2015 m. spalio 8 d., ketvirtadienis

Time to test VHF antennas...

Thursday, Oct 01. 
Last antenna will be fixed and can be tested.


So, what we have on the tower:
144 MHz, 12 el. DK7ZB Long Yagi
432 MHz, 18 el. YU7EF Long Yagi
1296 MHz, 47 el. DJ9YW Yagi


Friday, Oct 02.
An excellent Tropo conditions. Time to test antennas.
06:32  UTC. First DX QSO on 2m band - PA3BIY, distance 1156 km.
Two hours later: G4RRA, distance 1747 km. My best Tropo QSO on 2m band for ever!
423 MHz - OZ7JRL, distance 622 km.
During the day I did 41 QSO, mainly on 2m band. Not so bad :)
1296 MHz. Transverter is not ready, may be next time...

2015 m. rugsėjo 27 d., sekmadienis

Antenna tower

Antenna tower is standing. As you can see, it is quite low.
I wonder what the neighbors think of it :)


 

2015 m. rugsėjo 19 d., šeštadienis

Antenna tower made in the garage

Tuesday, September 15, 2015.
It was sunny autumn day, an excellent time for antenna works.
I started to construct the tower more than a year ago in my garage. It is assembled from three 3-meter long sections, the total height of the tower is 9 meters. Each section is assembled and welded of steel angle, then painted.
And now the tower is raised on the roof, assembled and almost ready for lifting. Only a few small works left, I need to attach two rows of steel ropes and 8 anchors.








 All that I still need is to catch a beautiful, windless day...

2015 m. rugpjūčio 22 d., šeštadienis

Lithuania VHF Chempionship 2015

Hello from Alksnėnai, KO05UW. It is a small willage next to the road of Klaipėda - Plungė, on the right side if you drive from Klaipėda. One of the nearest hill from my QTH, approx. 150 m ASL. On August 15th, 2015 we set up here our station for LY VHF Chempionship. "We", it's me and Žilvinas, LY2SS.

We are ready for LY VHF Contest. Excellent weather forecast, tents not needed :)

A few hours before contest when we tested antennas we heard radio beacons from Sweden, Finland and Denmark ant made a few Aurora QSO on 144 MHz. But during the contest all beacons disappeared and conditions on all bands were from poor to moderate.

Žilvinas LY2SS, 1296 MHz and 144/432 MHz FM position

We have used two transceivers FT-857D on 144 and 432 MHz and one FT-817 plus VK5EME transverter  for 1296 MHz. All antennas were long Yagi, except 145/433 MHz vertical polarization short yagi on one boom for FM:

144 mHz, 12 el Yagi 50W. ODX 599 km EW7IM
432 MHz, 17 el yagi 20W. ODX 397 km SP2DDV
1296 mHz. 47 el Yagi 3W (instead of expected 20) ODX 324 km SM7LCB

We did not have equipment above 1296 Mhz, so we finished with final result 19031 points. When we calculated points, Žilvinas said: "I will start to built new band transceivers right now :)". Let us check his pledge next year...

2015 m. liepos 28 d., antradienis

CQ WPX CW Contest 2015

Although CQ WPX CW Contest ended almost 3 months ago, I decided to write a few words about my participation in this contest from Norway.
This year I have bought an old VS-3340 tri-band antenna produced by HIDAKA company (Japan). 3 el. yagi antenna for 10, 15, 20 m and rotary dipole on 40 m band.
The weather this spring was not very favorable in Selbu - most of days before the contest were cold and rainy. But after a few days of hard work, this antenna has been mounted, adjusted and raised to approx. 10 meters over the ground (thanks to my son Tomas for help). Antenna has no rotor and was rotated manually.


For 80 m band I've built a dipole antenna, which also could be called "Inverted Vee" because the ends of the dipole was only 5 meters above the ground.


During this contest I've used ELECRAFT K2 QRP transceiver (instead of FT-817), which weighs only 1.7 kg and fits freely into my traveling backpack. This is especially important when traveling by plane.
I work out all the 36 hours. Conditions were good, I was happy to catch an excellent openings on 20 and 15 m band, especially to NA. It was also nice to save into a log to a few Chinese radio stations, which I can't do from my home with simple long wire antenna.
Here are the results:

Call: LA/LY5G
Operator(s): LY5G

Class: SO ALL BAND QRP
QTH: Selbu
Operating Time (hrs): 36

Summary:
Band QSOs
------------
80: 15
40: 216
20: 553
15: 281
------------
Total: 1065 Prefixes = 605 Total Score = 1,246,905

CU in next Contest, 72!