In the time before we could attend the contest on the first weekend in May we had to do several jobs in and around our clubstation. We needed many appointments to maintain our equipment e. g. setting a new additional peg for guying the tower, repairing antennas and preamplifiers and also our energy generator made problems with a hole in the tank. Setting down and up the tower is always an challenge which we had to do many times. Without the help of our friends and members it wouldn’t have been possible to fix this. Tnx to everybody who was involved, especially DH1NAI, DB6NT, DG2NES and DH3NAG!
During the contest itself we had to deal with several problems, too. Many helpers came to our hill to set up the extra towers for 144 and 432 MHz but due to very strong winds, rain and thunderstorm we decided to take down the antennas and try it again with less height of the towers and less antennas. We wanted to avoid any harm of persons or damage of the equipment. But these „building up again“ actions needed a lot of time and so we were a little bit late and some of us were a little disappointed. In addition to this our monitor of the 432 MHz main antenna system showed „bad SWR“. So we had to change our plans and only used the small tower with smaller amplifier. Nevertheless we carried on and could achieve a claimed score result which is ok. Our „better safe than sorry“ strategy worked well: Nothing was destroyed and especially nobody was injured.
On Sunday the weather was cold but the rain stopped and sometimes the sun showed up. Therefore we could also make some connections on the bands 122, 134, 241 GHz and light (300 GHz). On 122, 134 and laser we worked to Schöneck JO60DJ but on the 241 GHz band there was too much humidity and so we could only work to JO50TJ. Our „highlight “ during contest was the QSO to Rudi OE5VRL (JO50TI to JN78DK) on the 24 GHz band via rain scatter!
TNX fer all the QSOs and cuagn next test!
