Optibeam antenna installation

Last weekend ON7DR asked my help to do some major antenneworks. The goal was to install the optibeam OB1-80 and fresh assembled OB16-5 on the 24m tower.
Weather forecast looked very good and we had sunny weather and the wind wasn't blowing to hard. Because a picture is worth a 1000 words, I'll post some pictures of the antennes and actual installation. Just want to add that the antennes were pulled up with an electric winch, 2 man guided the antenna with ropes.



Thanks to Luc, ON4CIS for the pictures and his help.

More pictures are available on my flickr account.

Frank, ON7RU

A fresh pile of QSL cards

The last few weeks were pretty busy so there wasn't much time to operate the radio. 4A4A almost slipped through my fingers but I was lucky to work them on 15m CW. An all time new one for me. While the SFI dropped faster then the NYSE, bandconditions are still very good. Even saw some 10M FM spots on the cluster.
As the lowband season is almost finished I took down the lowband antenna while enjoying the first spring sun.
Hope to come up with a better 80m solution next year. Ideas are welcome, please include a way to convince the girlfriend in the drawings ;-)

Also want to share a few QSL cards

Having good ears helps....W8QZA (Maine) was heard on the beverage with his K2 and 5W

Karl, ON5TN @ Princess Elisabeth station on Antartica. Worked Karl on 40m CW

I was one of the last guys who made it into the log. Keywords :bad weather, broken bones and even a crashed car. Thanks for the QSL guys!

ARRL CW contest 2011

The score of my arrl effort.


 Band    QSOs    Pts  Sec
   3,5     308     924   45
     7     286     858   40
    14     776    2328   56
    21     205     615   33
    28       1      3    1
 Total    1576    4728  175
Score: 827.400

Logging : N1MM
greatest experience : Optibeam 80m 1 elem & 270m beverage
New hardware : ON7FU balun, built to last.
KLM KT34A 20m : Killer antenna
KLM KT34A 15m : so so antenna
Homebrew : 40m dipole with fishing rods
Bingo : 80m multi's NV, OR and WA.
Ouch moment : the snooze button  ;-)
To bad: missed the 10m opening on saterday
Fun : Sunday evening, nice runs with many west- and midwest stations in the log.
Missed : A 160m antenna....
Hope: Lot's of these contacts will be confirmed (either via paper or LOTW)

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.