As can be seen, WX was unbelievably beautiful – no wind, very warm for early November – talking about +15 Celsius.

This time, I brought my laptop as well as both of my power amps which did not even get a chance since I resorted to QRO at 400 Watts out by borrowing a nice little amp that can do much more than that

To my surprise, QRO brings a lot more than I had ever imagined on 2 meters. The hourly rate was at about 30 QSO’s for the first two hours and did NOT fall much in the subsequent hours of operation. Also, the average distance per QSO quickly reached 300 km as I was getting DX calls from stations far away all the time.

From the beginning of the contest up until about 07:00 UTC, I was using the antenna splitter to divide the power between both the Yagi’s. The one aiming west all the time was shooting signal at 150 watts and the other one was fed with 250 watts intended to bring some nice DX from YU. The paradox was that I kept getting more calls with less power from the west than from the south-east. Like I said, at about 07:00 UTC, I decided to make good use of that power and unhooked one of the Yagi’s and rammed the full 400 watts into the other one aiming west most of the time. Immediately, I got about 15 consecutive DX calls from DL (including a few from OK1:) which confirmed my suspicion that power matters

Good propagation conditions and live activity through the night made me stay awake. I finished with 360 QSO’s and 66 big grid squares, total sum of point being cca 123,500. I knew I was not going to win. That was not even my intention. But I wanted to experience QRO for such a great contest as A1 definitely is. Check out the average distance per QSO on the screen of my laptop Italy was pretty active this time – 11QSO’s!! 5 French, 2 LX, 3 PA stations, and 152 DL’s. I love CW !!!!

Good luck everyone in the upcoming contest season of 2009 !!! I will stick to being QRP although QRO is more fun

best 73’s

da da di di di    di di di da da   da    di di da     di   di

OK1JFH said the WX would be reasonable and so there was no major obstacle to having some more fun with my “QRP” = 85+75 watts of output. Both antennas were erected already in the evening and guarded by the KRNAP guys who serve their 24-hour duty of being “rangers” at this altitude in this area.

The following morning was pretty hectic because the worst part was still yet to come – roll out 180 meters of the “power line” – the extension cord down to the Vrbatova Bouda (the Vrbata cottage). I hate that because it takes a lot of time and physical energy to do it.

Anyways, having plugged all cables into the appropriate sockets and inlets, I hooked up the extension cord to the equipment and … guess what … it worked!

The KRNAP guys were there to chat with me and used one of my “antenna towers” to monitor the wind speed and direction by attaching their little detector to it.

It was a truly beautiful morning! Make your own judgment. Check this out.

All the tourists obviously not just wandered but also wondered what the heck was going on up there with those weird looking things ham radio is always to stay in the world of the unknown Nevermind, WX was great and so was visibility.

Let’s move on. I made a few contacts before the contest to secure a clear frequency and hit it right at 14:00 UTC.

To save as much energy as possible, the paper&pencil logger was used again.

Condx were excellent. Nice DX stations kept coming back to my “CQ CONTEST” yelling and my initial worries of a screw up on my side due to improper strategy were fading away.

To my surprise, I didn’t even have a black-out at night – didn’t feel like sleeping for even a minute. The hourly rate stayed above 10 QSO’s per hour which was good. My first QSO to YL was made in this contest.

Sunday morning did not offer a lot of sunshine though. A thick cloud came from the south-west and glued itself to the top of JO70SS.

A weak cold front went by but nothing major.

DL stations kept on coming back to me the whole time which was a good sign of increased activity there.

The overall impression was very positive. I worked nearly 500 QSO’s. Again, I used two small amplifiers to feed two 10 element PA0MS Yagi’s aiming in different directions with a total of roughly 160 – 170 watts.

Here is the map of contacts.

Only one Italian station ? Yes, it was a pity! The rest was pretty standard.

Best 73’s and GUD DX:)

George

I did go up there – on the Friday before the contest – just out of my pure curiosity. This is what it looked like up at 1411 mtrs a.s.l.

Instead of screaming and yelling “cq contest” into the mic, spent the day at work and then in the evening, I met up with my friends in Prague – this time, my girl-friends won:) I stopped by OL3Z to say hi and then had a wonderful evening with my friends I had not seen for a long time.

Sunday afternoon, I drove to JO70SS just to see what it looked like up there during the last few contest hours.

