IARU Region I Fieldday 2016
First Serious Participation
The idea of taking part in the IARU Region I Fieldday came up when chatting with René, DL2JRM, during the annual BCC Meeting 2016. It has been decided that DL2JRM provides the Fieldday-QTH and is responsible for all social activities wheras DL2LSM and DK3WE provide the rig as well as housing. The team has been joined by Irina, DL8DYL, on short notice. We decided to play with the big boys in the Low-Power-Unassisted category.
Antenna Preparations:
The low power unassisted class allows for one dipole or vertical antenna to be used during the contest. So, I did a bit of research and found the following DL6RAI Double-Zepp antenna. It is a variable length double-zepp antenna with two short wires in parallel. In my opinion this antenna is not compliant with the rules since it is a two dipole antenna. However, since it passed all checks so far I have been deciding to use something similar. So, I opted for my standard 2-by-22m double zepp-antenna and added some 9m long extra wire close to the feed point. The entire antenna was to be hung as inverted-V with a 15m high center mast. The antenna ends were to be extended by 20m extension cords resulting in a slow sloping construction.
Simulations with the 4NEC2 program showed that these wires improve the omni-directionality for the high bands. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the length of the ladder line available to simulate the feed point impedance. So, there has been the uncertainty that the system was to be matched on all bands by the AT-502 antenna tuner.
Station Setup:
DL8DYL and DL2JRM already had been finished the setup of the generator and the social tent when DL2LSM and DK3WE arrived at about noon local time. Thus, there have been about 4 and a half hours for the station setup. Everything went smoothly and antenna as well as station were ready about half-an-hour before the contest. Unfortunately, my nightmares became reality. The antenna couldn’t be tuned very well on 10m. The best VSWR to be reached had been about three-to-one. It is not that much of a problem since the additional loss in the coaxial cable can almost be neglected. However, the power amplifier of the K3 started to reduce output to about 70W.
Operation:
Operation time has been shared by DL8DYL, DL2JRM, and DK3WE. There haven’t been any technical issues. Everything worked smoothly. Unfortunately, 10m and 15m remained closed for most of the contest or had bad propagation here in the North. So, we ended up with almost a thousand contacts but are lacking quite some multis. Luckily, we haven’t been hit by thunderstorms and have had quite warm and sunny weather almost all of the time. Nevertheless, QRN by distant and close-by storm cells has been quite intense, especially on the low bands and made frequent repeats necessary.
Conclusion and Outlook:
It has been quite a nice contest with an additional social note. There have been a number of visitors, including but not limited to the following hams: DG7EE, DJ4MF, DL9DRA, DM5SB, DO2RL. Additionally, we have been enjoying a great barbecue by DL2JRM and the smoke signs by Tony and Robert 🙂 Relaxing when not operating has been quite amusing while playing ‘UNO’.
There are a number of technical points to be improved. Namely,
- The antenna needs to be revisited theoretically as well as practically in order to allow for easy antenna matching on all relevant bands.
- The AT-502 antenna tuner box needs a new N-connector. The built-in one is a very cheap one and doesn’t give a reliable electrical connection.
Thanks everybody for the QSOs and hope to see you next time with improved setup.
Preliminary Result:
Call: DR7B/P Class: Multi Operator Low Power Unassisted Operator: DL8DYL, DK3WE, DL2JRM, DL2LSM Rig: K3 (100W), microHAM u2r Antenna: Double Zepp 'speciale' QTH: nr. Lunzenau, JO60IX Summary: Total Score: 3089*144 = 444.816 Band QSO Multi Points -------------------------------- 160 103 20 372 80 214 32 685 40 345 33 1047 20 283 42 818 15 46 14 157 10 4 3 10 -------------------------------- Total 995 144 3089
Downloads:
June 23rd, 2016 at 1:37 am
The claimed scores have been published. We find ourselves at 7th place just behind the southern stations. It seems propagation has been a bit better down there 🙂 However, the distance to the next competitors is small. So, there are changes possible…
2016 DARC Fieldday CW - Multi Operator / Low Power / Unassisted Call DOK QSOs Multi Points 1 DR0W/P T13 1144 209 731.918 2 DL0FU/P C28 1074 185 611.055 3 DP6M/P A24 1093 183 610.854 4 DK0V/P C01 1110 175 592.375 5 DK0MN/P C12 1092 168 575.400 6 DL0LA/P U08 1068 171 568.404 7 DR7B/P S50 995 144 444.384 8 DL0HN/P P05 1036 140 441.420 9 DL0GZ/P F16 912 154 437.822 10 DL0GD/P H04 902 152 427.576 11 DK0FC/P I18 970 135 415.530 12 DP9A/P Y37 950 142 413.504 13 DF0TX/P E38 942 130 373.620 14 DL1HBT/P G16 801 142 362.810 15 DK0FWS/P Y18 839 135 356.535 16 DK0ED/P C25 801 138 353.832 ...August 24th, 2016 at 5:00 pm
The final result has been published. We find ourselves still at 7th place as the 1st station north of stations located far south. The error rate is reasonable with just 12 QSOs lost.
2016 DARC Fieldday CW - Multi Operator / Low Power / Unassisted Call DOK QSOs Multi Points Error 1 DR0W/P T13 1138 209 728.574 -0.5% 2 DP6M/P A24 1089 183 609.024 -0.3% 3 DL0FU/P C28 1066 185 606.430 -0.8% 4 DK0V/P C01 1101 175 587.300 -0.9% 5 DL0LA/P U08 1058 171 563.616 -0.8% 6 DK0MN/P C12 1081 166 562.740 -2.2% 7 DR7B/P S50 983 144 439.200 -1.2% 8 DL0HN/P P05 1018 139 431.734 -2.2% 9 DL0GZ/P F16 900 153 429.471 -1.9% 10 DK0FC/P I18 958 134 408.164 -1.8% 11 DL0GD/P H04 873 149 406.174 12 DP9A/P Y37 918 139 388.505 13 DF0TX/P E38 912 128 354.304 14 DL1HBT/P G16 777 139 344.025 15 DK0ED/P C25 790 136 342.992 16 DK0FWS/P Y18 820 132 338.052 ...June 14th, 2017 at 6:51 am
[…] principle all had been prepared to run this contest as it had been done last year. However, DL2JRM and DL8DYL bailed out on short notice to do an individual approach as DR7B/P. I […]