The old wisdom says that it is not important whether the experiences were great, but that they were powerful. So it was with us this year and I almost paid the ultimate price for one such experience. But I'll start in order. This year's Field Day for me started back in December. We brought both non-functioning 70cm PAs to our hamshack. The dual, transistor one had a total of 8 of all 20 UHF TV transistors (150W CW one each) "blown". The reason was the heat... the gentlemen were turning the knobs to the right during the UHF Contest in an attempt to get the best result, ignoring the various beeps, squeaks and flickers of the protectors until it was fatal to the PA. We finished the contest that day with the PA limping on both legs at about 300W and something had to be done about the situation. Mechanical work began on upgrading the cooling of the individual semiconductor modules, but the work dragged on longer than I expected, so I finally decided to reach into my half-empty chest (we are building a family home in parallel) and bought two 70cm Italian kilowatt modules. This involved further mechanical and electrical modifications - including changing the power supply from 28 to 50V - and especially the need to sacrifice a lot of time for club results. The May sub-regional successfully survived this fundamental PA upgrade - perhaps the placement of the power module thermometers on the front panel had a positive effect. After all, just look at the report from that contest. The second nut was a burnt out relatively ancient (year of manufacture 1989) tube PA (originally with GI14b, later with GS31). That tube went to vacuum heaven during the UHF Contest, but unfortunately it took with it a 6-fold HV power supply and even a kW transformer that had a short between two windings. So the first task was to rewind the already considerably "bearded" transformer in JK Eltra company in Heřmanov Městec. I recommend this company! However, since Russian tubes are hard to find in the current situation, PA got an older GS1b. However, it had to be given longer training to stop it creating discharges and the PA got a newly made copy of the HV power supply and a 6A bakelite circuit breaker returned to the box instead of the 10A that was probably responsible for the burnt out transformer. The PA repair was completed 2 days before the contest. To make matters worse, I had to have the 20 year old Pashacek repaired - even directly at an authorized service center, because the ordered replacement of the cracked washer fluid container, in which water froze in the winter, required extensive disassembly of the car... So the actual price of the car has gone up measurably, hi. Now it's just a matter of arranging a MOT on the caravan - the first time I tried, an alert technician found a crack in the frame - so servicing, autogen, etc... It worked the second time :-) And so on Thursday 30.6 we set off for the Ore Mountains with an overloaded car, parabola and caravan. This was the beginning of my strong experiences...

We met on the hill at midnight this time in a somewhat thinned line-up, which was supplemented only by Jarda OK1JFB. On Thursday we managed to assemble at least partially several 70cm antennas. However, the beautiful summer weather on Thursday was replaced on Friday by practically all-day, pretty nasty rain and cold weather, so the building duo OK1DIX and OK1TEH got solidly wet and frosty on top of the mast. The construction in the rain - setting up and wiring the stacks on the ground went quite slowly, so it wasn't until after noon that we pulled up the first one - the northern one. Next is 38 el. M2 and the southern 8x8 stack. But the rope got caught in the gate where it shouldn't have, the rope couldn't be loosened and this led to the destruction of the boom mechanics with the rotator. Don't wish to hear what the "crane man" had to hear, hi. The south stack and boom had to be lowered again. Fortunately, with about half an hour of axe work on the concrete foundation of the mast, everything was shaped back to a usable state and after a lunch break, everything was pulled up and successfully installed. In the meantime, other participants of the "tour" arrived, namely OK1DAQ, OK1KN and for the second time in history we welcomed Robert F1OET from the well-known contest team F6KFH on the hill. We were trying to quickly build everything that the mast should be "adorned" with and suddenly a scream from above, a short whistle and a bang as about a kilo weight fell from a height of about 20m about a meter from me. I had just been born again! Ugh! The weight is normally used to keep the rope from tangling, but the eyelet by which it hangs has unscrewed... That was a really powerful experience! At about 7pm we finish the antenna installation and Matej continues with the technology installation. We are so tired that we leave the construction of the GHz antennas for Saturday.

