OK2A - IARU UHF/SHF Contest 2022 - ENG
(for Czech version click here)

It must be admitted that the weather forecast for the contest was not favorable and even turned out to be true to reality - wind and Erzgebirge rain falling from the bottom to the top, but true to the experience that it is not important whether the memories are good, as long as they are strong enough, we were on the hill already on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.

As OK1DIX saw it:

UHF Contest, the highlight of the season on the UHF/SHF bands. We couldn't miss it even though the weather forecast didn't bode well. We also can't disappoint our invited guests Dirk, ON5GS with his father Frank, ON6MP and Fred, DH5FS. Due to the forecast, we set off with XYL OK1DYX on Thursday morning to build as much as we could in decent weather. OK1FLY and OK1VPZ and OK1TEH set out on Wednesday evening, but due to a flat tire on the caravan, the latter did not arrive until late at night. On our arrival we found them still in the pellets, from which they were pulled out only by the sound of a crashing barrel with the proven lager from the Mlyn brewery.

We managed to completely assemble all the 70cm stacks on the ground on Thursday, so all that was left for Friday was to hoist them up the mast. OK1TEH assisted me on the mast this time and all antennas were up by early afternoon. The construction of the microwaves on the bunker also went without any major problems. Even the 23cm irradiator, deformed after falling to the ground, was put into working condition by calibrated strikes. During the construction ON5GS and ON6MP arrived and later also OK1FEN and DH5FS with whom Mario, DH5YM, arrived unexpectedly (TNX). The weather on Friday was more favourable than the forecast claimed, so in the evening there was the traditional bonfire, snacks both toasted and liquid and a guitar and singing which hopefully did not scare the forest animals.

Saturday morning greeted us with a drizzle from the clouds and the wind began to pick up. Later it turned to heavy rain. The amount of water on the power lines had an unfortunate effect on PLC communications between sites. Another shortcoming was a problem with AirScout. Despite registering for OpenSky and setting up our own ADS-B receiver, we had limited visibility. In addition, just before the start of the contest I found that strong winds had twisted the mast with the long M2. Fortunately, the computer controls allowed for a quick rectification, but this had to be repeated several more times during the contest.

I start the contest a few minutes late and things get off to a slow start. It doesn't go well in the rain, especially the JV is completely shut down. For the first 90 minutes or so, only stations from the south, IK3SSG, IU4FNO, I3QJZ, IK4ZIF, IK4PMB, and from the east only OM3RLA are over 500 km. Then to sked SM7GVF (746 km). No 9A, S5, YU, HA. The first 9A8D (711km) is done only in 1606Z, YU7Q (758km), YR5C (838km) and YR7J (803km) improve the impression, but they are only singles, moreover, thrown in via chat, which Fred, DH5FS is heavily involved in the absence of AirScout. Fred then, after considerable effort, gets the RX ADS-B software up and running, but it is rather disappointing as it shows only limited use of relatively close aircraft.
 

Around 1630Z I hand over the scepter to our guests for a while. M1CRO/P (819km), ON7ARQ (638km) and HB9AOF (688km) are coming. Too bad there aren't more of them, seems like it would go better on the SW. Otherwise it's a rather below average operation although stations like G3M (807km) and 9A2SB (691km) do come up occasionally. DL stations are still coming of course, but participation is obviously weaker due to bad weather. I'm sitting down to it again in the evening, but the long stations are virtually always coming from the south I4CIV (714km), IK4RAS (674km), IK4ADE (701km), IW2HAJ (694km), IU4CHE (705km) and YP2DX (781km). There is a lot of chatter resulting in both OZ2ND (689km) and I3NPF (724km). HA68V (701km) also comes in, but JV is still very poor, especially the stations from S5 are very few. Tired of the previous mast climbs I then leave to take up a lying position. Fred and Dirk still stay and do F6KRK (796km), PE1EWR (660km), IQ1KW (765km) as well as Ivan's YU1LA (853km) and finally YT5W (902km) who will remain our ODX.

I wake up in the night around 0100Z, the station is deserted so I sit down to it for a while. The band is in a deep sleep though. I'm trying CW, but it's just the beasties. I make a couple of CW QSOs, on contact with OL3Z I find they have just one more QSO and after an hour or so I get back on.

In the morning Fred is sitting at the ring trying to get something. He makes OZ1SKY (674km) and IK4WKU (658km). Otherwise the weather is perhaps even worse than on Saturday. The wind is snapping the antennas and the contact to the bunker site is still very unreliable, making it difficult to match up between bands. Also, M2 has gotten a little twisted in the wind again and I have to rectify it again.

