OK2KKW - UHF Contest 2009

The UHF Contest remains for me the main contest of the year. So despite the unfavorable weather forecast we made another trip to Krusne mountains (Erzgebirge). On Thursday of course because otherwise we would not be able to set up all of our equipment on time. This year's contest was also complicated by the fact that we met only in a half number of club members: Honza, OK1BAF got quinsy, OK1KN had a sick wife, OK1JFR went on some vacation, OK1XNG was unable to come off from work and Tomas was moving to a new flat.. So finally we met in the number of six: OK1DIX, OK1RK, OK1ZAD, OK1TEH, OK1VPZ and our good fairy OK1DYX.

Due to fact that weather forecast predicted rain for Friday afternoon, we had started erecting of mast unusually early on Friday morning around 7:30. And because David had to leave us to work about noon, we tried to build up both masts for 70cm in the meantime - and so, we chosen this time not to use 3x LY system and we used masts only with a single yagies. During erecting we found out that one "Magirus" mast got jammed so unfortunately we were unable to erect it higher then some 15m above ground. The third antenna was traditionally only 10m AGL, which isn't so much due to near terrain with trees but it's better then nothing so we join this contest on 70cm like the last one - on a ground wave, hi.

Luckily the rain is still nowhere so we start to build up a 23/13cm antennas with a caravan on the old military radar ramp with helpful visitor's assistance of Jirka, OK7RA. The new on 23cm were the elliptic ring feeds modeled for our elliptic dishes and more with special secret icing proof case (this was important, because of icing we were close to lose 1st place in UHF Contest 2008 and this contest weather seemed to be very similar). During the antennas installation Jirka OK1ZAD "happily" realized to forget his feeds spacers for 13cm feed at his home in Pribram (hundreds km away) - fortunately we found the replacement (3 times M6 screw-sticks) in the hardware store in the near Abertamy city. So at last we had all 6 masts with antennas on in the Friday's evening - of course except 10 GHz band as we suffered from lack of operators. At that time we were pretty tired so we didn't join even the local Otto's pub as well as we were too tired even to set up our equipment in shack - except Lada DIX, who was trying to get ready our 400m long PLC net otherwise this problem would be solved not earlier then after the start of the contest, hi.

On Saturday morning, Matej finally started putting together all of our equipment - SWR was luckily fine and whole equipment was ready more or less to the first startup. Before noon we got unexpected visit of OK1IF ("the king" of HF QRP ;-)), maybe because we have the true QRP Contest equipment because of single phase power line, hi. We had only short chat because time flew as the runaway horse and we had to get ready also 23cm station & last PLC check for interconnection. David arrived after noon, so we had been having special contest powerful goulash and then the final word remained: hey folks, go to the machines!

The start on 70cm was really impressive - even in first hour we logged about 80 QSO's and David really liked it. Also our start on 23 / 13cm was quite fine even though Matej, OK1TEH since the beginning of the contest had been complaining about heavy QRM from DM7A. But not even 3 hours after "starting shot" when it got dark - Jirka reported serious problem on 13cm: transvertor stuck in permanent TX mode. Unfortunately the repair wasn't possible - first we would have to get down 23cm with mast, move out our caravan and finally put down the 13cm's mast (13m high more in strong wind and dark).. So Jirka, who had been preparing for this contest for a long time (at the time of 13cm's failure he had more QSO's then guys from DM7A) had to give it up.. In the early evening (on 70 and 23cm) we had started to working just more and more nearby stations. The cold front with couple of showers and strong winds mixed the troposphere so we had significant problem to get our signals over the radio horizon. In addition, the wind was getting stronger and around midnight It was definitely over 100km/h and wind gusts were even faster. SK7MW reported temporary stop of operation because of storm as well as some stations from our North direction. The worst situation for us became around early morning time as the band was completely closed, even we had a problem to work arranged skeds from ON4KST chat.

On Sunday morning we found out that the night wind turned our long yagies on the top of masts into bad azimuth for a tenths degrees off so unlikely against to better equipped clubs at lower altitudes (our QTH is 1040m ASL) we had started to losing points rapidly. But we didn't give it up even thought it's clear that the contest's objective we have set, to win OK2KKW some "medals" on all 3 bands, will be not possible. Fortunately 23cm band still runs quite well. After noon when wind calms slightly down an so for the last 3 hours of contest we put on 13cm's mast (from the caravan roof) dish for 10 GHz and Jirka, OK1ZAD at last gives few points to close stations around.

Many of them are not longer QRV because they already packed up a tripods with dishes - and even it's the same report from DL0GTH club who packed up their equipment unexpected 1 hour earlier before the end of the contest. The reason is reported as a  "heavy rain and gale".