In the evening, another cold front hit us pretty badly. To sum it up, the harsh rain that abated at 14:00 UTC Saturday afternoon and started back up at 15:00 UTC Sunday afternoon would have given me a nice yet rather cold shower and I wanted to avoid that. And I did.

This time, I decided to stay as a passive observer without any participation whatsoever.

Best 73s and good DX

George

de ok1hwu

The propagation conditions were at least on an average level. At least, that is how I was able to classify or evaluate the VHF traffic and DX signals at the 765 mtrs a.s.l. at JO70SP. As you can find out in the description section, this location is not perfect, yet offers a great opening everywhere except for 320 – over the north – to 80 azimuthal degrees.

I managed to borrow a gasoline power generator and set my antennas and other radio equipment up on Saturday morning. I left my laptop and other electronic gadgets at home and returned to the good old paper&pencil days. It helps me stay awake at night when I constantly look for new stations and keep checking them against my list of contacts, where every DXCC country has its own one.

To stay brief, concise, and terse – the final number of QSO’s reached no. 404 and I worked stations in 14 DXCC countries, all with cca 90 watts sent to the PA0MS 10 el. Yagi pointed most of the time westwards and 70 watts pushed into the other PA0MS beam aiming at YU, HA, OM, OK2 etc.

The WX conditions were not satisfactory and to avoid getting wet on the top of JO70SS on Friday afternoon, I peacefully packed everything up that afternoon to be ready to leave the next morning. A friend of mine from Moravia was a helping hand during the entire preparatory procedure. Thanks to him, I was able to go on the air quite a few hours before the start of the "event". Also, despite the favorable WX forecast for the weekend, my QTH/P in JO70SS was traditionally hidden in a thick cloud when my friend Petr and I got there. Fortunately, it did not rain so that we stayed dry throughout the lifting of the towers and after. The wind gusts were approaching the ominous figure of 100 km/h. As a result, the cloud was soon torn apart and we could better see what we were doing up there

The antennas were up and hooked up at noon.

Omnipresent tourists – they disregard the weather and keep coming and going. 

What a strange experience to find a car on top of the mountain with weird-looking antennas and a crazy guy sitting inside a car screaming something into the microphone And here is me!

I love this CW keyer of mine. More on this later. 

Here is my contest work-place before it all started out.

Even though I did bring my laptop with me, I decided not to use it. It is always easier to stay awake at night by constantly checking the log for double QSO's, calling CQ, turning the beams, and watching the twinkling lights in the distance. Obviously, there is no chance to take pictures of distant objects at night and so I leave this up to your imagination.

Here is a view of the eastern side of the Giant Mountains.

How does it look after the sunset Saturday evening? Like this?

The wind had abated a little bit and the propagation was reasonable. The major propagation pattern was North-West South-East. There were very few stations from the west and south-west. I managed to work only one station from Italy which is a pity. North-east was also dim. I was happy to receive two calls in a row from SM. The idea of having one antenna cover the directions from 270 over NW to 30 azimuthal degrees proved beneficial. Scandinavia is within reach even with 60 or so watts. I was putting out 100 watts into SE, S, SW, and W and only 60 watts from W over NW to N and NE. When there is an opening, 60 watts is a sufficient amount of power to reach places 500 to 1000 kilometers away.

Back to the chronology of the contest. Sunday morning was definitely not a warm one. The wind grew stronger again and a thick cloud sat on the top of the entire mountain range.

With that happening, the propagation conditions were impaired and the hourly rate dropped below 12 QSO's/hour. I could not resist to close my eyes for 30 minutes. Furthermore, there were times when I wanted to give it up due to the incredible amount of splattering caused by certain stations. Some of them had their SSB signal reaching into the CW portion of the band. I am being discouraged more and more every contest. Kilowatts and nothing more than kilowatts. Grossly unnecessary, burdensome, and most of all affecting the peaceful operation of many of those with QRP = 100 watts  

After a while, I was back on the air and searching the band for unworked stations. I was pleased to have been called by 5 OZ stations and 3 French ones. Yet, there was a paucity of SP and I stations. The same goes for PA and ON.  

Again, a few hours later, the wind shattered the cloud into pieces and the beautiful view of the mother nature was reinstated again.

I was again successful in getting YU, T9, 9A stations calling me before the end of the contest on CW. Slow operation makes it possible to work a few extra DX before the closing of the 24-hour event. Those guys really follow the same strategy which can add quite a few thousand points and improve the overall results. That is when I get to appreciate CW with my lovely-looking CW key paddle.    

