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| At least my antennas were visible |
So you probabely thought I was participating in the contest the whole weekend. Actually I didn't, during daylight I had other things to do. I spend most of the weekend finishing the roof insulation of our house. Since the price for energy is going up fast we really need to do things to reduce the use of gas and electricity. I was planning insulating the roof years ago but didn't have the money and the time to do it. I finally completed the insulation now last Sunday. The roof is now insulated with a layer of 14cm (5,5 inch) rockwool.
What I didn't want to tell earlier is that I made a attempt to beat the Dutch record on 80m QRP Assisted which is held by PF5T Frank. I met Frank last May of this year. He told me he was not really busy with the hobby, I hope he will in the future. Hopefully he will not be mad at me when I get this new Dutch record ;-). So how did it go?
I was up early at Saturday. Propagation on DX was great. But with QRP 5W it's very difficult to work the DX with just an inverted-V doublet as antenna. You need to wait for the greyline and besides that you need luck. Best DX was fellow blogger VE3VN Ron. He receives on beverages and you can tell that as he was able to get my tiny QRP signal out of the noise. Yes I heard the other big conteststations like W3LPL and a few others but I didn't make it in their log. I went on and made about 35 QSOs that morning. I did continue Saturday evening and I believe I made it till about 100 QSOs, not enough yet for the record breaking score. Like always some stations have a great signal but a bad receive. I don't spend much time calling them. Actually I have been running a few times but this didn't work out well. Have I ever written that QRP takes a lot of patience and time?
I was up early again Sundaymorning. Propagation at first only Europe. With the greyline approaching DX was coming in strong. I worked few big USA contest stations but didn't get my signal out to other DX. And yes I heard them, nothing wrong with my receive. FY5KE, ZF5T and ZF1A among them had great signals but didn't hear my tiny signal. When the DX faded I started to run and it worked out, I was even called by stations from zone 18 and 17 which I tried to call unsuccessfully before. This has probabely something to do with the change of propagation angle around the greyline.
During daylight 80m is closed and I did some S&P for nice DX and fellow bloggers / friends. Chasing PJ5C, VE3VN, VE9KK and OQ5M. In the few hours I was on at daylight I worked them all. PJ5C Peter/Ad on 40, 20, 15 and 10m. VE3VN Ron on 20, 15 and 10m, VE9KK Mike after a long chase on 20m and unexpected OQ5M Franki on 10m. Note that I had RBN on and chased VE9KK both days, I couldn't hear him on 10m. I received him weak on 15m and finally when I thought it wouldn't happen I heard his call on 20m and we made the QSO. OQ5M was answered using my Begali paddle, I messed up completely of course. But Franki probabely understood what I was trying ;-). During the evening 80m was full of signals and I managed to make it till 235 QSOs. It is enough to break to previous record, although I don't know if another station from the Nethelands participated in this section?
Wow, this was a lot of CW training. Although I'm still not able to decode most of the calls at once, depending on how fast they key and what the length and letter of the call are. Some stations have really difficult calls for CW. It went better on Sunday evening. I had a lot of fun and look forward to the next big CW contest. Now the next contest will be the 10m ARRL contest. A contest I really love to do. It is easier since I have a great antenna for 10m. Hopefully the propagation will be great again, although I have more fun chasing faint signals that are fading just above the noise. That's the kind of magic I'm looking for.
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| 80m QSO map. Remember this is 80m QRP 5W. |
