PA0O ham radio

At our first spring type day Beverage removed.  Not nice to remove an antenna but if it has to be the weather was real pleasant for outside antenna work. No snow so far  we had no winter at all. The 2 wires bi-directional  rolled in but they twisted back again and it took me 2 hours to separately roll up the 2 wires.  Those wires have a strong memory that want them to twist back again. 2 times the wire  broke at weak spots in the struggle to untwist it again. At initial set up took 2 men all afternoon to untwist this Army field line, a real challenge! The 80m coax had a half cut and was watered in. The near switch box  also had some water drops inside , nothing damaged though. The electrical connection box was not 100% ip65  it looked water tight. The experience with the Beverage made bi-directional were below expectation. I could not choose the preferred direction NNE  but it had to be exact West / East switching E/W showed abou...

Very early rise 160m did not look well only WB4AAA in the log good signal but still having the hum QRM at 1845 +/- 5kHz with the Beverage to West 80m was better  KH6AT 3522kHz heard well I called with 100W     KH6AT was worked 2009 1832kHz in the better low band times..  80m was a new band for me.. but just at the moment surprime  KH6AT aswered with PA0OI 559  had to correct the call of sk PA0OI Ger  well known dx'r of the past. But  like always? suddenly at that exact time I had to assist immediate in the house for something that could not wait 1 minute.  Radio is only a hobby  but why does this things always happen at the exact wrong moment? Is there a logical explanation for that? So when i was back 5 minutes later KH6AT was gone do'nt know if he got my call correct. Later he was on 3526 but to weak to work. Needless to say that there was no interruption now since Bryce was not workable anymore

Mean time the expedition is over and the operators left. No cheep flights available   56000$ flight cost alone! crazy  I guess once landed at such remote locations the $$$$$ signs turn up in the eyes of the transport companies .. I have send some donation.. but it's their choice to go to this locations Rayan air does not fly on it..  Like the story of the very expensive boot trip home  last year  i forgot the name of that expedition but they had to go with a small open boot in high waves.  For a save return one has to pay maximum .. 2014 had 100-dreds announced expeditions  F.i.  Palau 17x !  South Cook 7x  to name a few Reported as being  "stone deaf" by many. My impression too for most big dx-peditions.  But this time for a change my experience  is different  80m  1 March  easy in CW just a few calls needed  10m   CW  not so strong but 100W did it 12m   real weak ...

LSB ZF2AM heard very weak here early morning  Also PW0F was on topband  but not heard better in south / east EU  but precisely  1854kHz  is covered by some new s.m.Power? QRM I have direction west to direction the village at 1.2 km The directivity of the Beverage is clearly seen on that QRM  it is almost gone when switched to East. The QRM frequency is slightly moving around. It is about 5kHz wide only Not able to find out yet where this new one is coming from. Germanium diodes received from Mini in the box 1N34  and  1N60 type  150 pieces 4$ only received  Tested  at 431MHz  with my EME UHF directional coupler the BNC ports have calibrated attenuation I had 2 diode detectors one of them is broken. Tried to repair by inserting an pin contact diode into the BNC but overheated the diode is not easy to mount into a BNC connector.  The diode still works but derated it gives 20% less detected Voltage. That diode ...

The ARRLDX had a very good timing Today tuesday 28MHz is complete different no USA decodes for the first time in months. no VK7 VK123    West Australia  VK6 was maximum DX "only" last 24 hours  WSPR unique decodes  sorted on distance 2015-02-24 11:58   PA0O   28.126104   -24   -1   JO33hg   1   VK6DF   OG89jg   13172   87   2015-02-24 09:46   VK6DF   28.126035   -10   0   OG89jg   10   PA0O   JO33hg   13172   320   2015-02-23 21:48   HS0ZKM   3.594180   -23   0   OK03gr   5   PA0O   JO33hg   9045   323   2015-02-24 15:32   V53ARC   28.126189   -22   -3   JG87   1...

In Category  Low power    mostly Search and P propagation high bands very good on Sunday How much longer can we enjoy this super 28MHz propagation ? Even here in north-west were 28MHz signals are normally weaker at Sunday BC WA MT OR came in well propagation was even better then in 2014 December ARRL10 Only missing State:   North Dakota , South Dakota, Nebraska last year N and S Dakota worked within 1 minute .. my goal:   6 banders    as many as possible 160m was the difficult band  17 QSO possible Trying the ARRL CW this early  morning at 160 I could not use N1MM plus  the USA call all greyed out and  logging had to be forced as invalid contact must be simple  a setting  or country list still at PACC  but I could not fix this yet But still N1MM score is 0 with 940 invalid contacts after loading wl_cty ack to N1MM clasic already sunrise I was late. Few 160 W/V signals heard  W3LPL did ...

 In the run up for the ARRLCW  this weekend some interesting activity heard at top band . 06:00  At SR heard TI9/3Z9DX  only short in workable strength 1845kHz  working SP Before I could call  they went QSY to 40m phone 7150 LSB  was S5-6 Early Friday morning TI9/3Z9DX too weak also having rattle QRM direction west again TI5/W9RE     much stronger HC2AO  good signal today  easy to contact  weaker then HC2PF but hearing well After topband TI9/3Z9DX   qsy to phone  at 7155 QSX 7170kHz of course lot of D-QRM And OT4A  at 7153 to stubborne to  move  just kept on CQ DX-ing it was "his" frequency   of course  cursed by a lot of om's Very good rig 4 ele  17m boom    up  and down by motor control Only thing Theo is missing is a tuning control on the rig. Just moving few kc down would be the smooth solution in line with code of conduct. Next Call sig...