X-Team members SM0MDG, SM0MLZ and SM0NOR have been invited to the ÍRA, Icelandic Radio Amateur Club in Reykjavik, and will team up with TF3ZA to be active in the CQWW SSB 2012 Contest using the TF3W call.
The team plan to enter in the Multi Operator Single Transmitter category and preparations have already started. In addition to the equipment already available at the club station, temporary low band verticals and RX antennas will be added for the contest.
“The team is motivated and ready to take on some of the records waiting to be broken”, says Patrik SM0MLZ who rates CQWW SSB as his favorite contest of the year.
Listen for TF3W and log us in the CQWW SSB Contest, GL!
SAC SSB is over for this time and it was a fun and memorable experience. Not because of record scores or mega-runs, but because a thick (and hopefully colorful) Aurora Borealis effectively killed most propagation paths over the pole.
After accepting this fact, I decided to drop all ambitions to hit records and readjust to reality. My new goal became to chase the Swedish National Team reasoning that they would have the same challenge as me, the aurora would cut of NA, thus limit the available stations (and multipliers) available. It would not be enough to run with the biggest signal to win, we would all have to fight boredom and use our skills to chase and catch the remaining points out there.
It is rare to experience a quiet low band overnight in a contest, but because of boredom this contest came to a halt at 01:00 when even big dogs like OH8X took a break because of low activity. When I realized that most of my competition was in bed, I decided to take one hour of sleep which helped me stay focused during the rest of the contest.
Because of limited time before the contest I did not hook SE0X up for SO2R this time, instead I use the K3’s sub receiver to sweep the run band for mults whenever the rate came down.
I also increased the effort to QSY for multipliers. While runs were possible on 80-15 meter, very little activity was found on 10 meters. As so often before ten meter was wide open, but stations had to be dragged up there to get this missing band.
Analyzing the log after the contest it is very clear how paths over the poles where blocked by aurora hovering at level 10 most of the contest. Only a very few NA stations in the North East part where logged and the longest QSO was with VK.
Below is the final claimed score with band breakdowns as reported by the SAC log submission engine;
What seemed to become a boring contest really turned out to be a fun challenge as soon as the effort was adjusted to the current propagation. And how did the final (claimed) score compared with the Swedish National Team? Find the team score here and claimed results here.
Now its time to get prepared for another effort under the aurora oval, the WWDX SSB Contest from TF3W. CU from Iceland then!
The top loaded 160 meter Top Band vertical TX antenna has been deployed for the winter DX and contest season. This year the antenna is based on an 18 meter aluminum vertical with three top loading wires.
The ground system consists of two elevated radials bent to follow the shore line. Both radials are raised from the feed-point in a steep angle to 2.5 meter heigh over the water level, then stretched straight out about ten meter in symmetry from the vertical before they both are bent about 90 degrees South. It is far from an optimal solution, but the antenna is literally standing on water which compensates for the lack of height and the compromise radial system.
The antenna is resonant on 1830 kHz and measures 17.5 Ohm impedance at the feed-point which is expected for a short vertical like this. An unun is used to transform the low impedance to 50 Ohm, then a coax choke is canceling RF in the coax shield. The choke is made using seven turns of RG-213 through five paralleled Amidon FT240-31 cores.
With the vertical up again I will be back on Top Band for the winter season and SE0X is ready for the upcoming contests. We are especially looking forward to the 160 meter contests.
SE0X will kick off the fall contest season by going all out in the upcoming SAC CW contest this weekend September 15-16. SM0MDG is operating in the Single Operator, All Band Category, High Power.
SE0X will of course also be active in the SAC SSB Contest October 13-14.
The reason for sacrificing the 10 meter mono band yagi is mainly the slow progress of solar cycle 24, the decision was made to put focus on 15 meter rather than 10 to optimize contest results.
A couple of considerations went in to the choice of the antenna, but most of all size and weight versus front to back ratio was the determination factors. I also wanted to try something new and the OP-DES (Opposing Phase Driven Element System) yagi from InnovAntennas was a very attractive choice with all this in mind.
The antenna arrived neatly packed in a 3 meter long carton tube with all hardware at precise quantities. Elements where clearly marked where needed and everything was tie-wrapped together in the box. The only part missing was a printed manual but that something I always use my iPad for anyway.
It took about a day to assemble the antenna and confirm all the measurements plus another day to bring down the tower and replace the old yagi with the new. All mounting hardware delivered with the antenna is made of stainless steel which is crucial as the QTH is by the sea. The galvanized clamps on the old 10 meter yagi where corroded and rusty after 10 years in the air and the nuts needed lubrication to come off.
