The first snow has arrived to Burträsk. When I arrived Thursday before CQWW DX CW contest we had gotten 30cm of snow. I started to shovel snow but when I went out two hours later another 10cm had dropped and it fell about 10cm more after that too during the weekend.
The 4-1000A amp was fixed on Friday during the day and with a bit of help from SM2XJP we tuned it. I will need to make it possible to key the radio upstairs from the basement in the future so that tuning the amp isn’t a 2-man job. Some other preperations for contest was done during Thursday evening and Friday and the station was ready to go.
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW Call: SJ2W Operator(s): SM2WMV Station: SM2WMV Class: SOSB/80 HP QTH: Da Traesk Operating Time (hrs): 44 Summary: Band QSOs Zones Countries ------------------------------ 160: 80: 1551 34 111 40: 20: 15: 10: ------------------------------ Total: 1551 34 111 Total Score = 386,425 Club: Worldwide Young Contesters Comments: Had a blast working the first serious effort in a contests from the new QTH that was bought late this summer. Only band that we had real antennas up for was 80M so I as station owner decided that I would do the honors :) Up in the north we have daytime propagations towards both JA and US but unfortunatly a lot of people only seem to use the cluster nowdays and doesn't scan the bands. I checked now afterfards and the time I got real JA rate was the only time I got spotted during daytime, that time I worked 40 JAs in just a short while. I worked a total of 104 zone 25 and a total of about 290 US stations were logged. Worked 37% DX which is a bit suprising for me, didn't think the number would be that high. Propagations were good but activity seemed to be pretty low. The US and JA stations that called during daytime were really loud but low activity, S&P the bands! Dont just look at the cluster. No VK6 worked which was a dissapointment, propagations were there because I logged three other VK:s but none from zone 29. Was also extremely annoying that during a S&P run I heard 4S7NE, a DU and HS station during just a few kHz calling other stations, all new mults (and never worked). I went up a few kHz and started to CQ towards east but without any luck. Most positive thing after the weekend was how easy it was to break pileups, something I have never experienced before on 80M so the new QTH seem to perform OK, or it was just luck. Biggest thrill of the contest? Working KH7X at 10:57z! Rig: FT1000D (thanks SM2HWG) Amp: 4-1000A Antenna: 4-SQ -------------------------------
Operating position for the weekend
Snow covers the OH8QD tower
Will try to continue this work during the winter
Snow covered coax from the 40M vertical
The first snow has fallen and covered the guys for the 4-SQ
The winter is nice when you see this
SM2XJP visiting
Phase box in the middle of the array
Support pole for the vertical
The box will need to be painted this summer
Another picture of the array, in typical SM2 winter day greyline light
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