Dl5mae - KM28: little story
---------------------------


From: DL5MAE @ DB0FSG.#BAY.DEU.EU  (Wolfgang)
To:   VHF @ EU
Reply-To: DL5MAE @ DB0AAB


Hi All!

I just want to report my save return in Germany since June 10th.

I had a very pleasant stay and very exciting vacation in Greece!

Before I will go on with my little story I want to thank Jimmy, SV1BTR,
for his great job spreading around all the info about my daily
activities. Also I want to thank him for his hospitality! Many
thanks also to his XYL and his lovely daughter. I have stolen alot
of time from Jimmys family commitment.
Also I need to thank Juergen, Dk3WG, for his daily presence in the
good old 20m VHF-net. He was spreading around alot of info in DXClusters
and packet radio boxes.
I also want to thank everybody for the nice words (tnx Francesco,
IK2DDR).

Further I have to apologize at my russian radio-friends (UA3/UA4) .
It was impossible to keep the long distance MS-sked due to
high  mountains in this direction. I was just able to work Arkady,
UT5ER. He was just 1400km away and it was no problem to complete
with him even a little bit on sidescatter .
A test with Yuri, RA4AOR, ended out in NIL (abt 2000km).

Also, my excuse goes to Rytis , LY2BIL. Unfortunately when I had
sked with him I got VERY HIGH  winds and it was impossible to keep the
antenna in direction north. The antenna was bend like an banana when
I tried to keep it towards north. The following sked was just rescued
because I went out of the shack on my TX sequences and kept the
antenna by armstrong in the right direction...

Sorry also about my last promised EME activity . Unfortunately
I completly overslept the moonset...I was very tired that evening
as I was driving alot around the island with my car . Also
I got up every night around 01.30 utc for the MS session.
Probably the good food and the power of the Retsina and the Ouzo
gave me the rest...


I was really thinking about another session but that would have been
happen middle in the night. As it was my last night I had to save
my power (had to dismantle all the antennas and rig quickly at this
day...in a big heat 35c).
But there was another serious problem. The 2 dogs of my landlords
were just sleeping aside my door of the apartment.
The night with the heavy blowing wind I went out several times to
hold the antenna and of course the dogs became crazy when they saw me...


The landlord -of course- became awake because of this noisy night
and was shouting alot to the dogs...
So I decided to keep things quiet for the last night.
I just parked the antenna towards PA0 and I was very happy when
I worked PA3BIY (2260km) and PA2DWH (2255km) for my new
personal distance record on MS.

On EME I was on for 3 evenings. Peter, SM2CEW, convinced me to give it a
try. Although my RX-side was very poor I could work 9 stations randomly .
I had to listen just with the headphones...no external filter ...
The  antenna was adjusted visually which was very difficult at the
first night as the moon was hardly to see.
The 2nd night I had high noise up to S9....

Anyhow I was glad working 9 stations with a single yagi and
just 500W out .
I guess the Aegean Sea helped alot.

Was hearing some more stations but the moon was setting too quickly.

Alot of other strange things were happening...
I just remember when I  left KM27 in the very last minute @13.59 .
The ferry boat left at 14.00.
Then I decided to go the Chios Isl. (its a 9 hours cruise from
Piraeus to Chios). Also when I met the same person by coinsidence
twice who brought me to the right place at the right time...
And all this after more than 1000km+ of driving with the car
to search for a QTH  and also long ways by ferry boats ....

Of course, E-skip was very poor ...just 10min opening .
Could work only about 30-35 stations. But its my own secret
how to get an E-skip . Jimmy please keep the secret for you...!hi!

Much more interesting and strange things happened .
My message is already too long now , so I will stop now.

However, I got a nice book from Jimmy. Its from Paolo Coelho.
The name of the book is THE ALCHEMIST.
I highly recommend you are going to read it.
Then my story becomes more easy to understand....

KM28 is a very rare grid! Chios Isl. is very unique!

I enjoyed my vacation alot! Special thanks again to Jimmy!

Vy 73 de Dl5MAE Wolfgang