Looking at the weather it was clear that the antenna would have to wait on the ground for one week, but the prognosis for the following Saturday looked promising. Six days later the prognosis was issued it remained sunny and Saturday morning came with sunshine and a no wind at all. After breakfast we tilted the tower and removed the 10 meter beam.
Early in the afternoon the new antenna was in place and I pulled out the antenna analyzer to confirm that the installation was OK. With the beam pointing upwards into the sky I had an almost perfect SWR curve with less that 1.2 over the entire band, rising sharply just above 21.500. After a little maintenance on the SteppIR the tower was raised again in the afternoon.
Raising the mast again was smooth and with the new antenna in the air I hooked up the antenna analyzer again and happily confirmed that the SWR was OK. No adjustments at all where made to achieve a perfect match, the length of the dipole was set according to the manual.
Before replacing the antennas I measured the pattern of the SteppIR and will do so again with the intention to see how the two antennas interact. I will post the finding to my blog once this has been done.
I could not have picked a better time for this project, the first week with the antenna has been a week with nice openings on 15 meter. The first 5 days operating the antenna I logged about 60 stations collecting 46 DXCC on all continents including KH2, KH6, 5N, 9M, XE, W6, W7, VU, V8, JA and more. I would probably have picked them all with the SteppIR, but it feels good to be able to confirm that the antenna works well.
So far the experience have been pleasant, the InnovAntennas 15 meter OP-DES yagi is well made out of quality material, and it works well. Next challenge for the antenna (and its support) is the upcoming contest season with the accompanying winter storms. I’ll post an update on the other side of the season.
SE0X ranks #1 SM Single Band 15 meter when ARRL publishes the results of the 2012 ARRL CW contest. The full contest was operated via remote using the 3-element SteppIR and a Kenwood TS-480SAT controlled via the Remoterig interface, described here.
A 10 man international team is about to embark to St Paul Island, a top 40 most wanted DXCC, in the Gulf of St Lawrence, Nova Scotia, Canada. The activity commence this week July 26 and ends August 1.
St Paul Island is commonly referred to as the “Graveyard of the Gulf” which has also been the theme for the expedition logotype. The landing at St Paul Island is difficult and dependent on weather, but the team is experienced from such landings previously at the Flannans (EU-118), St. Kilda (EU-059), Market Reef (EU-053) and many other IOTA expeditions.
A total of 6 stations will be deployed and be active on all bands 160 to 6 meter using the call CY9M. Hex beams and Vertical Dipole Arrays will be used on high bands while verticals and receiving antennas will be in service the lower bands.
CY9M will participate in the IOTA contest next weekend, giving both DXCC and IOTA hunters the chance to confirm NA-094. Our contest operation will be limited to 20 meters only, and we will operate both SSB and CW modes throughout the contest.
For more detailed information as it become available and your opportunity to support the team, please visit www.cy9m.com.
I had not really prepared for the 2012 edition of the IARU HF Challenge because of intensified preparations of the upcoming CY9M expedition, but I spent an hour reading up on past years achievements deciding it was time for a CW only effort with a goal to reach 1700 contacts. Not checking the propagation in advance I did not bother to calculate a goal for the final score, I was more focused on the number of contacts.
I also decided not to configure the station for SO2R this time as I simply could not find the time to spend setting up and taking down antennas, mounting filters and do the other other preparations needed for two radios.
The IARU contest started out in a decent pace of about 100 contacts per hour for the first 4-5 hours, but never got anywhere. I begun at 20 meter but the rate dropped already in the second hour so quickly checked 10 meter to find it almost dead exept for some big gun HQ stations. Then I spent about 3 hours on 15 meter picking up a collections of DX and EU, but the band did not provide the sweet NA rates that it is capable of. At 16:30 I went back to 10 meter which was now open and stayed there for two hours. The rate was OK, but not great, and there was very little DX around.
Around 20:00 UTC 15 meter where closing and I decided to go there to sweep the band for HQ stations. It was a good idea, almost no QRM and multipliers on a string, I picked up about 20 of the plus one or two DX. I repeated the same tactics on Sunday picking up several missing HQ stations on 40 meter in daylight begging for contacts.
It all went OK until midnight, then someone hit the break… or EU operators hit the bed. Strong Aurora obstructed the DX paths making the slow hours even slower and the hours between midnight and 0400 averaged a rate of 30-35. At 0300 I got bored and decided to take a 20 minute nap to be in shape for the morning.
On Sunday the Aurora was in full effect and DX paths where never restored. Occasional DX where logged, but the bands never recovered to provide a steady rate. Due to the Aurora obstructing the path to North America 82% of all stations logged where in EU.
