Tag Archives: EI8HH

Wiolas last Farewell

June 8th, 2023

It seemed, last weeks openings, brought to us by high pressure area Wiola, had been coming to an end, but at least it was back again.

After finding a simple fault in my IC-9700 I was able to receive as usual and worked stations from Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark. I heard SM7DTT calling CQ and working some stations from UK, but he didn´t copy me. Around midnight it calmed down and PA2M on 70 cm was the last QSO.

The early morning started with Germany again and Sweden was there as well and could be worked even on 70 cm. ODX on 2 m was SM6LPF in JO78CK over 1555 km, on 70 cm SM6VTZ, JO58IJ, over 1412 km followed by SM6CEN, JO67AJ over 1409 km. But the fulminant final was brought to me by Kjeld, OZ1FF, with a QSO on 23 cm. It took a lot of patience, but at least we did it.
Thank you Kjeld!

As in the previous openings I kept an eye on 144.300 MHz, called there a couple of times in SSB, but no sign of live in analogous modes. So all QSOs were done in FT8.

NB: QSOs on 2 m in green, on 70 cm in blue and on 23 cm in red.

Addendum:
Tonight Brian, OZ7SKY, requested a FT8 sked for 70 cm in the ON4KST chat. I was pretty sure, the condx were completely gone here in the west of Ireland. But I am used to give even the crazy things a chance and as the computer is doing the job, I agreed and could decode hin at once. During the first twenty minutes we had no more, than an nice chat on KST and me telling him the level I received him. The deep QSB on his signal was between -20 and -06, when he got my report and another 15 minutes later the relief: My RRRs.

While I am writing this, my PC decodes signals of OZ2OE and OZ4VW at low levels on 70 cm. As some CQs on 2 m, after working two GMs, didn´t find any takers, I closed down the station now.

Conclusions:
Never say no to a sked request
and
NEVER BLAME A HIGH PRESSURE AREA WITH A FEMALE NAME!

Tropospheric Ducting at EI8HH

June 3rd, 2023

In Spring 2022 I installed a new antenna system for 2 m, 70 cm and 23 cm at my second home in Ireland. In the last days I could experience a long duration tropospheric opening to the continent.
On May 23rd I noticed a large ducting area to the north, shown in the Hepburn Tropo Index. Not really expecting something, I turned the antenna northwards and was surprised to hear OY6BEC in IP62mb over 958 km with 529 on 2 m. It could be monitored most of the time until June, 2nd. Even on 70 cm it could be heard from time to time, but nothing on 23 cm, even when it peaked up to S9+20 dB on 2 m on May 28th. I contacted Regin, QY1R and Trygvi, QY4TN, for skeds on 2 m, but unfortunately no signals could be detected. The two stations are quite close to sea level and the beacon is located on Mt. Sornfelli, 745 m asl.

From May 13th to May 28th I had a couple of contacts in the range, aircraft scatter allows. Beside the 2 m QSOs (green), I had some on 70cm (blue) as well. I worked the local lads on 23 cm (red) and had a QSO with Martin, GM8IEM, as I had promised him to arrange a sked, as soon as 23 cm is up and running. On May 26th a short Es opening happend and I could work Paolo, IK7UXW, with whom I had a couple of QSOs and tests from home in Mainz on 23 and 13 cm via a combination of tropo and aircraft scatter propagation in the past.

On May 29th the reach extended by tropo to the costal area from northern France to the west of Germany. ODX of the day was Günter, DG6JF/P, over 1105 km.

As the propagation conditions went to normal for me on May 30th, the next day, May 31st, startet with QSOs to Denmark on 2 m (green) and 70 cm (blue). Around noon the duct extended to the very north of Germany. ODX of the day was Oliver, DH8BQA, JO73ce over 1559 km. The duct seemed to be very narrow, as Chris, SM6VTZ, and Steffen, DD0VF, could only be worked via meteor scatter (yellow).

The duct moved southwards on June 1st with many stations from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. no more DX contacts were made on 70 cm, just the 2 m band was open for me. ODX of the day was Uwe, DL4DWA, over 1559 km, followed by Peter , DL3JIN over 1542 km.

And again the duct moved southwards on June 2nd and calmed down around noon. ODX of the day was Gerhard, DK1FG, over 1459 km with an outstanding signal, just, as I am used to, when QRV at home in Germany.

Fun fact: When I turned my antenna to the north in the early morning of June 2nd, OY6BEC over 980 km was still there. Turning the antenna to the east, I could hear DB0HRF, JO40ff, over 1276 km. It is located on the Feldberg, as close to my German home, that I can see the mountain out of the window of my shack.

Activity as EI8HH is over now

October 21st, 2020

QSOs in October 2020: MS in red, FT8 in green and SSB in blue

While refurbishing our irish home, I found some time in the mornings and the evenings to be active on 2 m. At least I worked 31 squares. Even on 23 cm I got 3 Calls to the log. The rig so far is an IC-9700 with a 7 element yagi and a linear amplifier with 200 W on 2 m and a 69 element yagi on 23 cm,

Now I have to close the station and take the antennas down. It has been a lot of fun and I hopefully will be back next year, if pandemic allows. Many ideas are in my mind now, how to improve the station over here.

