Sunscreen on the Ionosphere

This time the station had been prepared well in advance and the operator got a good rest before the start of the contest. High band conditions had been excellent the days before the contest with 15m open to the Pacific in the middle of the night and good 10m openings. So the hopes have been high for a great contest result.

Well, everything started out well. The low bands worked well the first few hours with good rates on 80m and 160m as well as North American 6 pointers on 40m. 20m opened long path to ZL. However, in the early morning hours the sun screwed up the conditions completely. Stations normally easy to be worked, e.g. W3BGN on 80m or VY2ZM on 160m were just barely audible. The high bands closed almost completely. So, I opted for my first 3 hour break. In the following hours the band get slightly better. However, there is almost no DX until later in the afternoon when 20m opens to JA and the West Coast and KH6. At one point I only hear a couple signals on 20m: 3xKH6 and NX6T with a horrible signal. After sunset there are also East Coast stations on 20m workable. During the night there is the usual European crowd on the low bands. Later in the night there are even some North Americans on 80m workable. So there is hope for the day when I go to sleep after sunrise. However, when I re-start at 09z 20m is almost dead. However, 15m opens to Asia. I work more than 30 JAs and even the BY stations – which are normally deaf to my weak signal – hear me. Later on 15m opens to the US and jump between 15m and 40m during the day. After sunrise 10m opens to South America and 20m eventually to North America. So, I work stations from 20m down to 160m until the end. Last QSO is H25A on 160m who is the only 6 pointer on 160m.

Eventually, I’m happy with the result under such circumstances. The sun storm on one hand and the missing UA and EW stations on the other hand make QRP life not easy from a Northern DL QTH.    

In order to find a reasonable receive antenna for the low bands a short vertical has been erected. It has been made of an 7m long insulated copper wire (15 AWG) and a ground peg about 50cm long. A selfmade high-impedance amplifier drove about 15m of 75Ω satellite cable. Common mode chokes were used on both sides of the cable. The noise on 160m and 80m has been considerably lower on this receive antenna and so have been the desired signals. So, weak signals clearly audible on the Inverted-L or the dipole were just gone. Thus, using this receiving antenna doesn’t give any advantage compared to listening on the transmit antenna.  

Personal Highlights on the weekend:

• 20m: AH6KO, NH6V, WH7T, KH6TU, ZL1BBW, ZM1A, KL7RA, 4U1UN, DS4EOI, 4T4T, 7A2A
• 40m: ZM1A, VK6T, 4U1UN  

As always, I would like to thank DL2LSM and XYL for the logistical and moral support. Without your support theses results wouldn’t been possible. 

Preliminary Result:

Call:  DM2M
Operator: DK3WE
Class: SO All Band Assisted QRP
Rig:   2x K3 (5W)
Ant:   2x20m Dipole @20m, 2x25m Dipole @16m, spider beam @20m, 
       40m shortened 2 el. @17m, 160m Inverted-L 15m high
QTH:   @DL2LSM, JO61GH

Summary:

Total Score: 3846 * 695 = 2.672.970

Band   QSOs  Points   Prefixes
------------------------------
160      84    160      34
 80     341    658     144
 40     520   1468     220
 20     374    844     207
 15     215    587      68
 10      47    129      22
------------------------------
Total  1599   3838     695

Modern Times I

Modern Times II

Antennas Used

Receive Antenna Base

Receive Antenna Base (Hi-Z Antenna Amplifier visble)

Tower Base

Spring Time

Spring Time

Downloads:

• Log (submitted)
• UBN report
• Certificate