Field Day Contest (SSB) and WWF PAFF-038

Sunday the 4th of September,i was active in the Field Day Contest as PD7BZ/p

I was active just with a small setup and 25 Watts.

The place i was active in,Boswachterij Grolloo,also counts as WFF PAFF-038.

As we know,it was the first activation on HF from this WFF area.

Setup was a Yaesu FT857 (25W) with Heil Headset.

Antenna was the HF6V from Butternut,with 12 wire radials connected.

Powersupply was the Diamond GSV3000
Generator was a small one Güde GSE950 (220v 650-950Watts)

This small setup got me 112 QSO's in the log.

Most were at the 40M band.
It was nice to be also on the other side in the contest.

For some years i work from th home QTH...and for us in the Netherlands,

in the Field Day Contest we should only work /p , /m and /mm.

The rules for other countries are different as they are for us.

See the photo's from the small activation....


Empty field....

Gear was setup :)

The Radioroom :)

Antenna and Generator

10 Meter propagation

In the past days,the 10M band is very wide open.

Some weeks ago we had also one day with openings,but the day after it was gone.

Most of the propagation we have on 10M is to Africa or South America.

But in the past 2 weeks the openings changed...

On the 23th of March i managed to work my first station from NA on CW on thje 10M band.

It was N4BP..he was the only one i could hear from NA as well.

During the CQ WW WPX contest i did manage to work also ZS,PY,LU,D4,CE in SSB.

Thoose are the usual DXCC's we get with the 10M openings.

But during the contest i could also work OD,JY and VK6.

At the 29th of March i saw that NH7O (Hawaii) was working EU via Long Path on 10M.

I did put my beam towards 170 degrees and i could hear him very well.

After calling him several times and repeating my callsign,the QSO was made!!!!

My first QSO on ther 10M band with Hawaii was done.What a good propagation...

The same day and the days after i also could get in the log:

BD1EFO (CW) , S21YZ (SSB) , VU2DK (SSB) , VP5/W1CW (CW) , YI9NS (CW) ,

5M2TT (SSB+CW) , 9N&AN (SSB) , ZL1BYZ (CW) , KH2/N2NL (CW) ,

EL2GB (SSB) , P4/W1HEO (CW) , SU1SK (CW) .

Today i got another big new one worked on the 10M...XV1X Vietnam on CW.

I was very happy that Eddy,the op of XV1X,took the time to get me and my callsign correct.

Two days ago i worked also Nand,VU2NKS,with only 5 Watts output on RTTY on the 10M.

For me this good propagation gives me alot of new DXCC's on the band.

Also in the different modes...as i try to work as many DXCC's in as many modes possible for me.

One week ago i also had WSPR running on the 10M band.

I was seen also in NA with only 2 watts.Also i was seen in VQ9...

Propagation is very good and i hope it stays like this and even will get better.

I like the 10M band very much....it's a band that sometimes you hear nothing....

Few minutes later it's wide open.....

CQ WW WPX (SSB)

The past weekend was again the CQ WW WPX in SSB.

A 48 hour during Contest only in phone.The CQ Contests are always very busy...also again this

one.The propagation was before the contest sometimes very good...

I started at 5:15 UTC.I didn't start earlier because we as Novice have only a little space at the 40M band to operate on and the 10 and 20M bands are closed during the night.

The 20M band was already open when i started.Did work 14 stations within the 20 minutes.After that i went to the 40M band,worked the stations i could and back to the 20M.

Around 6:55 i did hear a AH6 station very low....pointed my beam towards the Nordpole and there she was...AH6NF.After calling a few minutes i could write her in my log.

Putting the beam back to the East i could hear VK4WIP very clear.One call and also he's logged.

Few minutes later i could also log VK4KW.At my side,the strongest from the VK's,as i could hear him the whole weekend and also in the evening.

Sometimes i also went over the 10M band,to look if the band showed some openings...at 8:22 i could log the first.That was OT5A from belgium followed by OR0A.Few minutes later i could log HZ1FS who really was 5/9 at that moment.He was for that time the last one i did hear on the 10M band....Back to the 20M again.

Around 12:30 i listened again at the 10M band and now it was wide open.Many stations calling from SA and AF.Couldn't work them all,but still 33 stations logged.Strange was that i could work s someone over 11.000Km...when a station at 8.000Km couldn't hear me.

Sunday morning i managed to work also VK6NC on 10M.Also i got A61ZX in my log on 10 and 20M.He was very strong both times.

Here's an eQSL card from one of the SA stations i could work.LU5FF,Javi.

Also Dov was active in the contest.Managed to work him after calling several minutes.If Dov is on....everyone wants to work 4Z4DX....he told us that he will be in Nepal within 3 weeks.

My Goal is always to try to beat my own score of the year before.

Last year i logged 432 Qso's with 325 Multies....total of 296.075 Points.

For me,as just a small station with 3 bands and 25 Watts limited...not easy.

But...you never find out if you don't try,hi.

Sunday at 22:38 i logged QSO number 450...

Total Multies are.. 357...

Total of 320.229 Points....

Goal succeed :)

For my results is SH5 analyser:http://www.pd7bz.nl/2011%20CQ-WPX-SSB%20PD7BZ/

My last QSO's where on the 40M band.After that i put the TRX back on the 20M band and was very surprised that it was still wide open to NA.Some signals were still 5/9....

Hope this means that the propagation will stay and we will/can enjoy the DX again the whole day...