[3830] CQWW CW PI4TUE M/S HP

[webform at b4h.net]

                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: PI4TUE
Operator(s): PC5A, PE2HD, PA3FGA, ON9CC, PA4AO, PA0SHY, PA5MW, CLAUDIA
Station: PI4TUE

Class: M/S HP
QTH: Eindhoven
Operating Time (hrs): 48

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:  299    14       56
   80:  496    20       80
   40:  655    33      117
   20:  919    34      115
   15:  241    24       66
   10:    0     0        0
------------------------------
Total: 2610   125      434  Total Score = 2,855,931

Club: Bavarian Contest Club

Comments:

Rig: K3 (this time I just didn't want to bring my Orion again....)
Antennas: SteppIR @220ft, dipoles 40m/80m @200ft, HF2V 40m/80m @180ft 2x 0.25
sloper from 200ft on 160m to USA and JA
RX only: K9AY

Very much enjoyed this contest!
Workload at QRL and home prevented us from a decent preparation, however
Aurelio/PC5A did a great job in getting the station ready on time. He had to
climb the tower on friday to fix the SteppIR, which again had a major tilt and
azimuth offset. It simply will not clamp.
We set up our only RX antenna, a home made portable K9AY, just 4 hours before
the start of the contest in darkness. Initially it showed no directivity
whatsoever and disconnecting the ground had no effect. The decoupling cap to
ground inside the switchbox proved open circuit. The shack of ESRAC (Eindhoven
Student Radio Amateur Club) being at the technical university, certainly had
lots of spare parts to offer. At T-30 or so the K9AY showed a f/b of several
s-units on some local stations.
There were enough operators so everyone got his share of rest(right?). We
enjoyed some visitors and some old friends who even joined in (great!).
The SteppIR did perform very well; the bi-directional option was appreciated a
lot. The K3 has true contest performance. Together with David-Clark headphones
which offer hearing protection in the noisy shack (used for zillions of packet
nodes, repeaters, link stations, psk31mail, networks etc), it was comfortable
till the final moment.
160m rx-wise we still have do some more experiments. Over the years we have
tested several on the 200ft level roof: K9AY, Magnetic loop and a KAZ. On
ground level we tested on the north side of the buildings a K9AY and a small
20ft vertical. This time we put the K9AY on the west side of the building.The
ground level rx antenna's were far away from the building and had some 200m
lengths of double shielded coax. In all cases we had mediocre front/back
results. Ground stakes with buried copper radials were used. The K9AY and short
vertical worked very well on other locations with the same hardware and coax.
But on the university area local noise level seems such high that no dx was
received. Long vertical travel of the coax along the building to the shack at
the top floor won't help too. But at his point we have nothing that works
effectively. Still both east and west 160m slopers offered plenty of contacts.
The contest was fun as ever, 40mtrs was just a-m-a-z-i-n-g ! 
Despite having only a single yagi, dipoles, a vertical and slopers, being at
+200ft level compensates for this. It is a privilege to use the shack and
next-door "living room". Thanks to Steef/PA0IB adn Martin/PA3DSC for their
efforts in the PI4TUE /PI5EHV station. Thanks for all of you who contacted us.
We sure look forward to the next one.
'73 Mark, PA5MW


Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/