This contest is for everyone, at home, in your car, in the field. Any mode , CW , SSB , FM or digital modes. Any band or Satellite. Support your friends in the field, you never know, you may work a really rare grid in the process!
Time: 12:00 UTC – 18:00 UTC
Please see the „Blue book“ , SARL Forum or on www.nwinternet.za.org/zs6bne/RaDAR for contest details. Please use the logbook format available as links on the websites.
The true RaDAR station must have carried the entire station including antennas for at least 1 km prior to setting up, without relying on existing man made infrastructures i.e. antennas, masts or towers.
To be considered as a RaDAR station, the entire station; radios, batteries, mast and antennas must be easily portable and hence the need to carry the equipment for at least 1 km
Saturday and Sunday I tried true RaDAR (Radpid Deployment Amateur Radio) activation. That means: Setup the station in 5 minutes or less and use qrp output. Yaesu says, that the internal batteries of the FT-817 produce 2.5w. I used this weekend first time the internal batteries only, the MP-1 antenna, 10m RG-58 and the PalmRadio Keyer. All very easy in the rucksack 😉
For the first activation I decided Saturday morning. That’s the easiest (subjective) time to qualify a summit. I made in 9 minutes 12 QSO. For Sunday I decided the late afternoon. Not the best time for SOTA. I stopped the time:
arrived on the summit until qrv: 4 min 14 sec qualified the summit (4 QSO made) : 3 min 42 sec (made 8 QSO in 8 min 1 sec) from qrt to setdown the station and leave the summit: 3 min 41 sec
with MP1 antenna and DK7ZB 144/432 yagi on the walking stick antenna pole
On Sunday, 10.10.2010, was the DARC District Northsea (I) Activity day. I decided to look into the 28MHz and the 144MHz part. The weather was great, temp. about 16°C and windy. I heard and worked some stations on 10m and called a long period CQ in CW. But no answer. The 144MHz part should start at 1300 local, so I qsyed on 40m where I made a nice s2s QSO with HA4FY/p on Hálás-tetö (HA/KD-042) and another 27 QSO in the following 20 minutes until 1300 local. Meanwhile the summit was full of trippers. When I tuned over 2m I heard a lot of SM6s and OZs with S9 and stronger. But no chance to break the pile up with QRP. I worked some local DLs for the Activity Day and heard >S9 G-Stations. I tuned into the CW band and called „CQ CQ CQ …“. No answer again. But a selfspot on SOTAwatch brought G0BPU with 468km from JO02OB into the log.
After that QSO I wanted to go home and tuned to our local channel 145.450MHz FM. Just wanted to say Tina (XYL), DC1BF, that I will return now. But there were two SM6-stations talking – with S9++ 😉
The HB9CV stripped on the hiking stickFT-817ND with SLAB, in the background the lights of Osnabrück
The first tuesday in a month: WNA (Westphalia North Activity Evening) and NAC (Nordic Activity Contest) on 144 MHz. After surprising QSOs to Denmark in September I decided to take part in this evening again. Uncommon warm weather for October. 21°C. As antenna mast I used this evening only a hiking stick … plus my barefoot FT-817ND (5w).
First I worked some „local“ stations within a radius of 100km, only DK5QN in telegrafy. Then I heard a lot of OZs, OZ1ALS had true S9 on the Piesberg and it was easy to work with him. 322km. OZ9KY was not so loud, but for 423km surprising easy QSO. Then I heard S9 / S7 SK7MW. Is it possible to reach this station near Malmö with 5watt and HB9CV? A lot of DLs called him. After some QSO SK7MW returned with „The DELTA CHARLY SEVEN …“ Of course in this moment the signals dropped down to S1. But the operator at SK7MW was very patient. Tack så mycket! The QSO was complete and my QRP VHF ODX from a SOTA summit.
