Another triumph of organisation and execution! Well done Phil and Victor. Inspirational.
John
2 Likes
Nice to work you S2S from the Schwarzkogel (OE/ST-246) today Phil. You picked me out right away, nice work. Unfortunately, work and weather have prevented me from getting out more during your trip. Today was a very welcome change in the weather:
Safe journey home.
73 de OE6FEG
Matt
1 Like
Nice pic Matt and thanks for the very welcome S2S on 40m this morning, very clear signal. The band was in its best shape in at least 8 days, dohhh we had to come home!
On a train in Manchester now. A few pics of where we were earlier today, quicker and easier than writing on the train:
73 Phil OK8CDX
7 Likes
Thanks guys for all the QSO’s !! on your OK tour. Very nice signals!!!
30m not always a good skip! Tks for working me several times.
73!
Sake, PA0SKP
Victor.
Good news about EA6 island.
I will chase you and if i get the time, i will try s2s.
73 Roger
Phil,
thanks for the 17 QSO’s on 40 meter, during your OK-Tour. On 30 meters it wasn’t possible. But the signals on 40 meter where vy good. Only one time I couldn’t copy you. But all the other times it was vy good.
Can you share some information about your antenna-system you used? What antenna, coax and pole did you use?
tnx in advance.
Tonnie, de PA9CW.
HI Tonnie and thanks for the feedback on my signals.
I had no problem hearing you on 40m CW - the PA9CW call is one of the rare prefixes and so it stands out in CW.
The radio is a KX2 which gives out 8 watts only on the internal battery. I seemed to get through most of the day on the internal home made battery pack I have ( 3 X 18650), so that’s around 100 QSOs on a typical Czech day CW/SSB. On two of the days I needed to connect my external 18650 pack on the 9th or 10th summit.
The best signals on 40m were from PA, ON and Northern Germany. The distance was just right for us. G stations were much weaker as to be expected, and not so many, although stations like G0VWP, M0BKV and G4AFI were hearing me and were logged many times. Victor and I activated 52 summits. The aerial is just a home made link dipole for 40m, 30m and 20m with silicon insulated wire (very flexible in all temperatures) in a shallow inverted vee configuration (I have long strings about 7m long each side). The aerial is fixed on the top of a 5m travel pole which fits inside the rucksack. The links are soldered gold plated pins/sockets as used by radio modellers. I think the use of croc clips for links is a crude method… On every summit (mostly in woodland) there was something to fix the aerial to every time. The feeder is thin coax type RG178. This aerial has done well over 200 activations. I had my first breakage on a summit on the second day, when the wire snapped inside the insulation at the dipole top. I just cut it, shortened one side by a few inches and made a wrapped joint and then isulation tape over the joint. It lasted out for the rest of the tour and I did not experience any significiant deterioriation in SWR. I intend refurbishing the dipole now before my next HF expedition. The aerial made over 800 SOTA QSOs in the week long operation despite the breakage.
For interest please take a look at this video on youtube - I wouldn’t like to operate here after dark:
73 Phil OK8CDX
1 Like
Phil,
thanks for the detailed info. I assume that your dipole is +/- 20 meters long. I also tried the RG-178 coax. But it’s difficult to solder to a BNC connector. So I use 10 meter RG-58 coax.
Last 2 questions, if you don’t mind. What is the length of the coax, and do you use a balun?
PS Nice video from OK/ST-097 
I saw this CT7/G4OBK SOTA Station activation on Pena CT/DL-004 1223m - YouTube video. What gave me a good idea of your antenna system.
73 Tonnie, de PA9CW.