February 13th, 2022
Today Thomas,DC7YS, took me on a sight seeing tour to the Teufelsberg, a former US military facility and then straight through President electing Berlin to his beacon location in the east of Berlin.
There was nice activity in JT9F on 23 cm tonight. It seems this mode works fine with aircraft scatter. I first worked Conrad, PA5Y in JO21VO (255 km) and Sam, G4DDK in JO02VO (540 km) via Tropo. Then logged a QSO with Neil, G4BRK in IO91HP using mainly aircraft scatter. In another test I decoded Neil, G4DBN in IO93NR (756 km) by reflections on airplanes. PA0JME and ON5KTO were calling CQ, but not replying to my calls. Instead I worked John, G4BAO in JO02cg (619 km) in an (too) easy way.
Worked stations in green, the heard ones in blue.Anyway, it was a promising and exiting evening!
Yesterday I logged Rien, PA0JME, Wim, ON5KTO and John, G4ZTR, also in JT9F on 23 cm.
Chatting with John, G4BAO, last night, I learned, he recently initiated a “Digifest” on the microwave bands every Wednesday. This resulted in what happened two days ago. In my opinion it´s a very good idea to have such an activity evening beside the regular contests.
And another Contest is over. Again I learned a lot and I am happy with the results: With a count of 82 QSOs I broke my personal record in claimed QSOs in a 23 cm contest. Since October1990 the number has been as high as 78 QSOs.
The claimed score is a little more than 30.000 points and a new personal record as well. The 82 Stations, worked on 1296 MHz, are from 12 DXCC countries and located in 41 different grid squares. Countries worked were 40 x DL, 1 x F, 3 x G, 2 x HB9, 1 x HA, 5 x I, 6 x OE, 14 x OK, 1 x OM, 1 x ON, 5 x PA and 3 x S5. In most of the QSOs aircraft scatter was an important factor. 35 contacts were done in CW. ODX, as usual, was HG7F over 817 km, still my ODX via AS. Nice was to work 3 OE5-stations around local midnight within 10 minutes: OE5VRL/5, OE5JFL and OE5RBO.
As EA2TZ/B is one of the widely observed beacons, it had been missed during the last months. Now it is back on air again after adding some improvements, as Josemi, EA2TZ, informed today.
Callsign: EA2TZ/B
QRG: 1296.855MHz
Power: 10 W
Locator: IN93BF88cp ( N 43º14,69´ W001º50,95´ )
Altitude (m): 653 m asl.
Antenna: 2 x Big Wheel (omnidirectional)
If the beacon can be heard, please spot it and don´t forget to add the “/B” to the callsign.
The first remarkable opening for quite a long time happened from 10th to 11th of February 2015. F5LENs refractive index forecast promised good conditions for these days. It started with some stations from G, appearing on 2 m. While the activity contests were going on in Scandinavia and the UK on 70 cm, a few operators dropped into the microwave chat. At least two new DXCCs could be worked before going to bed: Steward, GM4AFF in IO86TS and Gordon, GI6ATZ in IO74AJ as no. 30 and no. 31 on 23 cm. Only a few beacons could be heard via tropo: GB3FM in IO91OF, GB3MHZ in JO02PB, PI7ALK in JO22IP, OZ5SHF in JO45VX and OZ1UHF in JO57GH as a new one.
Green: Stations worked on 23 cm Red: Beacons heard on 23 cm
In the morning the inversion had moved to the north-east and never before heard beacons from Sweden became audible on 23 cm. SK6UHI in JO57TX, SK6MHI in JO57TQ, SK6UHI in JO97CJ and SK4BX in JO79LI over 1138 km as my new beacon ODX appeared on the band. Many of the Swedish stations were as loud here as locals. Some of them could be worked on 13 cm as well.
Josemi, EA2TZ, informed me about the new setup of his beacon EA2TZ/B on 1,296.855 MHz.
The antenna is a stacked 2 x big wheel now, omnidirectional and the power is 10 W. The location is in about 630 m asl in IN93BF88CP, east of Bilbao.
Reports are welcome!
Last night, when I was going to switch off all the stuff in my shack, I saw an email from Malte, DE7LMS. I opened it and found a link to a video he recorded of my recent presentation in Weinheim.
My presentation “Let´s Bounce” will be given on two more dates:
Short version of the lecture with focus on aircraft scatter and ISS bounce.
We meet at 15:00 MEST on the car park at the town hall. There will be a flee market for GHz stuff and the opportunity to test own equipment or to have QSOs with other participants.
Gaststätte “Ratsschänke”
Oppenröder Strasse 1, 35463 Fernwald-Steinbach
Locator: JO40JN33VG
Full Version with overview of propagation modes, aircraft scatter, ISS bounce and visual moonbounce.
Deutscher Amateur Radio Club e.V.
Ortsverband Miltenberg, B24
Gasthaus “Goldenes Faß”
Kirchstraße 13, 63920 Großheubach
Locator: JN49OR64JJ
If you like to attend or need further information, just send an email to dj5ar (at) darc.de
After my complainments about using the ON4KST chat in March Contest and the response I received from Claus, OZ1FDH, and Kjeld, OZ1FF, recommending the KST2ME tool, I added my homebrew prototype of a selective ON4KST client extension to my station control software. It communicates via telnet with the server. While working satisfactorily under normal circumstances, it was a desaster under contest load. When the software didn´t crash, it at least slowed down, by computing hundreds of posts in shortest time. Between 300 and 400 users have been logged to the microwave chat during contest time. During the first contest hours I tried to solve the problems with certain bug fixes, resulting in a huge loss of contest time. So I had to return to the classic style in using the web client of the chat.
QSOs on 23 cm
In total I logged 73 QSOs on 23 cm to 12 DXCC countries, spread over 39 grid squares (results). ODX was HG7F over 817 km. The use of the AirScout software, written by Frank, DL2ALF, has been essential. Most of the QSOs have been completed by assistance of aircraft scatter.
A nice example is the one with DJ5BV in JO30KI. The distance isn´t really far enough to do it via aircraft sctatter, but it seems, both antennas were pointing west and that resulted in effects of aircraft backscatter with significant dopplershifted reflections.
Dopplershifted reflections of Gerd, DJ5BV, caused by backscatter of aircrafts.
Jürgen, DK2AN phoned me tonight, to tell me, the new beacon DB0XY will be transmitting on 1296.910 MHz. It is located on the Bocksberg in the Harz mountains in JO51EU, about 750 m asl. The power is 10 W into a 4 times double quad, omnidirectional. The keying is in A1: callsign, locator, carrier, dashes, carrier….
In a first quick try it could be received here with 519 to 539 via tropo. When Planes crossed the path, the signal increased up to 559.
Another beacon will be installed on 13 cm soon. The intention is to provide beacons for monitoring via aircraft scatter.
Please spot any reception in the DX cluster.