Equipment

Most of our equipment is homebrewed by our "main constructors" DK4RC and DL6AUI.
A continuous hardware development process is necessary to be on top. A lot of man power and even more money is the toll for having a 1st class equipment. Only "the best of the best" is good enough.
You don't believe ? No problem : take part in contests, have fun, be successful ! But you will never win ! Our respect to everyone who enriches our VHF-/SHF-bands with his participation. Congratulations, we need much more of you ! To get the maximum result is the aim of every contester. But remember : to win a contest you need a top location, a top equipment and a top operating.

Hardware

Our equipment varies from contest to contest. Taken into account that we are operating up to 9 bands per contest we have to do some compromises in equipment on some bands.

As a result of a continuous hardware development we can present a lot of news in 2004: We're back to transverter operation on 2m and 70cm and have made QRO on 5.6 and 24GHz. See the table below for an overview and follow the links to get details of each band.

Band 1st 2nd

Tcvr PA(Output) Antenna Tcvr PA(Output)PA Antenna

144
(September) TS-950 +
TR-144H GU-43B(750W) 4x11el Flexa IC-746 GU-43B(750W) 2x2M5WL M²

144 (Rest) TS-950 +
TR-144H GU-74(700W) 2x11el Flexa IC-746 GU-74(700W) 1x11el Flexa

432 TS-940 +
TR-432H GU-32 (400W) 4x13el Flexa IC-475 2x432-13WL M²

1296 IC-1275 Mitsubishi Module (80W) 1.90m dish FT-736

2320 IC-706 + mast transverter FET (40W) 1.30m dish

3400 IC-706 + mast transverter FET (15W) 90cm dish
IC-706 + transverter
FET (3W)

5760 IC-706 + mast transverter FET (10W) 1.10m dish

10368 IC-706 + mast transverter FET (5W) 60cm dish IC-706 + transverter FET (3W) 60cm dish

24048 IC-706 + transverter HEMT (0.6W) 48cm dish

47088 IC-706 + transverter sub harmonic (200µW) 24cm dish

76032 none so far

Antennas

In 2001 after almost two depressing years of worst weather conditions we started to set all the microwave equipment on mast. A couple of antenna rotators were bought and from these days on there is no need for any outdoor operation from 144MHz - 10GHz.

See the antenna farm of the microwaves (left to right) 23cm, 13cm & 6cm, 3cm & 9cm and some close view of our homebrewed feeds :

The dishes have a f/D - ratio of 0.35..0.4 and are optimized for those "coffee-can" feeds from circular waveguides as shown on the picture. These feeds are homemade by DL6AUI. The chosen diameter gives a 10dB - beamwidth of abt. 120deg witch will fit the above mentioned dishes completely. This kind of feed is easy to build and is well adjustable in reality. With the help of an aluminium ring the feed is adjustable for best SWR.
Some of the dishes are homebrewed and can be separeted into two sections for better transportation.

Transverters

In 2004 we started the new MK III - transverter generation. The basis are aluminium boxes from Cable - TV outdoor units which give the following advantages :
- they are absolutely water proof
- designed for very high EMC
- integrated cooling system with radiators
- "easy mount system" allows one handed mast mounting
- "DL0GTH - Standard" connectors for enhanced compatibility
See the new transverter line ready for 9cm and 3cm (made by DL6AUI) :

The standard edition of our transverters in weatherproof aluminium boxes made by DL6AUI is now the backup equipment. From left to right : 3.4GHz, 10GHz & 24GHz.

Software

Besides a good hardware you need dedicated software tools to get the maximum out of a contest. Today it is not enough to input all QSO data in an effective way, you need DX-Cluster and Convers mode support to get the last 10%. Currently we are running QW by DL4MFM and WC2.11 by DL2ALF on several laptop computers. PR is connected via TNCs and mini transceivers to DB0ILM, DB0THA and DB0HOF. In May & July we have up to 4 PR - Stations running ! See some samples of the software :