The claimed score of the IARU HF Challenge 2012 is i 849.760 and it breaks down to this;
Congratulations to SM6CNN posting a claimed score of 1.7 million! Being 400 km south west of me might have provided Anders with a better path to NA.
On a side note I tried the new K3 firmware with improvements of the AGC and ran the contest using a threshold setting (AGC THR) of 12 to 15. The AGC worked well, but with the light pileups it can hardly be called a test.
CQ WPX CW is a favorite contest of mine and this year propagation made 15 meter the highlight. The contest started with a small disaster, but then it turned around to be a great weekend.
The tactic chosen was to do operate 24 hours non-stop in the first part of the contest, then do the remaining hours based on the outcome of the first day. I ended up in the chair until Sunday morning at 0100 UTC, then got 3 hours of sleep before catching the morning run. Worked the remaining hours in three different parts of Sunday trying avoiding the slower hours from Day one.
Propagation returned for the WPX weekend and 15 meter was the best performing band with almost 900 contacts logged. 15 meter also provided most of the multipliers, 37% of all prefixes collected. 20 was also good with a long NA run Saturday morning as the highlight. 10 was thinner providing only 49 contacts but some nice multipliers including PW0F, a new DXCC. Summer nights are short so the time spent on low bands was limited, but more than 400 contacts where logged on 40 and 80.
After 36 hours of CW fun at total of 1995 contacts and 1012 prefixes where logged resulting in a claimed score of 4.4 million. It’s not the top claimed score in the category, but it is better than the current SM record which was my goal for the contest. The tactics of hitting off with continious 24 hour shift worked out well. I will save the goals, schedule and prep for next year and then all records will be broken! For sure! 🙂
What about that initial disaster? The contest started the worst possible way with coffe in the keyboard! At first I though all was OK, but after 30 minutes the keyboard started sending garbage to N1MM making the SO2R box go nuts. I had to stop running and open the keyboard to clean out the overdose of caffeine. The moral; Always keep a backup handy, because coffe mugs will never leave the shack.
For WPX CW I had planned to install a 15 meter mono beam or use the 3 band Spiderbeam as my SO2R antenna for high bands, but a tight schedule before and after the contest made me trash those plans. Instead I tried Vertical Dipole Arrray (VDA) of the type we plan to use for the CY9M St Paul Island expedition in July.
The VDA is basically a vertical 2-element beam attached to a single 12 meter Spiderbeam glass fiber pole. At the center the elements are spaced 3.4 meters but in each end the spacing is less than one meter. Bending the element this way makes it possible to use only one pole for the antenna.
The antenna was constructed in very short time using 1 mm CU wire for the dipole and reflector and almost a full roll of electrical tape and some cable ties to hold the antenna together.
The result? The VDA worked much better than expected and I was able to enjoy a few nice runs with it. When comparing with the SteppIR it actually produce similar signals but the Bi-Dir setting made the steppIR was fueling higher rates with DX in the front lobe and EU in the back.
To summarize this is a great antenna which can be built very light and portable without spending so much money. It works very well considering its simplicity and it is perfect for a DX expedition which have been proved by VP6DX and most recently by VP6T.
As with all verticals, they will perform best on the beach and the VDA is no exception. During my test the antenna was placed right above the waterline.
Thanks to contest team mate Vincent F4BKV who used this antenna for VP6T and his Pacific tours following the Pitcairn experience.
The antenna is resonant on 1830 kHz and measures 17.5 Ohm impedance at the feed-point which is expected for a short vertical like this. An unun is used to transform the low impedance to 50 Ohm, then a coax choke is canceling RF in the coax shield. The choke is made using seven turns of RG-213 through five paralleled Amidon FT240-31 cores.
Early in the afternoon the new antenna was in place and I pulled out the antenna analyzer to confirm that the installation was OK. With the beam pointing upwards into the sky I had an almost perfect SWR curve with less that 1.2 over the entire band, rising sharply just above 21.500. After a little maintenance on the SteppIR the tower was raised again in the afternoon.
SE0X ranks #1 SM Single Band 15 meter when ARRL publishes the results of the 2012 ARRL CW contest. The full contest was operated via remote using the 3-element SteppIR and a Kenwood TS-480SAT controlled via the 
I had not really prepared for the 2012 edition of the IARU HF Challenge because of intensified preparations of the upcoming 
CQ WPX CW is a favorite contest of mine and this year propagation made 15 meter the highlight. The contest started with a small disaster, but then it turned around to be a great weekend.