On Sunday morning as usual the activity is increasing, SM7ECM (608km), SM6CEN(780km), F6DQZ (707km), G3XDY(827km) and I4GHG(734km) are doing sked, but otherwise not much. Dirk is bringing his Flemish and French into play, and I'll help him out occasionally, especially with Slovak and CW, but the wind and rain are doing their part. F6HMQ from JN18 (765km) shows up and I arrange a chat with E70AA (851km). Matej arranges for Maurice, F6DKW from Paris (784km), which we do just so. Again from chat, SM6VTZ (893km), then unexpectedly F5FL (764km) and F1GGS/P (852km). It would probably be a bit of a walk to F, but there aren't many stations there. After that it's more of a bunch, with the occasional better one like ON7CL, OZ8ZS, HA8AR (734km), I1RBO (683km) and the last QSO PD0FSB (608km).
 

The contest ends with 547 QSOs and a few dozen points short of 190 000. Probably the maximum that could be done for those conditions. As it will turn out later, it is again a few QSOs more than OL3Z, but this time, given the conditions, they have a few more points. However, we lose more to OL4A from Lesna who have about 197000 points even though they have only 4 QSOs more. The massive preparation and 104 antennas paid off (we have only 33 antennas).

We start to compose while being intermittently sprinkled with rain. Fortunately we have help again in the form of Jarda, OK1JJI and his friend Radek. We say goodbye to Dirk, Frank and Fred and look forward to having them visit us again. By nightfall everything is on the ground and disassembled, but storage and loading is left for Monday morning, which contrary to tradition is not as painted. Just perhaps a little less rain than Sunday, but the wind is still strong. We arrive in Prague without any special incidents.

What to say in conclusion. The weather took us by the mouth, but on the other hand, apart from the problems with the contact between the workplaces and the broken antenna, everything worked in extreme conditions. It was especially positive that all PAs finally worked as they should with their respective outputs and there were no overheating or other problems. Also, it is worth mentioning the quite low level of interference, for which we have to thank the neighbouring stations OK1KAD on Klinovec and OL80WPN on Blaten Hill. Even the traditional interference on CW from OK1OPT was weaker than usual.

The social atmosphere with our guests from ON and DL was great, although Mario DH5YM sprained his ankle in the dark on the bunker at night. We look forward to seeing them again next year.

NSL OK1DIX.

OK1VPZ briefly:

We relied on the fact that it was supposed to be nice on Friday for the antenna build and we went. Unfortunately, somewhere near Poděbrady, a tire blew on our overloaded caravan (Matěj loads it while there is room) and so we unloaded first to get to the spare tire and then loaded again. As a result, we didn't leave Prague with the overloaded car until around 11 pm. Thursday was devoted to assembling the antenna stacks and other preparatory work. On Friday, Dirk ON5GS arrived together with his father ON6MP, who is a fountain of good mood, Robert OK1FEN also came to replace Jarek OK1KN, who is sick, then our classic group OK1DIX - OK1DYX - OK1TEH - OK1FLY - OK1VPZ was completed by Fred DH5FS and finally unexpectedly Mario DH5YM from DM7A, which was a pleasure. So there were enough operators this time.

By the evening all antennas were standing, or rather hanging, even it was almost windless, so finally we all gathered around the fire, where singing and playing, roasting and tasting various liquid products. Saturday saw the erection and successful cabling of the equipment. In doing so, my 23cm copper irradiator kettle (made by OK1VMS) fell off and became somewhat deformed. An axe and a tube solved it - the irradiator was not so beautiful, but surprisingly even those calibrated blows improved the fit of the big antenna. The only technical problems were with the PLC communication between the two sites, as it was already raining heavily, parts of the power lines for the GHz site power were in the water, and copious water droplets were trapped between the wires. We will have to do something about this data line...

The start of the contest on the GHz bands was a bit prolonged because Matej still decided to build a third, independently rotatable 23cm antenna, but soon we were ON. Of course the conditions were miserable, because all around us were trees soaked with water, in whose needles our signals were hopelessly lost. Moreover, in the gale it turned out that the antenna anchoring was not strong enough, the big 23cm antenna was tilting dangerously on its mast and finally it rolled on the rotator. After all, just like the long single M2 on 70cm... I said during the correction that this contest will be won by the one who doesn't drop it all...

The equipment worked reliably throughout the contest and that pleased me. I will come back to this on our website. If the designers at ITB had read the datasheet of one type of transistor carefully enough, it would not have cost me about 3 weeks of work and about 20 thousand CZK... You're always learning. On Sunday we are packing - how else - in the rain. Since it is dark early in October, it is impossible to pack everything in time and so we stay until Monday. So we leave the hill on Monday around noon. Although we didn't win, I personally see the technically smooth operation of the 70cm whole setup as my own success. So see you again!

OK1VPZ

PS: Thanks a lot to Jarda OK1JJI and Radek for help with dismantling the antennas! And to Mario, who injured his leg on the bunker at night, we all wish him a speedy recovery!

