This was an optimal contest weekend. We would like to have it again and again.
 

1. There was no rain (even no clouds)

2. There was only sun shine and light wind which helped us to cool down. We went out of beer on Sunday what never happened before.

 

And we survived the German/Thuringia folk music played on Sunday during the Schneekopffest which took place again on the contest weekend. (The audio amplifiers also survived our RF signals). Because of this event and about 50.000 visitors we were limited again in space for our antenna constructions. But with proven EMC hardness of our equipment, this is not really a problem. There are good news for 2007, the Schneekopffest will not take place on the contest weekend!

 

There was also a cross country running contest for guys who do not like folk festivals and ham contests and prefer real sports. Because Det (DL3ALI) did not feel busy enough with ham radio contest he participated also on this Schneekopflauf (he achieved a 2nd place in his category).

 

The meteorological service was right again (we really begin to trust this guys; at least Jens, DL2AKT, did not bring any water proof clothing with him). The high pressure zone was very stable located in mid Europe. And even in 978 m.a.s.l. there was no need for jackets. Weather was really ufb, DX conds not, no rain scatter on microwaves, no Es on 2m, no really good tropo conds. But we don't blame the conds at all. A few DX does not count but results.

 

There is not so much to report about the preparation works before the contest. With so many years of experience and many contests proven equipment there are no more big surprises. But small ones continue to occur. This time, one of the control units for a rotor needed some repair and the TRX planned for the 2m station went out of order (showed some smoke!) and the voice recorder did not work with the backup TRX resulting with some more work for the 2m OP's. Instead of pressing buttons, they really needed to call "CQ Contest" all the time. But during the contest there was absolutely no technical problem.

 

There was just one surprise during the contest. We had the honour for a very warm welcome to Michael, DB6NT, who visited us on Saturday. Using his components in every of our microwave station (and we guess all over mid Europe), the development of microwave activities including contests would not have been possible.

 

As you can see at the final photo, the contest team was larger than usual. 

Special congrats to Sebastian, DB5SB, who got his license just a couple of weeks ago and who did already show good performance as contest operator.

Another visitors acting on 2m first of all were Joe, DJ6AM, and Dieter, DL1AWD. Thank you all for your support in setting up equipment and for operating the station!

 

Three hours after contest we took the final photo and went home, hoping again for good results. Please find the QSO numbers at the ticker and the claimed QSO's and results in two weeks.

Here is a short summary of all bands. Nice QSO was GM6VXB/P on 2m from Shetland Islands via tropo. And the guys form IQ1KW did a great job working OL2R and us on 13cm. Also OK1IAY/P was worked on 47GHz again with small signals in CW. We could achieve new high scores on 3.4GHz and 47GHz.

 

Thanks for all the QSO's and see you again in IARU-VHF-Contest in September.