Saturday morning is as good as painted. Even though my whole person is sore after Friday's scratch, we go to install the antennas for the earthworms, which we do at about noon. I go to revive the 70cm HW, and while OK1TEH is setting up the gear in our kafravan, I discover downstairs that I'm missing some cables in the 70cm setup. For a while I discuss with my son and Lada how to connect it all, finally we stick to the "wall" and leave PA HA1YA and the exciter to rest this time. The goal is to "break in" the refurbished PA with GS1b. Then a non-radio amateur visitor arrives and I discover that despite the double fuses, due to an unexpected short in the RX cable to the LNA of the north stack, the NPN switching transistor in the SSPA has "blown". OK1DIX is blowing on my back, wanting to transmit. So I unplugged the north stack and the M2 antenna and the contest was on. The visitor afterwards claimed that my face looked very worried at that moment. On both 23 and 3cm, everything seems to be working so far.  I'm having a coffee and thinking how to get out of this. You can't cut an NPN switching transistor for 5A current in a TO220 case out of a heating log... Nice experience... I'm looking for something similar in various non-competitive HW in the shack, but no luck. So I ask for help from OK1UBO from OL7C, who fortunately is very helpful, so I go with Robert (btw: since he is from Alsace, he speaks German and English as well) to visit Blatenský vrch. Despite all the efforts of OK1UBO, nothing suitable can be found, so he lends me at least an external Meanwell 24V/5A power supply. Great! From this visit there are also a few photos on Tomato that Robert took there. After returning to the Burning Ground in the evening, using the borrowed parts, I manage to get all PA and antenna systems working, only the north stack with shorted cable has to use the LNA down in the hamshack. Let the contestants describe the chase on the band during the contest, I just more or less accidentally made two DL stations on 23cm.

Then everything works more or less as expected until Sunday noon, when Fred comes out of the hamshack and it turns out that he has cut off one half of the double SSPA. Could he not be monitoring the temperature...? Soon Matthew calls from the bunker that the big dish has a total reflection! Apparently the halfling got caught on the boom of the 9cm antenna, rolled up the mast and ripped the N connector from the jumper to the feed... So we finish the last 4 hours of the contest in the state of a shot duck. Well, hopefully that will be enough to at least mess with the competition. The good news is, there's still those reserves... In the sense of watching "powerful experiences", our big dish is already falling off the stand on the ground and unfortunately looks pretty beat up. It's only after it's been loaded on the roof of the car that I realise it's twisted pretty badly. Oh, yeah...

In the evening Robert leaves, who has a long journey ahead of him, Fred helps to dismantle the antenna herberk on the mast, I crane and as Ivan DAQ and Slovan OK1KN are also leaving, packing is going extremely slow this year. Although it is solidly visible in PD until 10pm, we have to take a flashlight to finish packing the GHz junk on the bunker and my son and I don't return to the barrack until after 11pm. By then I'm pretty much "on the chopping block". We return home on Monday afternoon and then a trip with the caravan. While garaging it, we at least temporarily straighten the dish. And then it's home... to Podolí, to the pharmacy... or in my case to the bath.

Next week we'll clean and lick our wounds... See you next time!

73 de OK1VPZ

As OK1DIX saw it:

The most traditional VHF contest as every year with a vision of heat, which otherwise we don't enjoy much when working from the mountains. Cheered by the successes of the 2nd sub-regional and the Microwave Contest, we were looking forward to it, but Murphy sweetened it properly this time.

As usual we landed with XYL Majka, OK1DYX on the hill on Thursday afternoon and together with Jarda OK1JFB we prepared something for Friday's 70cm antenna construction. Also the traditional kegging from the family brewery Mlýn was not to be missed. The weather was nice and so there was also a fire and roasting of goodies. The weather forecast predicted a deterioration, but we could not imagine what awaited us at that moment.

At night OK1VPZ and OK1TEH arrived as usual. On Friday morning OK1DAQ and OK1KN arrived and the assembly could start in good weather. After a while we also welcomed Robert, F1OET, who came to see us again after many years. We reminisced about our VHF contesting expeditions to the French Vosges and toasted the reunion after a long time. However, at about 11am the clouds came in carrying a mighty washout and a considerable chill. It couldn't have come at a worse time as Matej and I were just about to climb the mast. We waited for the worst to pass, but it didn't help much. In the diminishing and again intensifying rain we were experiencing purgatory on the mast. At one point, a torrential downpour drove us off the mast. Then came the critical moment. The rope got tangled in the electric gate and instead of the required clearance, the rope started to wind in the opposite direction. Before the operator could stop the wicket gate, the 8x8 south stack rotator bracket was deformed by the taut rope. We can speak of luck that the rope and pulley held and did not end up collapsing the entire stack. The bracket and the whole stack had to come down, of course. It looked desperate. OK1VPZ took care of straightening it with a hammer and an axe. Fortunately, with concentrated effort and targeted calibrated blows, he managed to level the mount practically to its original shape. However, the repair and the breaks due to rain cost us a lot of time. In the diminishing rain we finally finished building the 70cm antennas, but left the microwave construction for Saturday, even given the hour. We retreated to the house and dried out. The usual fire and roasting was out of the question. Matej at least built the equipment on 70cm and we could test the systems by listening to the beacons. Everything seemed fine, but it was just an appearance.

