Visit to VP9

My Bermuda licence arrived before I left for VP9, thanks to the Departmet of Telecommunications.

Operating from hotels is always a bit of a lottery. My room, at the Rosemont Appartments was lovely, as it opened into the pool area, but not much good for radio. I put up a wire antenna and was able to hear stations on the US east coast on 40 and 30 but could not get them to hear me. I did not hear a thing from Europe. Can anyone suggest a compact antenna, suitable for use in a hotel room, that will give a low radiation angle?

The local repeater, VP9AX/R was easy to access and I put out several calls. Unfortunately these did not produce any replies. The repeater is an Echolink gateway and on Wednesday evening I heard ZL2ADR call in. I am not a big fan of Internet linking, but as Andy had taken the trouble to call in from New Zealand I gave him a call back. I was just on my way out to meet some people for dinner so could not chat for as long as I would have liked. I was then called by ZL4CZ/M andso had a quick chat with Steve before I had to dash out.

From the radio point of view, my visit to VP9 was disapointing. This was partly because of the poor location of my room and also I was busy with work so did not have much time to improve the antenna. There was very little activity on the local repeater but I might take a small hand-held with me next time I go back there.

Dave

Visit to VP9

I will be in Bermuda from 21-25 September hope to take my FT-817 along for the ride.

The main purpose of the trip is business, and I won't have much time to operate, but hope to get on the air in the evenings on 40m or 30m CW.

Listen out for M0BGR/VP9 - I will be a weak signal as I will only be running 5 Watts and will be using a wire antenna.

Dave

August 2m Activity Contest

This contest takes place on the first Tuesday of each month from 2000 to 2230 Clock time. If you are new to contesting then give it a go as it's a lot more friendly than most events. Listen around 144.300 SSB. The exchange is (genuine) signal report, serial number and 6-figure grid square.

I sometimes operate portable, but the weather was bad so stayed at home. Just before the contest my 25W linear started playing up so had to run my bare back 817 with just 5W. Conditons were poor so spent the first two hours working local stuff and clocking up a miserable score.

I did work G4DEZ, Brin in Lincolnshire (JO03) , but just after my computer froze and I lost the report and I had to go back and ask for a repeat. Brin is one of the 'big guns' in this contest, but he very kindly broke off and helped me out.

Just after 10pm the band opened a bit and I worked 4 multipliers in 15 minutes that gave me a respectable score. Never give up on 2m is the moral of this tale.

Dave

IOTA Contest

Unfortunately, I missed the IOTA contest this year as I had a wedding in Manchester that day. I did toy with the idea of taking a rig along and doing a couple of hours portable operation but decided it was better to spend my time with seldom-seen relatives and friends.

Prior to being invited to the wedding, I had started planning a light-weight operation in Iceland. Perhaps 2009? If you are interested in joining me then get in touch.

73

Dave

6m Activity Contest

I had a go at this tonight; first time I think. Conditions were not great and only managed three Qs and 2 Multipliers. I heard a few other stations, but with my 5 Watts and an indoor dipole (non-rotatable), I was not able to work them.

I don't realy have a 6m portable capability, to get myself to a better location, but I might work on this to see if I can improve my scores in this event.

73

Dave

2m CC Contest

The results of the 2m Club Championship contest were out today. I was pleased to see one of my clubs, Bittern DX Group (www.bittern-dxers.org.uk/) improve our place from 13th to 11th.

This contest runs from 2000 to 2230 (clock time) the first Tuesday of every month on 2m SSB. Given that it runs every month throughout the year it's a tough one. Given my home QTH is not a good radio site I try to get out portable when I can which gives me the best chance of working some good multipliers (grid squares).

IARU Contest - 12 July

I had a busy weekend, but did manage to operate for an hour or so on Saturday evening. The SSB portion of 40 & 80 were very noisy so I moved down to CW. Sadly, I did not work the UK HQ stations but did work a few overseas stations.

Dave