And some time later there is the end of the contest - the wind start to be followed by strong rain.. During packing we therefore got pretty wet and because of low number of people and the big amount of all hardware we got out from the hill (cheerless) not earlier then at 21 hour. The most of us are not young so the tiredness and acute shortage of sleep will annoy us for few days more.

Well, that's the end of my story. Fortunately we hadn't problem with hardware (except 13cm), on 70cm we used 3 PA's and 3 single yagies antennas with the total number of 109 elements and the sum of power from that 3 PA's was around 1250W RF (PEP) - and unlike to other stations we honesty note the true sum of all used PA's power, hi. On 23cm Matej as in the past few years had to be satisfied with two transistors PA's (120 and 300W PEP) with two good old elliptical wire dishes - this time with a somewhat modified feeds. Jirka, OK1ZAD had on 13cm at the feed of his about 160cm elliptical dish about 20W and power on 3cm into 60cm dish didn't get over 5W PEP.

Due to reason that I suffered from a toothache during the contest due to recent surgery (and David, OK1RK had the similar problem so we used CW on Sunday more then ever) I took a part on a operator's seat for a short time so I haven't any more comments. I therefore believe that OK1TEH and OK1DIX will add their comments. So I hope to hear you at some other time - of course on VHF ☺.

73! de OK1VPZ

PS: some photos you'll find on the bottom of this page

23cm's report by Matej, OK1TEH:

After a week I finally get some time to write a few words about our participation in UHF Contest 2009. Initially we wanted to join this contest somewhere from hill abroad but at last this hill became occupied by a local club so the week before the contest we decided to participate from our hill surrounded by near forest. More we had problem with lack of people so until the last moment we weren't sure if we meet at last in enough number to deliver and set up all the necessary equipment. Another problem was the weather. I don’t know if anybody also noticed, that if the contest takes place from October 1st to 4th, the weather is usually bad, but from 5th to 8th mostly fair and stable. This year was not an exception. Last two September weeks we enjoyed the Indian summer and watched the weather development carefully. When the forecast said one week before contest, that the big anticyclone would be weakening and the weekend will be rainy with strong winds, we did not make any illusions. Unfortunately the weather was getting even worse and even that, new predictions said something about gale and icing. As we were punished by bad icing during UHF Contest 2008, we have left nothing to chance so first upgrade on 23cm was pair of new heavy duty icing proof feeds. Fortunately the temperature didn't fall below zero, but I believe that if the new icing proof protections were not ready, it would be Mr Murphy's turn ;-)

Friday and Saturday antennas installation was running smoothly, the nice change was the new big hammer for driving stakes (tnx DIX!). More except strong wind we had no problem with rain. The only one serious problem, which has been written, were forgotten spacers for 13cm feed but this problem was fortunately quickly solved. Meanwhile wind was getting stronger so we stopped and moved to out cottage to solve puzzle in the form of PLC modems which connected 400m remote sites. On Saturday, about 2 hours before the contest I moved on 23cm's site. The first problem was that bigger PA showed negative currents but fortunately it was only a bug in the meter circuit. After successful start up of our network between 70 and 23cm, which was fully provided by our new version of the VUSC contest log, I got a phone call from OK1ZIA/ OK2M gang that we could try some small test of their 23cm's signal quality. Their first PA with GS15 tube produced signal 59+50dB on my Smeter and more signal was only 5-10 kHz wide (on distance of 114km). Worse it was with second PA with 2x 2C39. This PA made output signal with splatters S7 +- 400 KHz as you can see in attached video. Guys from OK2M club finally "solved" this problem with turning this direction with 2C39 PA to the east... Well if I knew that my 23cm's PA makes such a massive QRM over 100km I would not use it in contest.. On Sunday morning OK2M forgot to beam their direction off our direction and QRM from 2C39 was back... Fortunately this problem was relatively easy to be solved by telling then to turn this dish to some another direction again.

Worse situation was with DM7A on Fichtelberg hill as they decided to use some new PA's in two separate directions. They offer us to make some signal tests during VHF contest, unfortunately we had to stay at home. However I guess that such a bad spatters which had been peeking S9+20dB! on our Smeter had to be easy readible on any kind of a Spectrum analyzer anyway.. More when their splatters were 2MHz wide independently on our dish's actual direction... I used to have lot of problem with DM7A's QRM almost in every contest but this time it was beyond limit of my worst dreams and I really "enjoyed" this contest.. By the way the distance between us was about 10km.

