Don, G4LOO began by saying “I suppose you’ve heard enough of my contest presentations by now” but I want to let you know what went wrong and what went right.<\/p>\n
First of all, not a lot went wrong! The aerials used were the A3S for 20m and up while dipoles were used for 40 and 80m and lower. The team of two operated as a “run” station throughout but looked out for multipliers as they went. Don did the first shift until very late when Terry, G4UEM took over for his shift<\/p>\n
This year also saw the use of the aerial rotator connected via the logging program so that callsign entry followed by a function key would automatically turn the beam to the correct heading.<\/p>\n
This year the QSO number was almost double mostly due to \u00a0last year’s\u00a0 problems with the 40m and 80m Four Square aerials.\u00a0 Hence the use of dipoles this year. Of course, this year’s score was higher due to conditions over the weekend being very good; even 10m was very active. Don finished by showing graphs of activity by band and time for this year and last.<\/p>\n
Victor made the point that DX, that is, distant stations, is relative, mainly due to your location, aerial and power. An amateur starting out might regard the EU as distant since that’s all he is able to contact at first. With slightly better aerials and more experience, DX is those stations much further away perhaps even the other side of the earth.<\/p>\n
Victor explained the role of the American Amateur Radio Society called Amateur Radio Relay League or ARRL in making a list of countries and territories with Amateur Radio callsigns assigned by the ITU. Many amateurs strive to contact and confirm all those listed and find it’s work of a life time!<\/p>\n
He then showed the aerial layout in his garden, where and how they are set up. Several were basic verticals and consist of a glass fibre pole with wire wound in a helix around and tuned to the band required. They use elevated feed points with 3 or 4 radials from that point to earth. Using these aerials and a few watts of power and CW, contacts are made across and around the world.<\/p>\n
The total world entities according to the ARRL currently stand at 340 and Victor has worked 332. Those ‘countries’ still outstanding are mostly uninhabited islands and are only available if someone goes there to set up a station, but permission is very difficult to obtain and the cost of travel is extremely high. From time to time various groups do manage with months or even years of planning and fund raising.<\/p>\n
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Don, G4LOO began by saying “I suppose you’ve heard enough of my contest presentations by now” but I want to let you know what went wrong and what went right. First of all, not a lot went wrong! The aerials used were the A3S for 20m and up while dipoles were used for 40 and … Continue reading 4 Nov 2021 \u2013 Don’s Contest follow up<\/span>