Contesting

-

 Last week and this week I decided to try and work some stations during Tuesday nights RSGB VHF Contest. The Contests are held weekly on Tuesday evenings and Cover five VHF Bands. I have operated on two of the five Contest bands 144MHZ and 433MHZ.
Below is the table found at the RSGB Contest Committee Site explaining what band is used and the operating times of each Tuesday's evening Contest. Also the previous month - January's results can be seen via the Results links.
Every 1st Tuesday
2000-2230
(Local)
144MHz UK Activity Contest and Club Championship
AO AR
QTH Locators (M2) , Activity contest (S8) , Club Championship (S9)
Every 2nd Tuesday
2000-2230
(Local)
432MHz UKAC
AO AR
QTH Locators (M2) , Activity contest (S8) , Club Championship (S9)
Every 3rd Tuesday
2000-2230
(Local)
UHF UKAC
AO AR
QTH Locators (M2) , Activity contest (S8) , Club Championship (S9)
Every 4th Tuesday
2000-2230
(Local)
50MHz UKAC
AO AR
QTH Locators (M2) , Activity contest (S8) , Club Championship (S9)
Every 5th Tuesday
2000-2230
(Local)
70MHz UKAC
 
AO AR
QTH Locators (M2) , Activity contest (S8) , Club Championship (S9)
The contacts I made during both Contests were worked using the Yaesu FT-847 and the home made single loop horizontal antenna better known as the IOIo beam. ON 144Mhz I ran 50W and worked 17 stations with the furthest Station to be worked being M0BRA at a distance of 279km. The results were even better on 433MHz which surprised me as I only worked 10 stations with QSB and poor conditions, again I used the FT-847, IOIo antenna and this time only 35Watts. The furthest Station worked at 302km away was G5LK. Many Thanks to all Stations worked, I had a lot of fun as well as obtaining a few points!
I will be looking forward to using my humble antenna system and QRP Station in many more VHF Contests, hope to work some of you!

Most of you HF guys will have been active this weekend either Taking the ARRL Contest serious or like myself looking out for DX and giving a few points away at the same time. I made some nice QSO Sunday evening on 20M as the band stayed open until my bed time. I worked near enough 25 Stations in one hour with big signals and lots of fast signal reports/Power output exchanges. I worked on the 20M band with my Yaesu FT-847 and Vertical Antenna - Hustler 6BTV (ground mounted with 4X 20M radials). To my amazement the change in signal reflection and propagation path had influenced the change of my preferred HF Station a Yaesu FT-767GX and  Full wave Delta loop that normally does the best job for me. Not the case this time, It is good to have a choice of the two set ups. Check out the log to see the ft-847, 50W and a 6BTV performance.
Click on log to enlarge

That's all folks, until next time! 73!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New DX Contact 0n 12 Meters

-
Image
Today I managed a nice QSO with Tom ZD7X who is located at St. Helena which is quite a distance away from my location. I managed to work Tom ZD7X with a 5/9 report operating my FT-767GX with my home brew 20m delta loop assisted with the MFJ-969 to tune the antenna with 50 watts on 12 meters. 12M is rarely open and I have only had a few QSOs on this band so I guess the new Cycle has begun at last! Good DX de 2E0HTS 73
Read more

Full Size Delta Loop for 20M

-
Image
I came across a simple delta loop design courtesy of dxzone found on the net some time ago and have been planning to give it a go for a while. This weekend I had a couple of hours spare, so I decided to give it a go using some 2mm multi strand wire cable, a dipole centre and a mixture of 75 ohm and 50 ohm coaxial cable. The delta loop is supposed to be resonant on 20 meters but I found it to be a little high so at present I am tuning the Loop with my mfj-969 which copes extremely well. The resonant frequency is 13.2 MHz at the moment so the next chance I get, I shall shorten the overall length making sure that each of the three sides are still equal in length, and hopefully adjusting the antenna for maximum performance ATU free for 14.2 MHz. I believe the miscalculation in the resonant length is probably down to the fact that my wire is covered in the plastic sleeving from the manufacturer which always effects the swr as I have noticed in past experiments with dipoles you always get sl
Read more

Homebrew 40/80 Trap Dipole Design

-
Image
This Antenna design was one that I used about 4 years ago, it worked exceptionally well on 80m and 40m. The size of the antenna makes a Half wave length on 80 meters, and with the traps a half wave on 40m with a SWR (standing wave ratio) of 1:1-1.5 across both bands. It worked well also on 20m with the use of an A.T.U (antenna tuning unit). I made my version of this antenna using 3mm multi strand copper cable which I left covered by the PVC insulation. The traps can either be home brewed using some 40mm diameter plastic drain pipe and winding wire around the pipe approximately 10 turns, then connected in line after the 10 metre lengths. Or the alternative is to purchase some commercially made 7.1 MHz traps, and fit them in line the same way. The antenna can be fed with 50 ohm coax with a home brew balan or again a commercially purchased balan. The wire lengths of the dipole are 2x 10 metres and 2x 6.7 metres as shown on the diagram above. This antenna can be mounted quite low to the gr
Read more