II. SUBREGIONAL CONTEST 2008
For me, the new contest season opened up with a gorgeous WX during the II. Sub-regional contest throughout the VHF, UHF, SHF spectrum. I have not been able to nor do I intend to expand into other bands besides two meters which is THE band I grew up with as a QRP operator since 17 years ago.
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.
