I always feel reluctant about going to activate this summit because it has several Wind Power Generators (WPG) and it’s almost impossible for me to find a day with no wind in order to avoid the QRM they produce. But, being this summit near Pamplona and accesible by car, it’s difficult to say no to getting these 2 easy points.
This is one of those summits we have here in EA2/NV with a very tall trig point, so I climbed up and attached my 7m telescopic fishing rod like this.
Setup was a sloper 14m long endfed wire hung from the top of a 7m long fishing rod to a 9:1 unun with a 6m long counterpoise wire extended on the ground and sleeves.
My rig was FT-817ND at 5W with a MFJ-941B antenna tuner.
Battery was LiFePo4 4S2P.
The activation wasn’t easy for me because of the heavy QRM from the WPG but working hard on several bands and modes finally payed off and I populated my log with a good number of QSOs and DX.
The activation went like this:
60m CW: 2 QSOs after about 8 minutes QRV and CQing.
40m CW: 9 QSOs after about 15 minutes QRV and CQing.
30m CW: 4 QSOs after about 15 minutes QRV and CQing.
20m CW: 20 QSOs, 4 of which were DX from NorthAmerica (USA & Cánada) after about 40 minutes QRV and CQing.
40m SSB: 22 QSOs after about 20 minutes QRV and CQing.
20m SSB: 5 QSOs after about 15 minutes QRV and CQing.
30m CW: 6 QSOs after about 15 minutes QRV and CQing.
20m CW: 8 QSOs, 2 of which DX USA, after about 20 minutes QRV and CQing.
2m FM: 1 S2S QSO with Iñaki EB2GKK/P activating EA2/SS-003.
You can see following the full log with 77 QSOs, 1 S2S and 6 DX USA & Canada:
After QRT, when I climbed back to the top of the tall trig point to retrieve my fishing rod, I took a few pictures where you’ll see the QRM-makers (WPGs)
It wasn’t the most pleasant activation with that QRM which probably ruined some potential S2S QSOs, but perseverance and hard work with the always welcome cooperation of the chasers, finally left a very happy activator.
In high QRM environments I have sometimes inserted earplugs then used
on-ear or over-ear headphones and a bit more audio volume. By reducing the background
noise I increase the signal to noise ratio of the audio I want to hear.
A friend of mine likes to use Koss earbuds while wearing noise canceling headphones
for extra isolation when he operates from multi-multi stations.
I wonder how well noise canceling earbuds would work in the situation you described.
Hey, David!
That’s a new one on me, earphones over earbuds… !
I bit the bullet last year and bought a pair of Bose noise cancelling
earphones and they really work! They not only completely cancel
the outside noises but the amp in them does help to bring out the
real weak ones sometimes. If anyone has never tried these, they
really do work. I can’t hear the blower in the amp, or the relays clicking when keying the amp, etc. (Or if anyone comes into the
hamshack and talks to you)! It’s startling to suddenly get that feeling
that someone is there and turning around and they’re standing there
with their mouth going and you don’t hear a thing!
73
John, K6YK
Hola David,
I always use earbuds in my activations (when chasing too in these days).
What I did yesterday to better cope with the WPG QRM was playing with the RF and AF gain, plus a good dose of sacrifice by my poor ears.
If you want to find out how your noise cancellation device would work under such QRM conditions, I would be very pleased to take you there and have a joint activation should you want to come over.
Also to a nice quiet one for a bit of SOTA fun and pleasure, rather than “masoquism”
73,
This wasn’t necessary during my activation yesterday, as there was not any disturbing noise from the environment. QRM on the FT-817 receiver from the generators was the only issue.
However, I have several times used your ear plugs over headphones strategy when chasing weak QRP signals from home. Great minds think alike!
The reason was the home QRM coming from my family around. It works well, although it requires inserting the earbuds upside down or the earphones do pull the earbuds off my ears.
But I guess this will be different to anyone depending on the shape of the earbuds, headphones and the own ears themselves.
73,
I understand now. The WPG farm is inducing rf noise in the radio. That’s really hard to deal with!
That summit doesn’t provide the quiet noise floor one usually enjoys.
I would love to visit Spain and share some activations with you! Un proyecto para el futuro.
What a pleasure it will be to experience a SOTA pileup from Europe.
I have also tried earbuds with the noise cancellation headphones I have and use at work when I need to be in the noisy environment of the factory (I’m an Industrial Engineer).
It works great, even better than regular headphones of the type used to hear audio, music and the like.
Cheers,
