Thursday, June 6, 2019

PE10WCA - Castles On The Air - Menkemaborg PA-07

QSL from previous activation
Just a rehearsal for upcoming WCA activations. I was active today from 10-11 UTC on 14.251MHz SSB. Log will be uploaded after I got it in the computer. I log with handwriting.

TRX is the Icom-706MK2G, 50W into my modified DV27 mobile antenna. I had heavy noise on the band first 15 minutes. It went better later on. Propagation was not that good or there were just not many on the band? Worked 20 stations in the end.


Below you see my setup in the car. And the exact GPS location. About 500m from the Menkemaborg.





Since I do this in my lunch break at the job I haven't got much time, of course I need to eat something as well ;-)










I don't do this normally but in this case I think it is justified to spot myself. I can do it only once per day though. So I kindly ask you all to spot me on a DXcluster after you worked be. It would be a great help.


Thanks to 9A1AA and HA9PP who worked and spotted me...

I will try to be on air in my lunch break on as many days this month activating PA-7 Menkemaborg.

Most interesting contact today was ON4VT Danny from Belgium. Danny is a WCA activator himself and a very active operator. I think it is a miracle we could make a QSO and indeed it was a hard copy but we managed to finish the QSO.

Update Friday 07-06-2019: Activated PE10WCA from PA-7 again. This time tried FT8 on both 20m and 17m. 45 minutes calling resulted in just 4 QSO and only 2 spots on PSK reporter. I was using the FT-817 with 5W into the modified DV27 mobile antenna. This is not a good result and I'm not shure if I will be doing FT8 again on this WCA activation.

Update Tuesday 11-06-2019: Have been active from PA-07 again. Worked 34 stations on 20m SSB. Logs have been uploaded. Had trouble with the 12VDC connector at the radio. Not shure what the problem is. Have been modifying the connector but it is not that reliable. See video...




Wednesday, June 5, 2019

6m band range without ES propagation

Have been transmitting CQ on 6m for about 20 minutes. Didn't receive a signal at all. So, no ES propagation. Curious what my range is without propagation. I did this before last year and to test the antenna and equipment it is a great reference. I used the IC-7300 FT8 with about 70W output into my 5 element ZX Yagi at 14m agl. Tried calling every direction for a few times.


ODX was OY1OF from Faroer Islands 1244km. I was surprised with the spot from LY2IJ from Lithuania. DX on 6m is interesting but to discover your 6m range without any propagation is sometimes even more fun...


Well, there was not much ES last couple of days. At least not when I was monitoring 6m. However I see DX possebilities are there from southern europe. It seems 6m is always better when you live further south.

Update a few minutes after I wrote this post:

P18mGM8IEMScotland6FT8-09

Strange it looks like internet is sometimes very slow....

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

PE10WCA 10 years Castles On The Air


COTA-PA is going to participate in the 10th anniversary festivities of the World Castle Award (WCA) in the month of June. For this occasion we will have 8 activators using 8 different special calls while activating castles that are part of the COTA-PA and WCA program.


There will be a special award for working these P*10WCA callsigns - with three levels (bronze, silver, gold) depending on the amount of contacts you make with the activators.

Most activity will be in the period of 8-16 June but some calls will be active on other dates in June. Exact dates and times will be communicated at a later date.

The following calls will be on the air at least on one activation, by the activators mentioned:


PA10WCA - PH2A
PB10WCA - PA2GB
PC10WCA - PA3FYG
PD10WCA - PD0RWL
PE10WCA - PE4BAS
PF10WCA - PA1H
PG10WCA - PG8M
PH10WCA - PH0NO


I will try to activate at least 3 castles. One will be a first ever activation...


PA-3 Breedenborg (first ever)
PA-7 Menkemaborg (activated before)
PA-9 Rensumaborg (activated before)


Of course I will announce the dates/time on my blog, facebook and on QRZ, possible also on the WCA facebookpage.


More info: http://www.cotapa.org