Monthly Archives: March 2011

CQ WPX SSB 2011

This was an amazing contest, I had a blast and set a new SM record which I am quite proud of.

                   CQWW WPX Contest, SSB

Call: SJ2W
Operator(s): SM2WMV
Station: SJ2W

Class: SOAB HP
QTH: Da Traesk
Operating Time (hrs): 36
Radios: SO2R

Summary:
 Band  QSOs
------------
  160:   40
   80:   90
   40: 1223
   20: 1196
   15: 1214
   10:   14
------------
Total: 3777  Prefixes = 1267  Total Score = 13,841,975

Club: Worldwide Young Contesters

Comments:

This was a blast! I had set as goal to beat the current SM record taken by
SM3SGP as SK3W in 2000. I was hoping for 10 meg if everything went OK and this
went over my expectations by far. The old record was at 8.3 meg and I think
this result should even pass logcheck. Propagations were outstanding except the
last two hours, which suffered a bit from some small aurora.

I tried SO2R with two computers for the first time (of course interlocked) and
it worked like a charm. I need to do some minor fixes in the firmware of my
SO2R box, but otherwise it went very smoothly. 316 qsos on the 2nd radio, I
mainly tried to focus on 3/6 ptsers and mults.


It was also fun to once in a while run into OH8X and OH10X and compare how I
was doing compared to them. It will be very interesting to see the results.

Next one will be WPX CW as multi-op!

For more information of the station, check the website which contains lots of
up to date information!

New SO2R setup

The FT1000MP MKV bought from OH8X fits just fine in the shack. Today me and SM2XJP spent time fixing the SO2R setup and the FT1000D has now been passed to the job as 2nd radio in SOAB and mult radio in M/S. I also upgraded the firmware in all openASC gear, so after some minor fixes it seem to work fine *knock on wood*.

Visit to Radio arkala OH8X

I have been looking for a new radio and decided to go with the FT1000MP MKV. Since I knew that OH8X had upgraded their radios to FT5000, and that they are probably fully equipped with all filters needed I contacted OH2UA and he thought they had a couple available. So I emailed Vejo, OH6KN about it and he after some talking with OH8NC decided they could sell me one of their radios. So me and SM2XJP took the 450km drive (one way) to arkala to pick up the radio yesterday and also get a tour of the station. We showed up when it was bright outside, so we could see all antennas. When I saw the big M7 monster I was really amazed of its size. I’ve seen many pictures but nothing beats watching it in person.

Veijo also gave a tour of the insides of Arkala which was a lot of fun and gave me some new ideas of how to do things at SJ2W. Veijo was a great host and we will go back and see things in the summer, when its possible to walk around and inspect the things done outside more.

I have tested the radio a bit and I like it very much, so now the FT1000D has been moved to be used as the 2nd radio in SO2R operations and mult radio in M/S.

HA1AG operated Russian DX Contest

Last year I invited HA1AG to come and operate the Russian DX Contest from SJ2W. He gladly accepted and since he loves trees, snow and radio this QTH no disappointment for him. The operation resulted in a new Swedish record with quite some margin. Read Zolis comments below.

We had a lot of fun and I would gladly see Zoli here again in the future.

                   Russian DX Contest

Call: SJ2W
Operator(s): HA1AG
Station: SJ2W

Class: SO Mixed HP
QTH: Da Traesk

Operating Time (hrs): 23.5

Summary:
 Band  CW Qs  Ph Qs  Countries  Oblasts
----------------------------------------
  160:   185    57       40        49
   80:   239    61       52        66
   40:   414    74       65        72
   20:   324   333       73        76
   15:   112   156       75        34
   10:     3     1        4         0
----------------------------------------
Total:  1277   682      309       297  Total Score = 7,518,642

Club: 

Comments:

Thanks to Mike SM2WMV for the invitation and to him and Peter SM2XJP for the
hospitality and the great time I had in north Sweden on the whole weekend.
Mikey's station is a fantastic piece of engineering work. 

Thursday afternoon I heard a few ua6's on 10m and quite some EU well into the
darkness on 15m. It gave me high hopes for the contest. Friday condx took these
guys away but resulted a KH2/N2NL QSO on 160 SSB (!). 

I started on 20SSB, issued nr 51 at 1210 so it felt right. Starting WT recorder
made WT crashing and after some hectic reconfig I returned but the pileup I
never recovered. 15m was fb to the USA, but EU was only possible to
backscatter, 10 did not exist. Low bands were magnificent from there,
especially 80 and 160. 40m condx from KP04 never stopped to amaze me. 

Funny, that long haul DX on low bands happened BEFORE sunset and AFTER the sun
came up but not between. I heard a fluttery k5zd around 10z on 40m and to my
surprise wh6r next to him. Being able to work wh6r at 11am local is cool.

10m? what ? sunspots? really?

73, zoli ha1ag