On Saturday morning clouds were still passing over us, but it was no longer raining and soon the sun appeared. We set about building the microwave antennas on the bunker. Again, we used the new system of building a 23cm mast with a needle and double caravan exit on the bunker, which had worked well in the Microwave Contest. Fred, DH5FS, arrived and helped us with the construction so the antennas were up relatively quickly.

Matej worked on installing the microwave rig and OK1VPZ started teasing the 70cm equipment. But alas, first one cable for TX was missing and then it turned out that the north stack was not listening even though everything was fine in the evening. A frantic investigation ensued and a short in the cable of the receiving path from LNA was detected. This had an unfortunate effect on the part of the configuration where the 24V supply in one of the PAs had failed. The start of the contest was approaching and so there was nothing to do but to re-cable the rig so that it was possible to go to at least 3 antennas and OK1VPZ started looking around for a replacement power supply. With a five minute delay I started the operation on 70cm. Even Matej at the microwave site was struggling and so the inter-site network connection and Internet didn't start working until around 1500Z.

Meanwhile I got the contest going. The start was loose, the DL stations were going well on the 12x6 stack, but the absence of 2 antennas, especially the long M2 at the top of the mast was noticeable. Fortunately the south stack worked and so later QSOs were successful into I where the improved conditions were felt. IU4CHE (705 km), I4CIV (714 km) and I1RBO (683 km) were successful. Conditions were also good to the east, with OM and HA stations over 500km being made, so it was a bit of a dilemma in the absence of a northern stack where to turn the southern stack. Meanwhile Fred worked AirScout and chat and set up a sked with SM6BFE (923 km) which remained our ODX. Remarkably, it was done on a low 4x8 stack. YU7Q (758 km) was also a delight. We alternated with Fred according to (not only physiological) needs. Robert, F1OET is still listening and getting familiar with the VUSC program. I note that Fred is already reading OK station signs in Czech without any problems, only OM still gives him a bit of trouble :-). G5LK/P (807 km) and other long stations from SE like 9A8D (711 km). Pendling with the southern stack will also bring IQ1KW (765 km). Stations like ON4KBE and a few PAs also bring improved conditions. G0VHF/P (819 km) has an awesome signal and the arranged OZ2ND is again doing a low small stack that works well beyond expectations. By PD proportions there is a good turnout on the DL this time, probably due to the improved weather. A series of IK3XTT, IK4PMB and IO2V will impress, with IK3SSG and IK2RHE following nicely behind. Then we do the traditional Ivan, YU1LA (853 km), YU7A (736 km) and the new station YR5C (839 km).

Around 2000Z OK1VPZ figures out the reconnection and elimination of the cable shorting problem and we finally have 5 systems although the north stack must have the LNA down. The number of QSOs keeps increasing - uncharacteristically even in the advanced hour. The carrier directions are W, S and SE, where it's going better than usual. Occasionally we intersperse skeds like SM6CEN (780 km) or OZ1SKY. Tired of the previous arduous antenna building, I leave Fred at the rig and leave around midnight to take up a lying gunner position. Fred endures working through 0000Z and his stations were still coming in.

Since I wake up fairly early, I sit down in the morning at the (after a night off) abandoned work site and run the band. I run into my friend Joe, OM5AW, who notes that we have a bombastic signal at his place. Indeed, conditions are still good. I make a smooth DL and PA station over 500 km. JV is also going well, HA7NA and HA7MB both over 600 km. Then we manage to sked G3XDY (827 km), which didn't go through tonight, and surprise HB9AOF (688 km). I also find that DL0GTH/P have 40 fewer connections, suggesting that the result might not be bad.


 

Meanwhile, Fred and Robert are waking up, so I give them some space for a while. Nice contacts are still being made by the likes of IK2BZY and IK4WKU, but the problem with one half of the double PA is starting to show up, overheating until it finally leaves us for good after 8000Z. Again there is a delay before the rig can be made to work at least in the 4 PA range. Even then there are nice contacts like IW4QRD (696 km) or PD0FSB. After lunch I leave more space to our guests who really enjoy the traffic (especially Robert). In addition to the long PA and I stations, they make another Romanian station YP2DX (781 km). The contest ends with a nice result of 431 QSOs and 143500 points. We subsequently learn that OL3Z have 12 QSOs less in the end, which is surprising given the problems we had. I attribute this mainly to the good conditions, which were probably even better in the east as evidenced by OM6A's excellent result of over 194000 points (CONGRATS).

