SEØX operated by Björn SMØMDG is the #1 ranking SM SOHP station in the CQ160 2010 Contest, both in CW and SSB!
See the awards on the virtual awards wall.
I am celebrating with champagne and getting ready for the 2011 CQ160 CW contest this weekend.
CU in the QRM, GL!
Following our participation in the multi-national DXØDX Dxpedition to the Spratly islands, Christian EA3NT and I plan to be active from Tablas Island OC-244 between January 17-21, 2011.
The operation will be holiday style using 100 watt and simple antennas.
Look for us on 40, 20 & 17m CW/SSB. QSL both DU1/EA3NT & DU1/SMØMDG via EA3NT.
73 de Björn SM0MDG
I am now getting ready for my participation in the DXØDX Spratly expedition January 6-24 2011 where a team of more than 30 operators will be deployed to erect and operate 12 stations from Thitu Island (Pag-Asa in Filipino).
The planning for this Expedition has been underway for more than a year and team leader Chris Dimitrijevic VK3FY has gathered a truly international team with members possessing many different skills.
The DX0DX expedition will be operating from three different camps on Thitu Island, the CW Camp in the North, SSB Camp in the South and a dedicated 160 meter and RTTY Camp on the Eastern beach of the island.
A big effort i being made on Topband and a few of the operators will also remain on the island after the expedition to participate in the CQWW 160 contest Januari 28-30.
On January 3 I will board a flight with destination to Manila to take part in this fun adventure, hope to hear you in the pile-ups.
Full information about the Thitu Island expedition can be found on the official DX0DX website.
73/MX de Björn, SMØMDG
SMØMDG will be active from SEØX in the Stew Perry Topband Distance Challenge this weekend, December 18-19. Entry will be in SOHP.
The unique part in this contest is that the distance that is counted for score, “QSO Points” are computed by taking the distance between the centers of the two grid squares. Count a minimum of one point per QSO and an additional point for every 500 kilometers distance.
The full rules are availble from the Boring Amateur Radio Club website, here.
GL in the Contest de Björn, SMØMDG
SMØMDG Björn was active from SEØX in the CQWW CW Contest working 2118 unique contacts in 39 hours of non-assisted activity.
Propagation on lower bands was good but as usual 20 meters provided the most points and 15 meters supplied the most country multipliers. Only 22 contacts where logged on 10 meters but 40 meters was over performing compared to 2009, possibly thanks to the new 2-element phased array just installed at SEØX.
The goal of logging at least 2000 contacts and doubling the 2009 score where both reached, and the final (claimed) score is 1.383 137 points.
73 and thanks to everyone in the log!
SEØX will be activated by me, SM0MDG, in the CQWW CW Contest this weekend. I will be entering in the SO-HP non assisted category with the goal to improve the scores from last year.
The new 40 meter vertical phased array will be put to the test, but I will be on all bands.
GL in the Contest – 73 de Björn, SMØMDG
This is the most amazing Aurora footage I have seen in a long time, maximize the video and enjoy!
73 de Björn, SMØMDG
SEØX won the Swedish Single Operator High Power category award in both the SSB and CW portion of the 2009 CQ World Wide Contest.
Diplomas are now posted at the virtual awards wall, head over there now cause we’re pretty proud!
73 de Björn, SMØMDG
A two element 40 meter vertical array has been installed at SEØX this weekend. The array is built using fibre glass poles and the two verticals are facing North America with the intention to improve DX scores in contests. The Comtek PVS 40 phasing system is used which allows for endfire patterns in NW or SE and a broadside pattern in SW/NE.
With 40-60 radials the system should produce around 3dB gain in endfire directions with a front to back ratio of around 20 dB, thats over average ground. Being close to the sea I have no intention of using more than sixteen radials, but already with eight radials the antenna system performs about 1 S-unit better than the old 40 meter wire vertical and has a good f/b ratio. The radial system will be improved to 16 radials per vertical.
I am looking forward to see how this antenna will perform in the CQWW CW contest this upcoming weekend. Hopefully it will improve the 40 meter scores from last year.
73 de Björn, SM0MDG!
Elecraft recently announced that they are adding an Audio Peaking Filter (APF) to the K3 transceiver. The DSP APF filter is modeled to perform like analog APF filters such as the praised one found in early Yaesu FT-1000D transceivers. The filter is easiest described as the opposite of a notch filer as it applies gain to a very narrow passband and attenuates anything outside this passband. This is especially useful when trying to pull extremely weak signals out from the noise.
During the weekend I tried an early beta version of the firmware with the APF filter and it worked very well for enhancing readability of weak signals. In some cases it really made a difference allowing me to copy signals otherwise not readable. In my opinion the filter works very well, listen to the A/B tests below to form your own opinion. The two recordings of BU2AQ where made on Topband using a pennant RX antenna pointing North East. Both recordings starts with APF engaged, then after a few seconds the filter is toggled off/on.
Readable
[audio:http://sm0mdg.com/audio/BU2AQ_101106_1716_APF_on-off.mp3]
Weaker
[audio:http://sm0mdg.com/audio/BU2AQ_101106_1720_APF_on-off.mp3]
Unfortunately the beta firmware posted before the weekend was very buggy and it has been withdrawn for now, but I expect Elecraft to post new updates within a few days.
73 de Björn, SMØMDG