As OK1TEH saw it:

The UHF Contest is the main contest of the season for us in the club, so naturally the preparation corresponded to that. Unfortunately, it was already clear in advance that many people would not come, because Ivan 1DAQ broke the car's engine, Jarek 1KN is sick, for Jarda JFB was cold and Tomas was in a hurry to complete the new home-made house. Fortunately, this time "grill commander "Karel, OK1FLY, was with us, without whom we would not have built everything and who, among other things, made a significant upgrade of the old lightning rod, not to mention a baker full of gingerbread (TNX). Dirk ON5GS and Frank ON6MP, who are always a major source of good cheer (TNX), also came to the contest on Friday and Robert OK1FEN and Fred DH5YM also came to support us "in the secluded forest" on 3cm. Very positive was also the agreed arrival of "a bunch of dudes" OK1JJI and his friend Radek to help with Sunday's folding (TNX), because folding all that iron in bad weather and moreover in October, when it is dark early, is quite a precarious "Shituation"..

As the contest date approached, we were naturally most interested in the development of the dew forecast. For a long time it looked like it would be repeated showers and blizzards, fortunately it finally looked like it would start raining and blowing on Saturday, and since this time we had a public holiday on Wednesday 28.9, we made an unusual decision to go to the hill on St. Wenceslas Day, meet there in the evening with Lada DIX and Karel, FLY and use Thursday's sunshine to prepare antennas for 70cm. On Wednesday we set off, everything seemed to be OK and then at 10km D11 before edge of Prague there was a bang out of nowhere and the left rear tyre of the heavily overloaded caravan exploded... We got to the 1km far turn-off to Uvaly and the replacement followed, unfortunately the spare was on the bottom of the caravan stuffed with contest stuff and so the repair was a bit longer. It should be noted that a similar thing happened to us exactly 17 years ago at Lubenec, but then even the whole axle broke... We then leave Prague only around 22:30h.. But then we drive without any problems and everything seems ok, at 23:23 we even witness while driving on D8 a massive green bolide, which crumbled for about 5-7s somewhere above Milešovka and at 01:20h we finally arrive at Spaleniste, greet with Karel, who flooded us in the meantime (TNX) and then hurry to bed.

On Thursday, after the night escapade, we have a little problem to wake up and so we are finally woken up by Lada, who arrives around 10h. Lada rolled out a 30l keg of Mlyn beer (TNX) and after the first beer he declared our "Olympic games" started ;) Majka was supposed to arrive on Friday, so in 4 people we are a bit slower in preparing all those stacks, but the weather is agfa color, we approach it with a sailor's discretion and in the early evening we have everything ready for Friday's baking. On Thursday evening the temperature in our 1042m above sea level stays just above zero and all the wood is still damp from Wednesday, but there is no wind, so liquid "Pepo" comes to the rescue us and we play and sing Karel Kryl songs by the fire until late evening ;)

On Friday morning we are up early and then we climb to 18m above the ground, the nice weather lasts so far, it's cold but almost windless, moreover Majka complements us and so we have all 70cm antennas built in 4,5 people in record time 4h. We climb down, Majka makes us a delicious fry from the nearby giant mushrooms and we go to the bunker to build microwaves. In the middle of the construction Dirk and Frank arrive and so the work goes a bit better, the only thing that spoils our mood a bit is the fall of the 23cm pot feed from a height of about 1.5m on the concrete, during which it deforms, however, after a slight knock with the axe it seems that it did not have a negative effect on the SWR or the function of the "planter".

The sun goes down around 6pm, everyone disappears to the fire and so only VPZ and I remain in the bunker to get the electricity to the caravan working, as we know the weather is going to be bad tomorrow. By that time, the fire is already bursting with fun and merriment, mightily enhanced by the Elixir from Habana, and we don't stop playing the guitar even after the G string breaks :) At the same time Robert, OK1FEN, has also arrived and brought us some snacks for the grill (TNX) and picked up at my work the BPF PE1RKI for ADS-B (TNX). Ideally at this moment we should connect all directions to the reception so that the LEDs on the LNA boxes can be seen in the dark, but due to the ongoing feast I only turn on the LED for M2 on the top. Meanwhile, above us is a beautiful clear sky with a prominent Milky Way belt and an extremely bright Jupiter, the closest to Earth since 1963. The celebration escalates until one of us falls into the fire, fortunately it was only the burnt headband on the headlamp ;)

Saturday's exhumation is a blast, and I know that it will be followed by several hours of wiring all jumpers and other parts of our "wireless" system. Finally, sometime around 11am, everything is ready and I can finally move on to the bunker. In the meantime the devils are already there, the strong horizontal Krusnohorskie rain and the gale is blowing at gusts of around 100km/h. I was most worried about our big 2.4m dish, because the tightening clamp for rectification on the rotator had loosened, which turned the dish directly into the wind and thus held an angle of about 45 degrees to the ground... Fortunately, with the help of Fred DH5FS and Robert, who had just arrived, we were able to finally turn the dish and secure it. I am building the 23 and 3cm equipment and in the meantime after lunch Mario, DH5YM, also arrives, having brought the 13 and 9cm equipment. In the intense rain the guys climb on the slippery roof of the caravan and finally manage to attach the antenna and equipment to the mast for 3cm. But this is already the beginning of the contest and I haven't even built the 3rd antenna for 23cm yet.... For this contest I brought a brand-new 6m mast so that the antenna is a bit higher above the caravan roof and I could also try out a new anchoring system for the future, which I want to apply for the new equipment on 9cm. Finally 30min after the start of the contest I am finally able to start transmitting.
 