The contest came to an end and the view of the Snezka mountain in the distance was magnificent along with the entire mountain range east of JO70SS.

Conclusion ? 479 QSO's, roughly 120,000 points, 66 WWL squares, 108 DL, 13 YU, S5 x 12, HA x 12, 9A x 12, HB9 only 1, SM only 2, OM x 43.

The condx were at an average level.

Shortly after 18:00 UTC, all was up and running. It was time to take a few pictures.

In the following picture, you can see both antennas exposed against the background of the Kotel Mt.

And this is me.

Saturday morning, the wind picked up and I knew that the idea of taking just a small part of the big tower was going to pay off.

A view to the north of the Violik Mt. at approximately 1460 meters a.s.l. That is where I aim my beam to work Scandinavia.

An hour before the beginning of the contest, I went down to have a chat with the owner of the chalet known as Vrbatova Bouda.

One more picture and let's hit it.

Sadly enough, there was no time to take any pictures during the contest. I ran into technical difficulties, not pushing the amount of power I was expecting to get out of the amps just like it was before the contest during the testing at home. Also, I received numerous complaints about the quality of my signal. I lowered the power to the minimum level and decreased the microphone gain. Nevertheless, more and more stations called me saying it was unbearable that I was causing QRM. With that and with the WX which was getting worse all the time, Sunday morning, I decided to pack up and leave.

This way, I would like to apologize to all those whom I was giving a hard time with my wide signal on SSB. There was nothing I could have done more to reduce the spurious emissions up there at 1411 mtrs a.s.l. Eventually, I gave it up and quit. I got 2 months to figure out where the problem was since both amplifiers and the exciter IC 7400 are acting great at home. There must have been a problem either with HF entering the radio back from the antennas or with insufficient amount of voltage in the mains or something. This is and will be subject to further investigation.

Finally, one more picture taken on Sunday evening at 240 azimuthal degrees.

And the results ? A terrible blow-up -> about 340 valid QSOs and around 77500 points for approximately 17 hours of operation. I was also coping with lots of QRM from some of the big guns. But in general, the condx were not good at this altitude. More info will soon be QRV at http://vkvzavody.moravany.com/

Best 73s and sorry again for the interference from my side.

George

Here are a few shots of how it all looked.

Good luck y'all and TNX for the QSO in the test. 73's GL

To wrap it up, a little under 4000 points for 2 hours and 15 minutes of operation seems to be reasonable given the conditions of unequal power distribution between the two antenna beams.

Looking forward to get ready for the big contests.

I really don't know why but our cat Mikes loves to be around when the radio is up and running. He especially likes when I whistle into the microphone to measure the PWR out and SWR.

I did some further testing today and am quasi satisfied with the SWR and PWR out. At least, the WX is gorgeous.

Right now, the Subregional contest II. – the May contest – is coming up in one week from now. If the weather permits, I shall be QRV from either JO70SP (765 meters asl) or from JO70SS (1411 meters asl).

I wish everyone good luck in the contest and hope to CU there.

despite the arrival of Christmas time, i.e. moments of joy and winter sports, including the XMAS contest scheduled for the second of the two consecutive Christmas days, i.e. the 26th of December every year, there is a plentitude of everything, but snow. People say that everything is up-side-down.

This winter was initiated right at the point of A1 contest, aka Marconi-Memorial at the beginning of November, and since then it has been an extended version of mild Fall. We have been experiencing thermo-inversion, which is most usually accompanied by low clouds. This situation is conditional on the position of high pressure over Central Europe. And this year, it has been showing up and scattered over OK, OE, HA, SP, and DL very often. The result is that most of the time my home QTH is down under the clouds, whereas those who live up in the mountains are having a good time.

And so the only way to avoid depression and all, is to get out of the house and go to where the sun is shining.

Catch a glimpse.

Vrchlabi is somewhere down under.

All of these pictures are from the end of December. The omnipresence of snow has been broken this time.

The last one was taken in Benecko in JO70SQ and so are the following photographs.

A day before…

This last one was taken a day before the preceding one yet from a slightly different place, in JO70SP.

Depending on the WX in the upcoming days, you can expect a few more pictures of this sort from JO70UR, JO70UQ and JO70TQ.

HNY.

George