Hi all,
this thread is like another “local activations” post.
sometimes i have not enough space in the comment box about used frequencies,modes,used rig,ant…pwr etc…
hope its ok and not spam or something else for you
later i´m on a local summit for a late evening/night activation.
have finished my symetric tuner now and also build a cross dipole 2x21mtr + 2x7mtr…this ant i will test later. bands 80mtr up ( not sure how other bands work or not ). RBN will help spotting i hope. only qrp as allways ;-).not sure about activation times and modes,depends on wx conditions.not sure about ssb, maybe therefore i try some rtty the first time
next days a test with a wire pyramid 40-10m follow. and if the weather comes better here i will do some comparsions between antennas live on the summits.more for my own , to see which one best works for me…
Hi Mike, lets look how it works later i try also ssb on 80m band if there are chasers . its an interesting antenna project for me. all what i need is in a small bag. two different lenghts of 300ohm twin feeder. 2 wires abt. 21mtr, 2 wires abt. 7mtr long, and some very good conectors,2/3way clips i found in a electronic market. so ican build a few antennas from this small parts. a double zepp, dipol 2x7m, cross dipoles, verticals, up es outers, loops , wire pyramids etc…nice to play with.
one question about RBN i have.
i´m often on summits to build my antennas because i have no shack and no space/garden at home. soemtimes it works, sometimes not ?
if antenna works , can i send a selfspot or alert with my phone on actual time, so that RBN spots me then. or have i to set the alert a few minutes,a hour ? in future ? maybe someone can help …
Hi all,
later i´m on DM/BW-168 to cut some wires not sure i do a longer or a short activation if antenna works. also the wx forecast have info about possible t-storms at late afternoon in this area. best bands for this antenna should be 40 and 30m. so i start on 40m cw/ssb to work most possible chasers at the begining of this activation. i go directly from cw to ssb…so watch around 7.118 ± 15…hope phonenet is ok to selfspot. other bands possible later, not sure about it works or not. antenna is more low over ground on this test…
time is 1200 +2 hours…will set the alert before activation starts…
one question about RBN i have.
i´m often on summits to build my antennas because i have no shack and
no space/garden at home. soemtimes it works, sometimes not ?
if antenna works , can i send a selfspot or alert with my phone on
actual time, so that RBN spots me then. or have i to set the alert a
few minutes,a hour ? in future ? maybe someone can help …
Klaus it has been my experience that RBNGate will spot almost immediately if you have a good signal (as you almost always have). Your /P signal is probably one of the best from Europe for QRP. A few of the UK stations may be stronger but those are often QRO (>10W).
Here is more info about how KU6J’s RBNGate works, first in English then a German translation by Google:
To answer your question about SMS self-spotting, you can do that with DroidSpotEU for Android phones (first link) or SOTAGoat for iPhones (second link):
DL1DLF’s Rucksack Radio Tool is also very nice for Android phones and allows spotting via either GPRS (for 3G/4G connections) or SMS for connections without data. Here’s the link in German:
RGNGate will normally spot you -1 to +3 hours from the time you set using SOTAwatch alert (or 1 hour before to 3 hours after). You may extend this window if you plan a longer period of activation by adding a command to the comment field when you set your alert. For example, S+8 in the SOTAwatch alert comment field sets the RBNGate window 8 hours after the alert time.
In the QRPTTF I was spotted 31 times and I believe only one of these was a self-spot. If you have a good signal and set SOTAwatch alert ahead of time, it is probably not necessary to self-spot. There are other details on the KU6J page such as how to spot when you are uncertain which summit you will activate.
Hi Bill, thanks for info
maybe i´m not qrv today. wx seems not so good, maybe i do only a short activation on higher bands. sometimes to work a 40m/30m pile up in eu takes too much time if bad wx/storms are possible.
Hi all,
thanks all who called in today. sorry for quick qrt after 40 and 30m.
thats the bad wx story…therefore i will do another activation on bw-168 tmrw or wednesday again on the higher bands from 30m up to 10m. i think in these wx conditions of the next weeks ( don´t know why, but in s-dl/black forest we have mni t-storms in afternoons at early summer ) i do often 80-30m activations, and a day later or so i follow with another 30m up activation. so every chaser have a good chance to work me on the summit. and not on every summit and actiavation i will set up two antennas…maybe i found a good compromise ant next weeks.
and these activations takes less less time. today i made 57 qso´s in abt. 45minutes.it seems to be ok for a quick activation.
also had 4 s2s qso´s with DJ9MH/p, M0TTE/p, HB9DST/p and HB9BAB/p…thats fine.
tmrw i will set up my triple leg multi band vertical. if all higher bands are worked and wx stays good, i will do some calls on 40m cw/ssb later. not the best antenna for this band, but lets see how it works there.
some Info for QRS stations… if you hear me calling cq , don´t wait for my qrs calls at the end. try it to call. i will do qrs ( maybe 16/14wpm with more space between letters ) if i hear you. more slowly is a problem for me ;-)…have problems with cw myself then.
