IARU Region-1 Marconi Memorial Contest VHF 2022

After a break of a few years, I took again part in my favorite contest, the “Marconi Contest VHF” this last weekend. In just a few hours on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, a total of 120 QSOs and a total of abt. 43,000 points with an average of 363 km/QSO were made. And it was a lot of fun working old friends and pounding the brass again!

These are the best DX contacts:

  • 9A4V JN95mm 921 km
  • IQ5NN JN63gn 907 km
  • IO2V JN54we 831 km
  • IZ5ILA/4 JN54pf 822 km
  • 9A4M JN85ei 817 km
  • IK4PMB JN54mm 789 km
  • 9A2AE JN86hf 754 km
  • HA2R JN87ue 714 km
  • HG1Z JN86ku 700 km
  • S59P JN86ao 685 km
  • S51ZO JN86dr 685 km

2021 ARRL EME-Contest

A few days ago, the ARRL published the results of the “ARRL International EME Contest 2021”. Although I only took part in a total of 10.2 hours, I finished 20th out of a total of 50 participants in the “Single Operator, All Mode, 1.2 GHz” category.

This is a gratifying result for me as I only have a small 1.75m dish and a limited moon window. A total of 60 contacts were logged, 12 of them in CW. Highlights beside many others are the CW contacts with DU3T and KL6M, two new DXCC on 23cm.

Detailed results are available here https://contests.arrl.org/scores.php

VHF Contest May 2018

The storm “Friederike” in mid-January 2018 had caused some serious damage to the antenna system. Unfortunately, there was no time to fix it all until now. Among other things, the rotors direction control for the VHF / UHF / SHF antennas failed and the 70cm and 23cm antennas as well as the Spiderbeam for Hf are damaged. As a result the dish for 10 GHz could also not be rotated.
So for 2m I had to use the 14 element EME antenna in the garden with only 3m height above ground and right in the middle between the noisy houses.
Despite all these problems stations from 12 Countries and 46 Squares found the way into the log. ODX with 831 km was IO2V from JN56 and the overall score some 50.000 points.
2018-05-06_MayContestVHF

Nice Surprise: WW 160m DX Contest Results

Today I got the result of the 2017 “World Wide 160 Meter DX Contest CW” were I participated in the Low Power Category with just the K3 barefoot. Finally it ended up in 6th place in DL out of 84 participants and I am quite satisfied, because operation was just 50% of the total Contest time. The SSB-part endet up with ranking 19 out of 34, but that one was just for fun.

2017-12-30_ARRL160CW 2017-12-30_ARRL160SSB

VHF Contest July 2017

Due to the bad weather, conditions during this years July-Contest 144 MHz were quite normal but with good periodes on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, especially into southeastern directions. Activity from Switzerland and Austria were good as well due to other Regional Contests there. Technically the loss of my rotors display on late Saturday night makes it very hard to find the correct directions and I always had to run upstairs and look outside to see where the antenna was pointing to. A real radio sports weekend …

All together some 62.000 points, 181 QSO’s from 50 squares and 14 DXCC are the final result. It seems that this is close to the limit without calling “cq” and just s&p (search & pound) regarding to another active HAM in the very neighbourhood.

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Graphics: green – CW // red – SSB

The Top Ten DX contacts …

2017-07-02_VHF-ODX

VHF Contest May 2017

Conditions during May Contest were quite poor again. The new amplifier gave a good push and it was easy to work even the weakest stations. Next to optimize is the replacement of the 9 element 1.5 Lambda yagi and probably an antenna mounted LNA. The Contest endet up with 171 QSO’s. Stations from 11 Countries and 45 Squares found the way into the log. ODX with 831 km was HG3X from JN96. A report received from F8GGD (IN95 /1.031 km) who heard me in another contact.

2017-05-07_VHF-Mai

Black Sea Cup International 2017

The International HF Cup of Black Sea is carried out by BSCC (Black Sea Contest Club). The aim of the competition is to make as many contacts with hams around the world as possible, especially with the radio stations from Black Sea region countries, members of BSCC, BSCC Headquarters’ station, radio clubs and the headquarters of the national amateur radio organizations – members of the IARU (HQ-stations).

Surprisingly I received this nice looking Contest Award today per E-Mail. Thank you BSCC!

2017-03-05_BSCI

VHF Contest March 2017

After a long time I participated again in the March 2017 VHF-Contest, 144 MHz. Conditions were quite normal and activity low due to the time of the year. Despite the low power of less than 10 Watts into the 9 Element Yagi 79 QSO’s and stations from 9 Countries and 31 Squares found the way into the log. ODX with 784 km was HG7M from JN97. 

2017-03-05_VHF-March

CQ WW DX 160 SSB 2017

SSB Contests are not my favorites at all. Despite this, I made a handful of contacts during this weekends SSB Part of the 2017 CQ WW DX. It was just another chance to test the Heil headset and Contest software in combination with the K3’s voice memory. Peaks were 84 QSO’a an hour just by S&P (search and pound). It seems that everything is working so far. I stopped at 200 Q’s after 3 hours of participation.

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ARRL DX CW Contest 2017

The ARRL DX CW Contest is that one I like most of all the Hf Contests. Due to the low sunspot number of just 13 and a solar flux of 74 band conditions were quite poor. No USA/Canada contacts on 10m and only a couple on 15m. Missing all the good series of West-coast contacts during the past years. Over all the result of 500 QSO’s is far behind my personal record in 2014 with over 900 QSO’s. Nevertheless it was fun and nice to hear all those fluttering signals from the far west. See you next year boys!

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