Contest:

I make my first contact 39min after the start of the contest and by 15:00 I have only 20 in the log. In the second hour I add another 20. Occasionally I also skip to 3cm and while the guys outside are still operating 13 and 9cm, I work through RS with a nice signal from Ralf, DK2ZF. Back on 23cm the start is still kind of slow and lacklustre, when things are going well and the weather is good and the matchmaking is working I'm getting around 60 QSOs by this time, so not much of a start. Plus, you can't spin much in the wind and also you can't completely rely on rotator rectification in the prevailing breeze. Due to the weather, the PLC network connecting the bunker to the 70cm site 400m away is also not working, even though Dirk and Robert carefully picked up the whole line from the grass on meter pegs in the morning. But back to the contest, well at least Airscout is running and so we are able to make the most of the longer skeds.

I'm very happy about the 853km contact with Ivan YU1LA to Belgrade, this time it went really great. By the way, Ivan had a problem with unreliable LNA for a long time, so he finally replaced it with thick coax and it seems that "this system really worked in practice". There are some nice QSOs like with Dani YP2DX 781km, Henrik OZ8ZS 609km, IK3GHY, IV3NDC, 9A8D, on the other hand from the other side we are greeted by Robert, F1OET alias F6KFH, who was with us in the caravan on Polnyak, then from Saarland DK050BN, 9A6AR, from Dolomites with super signal S9+ IQ3XL, M1CRO/P 819km, G3XDY 827km and others. The activity and number of QSOs are growing steadily, for the first time in a long time I have no problems with interference (TNX OK2M) and so I am breaking the 100 QSO mark with an hour's advance compared to the previous year. I am also continuously checking on slovhf.net how the competition is doing. OL4A are not going for the result this time, DL0GTH stayed with DK0NA because of the weather, OM3KII have significantly less, OM6A seems to be 23cm not going and so the main fight is with DR9A. They have a slight lead of about 2000b on the night, we are about even on the link. Continuing the ride, the worst of the queue has passed over OK1 so the condx are finally starting to improve towards S5 in the evening. Between 20:00 and 2049 I do 5xS5 and even 9A3JN or 9A1W calls, unfortunately westbound doesn't pull much this time through the wet trees. Compared to other contests, the worse turnout in the JO31 and JN58 area is especially noticeable, and there is an almost complete lack of stations in HB9. However, sometime after midnight I manage to make a very easy contact with F6KRK to Paris, a signal of nice S9 and QRB 796km lifts my spirits :) Then I try a few more contacts on 3cm (see the section on 10GHz for details).

At that moment on 13cm Mario DH5YM tries the last few skeds, saying he will go to sleep. However, when getting out of the caravan, he slips in the door, screams (!!) and disappears somewhere in the darkness under the bunker. I wouldn't have gotten blood in me as this could easily have been the death knell, the first floor of the bunker is 1.6m below the level of the caravan, then there is a short concrete walkway followed by another 5m or so below the bunker. Fortunately, except for a strong shock in the dark, Mario seems to have fallen on the concrete of the balcony at a good angle, he just stumbled a bit and it seems to have been only his ankle that got carried away. However, it seems to be OK, so early Sunday morning Mario +-recovers and later sends us a QTC from the X-ray surgery in Dresden that the ankle is not broken, but just bruised with no further consequences, ugh... A stone falls from my heart.
 

