The Easter holidays have brought plenty of nice weather for activating; every day seems so busy this week. I went out for a triple activation of three summits just round the corner from where I live: Katerloch (OE/ST-373), Stroßberg (OE/ST-375) and Patschaberg (OE/ST-363). The way up to the Katerloch was covered in Anemone hepatica, or liverwort as they are commonly known:
It really felt like spring with all the crocuses out. To my great delight, an activator’s chair has finally been installed on the Katerloch, taking full advantage of the magnificent view:
I was trying out 2 new antennas today. One was an End Connected Windom cut for 30m and the other was an End Connected Windom cut for 60m. I used the 30m version on the Katerloch and although judging antennas from just one activation is certainly a mug’s game, there was a noticable improvement on 30m:
Although the antenna tuned up well on 40m (being a 3/8th wave on that band), RSTs seemed down on what it was before I shortened it. Still, the reduction on 40m was more than made up for by the gain on 30m.
On the Stroßberg, the antenna also performed very well:
I used the 60m version on the Patschaberg, and although the ATU in the KX2 couldn’t get the SWR on 80m below 2:2 - 1, to my surprise, the KX2 still worked fine and gave me my first S2S on 80m:
RSTs on 60m were noticably better, but the antenna worked perfectly well on other bands like 20m. I have a feeling I am going to really like this new configuration, particularly the small footprint of the 30m version. I have some video and SWR plots that I will edit together tomorrow and put on YouTube; watch this space.
73 de OE6FEG
Matt