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80/40/30 m Dipole

For the lower bands I am using a 40/80 m trap dipole. In order to become qrv on 30 m, I added a radiation coupled lambda/2 element for 30 m, using 10 cm spreader. After cutting the additional wire to the right length, the resonance on 30 m is exactly at 10.1 MHz. The additional element has no influence on the resonance for 40 and 80 m, but the impedance on 30 m is with 150 Ohm significant higher than 50 Ohm.

VSWR_30m
10.1 MHz Impedance (141 – j34) Ohm – VSWR 3
40m_VSWR
7.1 MHz Impedance (40 + j1) Ohm – VSWR 1.24
80m_VSWR
3.6 MHz Impedance (27 – j5) Ohm – VSWR 1.9

CQ WW DX SSB contest 2017

My first participation in this contest. Would have preferred the CW part, but we will not be here end of November. Decided to enter the classic, non-assisted, single operator class for 20 m band only.

Propagation conditions were not bad. 77 DXCC entities, 31 CQ zones and 411 contacts result in a raw score of 121 thousand. Quite satisfied with the result!

G5RV Measurements

After replacement of my 80/40 m trap dipole with the G5RV antenna, I made some measurements. The antenna has a height of 12 m at the center, and is hanging as an inverted V with both ends still 4 to 5 meter above ground. The symmetric feeder line is connected via a 1:1 balun to 12.9 m 50 Ohm coaxial cable.

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WAEDC CW Contest 2017 – 4E1A

Just finished the Worked All Europe DX Contest (WAEDC) in CW. It was my first participation as a non-European station using my vanity callsign 4E1A in the single operator low power class. Only contacts to European stations are allowed, and you can sent telegrams (QTCs) to them to earn additional points. Poor propagation conditions made it very difficult this year.  On the 40 m band there was a lot of noise due to lightening (QRN), and I could only make 3 contacts (QSOs). Nevertheless, it was fun to participate again after more than 25 years (!) ago 1991 under my German call sign DK4TB.

Continue reading WAEDC CW Contest 2017 – 4E1A