The topband vertical at SEØX, an inverted L, broke in the winter storms rendering the antenna useless. Because of the remote location and the heavy snow just before the CQ WW 160 weekend I was not sure if I was able to repair or replace the antenna in time for the contest.
Broken topband vertical before repair
The good news is that the weather was permitting on Friday. Although cold with temperature at -10 celsius and half a meter of snow, there was plenty of sunshine and only light winds which made repair possible. The antenna was brought down around lunch time and the top section was replaced. Before sunrise the antenna was up again and it is now ready for the CQ WW 160 CW contest that starts in a few hours.
Point of collapse
Before repair the top 6 meter of the 19 meter high inverted L was made of parts from an 18 meter Spiderbeam mast. The aluminium section below the fiberglass pole deformed and broke in a way I have never seen before. The flexible fiberglass pole bent extensively in the wind, and after a storm in December the aluminum tube was deformed but the antenna was still standing and working fine. Three weeks later the aluminum had taken so much beating that it broke apart and the top section fell down.
New topband Inverted L, after repair
The top part was replaced with another aluminum pipe and the antenna is now ready for CQ WW 160. Next repair job is to replace the broken elements on the 10 meter mono, but that wont happen until the weather is warmer.
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year from SEØX to You! Maybe Santa will bring some new toys and I am sure 2010 will bring a lot of fun radio activities and contests.
I was not really planning a serious effort in the ARRL 10 meter contest this past weekend because of other engagements. But I did make a few contacts in the test for fun on Saturday logging V51 and a few Europeans via scatter. When I realized that the band wouldn’t open, I saved my energy for Topband as it had been in good shape Friday night and I planned to be active again on Saturday night and Sunday Morning.
Sunday after breakfast I tried a few calls on 10 meters again and after a few stations logged in a slow rate, the band opened up a little and I was able to work several EU stations including a number of Russians and Ukrainians. The increased contact rate got my adrenaline pumping and I logged a total of 98 uniques contacts scoring 9.800 points before I had to go QRT. Not much, but considering that propagation at least a sign of life!
The annual ARRL 160 meter contest was a success last year as SEØX won the #1 SM SOHP award. This year the goal was to improve the score from last year and if possible defend my #1 position, but that might be a tough task if more logs are submitted this year.
This year I decided to be active both nights, as long as possible. US East Coast sunset is around 21:30 UTC and our sunrise is around 07:30 UTC which would provide a total of 19,5 hours of meaningful operating time. Of that time I was active 12 hours and it was really tough work.
Friday night and Saturday morning it was not possible to get a run going, only the US big guns where heard. When they where logged together with a few Canadians and dependencies, there where nothing more to do on the band. I heard the bigger stations working at a good rate, but I could not hear the stations they where working. I guess propagation was too weak to allow for the smaller stations to cross the Atlantic Ocean an drop down in SM. I decided to get a little sleep around 02:40 UTC. I was up again at 05:00 UTC and logged a few more stations into my sunset.
On Sunday evening during East Coast sunset the big guns started to show up again on the band, together with a few stations not logged the night before. I was not sure if this because of better propagation or if they have not been active the night before, but the new calls logged lit my hope. After three hours I had swept the band many times and the QSO rate was low so I decided to take a nap to recharge myself and let the band reload with new stations. Three hours later I woke up to a different band! The big guns like K9DX, KC1XX and others where still around and they where strong, but when I started do search and pounce I found many new stations on the band. In the few hours before my sunrise I had doubled the number of contacts in the log including a couple of West Coast contacts. I was even able to stir up a little run which felt like a big improvement.
The result was 150 logged stations and a total score of 16.200 which is small compared to other contests, but with a limited number of stations to work on the most challenging band I am definitely looking forward to see how my effort will rank in SM and EU.
All in all a tough weekend with not so much sleep, but lots of static and fun!
I need sleep, lots of sleep… after 33 hours of decoding CW it is time to lean back, recover and reload to get ready for the ARRL 160 meter contest next weekend. But first lets summarize WW DX CW 2009.
No sun spots and shorter daylight hours led to lower propagation and less action on higher bands compared with CQ WW SSB a month ago. 160 meter provided the highest number of contacts thanks to the new antennas and a few good Topband runs. 40 meter was “broken” the first night, improved on Saturday, but it was not until Sunday evening that the band really started to rock with that heavy activity and contest QRM you just love. 20 and 15 open both Saturday and Sunday, and 15 was open to NA for a long time on Sunday afternoon. 10 meter was closed and only a handful of contacts where “forced through” using lots of (will-) power. Almost 1500 stations where logged which is about 500 stations below the result of CQ WW SSB.