The folding is fortunately taking place in good weather. Fred is assisting me on the mast and everything manages to pack up successfully without further incident. We are in no hurry, staying with OK1VPZ and OK1TEH until Monday morning so we can sample some more of those baked goodies and finish the keg. All's well, all's well, one would like to exclaim, but Uncle Murphy had his way with us this time and it's also a warning for next time.

73 and CU latest in the UHF Contest

OK1DIX

How strong OK1TEH experiences looked like:
 

As David OK1RK (SK) would write - Hello hello hello, hello from the commentator's stand... The course of the match was this time marked by reduced activity of the home team...

There were beautiful plans, big promises of who all will definitely come to Polňák and... then people started dropping out. First "little Jarda" OK1JJI and his dudes, Tomas, then OK1FLY, OK1FPG, OK1JFR, OK1FEN, OK1.. , well, to cut a long story short, this time we had 10 "people" drop out and the rest stayed mostly retired except for my little thing, which was really unpleasant, because the weekend before the contest when I came to mow the grass at the house I had a back movement and so it was not sure if I would even unload, unfold and load the stuff into the car.... Eventually everything was managed and on Thursday we could start heading towards Spáleniště. But not to stay only with the negatives, this time our friend Robert, F1OET otherwise known from 23cm as operator F6KFH decided to visit us and I was also very happy to see Jarek, OK1KN our 3cm guru who recovered from a stupid illness and Jarda ex OK1JFB. But back to the contest, we went out pretty much as planned and the only thing I forgot in Prágal was a waterproof down jacket, but I put that behind me at that moment - it is after all a sunny Polnyak, so what could happen? Despite all the hissing about how our car was sitting on the stops again and how our dick would burst again, we finally arrived without the slightest problem around 11pm and could go straight to the barn at midnight.

On Friday at 7 am we were woken up by Vasek, OK1VKQ from nearby OL7C now alias OL80WPN, in his svazarm uniform with his own joy, which was fine because of the necessity to move the skeleton while building antennas, but on the other hand it was quite a pain, especially for us who arrived later in the night :-) From the morning we hurried with the construction, because according to the forecast a heavy washout was supposed to come after 11 am. We managed to prepare everything in record time, Ivan OK1DAQ arrived on the hill with Slovan OK1KN and Robert F1OET , unfolded 400m of aluminum router mun to the bunker (thanks Majka) and "up now" in the style of Mr. de Giorgi we went with Lada to the top of the mast. It didn't take long for it to start raining in earnest, and a lot of it... We got the north stack up pretty quickly, followed by M2 and then we cowardly fled because I felt like I was on a U-boat in the middle of the Atlantic. If it was raining in the lee down by the shack, the top of the masts added to the unpleasant wind and conditions were beginning to resemble being in a car wash. Next time you'll want to bring a swimming cap and a wetsuit... Luckily we have a stove in the hut, Majka prepared some snacks and it was good again soon.

Eventually we got moving, I took off 4 soaked layers of clothes and headed back to the top of the mast. Outside, as if on cue, the rain had gotten heavier, I couldn't see much through my foggy and wet glasses, and there was the threat of some kind of a *..swing. And it did, while pulling up the south stack, the wire on the spool of the wicket gate snapped, resulting in the aerial stack winding instead of loosening, and the boom with the G1000 rotator crashed into the boom, which bent extremely until the 8x8 stack and boom threatened to fall down on the guys... Fortunately, the boom was welded very well by our friend fireman Standa Simral a few years ago and surprisingly it held, only the steel and the plates bent into a rather bizarre shape... Eventually, as in Apollo 12 Allan Bean, a hammer or a hatchet helped, and if force can't do it, more force can. We even pulled a spare boom out of our junk, but luckily we didn't have to use it. In addition, VPZ managed to dig out a dry chamois from our laundry stock..

