL9GRE, gave
a warm welcome and introduced us to the crew. The pictures showing (left) Microwave Station 23cm and up on 1m dish (middle)
Winter impressions. Combined 2-m and 70-cm set-up
in front (right)
VHF-UHF-Antennas.
Watch video on YouTube.
LY2WR ,
UW5Y ,
G8P,
UR7D,
9A4M,
9A5Y,
LA6VBA,
TM0W,
TM2A ,
9A1P,
HB9STY/P,
9A2EY,
IQ3AZ,
IN3FHE/IN3,
HA6W,
F5OAU/P,
S57Q ,
HB9DPY/P ,
HA5KDQ,
HB9TTY ,
SM6MVE,
F4DHO/P,
S50C ,
HB9BA,
S56K,
S59P,
HG1Z ,
S51ZO,
S59R ,
S57O,
HB9PZQ/P,
S57M ,
HB9DRS,
F6KUP/P,
ON4POO,
OM5X,
HB9CA
HB9KAB,
F8KID ,
PA6NL ,
SK6DK,
HB9GT,
OM8A,
HB9JNX
>>> listen to TOP-10 DX sound samples and watch video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVJf8DepSV8
2-m Band: DL7AFB // 70-cm Band: DL7AKL
...but same set up as last contest in May
DX 432MHz > 500km: HB9TTY (ODX 664km), S50C, HB9RF, HB9DRS, F5AEG/P, PA6NL,
HB9GT, PE1RLF/P, DF0OVH, RW2F, OM6A, OE3GWC, OM9ACA, OZ9PZ
QSOs
70cm: 
2-m Band: DL7AFB // 70-cm Band: DL7AKL
(left) Bodo, DL7AFB, at his VHF station that was set up in a tiny trailer
(middle) DL7AKL's new self-made 8-over-8 UHF-Yagis array (right) A GEKO 6400 ED-A/HHBA power generator supplied both, VHF- as well as UHF-stations
with electricity. Many thanks to
Werkzeug-Anders for excellent service and fast delivery.
A sound sample of my own signal was found on
SP3IYM's
web page, who recorded me in QSO with SO3Z.
DX 432MHz > 500km: PA6NL, OM8A, ON4PS/P, DL8GP, DF2VJ, PE1RLF/P
QSOs
70cm: 
last change
17.10.2013 20:53
Haftungsausschluß