Skip to main content

Stew Perry topband DX challenge

 Stew Perry topband DX challenge. https://www.kkn.net/stew/stew_history.html
As the name suggests the goal is the best distance.
Idea was the  low power section bare foot 100W should be fine.
This is an other then others.To my opinion smart,the useless "599" is skipped,  exchange is the first 4 figures of the WW-locator. So the reply is only:   {call} JO33
The QSO points are calculated from center field to field distance.
A with this simple but correct exchange a moderate 26 CW speed gives a high QSO rating.
Most QSO EU-EU yield 2 3 or 4 points DX like JA would be 25 USA W 20 or 18 points
The power class is a multiplier LOW x 2 QRP  x 4 
QRP working EU is rewarding f.i. LZ 24 points counts like JA in high power, I think the first option is easier.
Next time must try that ?.
155 QSO most EU, best East dx heard was JH4UYB but the struggle of some well equipped HAM's was not a good sign.
Just a very few of the many USA  heard could copy my 100W 
(with what I  know now a broken ground wire.)
I suspect some to use WEB SDR because responding  way out of pace  or not at al upon the return of called DX i.e. ZF9CW was "worked" by suspected web SDR receiving HAM's
 
Monday next evening  after  i found that the160 i-L TX antenna  had a broken  ground connection. Tuning was a bit different should have paid more attention.
The EU1KY VNA found resonation at 1965kHz . After fixing the SO239 ground connection, it jumped down to1700kHz! That was where it was planed to be, inverted -L a little below 1825 to elevate the current maximum , increasing effectiveness  according to the 160m experts.  Sadly enough  after the contest. But next evening VK5PW FT8 (100W) and in the morning grey-line  several USA including DN DM  locators so the TX antenna looked okay.

Some DX had solid S4 5 signals   W1UE W1GD ZF9CW and other overseas called  many times , and not only me to get no response that's why i thought my station was alright..
Waited for QSB up and no other takers tuned a bit up and down, nothing helped simply not received.
 Few exceptions :  FM5BH NO3M AB3CX K2ZW WF2W responded immediate they had good ears for my defective antenna..


Today Sunday 28 MHz was very good again SFI 121 still




Comments

Archive

Show more

Popular posts from this blog

2011-01-22 DIAMOND 2m 70cm 1m30 Colinear inside

Having relative poor signals on the local 70cm / 2m channels using this X50 Diamond collinear 70/2  1m antenna at a height of 25m. I needed to investigate what could be wrong. Measuring the cable only 3W is left for the antenna of the 10W 435MHz output from a IC451E The cable is 30m type H100 Z50 10mm outside diameter it is semi air-spaced but has an impossible 4mm² solid CU inner conductor not much air left. I preferred the H43 Z75 cable having lower loss and mechanical better ratio in conductor size. My antenna uses SO239 connector UHF type semi air spaced isolator.  3W should be enough for a comfortable noise free FM signal. But only 27km away at PA0A the signal is weak too weak something must be wrong? I made a simple reference dipole of 2x17cm CU wire. With this dipole the signals where totally worse. So the Diamond does work? I got curious to look inside. Maybe moisture penetration degraded the antenna. This  antenna is rainwater close in its n...

SPF5189z Low noise preamp 23cm

 14-4-2018 updated Above the low noise  preamp 50 - 4GHz    ebay  6€ Tested  2 small porto antennas 1 Baofeng UV antenna left   2nd best signal on PI2NOS 2 eBay DIAMONDSRH805S  wide band 144/432/1200  it works for its size as expected 3 piece of wire :   best signal in the setup... Unit under test at workbench. It was stable  50mA  at 5V   few days,  but sudden the current went up to 100mA And i could  no longer adjust it with the negative bias Voltage. The - Voltage went to zero and the SPF input port became low Z. This SPF5189z was broken  no oscillations, no input overload just it broke while i was receiving the PI2NOS 430.125 using a small antenna at the workbench. The specs of  SPF5189z  say it has an internal circuit  regulating the bias current. Replaced . again   with an other of the 5 spare SPF i have. The new one again could be adjuste...

TS790 cat interface

A CAT interface  for the old TS790 144/432/1292 tranceiver to work with N1MM  including the internal CW keyer DTR and "PTT" RTS and WSJT MSHV with "PTT" control Using the 3€ FTDI USB serial interface picture bottom page first i bought the Kenwood USB serial interface cable that cable has the TS790 special 6 pin DIN plug this interface works well ...as long as you cut the 4-5  wire bridge on the ACC din.. with the wire bridge it did go offline after 30 seconds or so  Kenwood interface cable with CH330 eBay 15€    This type Kenwood interface cable uses a tiny 6 pin USB CH330 chip  The driver is CH340 known for Arduino it workes in W7/10 64  It has only TX RX Usart function no DTR RTS available  The TS790 settings are 4800b 8bit data 2 stop  default  N1MM does not list the TS790 it has the TS890  but that one does not support modes the TS2000 does support freq and modes and let you switch 2/70/23 it seem...