This year the DM/NS-108 got a new „Windpark“ (Power-Turbines) The new turbines are about 150m high. The summit was remeasured and the summit got a new shape. Official height is 196m. Later the summit will get an outlook tower on a height over 200m asl. Since yesterday is NS-108 in the SOTA program returned. That confused some chasers today who looked only on SOTAwatch (This is no longer a valid summit after 31/12/2008) and not into the Database. But I hope we will have some nice QSO in future … today I had to close the operation. Rain started and too much confusion on 40m 😉
Aktivierer: Du bist QRV aus einem WFF-Gebiet (die DL-Gebiete findest Du bei www.wff44.de ). Es gibt keine besonderen Anforderungen an die Station. Man kann also auch stationär oder aus dem Auto funken. Bewährt hat sich „cq cq de <call> from dlff-xxx“ in CW oder SSB. Wenn Du Glück hast, spottet Dich schnell jemand im DX-Cluster und dann hast Du erstmal reichlich zu tun 😉
Du kannst ganz normal Log führen. Dann exportierst/konvertierst Du diese Aktivität in das ADIF-Format und schickst es per EMail an Valery (siehe http://wff44.com/en/elogs/ )
Von ihm bzw. von Igor EW4DX werden die Logs eingestellt. Derzeit nur 15 Logs pro Tag. Es entsteht also eine Warteschlange und es dauert ein paar Tage, bis Dein Log in der Datenbank erscheint. Auf jeden Fall schickt Dir Igor eine Mail: Logs are uploaded.
In Deiner Mail mit dem Log schreibst Du dann eben kurz rein, um welches FF-Gebiet es sich bei dem Log handelt oder Du nennst die ADIF Datei einfach <call>_dlff025.adi. Dazu soll nachgewiesen werden, dass Du wirklich dort qrv warst. Dazu werden Fotos oder Videos oder ein GPS-Track verlangt. Ich mache es so, entweder:
ein Foto von mir (irgendwo im Wald – hi – eigentlich können die damit auch nix anfangen)
ein Foto von der Anzeige meines GPS.
In letzter Zeit benutze ich nur die APRS-Möglichkeit. Bisher gab es noch keine Rückfragen deswegen. Vielleicht wird auch gar nichts mehr verlangt. Bei der der derzeitigen Anzahl der Logs können die das eh nicht überprüfen.
Chaser: Tja – da bist Du auf die Logs der Aktivierer angewiesen. Den Upload eigener Jägerlogs gibt es nicht. Aber die Jäger melden sich sofort, wenn man mal einen Buchstabendreher im Call hat oder das Log verspätet bei EW4DX eintrifft, dann hagelt es gleich Mails 😉
Ansonsten muss man ein QSO dann per QSL nachweisen, auf der das WFF-Gebiet eingedruckt ist. Aber wer solche QSLs verschickt, der schickt auch sein Log ein, denke ich.
Wer kein Computerlog benutzt oder schnell ein Papierlog in den PC hacken will, dem ist mit LM-Log von DL8WAA weitergeholfen: http://www.contestsoftware.com/d/home.htm
Weitere Informationen und Links zum WFF findest Du im Link oben: WFF
Petra (DF5ZV) told me this afternoon via facebook, that she had a nice run in the Scandinavian Activity Contest (SAC) on 14 MHz. When sun came out in the late afternoon – Co-Operator Anton and I decided, that we will make a walk over the Piesberg. On the summit came very quickly 10 QSO into our log and we continued the walk …
MP1 Antenna - in the background teh 150m high power-turbinesCo-OP Anton - always in the center of the station
Klaus, DO1KLI, reported this morning on 2m that 21MHz is wide open. Christian, DO7AG, confirmed that and reported, that he just made 30 QSOs. Okay – 15m is not my favorite band but Anton and me wanted to try it. In the afternoon we climbed on the Piesberg. Our RaDAR 5×5 station was qrv in 4 minutes and 30 seconds. (RaDAR = Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio, 5×5 = 5 Watts in 5 Minutes) We heard a brasilian station with 59. But no answer on several CQ calls. ALso a N4-Station
eQSL K9MY
understood only „DC7CC“ instead „DC7CCC“. It was very hard with QRP/SSB/MP-1 to make QSOs. But luckily I reached 4 stations within 10 minutes. LR2F from Argentina, KD4D and K9MY from the U.S.A. and DO1KLI from my neighbor village. POINT! 4 QSO and all okay.
Today was the WNA – Westphalia North Activity-Evening (2m / 70cm). That’s every first tuesday in a month. During the walk with the dog I set up my portable station. 5 watt + HB9CV. The first QSO was surprising OZ1DLD/p without any problem. (in the NAC contest) After 10 minutes I had my needed 4 QSO in the log and could continue my walk with Anton … QTH was the new shaped 194m asl summit on the Piesberg.