Many thanks to Joe, EI3IX, his N adapter female-female allowed me, to run 2 m and 23 cm simultaneously 😉 .

EI8HH – Active in the Perseids

August 17th, 2014

Despite a lot of work in the garden and at the house I found some time to setup my old 16 element F9FT yagi. In the night from August 12th to August 13th and in the morning I logged at least 16 QSOs.

The list of sked requests became longer and longer during the night. Although I did my best to work all interested stations, it wasn´t possible to make QSOs with all of them. Sorry! The conditions weren´t too good, but improved a little during the morning of 13th.

I worked: 8 x DL, 2 x I, 1 x LA, 2 x OK, 1 x PA, 2 x S5 in 15 different squares. ODX was S51AT in JN61GW over 2,075 km.

I am located at the southern shore of Lough Mask with the mountains of Connemara to the south and the west (IO53HN).

EI8HH in IO53hn

My best take off is to GM and LA.

Please QSL via DJ5AR.

Meteor Scatter: Back in Business!

May 8th, 2014

Since I will be back in Ireland in August, I plan to be QRV for the perseids on meteor scatter, activating my irish callsign EI8HH. The location is in Clonbur, Co.Galway, IO53HN. My equipment will be a FT-897 with 50 W into a 17 element yagi (F9FT) on 144 MHz.

My last MS QSOs dated back to 1989, when high speed CW was state of the art. To gather some experience with WSJT and FSK441, I watched the 144.370 MHz and worked YO9MN and GM6VXB randomly.
Another test with GM4ZJI couldn´t be completed, because we had to leave for QRL. But I got a nice burst from him at the end of our try:

065730 12.5 260 13 27 -158   FO5AR GM4ZJI 26 26 DJ5AR GM4ZJI 26 .9C$H
065730 12.8 840 10 26 -151   DJ5AR GM4ZJI 7    DJ5AR GM4ZJI 26 26 D
065730 13.8 120 2 26 -158   J AR GM4ZJI #6 / ,C

Later I worked Dermot, EI7IX, from Westport, very close to my irish QTH (a compilation of his bursts):

094000 17.7 340 13 27 -43   73 EI7IX 73 EI7IX 73 EI7IX 73 EI7IX 73
094100 11.9 520 6 26 -58   NX/73 EI7IX 73 EI7IX 73 EI7IX 73 EI7IX
094100 25.3 440 11 27 -41   YX 73 EI7IX 73 EI7IX 73 EI7IX 73 EI7IX 7

ISS bounce III

April 30th, 2013

The doppler shift was the problem to be solved for performing further steps in ISS bounce. There are two practical strategies: If every station will compensate its own doppler component, so even random QSOs would be possible. The other solution is, when the whole compensation will be done by one of the stations. That would open ISS bounce to stations that are able to do antenna tracking on the ISS, but not to compensate the doppler. In this case it is required to arrange skeds, because the compensating station is required to know the coordinates of the other one.

Basing on DC9ZPs E-Book I extended the software, I use for station control, by satellite tracking. That opens the possibility to calculate the relative speed and the resulting doppler shift of the ISS pertaining to given locations and given frequencies.

Above diagrams show the elevation with the according doppler components on 1296 MHz for a window between DJ5AR, JN49CV in Mainz (green) and EI8HH, IO53HN near Galway (blue). If the full doppler compensation will be done by one of the stations, the red line with a total span of 120 kHz will be relevant. The window in this example would open for about five to six minutes.

EI8HH on 50 MHz

May 11th, 2012

Beeing on a short trip to Ireland I used the chance to be QRV on 50 MHz as EI8HH.

While it was raining outside I enjoyed the Es opening on May 10th: More than 80 QSOs in 2 1/2 hours to middle europe. It´s always nice to be at the right end of the pile up!

50 MHz Es Opening on May 10th

Remarkable were several QSOs to G-stations with distances of only 500 km at the end of the opening. All were S9.

Short skip to G

Back on air again!

January 19th, 2012

After being qrt by family and business reasons for nearly twenty years, I started in July 2011 in activating my irish call sign EI8HH on 50 MHz. Since January 2012 I am qrv again as DJ5AR from my QTH in Mainz.

The way working on the microwave bands has changed. No more CQs for hours and hours, but a fine chat at ON4KSTs server to make skeds on the bands wich provides much more efficiency than the way, we tried to make QSOs twenty years ago. A SDR makes it possible to display a spectrum of the band on the screen in a waterfall diagram. What a huge comfort compared to the old times. So it is no problem anymore to find somebody for a sked on 23 or 13 cm. Soon after setting up the old equipment for 1296 MHz I managed to work a couple of new squares and had my first QSO ever over the alps to Italy. It was amazing to hear the strong signal of IK3GHY with my 1.2 m dish.