BTW I think that audio record is better then any word so I put here the MP3 record of my 23cm QSO with DF0MU from JO32PC on some 428km. The audio records shows how it was "easy" to work even QRO station: http://www.ok2kkw.com/00003016/uhf09/df0mu_23cm.mp3

The contest was started with quite standard rate. For the first hour I made 32 contacts similar to our competitors however lately I was loosing points to DM7A & DL0GTH. GTH produced once again QRM signal almost 30 KHz wide, which is on 144km pretty bad and in July contest I had a lot of troubles with it (next time pse pay some attention to your Icom's ALC circuits please..) but in UHF Contest it was a marginal problem compared to the others... What was interesting in case of splatters from DM7A was a fact the the deadliest QRM was coming from the opposite direction, not from 70 degrees to DM7A but to about 290 degrees in JO31 directions. I guess it was because of some kind of reflection from near and higher Blatensky hill (the QTH of OL7C) with wet forest ;-)

However on Saturday the conditions were very poor anyway, I didn't work even QRO station on sked like PI4GN or Christian, OZ2LD with 150W and on almost free path (our hill is pretty good opened to North)..

The only one direction which was "relatively" opened was the South. Aldo, IK3COJ was booming with his EME equipment as expected 59+ on SSB however I heard nothing from IQ3AZ and the same result was on our 5th test. At 23 UTC I made QSO with DL0GTH. I sent them number 130 and found that they are ahead of me with 35 contacts. Time to time I'm trying to solve the QRM problem with DM7A, but the only a bit better result is to beam their antennas far away out of me, but they have me in one of the the most contact "worth" direction so serve QRM is coming back soon.. With big QRM problems I finally made Oli, F6KUP/P from JN29. He reports to hear me quite loud. Me not... After midnight, fortunately DM7A go to sleep for a while and I have finally chance to work some very weak stations in noise. Meanwhile outside is wind blowing stronger and stronger and it's peeking in gale scale of 110km/h but I continue my operation and I'm very happy that I have robust mast with "wind-proof" dishes hi. But even so, strong wind throw half-inch coax cables on my caravan's wall with powerful bangs. With the clear band I'm trying to make as many weak stations as it's possible and finally I'm able to complete QSO's with HG5M, HA5SHF/P and HG7F. However signal were very weak and it takes several minutes to finish 73. The sked with Joze S51ZO fail and even later after several attempt. At that time I see at DX-cluster that Joze had QSO with OK2M and OK1KJB even on higher bands however at my side I can't see even small ping at Spectran waterfall. Fortunately I found that I'm 100 QSO's ahead of DK0OX (DR9A) hi. At 3h UTC I finally made OK2FUG, signal is pretty weak but with some help of aircraft reflections we completed it quite fast and I hope that the East direction is slowly opening.

In the mean time we made 70cm contact with Ivan, YU1LA to Belgrade on 853km. After QSY to 23cm he heard me however his 10W is too small pistol for such a bad condx. After approximately 1 hour of sleeping behind the radio I drink another Kamikaze energy "booster" and "jump" into morning pileup. However expected improvement of Sunday conditions isn't coming and I'm unsuccessfully trying to do some of PA stations. Indeed DM7A woke up and startup another torture named QRM.. However a few hours later DM7A make some "lunch break"? and during one hour without QRM at last I'm able to work several stations like PA0EZ, PA2M, PA3AWJ, PA0S, PA0WMX, PA6NL, ON7WR and several DL stations from JO30/31 area. The aircraft reflections propagation is getting better too and finally I completed contact with Gabi, HA8V. It's after long time another contact over 700km and second QSO is even better with Salvo, DK3SE JN37. It's done in 2minutes. But DM7A get back on the band and I'm not able to finish my SSB contact with PA0GUS. So I'm turning my dish to the minimum of QRM which is into JN48 direction and it's resulting in contact with DK0SF in Czech language :-) Unfortunately, although I paid attention in this JN48/ HB9 direction for a long time I didn't make any contact to HB at all. I think it confirms my theory that the biggest activity from HB on 23cm used to be during July Field day contest only.

In the last hour I take over 50 000 points and even more I complete nice contact with SM7LCB (by the way he works remote control). The QRB into JO86 is almost the same as to I4LCK/4 - 704km. I tried also few Aircraft Reflections tests with John, G3XDY, I hear him however the QSO was one way only. The last contact in contest I made in last minute with Torben, OZ3ZW. It's my first contact to OZ in this contest at all. Our QSO was done in high speed telegraphy and I really enjoy to have at last good operator on the other side hi. The packing of 6 masts in 4 people and heavy rain is pretty slow and we finally leave our QTH with caravan around 21h local time. But still some 360km left to the garage so we finally get to our home on Monday..