Then we climbed the mast again (it was still raining outside, whoaaaaa man, brrrrr) and finally successfully installed the south stack. To make matters worse, we were short of building the western 12x6el, when there happened probably the most "bloody" situation I have ever experienced in those 17m above the ground... Because as we pull the stacks up and the carabiner down, we need to have the rope always taut and that means using ballast. For these cases we have two weights, one red and one classic heavy-iron 2,1kg weight made of logs, into which a thread is cut and an eye is screwed about 2cm deep. We have been using this system in our builds for 5 years and have never had any problems with it. What the hell, as we were sending things up and down the pole, every time we did it the rope would spin and... yes, you guessed right... what was bound to happen at some point, the eye unscrewed and the weight fell down from almost full height. It missed the operator of the VPZ gate by 1.5m and ploughed about 10cm from the edge of the roof into the new asphalt layer, in which it made a hole. Occasionally we get some of those pads or mats falling out of our cramped fingers, so the gate operator wears a plastic protective helmet, but we prefer not to imagine a possible fall.... Goddamned man!!! Lada and I were completely overwhelmed and it took us a long time to continue with the 12x6. By then I could get down on the roof and with the help of Robert F1OET (tnx) we lifted the 12x6 quite easily and put it in the right position. We even installed a fifth antenna 4x8el stack, which we put very low above the roof for the direction to Berlin and SM/OZ. This is already a trifle compared to the other antennas, as the antenna is only about 2m above the flat roof, so it can easily be set up in 1-2 people. To make matters worse, at this point (it was about 7pm) it stopped raining and the sun was loathing to us..
 

Lada and I were not left with a dry thread and it was clear that we would skip the otherwise easy evening microwave building and after a close call with the weights we would go to the stove to dry our clothes and apply lemon balm on our nerves... While the others were dissecting the experience, I was putting 70cm into working order, so since we have indicator LEDs on the LNA boxes on the mast, we could visibly verify that all RX directions were working to our full satisfaction. Unfortunately on Saturday the north stack stopped working and we subsequently discovered that the problem was in the RX cable beyond repair without removing the stack from the mast, so we applied an emergency LNA down by the equipment. With the weather under the weather, we skipped the traditional campfire and guitar this time and went straight to the barn.

Saturday morning nature tried to make up for everything and we were greeted by a perfect sunny day with blue skies from early morning. Then it was off to the bunker and building 3 and 23cm. After experimenting in the microwave, this time we erected all the masts unusually easily and early, so I was able to start putting the equipment into operation in peace. While the beer was flowing at the house at one hundred and six, I didn't even have time to jump for lunch and I finished wiring the equipment and rectifying the antennas 5min before the contest started. At that time my boss and friend Jan from work arrived on a trip with his family and I could demonstrate to him on 23cm contacts with DK9TF, DF0YY, OK2C, OK2M and OM3RBS and co. what kind of nuts we are and what we like about radioing. I hope he liked the "dream-theater".


Contest

The start of the contest was pretty slow compared to the microwave and it felt like it wasn't going well except for the direction to OM. Stations from JO31 and DL were pretty weak so at least it was nice to have a perfect CW QSO with Ivan, YU1LA 853km to Belgrade, TNX. In the next hour I also make an ODX contest to Chris, SM6VTZ 893km, which was our final ODX. It could have been even more fun as I heard SM6BFE very well at about 930km, unfortunately he didn't get a QSO number from me. The PLC net was not working, so it was impossible to match from 70cm and the net started to work only later... Although I managed to make some very nice QSOs like with Edgar, ON4KBE, PA4K, G0VHF/P 819km, YP2DX etc., I felt with my sixth sense that it was not going as well as other times, even the usual QSO with OL1B on Suchy vrch was not possible. I was happy to make a QSO with HB9MDP, who was as strong as a local station and whom we made on the 436km tropo even on 3cm. I make a 100-number contact at 20:00UTC with Pal, OM5CM, which was considerably later than in the previous contests. Also a shock was the contact number of OM6A, who were ahead by 27 QSOs, luckily OM3KII and DL0GTH both had a lot less than me, I was getting a downright bad feeling that somehow we didn't want to listen.
 