Overnight I'm limping only for about an hour, the caravan is pretty cold due to wind and rain, the warm blanket I bought for this case stayed on the house and so I soon get myself together and at 04:00h UTC I'm QRV again. The start looks promising, I4CIV is doing well, F6DQZ on SSB to JN19, 9A2SB, 9A3DF and then PA0O is winning, however the QSO count is terribly low around 7h and I watch on slovhf.net as DR9A is rocketing away from me and gaining a lead of up to about 5000 points. When I tune the band, I hear only about 5 stations, no better activity is happening... I try my luck on 3cm at least and there are some nice QSOs. But by then Robert OK1FEN returns to the caravan and I start to pay a little more attention to 23cm. Sometime after 8:30h UTC I notice that DR9A disappears from the chat and I don't see them on slovhf.net either. I'm thinking that their wifi must be down, so I'm trying to take advantage of the momentary situation even more. I am immediately happy to see Chris, SM6VTZ, who has a nice signal at 893km and is my ultimate ODX. Just before lunchtime conditions improve and I manage a string of nice contacts to Italy. I'm particularly happy with the I0NLK JN62 contact on 867km. The signal is really great and it's my first contact to JN62 from Spaleniste. Also IK2RHE, F1AZJ/p JN28, OZ9GE, 9A2UV 691km, F6DKW 784km and others are added to the log. Before the end of the contest pile up I'm not used to at this time and manage to arrange and make extra nice QSOs SM7DTE, SM7GVF 746km (pity there was no G4ZTR, ON4KBE or SM6BFE) and before the end F1TRE from Mullhouse calls. The total of 78,384points and 224 QSOs is not a record by a whisker, but it is certainly one of the better ones and given the almost completely dysfunctional matchmaking from 70cm, the prevailing weather and the low DL activity it is almost unbelievable. The sheer bomb then is the 14xI count on 23cm (and I didn't even do the usual I1KFH & IV3DXW)! So the contest on 23cm was a definite success from my side, everything worked (except for the PLC on 70cm workstation) to our full satisfaction and so I just hope that it was not the last 23cm contest due to health problems in our club, because I am still waiting for the conditions from UHF Contest 1995. After the contest I hear about the events at DR9A, who dropped their tall 800kg mast, so I am a little less happy about a good placing in Europe, as I really wouldn't wish such a horror on anyone. But at least nobody got hurt at their place... GL with the reconstruction!

Now a few more observations on the 10 GHz band. This time everything worked "for the first time", although the expected RS somehow didn't happen again. There were a number of promising clouds over Germany, but the PI4GN skedes ended up empty. When Robert and Mario were preparing 13cm, I at least made quick QSOs with DL1SUZ 360km, DL3IAE 347km and DK2ZF/p 390km at the beginning of the contest. By the way, we met DL1SUZ during the EME conference in Prague in August and had his "twin" Norbert, DL1SUN, who suffered a stroke a few years ago, like Standa, OK1MS, so he is no longer active on SHF. Too bad. The same fate by the way as I learned also met another old friend from 3cm SP6ASD, hereby if both of them are reading this post, I wish you gentlemen good health!

But back to 3cm, I got back on the band after the "super" Mario fell from the bunker sometime around 1am and managed a nice tropo QSO with S51ZO 483km and S59P 485km in addition to DK1KC on 3cm. I also almost made a good contact with 9A1CMS on 503km, unfortunately I was not able to read one digit reliably after a long time. Too bad, as I found out later, it may have cost us the first place in Europe against DL0GTH. In the morning I then made a QSO with OK2R on 303km and via plane a quick QSO with Georgie, IK3GHY on 544km. Before the end of the contest, I relieved Robert for a while and managed to complete a QSO with PA4ZP on 527km by lucky chance thanks to a well-placed aircraft. Unfortunately, PI4GN and I heard each other briefly, but the QSO failed this time. Also, after a long time, a nice QSO with DF0MU to JO32 on 428km was a pleasure. Unfortunately we missed a number of the otherwise common stations from JO62, or e.g. LX1DU, OZ7Z, HB9MDP, OM3RRC, DL3IAS, OK2TUH, etc., all probably victims of the very windy weather which does not favour outdoor tripods. I was also a bit disappointed not to be able to make a 3cm QSO with Honza, OK1VAM, for whom this contest was supposedly his last on this band. Hopefully he will change his mind. However, even though we did not manage to cross the magic 10368km mark on 10368 MHz this time, I think the final result is more than good considering the weather and the participation and it is also a result of very good cooperation with Robert, OK1FEN and Mario, DH5YM, both thanks!!

Then it was just a massacre of packing. Right after the contest the rain stopped, but it lasted only for a relatively short time. After quickly lowering the parabolas to the ground, the majority of the crew moved to the house to take down the 70cm stacks in the light, and I was orphaned in the bunker for quite some time. It was clear that in 2 hours there would be another fierce piss-up, it was still windy, so the priority was to quickly pack the delicate electronics into the car, and that there was not enough of it... Some 3 hours after the end of the contest came darkness, wind and a group of about 40 necessarily under-armed young Germans - tourists and punk fans, who were on the bunker looking for a way to 10km distant Plesivec. With a lantern in my hand, I sent them like Charon along the meadow towards Abertamy, past the peat bog, when there came a total brutal pisser... Well, I won't dramatize it, in the emergency the highest finally arrived around 22h at the bunker dad VPZ, we packed our things by the light of a portable lamp and could finally go to the barracks. Luckily I was off work on Monday, so there was no need to be in any extreme hurry and we could finish the rest of the beer in the bottom of the keg. The worst blow of the storm came sometime after midnight, but by then almost all the endangered antennas except the roof were down and so on Monday morning with Lada, Majka and Karel in the still ongoing strong wind and rain we packed everything up and sometime around 12 o'clock we started the 260km long journey to the "sunny Polabie". Then it was "only" to climb all those kilos of iron up the stairs to the dome (tnx bro), a trip with the caravan to Lhota and on Monday around 2030z it is finished.

