Lots of progress lately, which included getting parts for the guy wire rings to the inband tower, helping SM2EKM taking down a beam, SM2XJP going to get parts galvanized and a bunch of work on the antennas and inband tower. Thanks to SA2CHQ that we got to borrow his trailer to transport the 10m long sections from my place to the inband location. We also got to borrow the L11 Ljungy wheel loader from GTL and got to keep it during the weekend!
Lots of work has been done the last two weeks. Most of it is something that has got to do with the inband tower. We have cut down trees for this and also I’ve welded on cross braces for the tower. I got a tip from SA2FDR and SA2KNG who came by to help me out to get flux core wire for the MIG welder and use that to weld them. It worked great, I am now a bit fan of flux core MIG welding compared to using the stick welder for this type of stuff. I calculated it to about 1000 welds to get it all done so I am happy I did not need to use the stick welder. The slag of the flux core is a lot easier to remove as well, I just used the drill with a metal brush attachment. SM2LIY spent a few days at the station too and helped me out mainly when we did forest work and he did also run a bunch of QSOs in the very lousy propagation’s in the WAE contest. SM2UVU spent a bunch of hours too at the station this weekend were we got a lot of stuff done, both on the inband tower and the WARC beam.
I have gotten a lot of help and visitors this summer which is fun. If I remember correctly SA2CHQ, SA2CLC, SA2BRJ, SA2BLV, SA2KNG, SA2FDR, SM2UVU, SM2LIY, SM2XJP, SM2NOG, SE2T, SM2JDU, SM2XLL, SM5EPO, SM3JBO, SM3SGP has shown up. Forgive me if I have forgotten anybody.
Now I am hoping to get the excavator to dig some holes this weekend so I can prepare to fill some concrete.
Stay tuned…
After a few days at SJ2W I went down to SK3W to help Gunnar (SG3P) out a few days to take down all but one antenna in one of his towers to fix them and put them up again. The 6el for 10m in the top was all OK but the 5/5/5el stack was missing some tips of the elements (one on each antenna) and there was water damage in the 5el for 20m. We had pretty good luck with the weather and lots of people came by to help, SM5TXT, SM0SVX and SM5IMO. Teemu, SM0W also came by to drink some beer the evening before we headed north again.
It all went well and we managed to take them all down, repair them and get them up again before we got some major rainy weather. The trip back up to SJ2W was interesting considering the huge thunderstorms and the rain that followed on the way up. We made a pit stop at SM3EVR and I got to meet him for the first time and he showed us his shack where all those QSOs have been worked from. We also made a stop at SM2UVU for a cup of coffee before driving the last 90km to SJ2W.
Up at SJ2W the plan was that we would repair the top 6el for 20m that the reflector broke on during the winter. We spent Monday building the new elements (changing all of them) and on Tuesday I climbed up and we hoisted the tram line and got stuff prepared to lower the 20m yagi. I also put some hose clamps around the 50mm tubing of the 40m yagi that had cracked. It hadn’t spread any longer in two years but just to be safe I put 6 clamps around it to make it stronger. I also straightened it out so now it looks pretty again. Later in the evening SM2XJP came by and helped so Gus went up the tower to release the beam and me and SM2XJP as ground crew lowered it safely to the ground.
On Wednesday we got lots of visitors. SM5EPO and SM3JBO showed up on their way up to Seskarö fieldday and spent a couple of nights @SJ2W and helped us out. It is always a blast to hang out with these guys, we have a lot of fun. Also later during the day some pretty “fresh” hams came by, SA2KNG, SA2BLV and SA2FDR. They helped out the whole day and we got the 20m yagi tuned and ready to be hoisted.
On Thursday the weather was bad and it was not until the evening we were able to hoist the beam and Gus went up the tower and attached it to the tower. He was too tired though after a couple of weeks of intensive climbing so I will need to go up later this week and take the tram line down. It turned out great though and now I hope the beam will last many more years.
On Friday we all went up to Seskarö fieldday where we met a bunch of other hams (over 70 people on the dinner) and I also had a presentation about SJ2W. SM2LIY had a presentation about propagation’s as well. The whole weekend was a blast!
Now I am spending a couple of days in Luleå gathering some motivation to go down and work on the station again. I have not decided yet what to do, but I might start building on the WARC beam, if the weather allows it.
Its been a lot going on this winter. Me and a couple of friends have started a company that I’ve been working a bit in so I have had less time to spend on the radio projects. The QBL project is at an stand still because of lack of motivation which is partly because the labs at work are a big mess now since they are re-building the whole house so everything is temporary and a big mess.
However some progress is being made and I am planning and starting to work a bit on the summer projects. The house need to be finished outdoor, so that is the higher priority this spring as soon as we get > +5C degrees we can paint the boards and get that work done.
Plans for 2015
Antennas
* Repair top 6el for 20m in the 6/6/6el stack
* Put up 28m tower for inband, need to be rebuilt and made rotatable
* Put up 5el monobanders on 10, 15 and 20m. 2el fullsize for 40m.
* Put up vertical for 80m+160m for inband
* Put up HI-Z 4-SQ RX array (donated by SA0AZT)
* Maybe prepare for moving the 80m 4-SQ in 2016
So lots of stuff to be done but hopefully we get good weather this summer as well!
Russian DX was also worked and it was an success,
Russian DX Contest
Call: SJ2W
Operator(s): LB3HC SE2T SM2LIY SM2WMV
Station: SJ2W
Class: M/S HP
QTH: Da Traesk
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Countries Oblasts
----------------------------------------
160: 164 4 41 47
80: 387 102 62 64
40: 534 305 83 71
20: 619 280 86 72
15: 395 159 86 72
10: 143 15 70 50
----------------------------------------
Total: 2242 865 428 376 Total Score = 16,704,708
Club: Worldwide Young Contesters
Comments:
Fun as usual. I believe we did a better effort than last year, however
propagations were not as good and 10m was a real challenge to get the QSOs and
mults, mostly worked on side scatter. Also last year we had pretty even QSO
numbers between SSB and CW, maybe we should have done a bit more SSB this year
to keep rate up. We are quite pleased with the outcome and we will see who else
in EU have been M/S to see if we can place top 3 this year again. Wish more
teams joined the fun with the cqcontest.net scoreboard.
Antennas
160m: 39m vert
80m: 4-SQ
40m: 3/3el + 2/2el + 4-SQ
20m: 6/6/6el + 5/5el + 4el @EU
15m: 6/6/6/6/6el + 6/6el + 5el
10m: 6/6el + 6el @46m
8 beverages
FT1000MKV + ACOM 2000 (Sponsored by Ojojoj Music AB)
FT2000 + ACOM 1000
K3 for inband
N1MM+ Logger