 The conditions were quite strange, the only improvement I observed was with HA5KDQ who were on 23cm at 550km S9+40dB and OM3KII, OM3RRC and OM3KOM also had a stronger than average S9+ signal. OM6A, on the other hand, were strong but not significantly so. At the same time I tried OK1KUO and OM3RRC on 9cm with our QRPP rig and nothing. Also HA5KFZ and other HA stations only reported that they could hear us, but no QSO came of it. I also failed to make contact with Paul, YU7AJM... Holt not every contest is a blessing. I went to sleep this time around 00:00utc with 133 QSOs and got up at 04:00 in the morning. Morning traffic started with promising easy AS QSO on almost 700km with Zlatko 9A2SB, SM7ECM, HB9BAT, I4CIV, G3XDY 827km, F6DKW 784km (pity Maurice had broken 70), HA8V, OZ9PZ, IW4ARD, OZ6TY. I also tried a very early morning 1150km long QSO with LZ2T, but nothing came of it. I took the opportunity that Jarek hadn't arrived yet and also made some QSOs on 3cm. After returning to 23cm the number of QSOs was increasing including a nice QSO with OZ9GE to JO66 and I was slowly starting to believe that I would again manage to cross the magic 200 QSO mark, when about 4h before the end of the contest the protection whistle blew and the fairy tale was over, as it turned out the TX jumper to the big 2.3m dish broke again... So for over half an hour I switched horses and the contest went only 2 directions to smaller antennas with 6dB less gain. Strangely enough it went quite well and I managed to make some nice QSOs, like DK1CB to Hamburg on random, ON4CJQ/P, I4UJB and even G5LK/P 807km with a nice signal. Then to finish the contest I make Thomas OK2PWY (tnx) and last QSO with DG6SA from JO31 with serial number 188 QSO. It was a bit more glorious on points, managing 66,000 points, almost the same result as a year ago and a great 12QSOs to Italy. Now a few words about the higher bands.

On 9cm there is still a state of QRPP due to the number of HW repairs from 70cm, however, some nice contacts were still made, such as DK1C/P 254km, OE5VRL 244km and on Sunday morning even OK1KUO 262km over the Klinovec hill's natural wall with the help of a suitably flying aircraft. TNX. The total result of 10 QSOs seems to me to be a pretty good result considering the QRPP and especially the handing out of points made many stations happy.

On 3cm this time Jarek, OK1KN, was in charge, and he was very good to work with. Despite the absence of Rainscatter, it went well and we managed to make a number of nice QSOs, especially with the help of aircraft. HB9MDP has already been mentioned, and on Sunday there were some nice TR QSOs with IK3GHY 550km, HB9BAT/P 518km, PA4ZP 527km and even PI4GN 532km. Jarek also made OZ1ALS 545km, ON4CJQ/P 562km and just before the end via plane also HA1A 447km. Too bad that there were not more stations on the band, such as LX1DB or DF0MU, and OK2C refused to make QSOs with us again (in order to keep the svazarm "hamspirit"). The total result of 53 (we believe valid) QSOs and 13 990 points from our forested hill is still excellent.

Then it was just packing up in perfect weather. In the process, it turned out that a short flexi jumper on 23cm had broken in the connector and to make matters worse, just as we were looking at the connector, a rope snapped on our "Rossignol" goat, resulting in our 2.4m dish falling from about 2m onto the concrete. Fortunately it fell directly onto the double rib that separates the two parts, which nevertheless bent anyway, which we then tried to fix afterwards in our Lhota village on Monday evening.


Immediately after taking down the mast Ivan and Jarek hurried to leave and since there were 5 and a half of us, we left everything on the bunker and immediately after taking down the antennas went to dismantle 70cm. Fortunately I didn't have to climb the mast anymore, where Fred, DH5FS (tnx!) took my place. 70cm was folded in time and since we didn't have to hurry so much to fold 23cm, I went back to pack the microwaves in one person after folding the most necessary antennas. It was very slow going and eventually a torch had to be fitted. VPZ and I had packed the 23 and 3cm only around 11pm and only then we could drive down to the house and we were fed up with everything.

Fortunately, we could sleep in peace, we didn't even had so much fat-flies and so we at least had some rest. On Monday we hurried to Prague, where my brother was waiting impatiently for us, who was in anticipation of the birth of the first offspring, (which was successful only on 20.7. (Adele 3,8kg, which also made VPZ an grandpa, congrats!)), helped us a lot with moving all the herberg out of the overloaded car.

The ending was good, all good, as it turned out, and the result was probably surprisingly enough to win the hat trick on 70,23 and 3cm, nobody got hurt and finally the free days after the contest helped us to recover. However, it should be noted that this time we all really raked it in and so I don't know how it will be next time... It's lucky that the UHF Contest is not until October...

Thanks to everyone for reading the report and hope to hear from you again next time

Matej, OK1TEH

PS: thanks Lada for the 30l keg of beer, it was perfect

PPS: tnx Robert for great help with antenna preparation, good operation and excellent wine!

PPPS: tnx Fred for great OP work on 70cm and work at mast top on Sunday!
 

*) Note: comparison with last year July contest  
(ve srovnání s loňským Polním dnem)