ARRL CW contest

Contest season starts next week with the ARRL 160m CW contest. Last year I wiped my "0" topband DXCC score and replaced it by "47".
This year I wont participate in the 160m contest but go full throtlle for the ARRL CW. in 2010 I made over 600 QSOs on 20m alone, using my hexbeam and 1KW. For this years edition I can use the biggun station of Ruddy, ON7DR. With a 6 elements KLM KT34-XA, an 1 element optibeam for 80m and vertikal with elevated radials on 40m I hope to finish top 3 in Belgium. To achieve this, at least 1750 QSOs are needed, so I challenged myself to break the 2000 barrier.
Another goal is to get the 80m WAS, there won't be many occasions to get it that easy.
My special thanks goes to Ruddy, ON7DR to let me use his antennas and infrastructure.
On the photo's you see some images of the biggun (ON standards) antennas. Note: The 40m yagi is down and replaced by 1 elm 80m element.

Happy new year

2010 was gone in a blink of en eye. Managed to work 16 new countries (to bad I missed ZL8X), the hexbeam is still working great with 2 years of trouble free operation, operated in some contests and finally was active /P and activated a few lighthouses in PA & F. Hope 2011 will be as great as last year and the future looks bright....will tell more about that later.
Last friday a fresh pile of cards was waiting for me at the clubstation. Not the big numbers we usually get, mostly Russian and Italian cards but got a few more rare cards as well. VR2XLN is the first card from Hong Kong that arrives via the buro, thanks Clive. Well known DXer/traveller DK7LX was signing S92LX in June 2009 from AF-029, thanks for the new IOTA and bandslot Georg. Finally, my friend Mark, ON4CCC was active from lighthouse BEL005 & BEL006. During a weekend nearly 1000 QSOs were made. I operated as guest operator and made a few hundred CW QSOs.  Hope you like the cards....Want to know more about the (near) future? Stay tuned for the next post.

QSL cards from the Pacific

A couple of weeks ago I received some nice QSL cards via Gerben, PG5M. Gerben went to the pacific in September 2009 and visited Fiji, Tuvalu and Kiribati. Worekd Gerben from Fiji and Tuvalu, both contacts were on 20m CW. So two new countries and IOTA confirmed. Thanks Gerben for the fast Buro-service.
This wasn't Gerben his first trip, check out his website for more information here.

Have a nice christmas evening with the family and see you next week for the final post of 2010.

Frank, ON7RU

DL7JAN

After not working ZL8X I asked myself several questions:
Do I have to question the hexbeam? Need I more power? Do I have the right skills? Do I....  Instead of getting a box of prozac I got back behind the radio and chased down the Belgian 9Q DXpedition. Worked them 6 times so far. They are really loud even on 40m.
While doing my daily check on "the" DXers website I read that Jan, DL7JANhttp://www.qsl.net/dl7jan/ is preparing a new trip. He will sign J79AN from NA-101, the island of dominica starting 23 february. For those who don't know Jan, Jan is a top notch operator with 330 countries confirmed. He masters CW, SSB and digi. Worked Jan several times on his previous trips as HB0, CT8, 7P and V88. He's a very good and fast QSL'er too. He's often on frequency and his call is logged during all my /P activities. The picture below is taken in the entrance hall at the Friedrichshafen hamradio event in June 2010.

73s & gd DX.

Cushcraft MA4080

If you live on a small city lot there aren't many options for lowband antennas. After doing some research only 2 options made it to the shortlist. The cushcraft MA4080 or the butternut HF-2V.
A couple of weeks ago a collegue at work sold his nearly new cushcraft, so I went for the first option. After 3 weeks taking dust in the garage I finally found some time to install the antenna, right on time for the CQ WW CW contest. Will not participate in the 2010 eddition but hope to work some new ones on 40 and 80.

The next few days I'll try to add several radials and built an HF choke balun for the lowbands. (diameter 20cm)
Enjoy the picture. The cushcraft makes a nice pair with the tower and hexbeam.

73s, Franky

My first Iraq QSL card

In early april of this year, N6PSE organised a trip to Iraq. YI is not that rare but it's not so easy to get the contacts confirmed. With 10 operators, over 50K QSOs were made. Check out their website, you'll see they were well prepared and had top notch opeators and equipment.
Some well know DX'ers like N6OX and FM5CD participated and made it easy to work them. Thanks for the 7 QSOs guys, and the great looking QSL card.

73s, Frank

A new QSL star is born

At the hamfest in Friedrichshafen in a lecture sponsored by CQ-DL/DARC, the best QSL'er of the past year is chosen. The last few years Nigel, G3TXF took the golden medal to the UK.
Since a year, a new QSL star is born. The new star lives, just as Nigel in the UK and his callsign is M0URX. The owner of the callsing, Tim Beaumont built up a good reputation in a very short time. His unique OQRS (Online QSL request system) works very well, and he offers a fast turnaround time and premium quality QSL cards.
On his website/blog you can track updates of new DXpeditions, arrival of printed QSL cards, ....
Tim, you’re a 5-star ham, keep up the good work and hope to meet you some day.


Frank, ON7RU

Some of Tim his HQ QSL cards