today i had a nice qrs qso on 30m with slow but very good cw sigs !
very clean, i had fun on this qso.
so there is no problem to call me, also if i´m spotted up 28/30wpm. thats more for rbn,the first cq calls and qso´s.i like it to play with tempo down or up sometimes. i like cw so much and every chasers is welcome, so try it out. i´m happy about every qrs qso with a cw beginner.
sometimes i noticed , at the time i call cq in qrs, that all or most chasers also come back in qrs ! there is no need for !! it takes only more time
its also nice to do the quick, contest like qso-style in these unstable wx conditions. if the pile up are worked there is time for the one or other longer qso.
today i had a nice qrs qso on 30m with slow but very good cw sigs !
very clean, i had fun on this qso.
I suspect that is me you are talking about. Thanks very much for slowing down to my speed, sometimes other stations have not slowed down enough and I still can’t read them, which wastes every-bodies time.
i´m happy about every qrs qso with a cw beginner.
hi colin, your cw sigs are very good ! keep on doing cw very good readable !
later i´m on a local summit again for higher bands because yesterday i had no time to work friends in na or ssb/cw-chasers on 20m.
i will try my 4x7mtr triple leg. this morning i do some work on this antenna and try it fully symetric ( no balun etc. ). hope it will work live on the summit.
i choose a lenght of abt. 13mtr ( antenna wire + feeding line ) , so it shoul work. its not resonant on any band
if wx is good and stable i will try this short antenna also on 40m cw/ssb. not good as my other wire antennas,but good enough for the one or other chaser qso on this band.
i set up with my 15m rod, so i hope on a bit of dx…lets see how condx are.
hi friends,
mhhhhh. not much to say about the vertical antenna test of today on DM/BW-156. the antenna was designed for good results on 20m to 10m. the most qso´s i made on 40m today a good compromise i think, that i can also do 40m/30m on a higher bands activation.but today something going wrong only 12 qso´s from 21-14mhc. only one dx … N4EX … thanks calling in. again some nice s2s qso´s into eu. the biggset signal today came from HB9AGO/p op.Hans on DM/BW-156 with full scale s-meter think i can´t count the qso as a s2s ?
after 40m i tried again on 21mhc but had no rbn spots, so i decided to set down the antenna and had a look there hans was. i meet him by walking back to the carpark, he was only 200m away from me, so no wonder about this big signal . we had then a longer nice chat about sota and portable radio.
"…who gives this antenna a second chance tomorrow "
I think you should because bands were not in good shape to my ears. I got home about 12:45Z and looked at 20M band - the Flex showed me a nearly flat band, then switched to 40 and the same for a while then it changed and signal spikes started to appear on the display. I worked seven summits today all on 40 so far. So I think try this antenna again 8)
In reply to G6TUH:
Hi Mike,
thanks for nice ssb qso today on 40m. yes, i will try it tmrw again. i have no time this week later the day, so i think i´m to early in my activations this week.in late afternoon and night i have the most dx worked in my last activations. i give a second chance because i heard a JA qrp station on 28mhc today. also i had two nice rbn spots on 24mhc
5B4AGN DF2GN/P 24909.5 CW CQ 15 dB 26 wpm 1311z 07 May
SK3W DF2GN/P 24909.5 CW CQ 14 dB 25 wpm 1311z 07 May
but no chasers ;-(
if i have more time tmrw i will work with two antennas. to the vertical antenna i will also set up a 42mtr endfeeded elhw wire. lets look how it works
the
biggset signal today came from HB9AGO/p op.Hans on DM/BW-156 with full
scale s-meter think i can´t count the qso as a s2s ?
after 40m i tried again on 21mhc but had no rbn spots, so i decided to
set down the antenna and had a look there hans was. i meet him by
walking back to the carpark, he was only 200m away from me, so no
wonder about this big signal
Klaus,
glad you cleared that up.
I saw your spot on BW-156 and only 4Khz up was Hans on the same summit!
I could just about hear you occasionally, but not workable, but Hans was a good copy peaking 579 with deep QSB.
I had to confirm with Hans that the posted SPOT was correct because I couldn’t believe you were both operating on the same summit so close together in frequency!
I wonder what power and antenna Hans was running in comparison to you?
Strangely, RBN shows a much better coverage of your signal although the path between us was obviously favouring Hans at that time.
Funny thing this radio lark
In reply to G4ISJ:
Hi Pete,
thanks info
Hans and i worked both with 5wtts. he was with his k1 and i with kx3. i had no problems 3 khc away. nice rx frontend i think
normaly this antenna is very bad on 40m in the low range. but enough to work some stations from uk. but not so loud as with other wire antennas as i normaly use or today the horizontal wire from hans.
on this site you can see tThe elevation plots for the bands 10m - 40m. also the gain is lower as from a simple dipol on 40m.
and every chasers is welcome, so try it out. i´m happy about every qrs qso with a cw beginner.