What else can I add? Maybe a mention to Airscout, without which those 14xI in the 23cm logo wouldn't exist. Already before the VHF Contest there was a situation that the PlaneFinder feed stopped working. The only thing that helped was the OpenSky feed, but for that it was necessary to register and download the new AS version 1.4.1. During September I chatted with my friends from DL and asked how they solve it there (see e.g. DL2AKT). The answer was that the only 100% solution was to make your own receiver, which would feed AirScout data directly. The RTL dongle does work, but a significantly better solution is to use an SDR Airspy R2 with LNA. Here, however, there is a bit of a problem in that although the LNA for ADSB (1090 MHz) is sold with a SAW filter, it doesn't have nearly enough suppression at 1296 MHz to survive in a MW radiated power environment. The answer was a special interdigital filter - see the VK3UM calculator. As the contest was fast approaching, I finally reached for the mechanically perfect solution of Bert, PE1RKI. His BPF provides 0.5dB of pass-through attenuation at 1090 MHz with 80dB of suppression on 23cm, so it can be used in a caravan. There was a bit of a problem with the software, which doesn't run under Win7 and requires either Linux or Windows 10, but eventually managed to try that too (tnx Lada for the laptop). In the contest we tried that it is possible to use this solution for data feeding and during my transmissions planes were seen at a distance of over 300km. Unfortunately, only vertical was used as antenna and here is probably the biggest dilemma - using a gain system that only takes up a bit of the horizon, or an omni omni with low gain? If we will be alive and well and in 2023 we will visit the Burning Ground again, I am toying with the idea of using some collinear coffin from the telecom "GSM junk" for ADSB, what do you think?

And then the bell rang and my blathering report is finally over...

Thank you for your patronage if you've read this far, thanks to everyone who called us and I look forward to hearing from you again on VHF

Matej, OK1TEH

OK1FEN added:

I originally planned to go to the UHF contest straight from work. But then Matej asked me to pick up the filter package. The catch was that the package was at that moment on Wenceslas Square (the one with the horse and the museum and Friday Prague all around). I didn't have enough courage to drive there, so with slight apprehension I left my car full of beeping circus in Letňany and arrived at Wenceslas Square by bus and metro. Even to Letňany there was a traffic jam, but I narrowly missed the handover and was only delayed for a scant hour. The rest of the journey was easy. I arrived just as it was starting to get dark. The two masts on the bunker were up by then, so I didn't get involved in the lifting.

The evening weather was pleasant. There was chatting and singing around the campfire in several languages. I was surprised at how beautiful the milky way was to see. In the morning it was noticeably drier and before I woke up to usability, it started to rain. In between the rains I helped with lifting the line (supposedly to transport some sort of mloon :) onto poles and meter wires. Building a third antenna for 23cm was then a bit of a time crunch and rain.

Then Mario DH5YM and I installed the 1m dish and transverters on 2G3 and 3G4 after the contest had already started. We mounted the dish on an already standing mast with 10 GHz only up to about 4m where we could reach from the ladder. So we discarded my 80cm WiFi mesh and only 15W (it probably wouldn't have lasted long in the subsequent rains anyway).


Unfortunately, my jacket got soaked in the rain and my big mistake was not packing a second one.

We had already plugged in the box inside the caravan to ensure that the LNA of the other band would not be destroyed during the transmission, and we were ready to contest. I was on 10GHz and Mario on 2G3 and 3G4. Most of the contacts were arranged by Matej from 23cm and a smaller part came from KST chat. We didn't fight much about azimuth on Saturday. When there were rainscatters, I tried to call a challenge into the clouds (this time I just pressed F1 :), but random came about three QSOs for the whole contest. After 11pm, 3cm was pretty futile, so I was practically just spinning Mario's mast. On 2G3 and a bit on 3G4 some contacts could be made after midnight.

I lasted until 2 o'clock in the morning. I slept in the hut and after the necessary morning coffee I was "already" at the caravan by 8:30. Matej was sitting at 10GHz and tried to make AP QSO. Sunday part of the contest was also about matchmaking from 23cm and watching for usable RS. I also tried to lure stations over the RS after the chat by calculating their bearing to the rain cloud I was beaming into. Several times during Sunday there was also a situation where I was making a QSO on 2G3, interjected Matt telling me to call someone on 10GHz, and the chat was red "calling you on 3G4". I don't know if it all worked out in the end, but with one mast it was quite stressful. There was still the effect that with 70W on 2G3 we were "like a cannon" at the counter stations and so inaccurately routed to 3G4 with our mere 5W we were then hard to find.