Unexpectedly good result of 190 contacts and 53000 points on 23cm is our new club record from JO60JJ and I really don't know why as the weather, propagation and QRM situation was really depressive, maybe that it was caused by bigger DL activity around JN48 area. Who knows. The satisfaction of the good result is only the fact that without miserable QRM situation I could easily reach the "dream number" of 200 contacts. When I arrived at home on Monday I find at the internet the the likely European winner of UHF Contest DL0GTH report "very poor conditions " and for more then 41 contacts and 13 000pts more...

So thanks to all of you who called us and if the weather and snow situation permit, then hope to hear you in the Marconi Memorial Contest.

OK1TEH

And finally few words about the contest by OK1DIX on 432 MHz:

This year's UHF Contest on 70cm was marked by below-average conditions and poor weather. Strong wind bent and spinning antennas on towers. I'm glad that we had no icing. Failure of one of the telescopic mast caused that we weren't able to pull it out higher then 15m AGL.

At the beginning of the contest conditions weren't so bad as in first 2 hours we made about 120 contacts and few good DX's to South but then conditions went down. The worst situation was a tropospheric propagation to East and Southeast. We missed several stations from 9A and OM. Time to time we made some stations from North, but unstable troposphere had not offered any significant opening. Conditions were unstable too and several DX contacts failed because of fast QSB. A separate chapter had been the QRM from DM7A. After agreement both of us tuned in the opposite side of band (at the beginning they tined just 25 kHz way from us!) but QRM didn't disappear and it reflected in our final result. We'll see next year when we should have some new transvertor and another improvements.

OK1DIX

Results:

********************************************************************   TOP 10          km
* Number of valid QSOs:  469                       Band:   432 MHz *   ------------------
*                                                                  *   YU1EV    KN04  855
* Best DX: KN04CN   855 km  call: YU1EV        Average: 293 km/QSO *   YU1LA    KN04  853
*                                                                  *   M1CRO/P  JO01  819
* Countries worked:                                                *   9A7PJT   JN83  807
* 259xDL  98xOK  11xPA  2xSM  13xSP  12xHG  16xOM  2xON  7xI       *   IQ1KW    JN34  772
* 10xOE  4xYU  1xG   6xHB  5xF   10xS5  3xOZ  1xLX  8x9A  1xUR     *   IW0FFK/6 JN63  761
*                                                                  *   UR7D     KN18  742
*                                      Total sum of points: 137440 *   YU7A     KN05  736
********************************************************************   IK4WKU/6 JN63  733
                                                                       OT5D     JO11  714

********************************************************************   TOP 10          km
* Number of valid QSOs:  190                       Band:  1296 MHz *   ------------------
*                                                                  *   IQ1KW    JN34  772
* Best DX: JN34NO   772 km  call: IQ1KW        Average: 278 km/QSO *   IK7UXW/4 JN63  715
*                                                                  *   I4LCK/4  JN54  705
* Countries worked:                                                *   SM7LCB   JO86  704
* 99xDL  49xOK  5xOE  6xI   4xS5  1xF   1xLX  5xOM  5xHG  1x9A     *   HA8V     KN06  701
* 3xSP  8xPA  1xON  1xSM  1xOZ                                     *   IZ4BEH   JN54  662
*                                                                  *   PA6NL    JO21  630
*                                      Total sum of points:  53005 *   PA0S     JO21  606
********************************************************************   PA3AWJ   JO21  601
                                                                       ON7WR    JO20  596

********************************************************************   TOP 5           km
* Number of valid QSOs:   20                       Band:  2320 MHz *   ------------------
*                                                                  *   DR5A     JO30  455
* Best DX: JO30EM   455 km  call: DR5A         Average: 182 km/QSO *   OL9W     JN99  401
*                                                                  *   DK0ZB    JO42  345
* Countries worked:                                                *   OE2M     JN67  289
* 14xDL  4xOK  2xOE                                                *   DC7QH    JO62  245
*                                                                  *   OE5VRL/5 JN78  244
*                                      Total sum of points:   3640 *   OK1KPA   JN79  220
********************************************************************   OK1KKL   JO70  179
                                                                       DK0GHC   JO61  151
                                                                       DL3AZI   JO51  149

********************************************************************   TOP 5           km
* Number of valid QSOs:   14                       Band: 10368 MHz *   ------------------
*                                                                  *   OK2D     JN99  393
* Best DX: JN99AJ   393 km  call: OK2D         Average: 146 km/QSO *   OE3WOG/P JN67  296
*                                                                  *   OE5VRL/5 JN78  244
* Countries worked:                                                *   DL7QY    JN59  237
* 6xDL  6xOK  2xOE                                                 *   OL4K     JO70  203
*                                                                  *
*                                      Total sum of points:   2044 *
********************************************************************

Some more pictures and videos records: