Summer vacation

This year vacation did not involve any antenna work at all for the first time in many years.

Did cleaned the dish and put it in storage but that pretty much all.

It recuired some elbow grease and it took most of a day to get it acceptable clean.

I did start to rebuild the amplifiers I got from Peter and the PS is now up and running on all parts.

It required some gentle touch and fiddeling but overall it was in good shape from the beginning.

Have started the rebuild on the first amp but not done yet.

Sourced material to the output combiner thanks to Ronny SM7FWZ so just need to mill the two halves and make the brass sheet combiner.

Last tuesday we had our annual gathering of SM7, VHF and EME operators and this year at Bjorn SM7SJR QTH.

It will be an impressive setup when he is done putting antennas in his 3 times 30m towers.

The participans of the meeting

From Left. Hakan SM7GEP, Bjorn SM7SJR, Ronny SM7FWZ, Hakan SM7WSJ, Kjell SM7GVF and on the far right myself.

Missing is the photographer Ulf SM7LCB.

Dish rescue

A neighbour to my son used to TV dx on sattelites a few years back and used a 3m Teleste dish he did not want anymore so I offered myself to remove it :)
It is in realy good conditions and the stand is quite good and with some minor rebuild usefull for EME.

I have no specific plans for it at the moment but just wanted to rescue it from going to scrap.
It needs a good scrubbing and I will attack it with the power washer and clean it before put in storage.

I have been on a few hous showings but not found a new QTH yet but the market is slowly increasing after a slow winter and spring so I am still hopefull to find something suitable.

Othervise is activity quite low and only a few QSO each time when moon at high dec.

No progress and some thought about the future.

In the last spring I come to a conclusion to make some changes in my life situation and this will involve a move of me and all equipment.
Until I find a new acceptable QTH the setup will remain the same and as its still in good operating order I do work from time to time.
It may take some time to find a new QTH ss my wish list is quite large but it will happen eventually and I am actually not in any big hurry.

Worked Gene KB7Q in all 3 of his expedition states with good signals using the V array all the time.
Polarization was locked for very long time and those Europeans able to use V pol worked him easy but without V it was struggle for most.

The A21EME dxpedition was also worked and very strong and often audible in the speaker.
I went up early Monday morning before work and called them only once before they answered me.
So a quick QSO and back to bed again :)

ARRL EME contest part 1 I worked some but not that seriously and only a few hours each morning.
Total so far 27 QSO's and a few new stations in the log but will hopefully be more active the second part.

Have finalized the JFL controller but not yet put it in use on the array but will do so before the second part.
Besides from that most of the time is spent finalizing the garage and workshop as the plan is to keep that for a few years after I move until I been able to build one at the new QTH.

Finally an update :)

Finally an update of something.

Activity has been quite low and besides working the TO2MB and VP2EMB dxpeditions I have only worked a handfull QSO's.
Both TO2MB and VP2EMB was quite strong and easilly worked when all the big guns worked them.
Used H polarisation for both of them and the rig is working as usual.

In my struggle to work from time to time I discovered some time ago and written about before and that I need for more output Power.
That has now been solved by Peter PA2V who had 2 times R&S VH501 amplifiers with an original PS for sale and at May 1 myself and the YL drow down to PA land to pick them up and they are  now stored in the basement waiting the rebuild.
The plan is the use them in parallell to be able to use 1kW in to the antenna system as my permit allows and the amplifiers will handle this with ease.
Anyone with 7/16 connector relays suitable for 70cm. please send me an email.

The trip was smooth besides some unexpected snowfall on the way home and we had a couple of really nice hours with Peter and Petra at his QTH.
A very nice setup and I am really impressed with his ability to work at the very urban QTH he has.
I start to appreciate my noice free QTH more.

When we earlier lived in the city both 2m and 70cm was very noicy and spurs pretty much everywhere and EME would be impossible there at the time when we moved.
Worked some EME from that QTH in the 90's but TVI stopped me from using more then 350W and using 4 times 8.5 Lambda DJ9BVs and CW limited the nr of stations workable.

Right now the time is spent building in the barn and making firewood for the winter but also planning for the summer activity and experiments too.
Have some very early ideas of a new antenna setup that I will start to evaluate during the summertime.
Working on a list of aluminium material I need to order soon for new antennas.

Dubus CW contest

Did work some stations during the Dubus CW Contest last weekend.
In total 18 QSO's and really good activity with many stations QRV.
Heard a few more but had limited time to be QRV due to other engagement but it was really nice working CW and signals where strong overall.
Some new stations and Alaska was a new DXCC which is allways extra fun.

Worked KL6M 559, DL7ON 579, DL9KR 579, OH2DG 559, SP6JLW 559, DL6SH 569, DK3WG 569, I2FHW 579, UA3PTW 579, OZ6OL 559, UT5DL 559, OE5JFL 569, OZ4MM 579, SM2CEW 569, DF3RU 559, DL7APV 579, OE3JPC RO and G3LTF 559.

Managed to find some settings for the SDR radio to be able to work CW but I need to elaborate some more as sometimes I had difficulties reading and especially with weaker signals.

Besides working during the weekend I have not been able to work so much due to high winds and some rain and today we got 10 cm of snow again.
Have started with the firewood work now so radio activities will be limited as we need more this year then what we made last year.

Have ordered a box for the JFL controller but the delivery is slow so that has not been finalized yet and the same goes for a pair of LNB's for the Hail2 geostationary satellite thar recently started their transponders.
Seems like shipping is slower nowadays compared to a few years ago but maybe that's the future.

Snow again

A lot of snow fell last weekend and everything is now covered.
Fortunately the declination of the moon  is low at the moment and there will be some mild weather ahead so most of it will melt away the next few days or so.

Got in total about 17 inces now and a lot of snowmobile riding was done.
Did manage to remove some snow from the antenna to release some strain of the supporting wires.

So the next few weeks will be spent Indoors with other projects and hopefully I will finalize the OE5JFL controller and make some more progress with the new amplifier.

Good Condx

No update since before Christmas but not much of interest has actually happened here besides the last weekend where there has been some excellent propagation on the moon.
Worked BD9BU for what I know is a first BY-SM QSO.
7 new initials and several of them are single long yagi stations with a few hundred watts.
But the really nice QSO was with Ian MM0GYX who used a single 15 el and 100W which is nothing more than amazing that it actually works but he was quite easy to work and i hrd him at -26db

Besides from that I spent most of the time relaxing with the family in the Christmas and New Year break and some carpentry work in the barn.
I have also started rebuilding a Softrock Ensamble RX/TX for 630m that seems like an interesting band.
I trew up a 85m inverted L antenna and hooked it up to the electrical fence and the 80m vertical ground and I do hear very well.

Have also been out planning for a 4 square on 80m for next season and I found a suitable field that will not be used from September to April so I will use that.
It will be a temporary setup where I have the ground radials laying on top of the ground so I can easily remove it in the spring so the horses can use it again for their food.
Main problem is that it is 200m from the house and I will need to either sit in the barn to work or make a remote station between the barn and the house.