CQ WW CW 2009 Score Card
The K3 really showed off this weekend as I decided to give the DSP noise reduction a chance to impress, and it did. I was using NR all weekend which really helped bringing down the noise and statics on lower bands. I am not a fan of using DSP noise reduction on SSB as it produces too many artifacts, but for CW it works fine. Setting the RF-gain right above the noise level together and using NB made the static backdrop less fatiguing.
And the filtering in the K3 just rocks! At one point I was trying to copy a weak JA calling for me when someone fired off a few hundred dits in my passband. I quickly shrunk the passband to 50 hz and was able to shut the door on the jammer to copy the JA perfectly.
Another fun contest weekend is over, now back to cleaning the log!
Again it is time to fire up the station at SEØX to be active in CQWW CW this weekend. I will be competing in the Single Operator High All Band category. Antennas for all bands are operational and special attention will be paid to the 160, 15 and 10 meter bands.
The 10 meter yagi at SEØX is broken… again! The tip of the front director have been broken “clean off” in a way that reminds me of a classic movie quote by Clint Eastwood:
‘this is a 44 Magnum the most powerful handgun in the world, it will blow your head clean off and you have to ask yourself one question, do I feel lucky?’
Well, I don’t (feel lucky) as this happened several times! As a matter of fact it happened almost every winter in recent years and I assumed it was heavy gusts of wind overpowering the aging material of the beam. Now I am not so sure anymore…
Antenna tip cut clean off
All elements where recently replaced to avoid the problem, but apparently it did not help and the rough costal wind won another victory over mankind. The aluminium you are looking at in the above photo is only 14 months old, and I am amazed how neatly cut the element is. Time to bring the tower down… again.
I am proud to announce that SEØX was presented with an award for second place among Swedish SO-HP contestants in the CQ WW 160 Meter DX Contest 2009. SEØX was also announced the Swedish winner of the ARRL 160 meter Contest in the SO-HP category, although SM participation was limited in this contest.
Those awards certainly inspires to a bigger effort in the upcoming 160-Meter contests.
The past weekend’s major contest event, CQWW SSB 2009, charged all bands with activity (plus QRM) and put gear and operators to the test. SEØX was active in SOAB-HP operated by me, SMØMDG, and it was indeed a fun weekend with very little sleep.
Just in time for the contest the SEØX Topband vertical had been upgraded and this in combination with decent openings on higher bands a few days before the event raised my expectations to the maximun.
Saturday provided lots of action on 10 meters with some nice DXCCs logged including HS, 9M6, UN, A7, 4X, 4L, YC, 9K2, ZS, 3DA, CN, 6V, 6W and PY. Later Saturday night I had a fine run on 160 meters logging 221 contacts non-stop at a rate of 105 per hour in heavy QRM, which propelled Topband to the second most active band. On Sunday it was 15 meter’s turn to shine, it really became “the new 20” with a fantastic opening to NA after midday. As always, 20 meters provided the biggest number of contacts, but this time it was 15 meter where the most countries where worked.
CQWW SSB 2009 Score Card
At the end of the contest I had been active for 35 hours logging almost 2.000 contacts (including a hand full of dupes), 353 countries and 95 Zones, resulting in a claimed score of 1.240.960 points. The average rate was 56 contacts per hour.
I am already looking forward to CQWW CW November 28-29.
A little late into the Topband season the new inverted L has been installed at SEØX, just in time for the CQWW SSB contest.
Toband inverted L at SEØX
The vertical part of the inverted L stands 19 meter tall. The bottom 13 meters are made of 50, 45 and 40 mm aluminium pipe and the top part is four sections of an old Spiderbeam pole. The new vertical uses the old radial system consisting of two raised and bent radials following the shoreline. An unun is used to transform the 22 ohm impedance to 50 ohm and a RF choke is placed at the antenna to reduce HF in the coax shield. The 2:1 SWR bandwith is around 30 kHz.
Update Jan 29, 2010: The first construction of this antenna did not survive the the winter storms, and the antenna had to be repaired. The photo shows the repaired antenna.
Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year from SEØX to You! Maybe Santa will bring some new toys and I am sure 2010 will bring a lot of fun radio activities and contests.
I was not really planning a serious effort in the ARRL 10 meter contest this past weekend because of other engagements. But I did make a few contacts in the test for fun on Saturday logging V51 and a few Europeans via scatter. When I realized that the band wouldn’t open, I saved my energy for Topband as it had been in good shape Friday night and I planned to be active again on Saturday night and Sunday Morning.
The 10 meter yagi at SEØX is broken… again! The tip of the front director have been broken “clean off” in a way that reminds me of a classic movie quote by Clint Eastwood:
