Sunday, September 13, 2015

Balloonfoxhunt 2015 report from the north

Great show! Very unusual path to the north this time. And it made a touch down in Friesland, something I already expected at Friday. Due to the north path I could follow the balloon all the way and still received signals when it was "only" a kilometer above ground. Very interesting the balloon did touch a height of at least 30km before it went down. I managed to make 1 QSO over the balloon transponder with PD2WVH Wim. Not easy as I only have my V2000 on 6m height. I tried to get my call into the PI4RCG log to get their balloonfoxhunt QSL. Unfortenately 40m was completely wiped out and I could barely hear the station. I figured (and others too) I had a better chance via the new northern setup of the 70cm repeater PI2NOS which has been installed in a TV tower. Unfortenately like many repeaters in that direction I can hear them but they cannot hear me. May be that is why I dislike UHF/VHF. I've been trying for a hour to reach the operator and though I almost made it. But it seems he only could hear the last 2 letters of my call. This new repeater is just outside my reach. I feel much better on HF and hope 40m will be open next year. I've been listening to the transponder and found the first hourwas too busy and too many rude people who wanted to play "boss". When the balloon came north it went better and did hear some well known stations from the north making QSOs without many problems. People should listen and wait and give others a chance. I did hear PD2WVH making about 10 QSOs, he was not calling but listening and took his chance when he could. Of course it is difficult but I think everyone should be limited to one or two QSOs and the listen to give others a chance, I guess thats just my thoughts about it...





6 comments:

Tjeerd, PA3GNZ said...

Bas,

Op de repeaters hoorde ik meerdere stations met "trots" zeggen dat ze 10 tot 15 qso's over de transponder hadden gemaakt.
Fairplay is soms ver te zoeken.

73, Tjeerd

Peter pa4o said...

Helemaal mee eens, zo was er ook nog een andere PD1 station die zijn bek steeds open had zodat bijna niemand anders een kans kreeg. Heb 1qso gemaakt met Johan 9DX en toen riep die PDér mij ook aan. Heb er maar niet op gereageerd. Sommige grrr.

Peter

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Ja, vind dat ook soms wat ver gaan. Net als roepen naar buitenlandse stations. Goede bedoelingen maar niet nodig. Geeft een hoop irritatie. 73, Bas

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Klopt Peter, je hoort het geloof ik in de video. Maar niet elke PDer is hetzelfde. Vond PD2WVH het best wel netjes doen. Johan heb ik ook gehoord en nog wat andere bekende noordelijke stations. Jou heb ik dus net gemist....73, Bas

PE9DX said...

VHF/UHF is something different then HF Bas. So you should make progres of your antenne system on that bands, then you would see it is much more fun. But on the transponder is was sometimes a big mess, bet when the balloon came down on his parachute it was much eassier to make a qso.

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Hallo Johan, absoluut waar. Mijn antenne voor VHF/UHF is alleen geschikt voor DX en niet voor lokale contacten. Het ding staat te laag. De ballon werken ging dit keer wel. Maar goed de repeaters van Groningen kan ik ook niet open krijgen hoor. Zit net in een dode hoek schijnt het. Ben ook geen VHF/UHF mens hoor. De Icom komt er 1x in het jaar....tijdens de ballonvossenjacht ;-). 73, Bas