I made just 1 SSB contact on 23cm (I can't do trap) when Matej was on 10GHz. I guess it took training in the controls as I didn't know which lever spun what. But unfortunately there was no time for that.

Packing and folding the masts after the contest was also in the rain. Fortunately it passed quickly, so it was just a crusty drizzle. After folding the masts on the bunker I still helped with "peeling" the self-shrinkers protecting the N connectors of the 70cm stacks. It didn't go very well with stubby fingers, but somehow we shared a lot of eNs. I headed back almost in the dark. The navigation on the way directed me in the fog with visibility of about 10m to some big area, then the road turned strangely around some buildings and then I recognized the typical silhouette of a tower in the fog and understood that I was on Klinovec. This is what a premiere can look like... The rest of the journey was routine.

I found the contest to be good overall and the propagation conditions average. I was a bit limited by the fact that I had only picked myself up the evening before departure from the effects of the previous cold and especially on Sunday I was not completely fit. Surprising (pleasantly and unpleasantly) were the October rainscatters. I've absented sharing multiple bands on the mast a few times. Again, it was quite possible to coexist, but the "what operator owns the mast" rule is simply the benchmark.

73 Robert OK1FEN

Stations from oz and sm were almost all on the kst chat and pulled in the log by sked. I worked a few ones with the little north stack, but further than that there was not so much going on on the north stack. The 12x6 stack pulls in quite a number of qso´s and is performing very good. The wide horizontal opening angle is most important to work as much as "sundaymorning go-once-over-the-band-and-work a few" stations as possible. We had a very good co-operation going on between fred, lada, matej and me...so the on4kst chat delivered us a big number of extra qso´s. The second pair of ears running the kst-chat really makes a difference. I wouldn´t change much on the antennas as it is. It´s really performing magnificent. Really happy to be part of it again. I take off my hat for all the efforts you guys keep on putting in the contest station! On6mp and i had a great weekend. Greetings to all and best 73! 

432 MHz:

Note: some statistic was made in SW Atalanta Locator ver. 12.29

WWL        : 26xJO31   20xJO30   20xJN68   19xJO70   19xJO60   18xJO50   QSO v QRB
             18xJN89   18xJN58   17xJO51   17xJN79   16xJO52   16xJN59   ----------------
             15xJO40   15xJN48   13xJO62   13xJO61   13xJN69   12xJN88        < 100   37x
             11xJO42   11xJN75   11xJN49   10xJO43    9xJO32    9xJN99    100 - 199   98x
              9xJN76    9xJN39    7xJO71    7xJN54    6xJO53    6xJN85    200 - 299   96x
              5xJO41    5xJO21    5xJN98    5xJN97    5xJN87    4xJO65    300 - 399  101x
              4xJN55    4xJN38    3xKN06    3xJO90    3xJO80    3xJO73    400 - 499  103x
              3xJO63    3xJO54    3xJO22    3xJO20    3xJN66    3xJN65    500 - 599   49x
              3xJN63    3xJN57    3xJN37    3xJN18    2xKN05    2xKN04    600 - 699   28x
              2xJO44    2xJO01    2xJN95    2xJN86    2xJN78    2xJN47    700 - 799   19x
              2xJN36    2xJN19    1xKN16    1xKN09    1xKN08    1xJO82    800 - 899    9x
              1xJO81    1xJO77    1xJO75    1xJO74    1xJO72    1xJO67    900 - 999    1x
              1xJO64    1xJO58    1xJO56    1xJO55    1xJO46    1xJO33   ----------------
              1xJO23    1xJO11    1xJO10    1xJO02    1xJN93    1xJN77  
              1xJN74    1xJN64    1xJN56    1xJN45    1xJN44    1xJN35  
              1xJN34    1xJN29    1xJN28    1xJN15                      

