Tag Archives: Aktivitätswoche

Review: Activityweek Rhineland-Palatine 2014

January 8th, 2014

The battle is over. I had my last QSO with Patrick, DH2PA on 70 cm just before the contest closed after seven days. There was a big regional activity on VHF, UHF and SHF, much more than last year. Finally I logged 414 QSOs on the four bands I have been active, compared to 266 in 2013. It is remarkable that there were many locals with improvised equipment on 23 cm. Just one new square on 2320 MHz could be worked during the activityweek: IK3GHY in JN65DM via aircraft scatter. But collecting new squares is getting harder and harder, the more are already worked. The tropo conditions remained normal during the seven days, so there was less DX than last year. This time I found four partners for 4-band-QSOs: DL7QY, DL8YG, DF5AY and DB6NT.

The top five of the most worked stations in this contest:
1. DL7QY    24 QSOs on 4 bands (2 m, 70 cm, 23 cm, 13 cm)
2. DC8WPA   18 QSOs on 3 bands (2 m, 70 cm, 23 cm)
   DJ1FZ    18 QSOs on 3 bands (2 m, 70 cm, 23 cm)
   DK0RLP   18 QSOs on 3 bands (2 m, 70 cm, 23 cm)
   DK7UP    18 QSOs on 3 bands (2 m, 70 cm, 23 cm)

Thank you all for your support and your patience!

Statistics:
        total       District K      DL ex K    F,I,OK,OZ,SM   Squares
BAND    QSO Stn     QSO Stn DOK     QSO Stn     QSO Stn       total new
 144    183  94      99  43  26      82  48       3   3          15
 432    134  66      69  31  20      65  35       0   0          10
1296     79  37      36  14  12      34  16       9   7          16
2320     19  11       1   1   1      15   7       3   3          10   1

Aircraft Scatter – useful for short distances

January 3rd, 2014

Thursday night I tried a QSO on 23 cm with DG2PU in JO30PH, what´s a distance of only 80 km. Unfortunately Thomas is located down in a valley with Taunus and Hunsrueck mountains between us. His neighbor Marcel, DK7UP is closed by, but up on a hill. While it´s no problem to contact Marcel on 23 cm, Thomas signal was only 41, peaking 51 from time to time. Since beacons in similar distances often produce nice signals via aircraft scatter here, I suggested to try a QSO using airplanes to get reflections, but Frankfurt airport was already closed at that time that there was only very little air traffic. So we tried this evening. Our antennas were elevated by about than 10°, because the hot spot was in a distance of only 40 km (and a heigt of 10.000m). The second plane passed by in perfect manner and I could copy Thomas for about 10 to 15 seconds with 57, enough to complete a QSO. Due to the short distance the hot area around the center of the path is relatively small and reflections will not last too long.

Path between DG2PU and DJ5AR in AirScout

Review: Activity week Rhineland-Palatine 2013

January 14th, 2013

It was big fun working in contest for a whole week. I felt a bit like Phil Connors in the movie “Groundhog Day” (german: “Und täglich grüßt das Murmeltier”), in meeting most of the stations again day by day. My main activity was in the evenings on 23 and 13 cm, using 2 m, 70 cm and the ON4KST chat to arrange skeds. The conditions were slightly over normal but increasing on monday with a small opening to France. During the seven days I could work one new square on 2 m (JN15), two on 23 cm (JN09, JN15) and three on 13 cm (JN09, JO42, JO44). There were only two 4-band QSOs with DL7QY and DC1UR.

My top 5 of the most worked stations in this contest are:
DF8PR    16 QSOs on 3 bands (2 m, 70 cm, 23 cm)
DC8WPA   15 QSOs on 3 bands (2 m, 70 cm, 23 cm)
DK7UP    13 QSOs on 3 bands (2 m, 70 cm, 23 cm)
DL7QY    12 QSOs on 4 bands (2 m, 70 cm, 23 cm, 13 cm)
G3XDY     8 QSOs on 2 bands (23 cm, 13 cm)

Thank you all for your support and your patience!

Statistics:
        total      District K     DL ex K    France     I,OE,G,LX    Squares
Band    QSO Stn    QSO Stn DOK    QSO Stn    QSO Stn    QSO Stn      total new
 144    100  58     72  31  18     25  24      3   3      0   0        11   1
 432     65  31     54  22  15     11   9      0   0      0   0         6   0
1296     73  34     27   9   8     21  11     14  10     11   4        21   2
2320     28  15      2   2   2     14   8      5   3      7   2        12   3