Hodina QSO   Body  Pr.  DX  Znacka          S  SV   V  JV   J  JZ   Z  SZ
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
14-15   70  18211  260  668 IU4FNO         11   4   4   4  12   3  18  14
15-16   56  17081  305  746 SM7GVF          7   1  10   5   8   6  12   7
16-17   49  18339  374  839 YR5C            4   2   7   8   8   7   8   5
17-18   45  16777  372  807 G3M             7   3   3  10   -   3  11   8
18-19   35  11970  342  714 I4CIV           3   -   4   6   7   3   9   3
19-20   33  10985  332  781 YP2DX           1   4   3   5   4   3   4   9
20-21   27  11135  412  724 I3NPF           2   -   3   6   7   1   5   3
21-22   17   6720  395  689 OZ2ND           1   2   -   2   3   -   5   4
22-23   15   6823  454  796 F6KRK           -   -   1   5   2   2   5   -
23-24   10   5069  506  902 YT5W            -   -   2   3   3   1   1   -
00-01    1    402  402  402 DH8IAB          -   -   -   -   -   -   1   -
01-02    3    787  262  405 OM1RV           -   -   1   1   -   1   -   -
02-03    2    205  102  154 DG5RC           -   -   1   -   1   -   -   -
04-05    8   3206  400  674 OZ1SKY          2   -   -   1   -   1   1   3
05-06   16   5567  347  658 IK4WKU          1   1   2   2   3   3   3   1
06-07   14   6066  433  780 SM6CEN          3   -   3   2   1   1   3   1
07-08   21   6696  318  827 G3XDY           4   -   4   1   -   4   5   3
08-09   26   8640  332  765 F6HMQ           -   1   2   1   4   6   5   7
09-10   19   8440  444  893 SM6VTZ          2   -   2   3   1   4   3   4
10-11   14   5347  381  632 SP8WJW          -   1   3   5   1   1   1   2
11-12   21   8922  424  852 F1GGS/P         1   -   -   5   2   5   5   3
12-13   20   6589  329  734 HA8AR           2   1   1   3   3   1   5   4
13-14   20   5890  294  608 PD0FSB          1   2   5   2   3   3   -   4
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Celkem 542 189867  350  902 YT5W           52  22  61  80  73  59 110  85

1296 MHz:

Note: some statistic was made in SW Atalanta Locator ver. 12.29
            
Pocet WWL  : 76                                                          QSO v QRB
WWL        : 11xJO50   10xJO60    9xJO70    9xJO61    9xJO51    9xJN79   ----------------
              8xJO31    8xJN59    7xJN48    6xJN69    6xJN58    5xJO62         < 100  25x
              5xJN89    5xJN86    4xJO80    4xJO52    4xJO42    4xJN97     100 - 199  41x
              4xJN88    4xJN87    4xJN75    4xJN68    4xJN65    4xJN64     200 - 299  40x
              4xJN49    3xJO71    3xJO53    3xJN95    3xJN39    3xJN37     300 - 399  26x
              2xJO33    2xJO30    2xJO21    2xJO20    2xJO01    2xJN99     400 - 499  30x
              2xJN98    2xJN76    2xJN54    2xJN18    1xKN06    1xKN05     500 - 599  29x
              1xKN04    1xJO93    1xJO91    1xJO90    1xJO83    1xJO77     600 - 699  13x
              1xJO75    1xJO74    1xJO73    1xJO66    1xJO65    1xJO63     700 - 799  12x
              1xJO58    1xJO55    1xJO54    1xJO46    1xJO44    1xJO43     800 - 899   6x
              1xJO32    1xJO22    1xJO11    1xJO02    1xJN85    1xJN78  
              1xJN66    1xJN63    1xJN62    1xJN57    1xJN56    1xJN47  
              1xJN45    1xJN34    1xJN28    1xJN19  


Hodina QSO   Body  Pr.  DX  Znacka          S  SV   V  JV   J  JZ   Z  SZ
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
14-15   19   3551  186  420 DG1KDD          4   -   4   5   1   -   3   2
15-16   21   5848  278  765 IQ1KW           3   -   4   5   1   3   1   4
16-17   22   8685  394  853 YU1LA           5   -   1   4   5   4   2   1
17-18   17   6129  360  827 G3XDY           -   1   2   1   3   2   5   3
18-19   19   5815  306  734 IN3HOG          3   1   4   2   1   -   5   3
19-20   17   6712  394  807 M0UGA/P         -   -   2   7   1   4   2   1
20-21   13   5294  407  609 9A3JN           -   -   -   3   4   1   3   2
21-22    7   3193  456  705 IU4CHE          1   2   2   1   1   -   -   -
22-23    8   2775  346  796 F6KRK           1   -   1   2   -   1   2   1
23-24    4   1321  330  528 S50L            -   -   1   -   1   2   -   -
04-05    3    545  181  266 DM6EE           -   2   -   -   -   -   -   1
05-06    1    112  112  112 OK9ATD          -   -   -   1   -   -   -   -
06-07    7   2234  319  707 F6DQZ           -   1   1   -   2   -   2   1
07-08    5   2396  479  691 9A2SB           1   -   -   2   -   -   -   2
08-09   11   3949  359  701 IK4ADE          -   -   1   1   2   -   4   3
09-10   11   5465  496  893 SM6VTZ          2   -   1   1   2   3   2   -
10-11   15   6609  440  867 I0NLK           1   1   1   4   2   1   1   4
11-12   10   3762  376  637 PI4Z            1   -   2   -   -   2   1   4
12-13    4   1619  404  684 OZ9PZ           1   -   -   -   -   -   2   1
13-14    8   2366  295  746 SM7GVF          2   1   -   -   2   2   1   -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Celkem 222  78380  353  893 SM6VTZ         25   9  27  39  28  25  36  33