Usually 144 MHz is not the focus for DL0GTH, our focus is on >432 MHz to win the German contest trophy. We usually do not spend any big effort on 2m. But September is different. All the other bands are missing. Therefore we can spend much more effort on 2m. All available time and transport capacity is used. Hence there was other band to service we spent all the time and operator capacity on 144MHz.

 

The equipment loading was done already on Friday as usual. Because the second large van was not available we used cars instead. At 1000UTC we realised that the connectors of our two KR1000 rotors are not compatible and we mixed rotor with cables with wrong connectors. We had the chance to use a fixed 3rd antenna or to go back to Gotha to bring the right rotor and cable. Because we liked to turn all three antennas we decided to the second option. Harti, DL6AUI and Jens, DL2AKT were taking the fastest car they could find and came back at 1300 UTC, just enough time left to install the 3rd antenna.

 

 The weather was good. Some fog and drizzle on Saturday evening, sunshine returning on Sunday noon, temperatures between 12 and 22 °C.

We welcomed a guest OP, Joca, YU1JB, who was in Germany by an invitation of Frank, DL1WA. As he is a pure contester as we are and so he soon felt familiar with our erection work on site. During the contest, he ensured a lot of contacts to YU in their native tongue. See him working together with Frank on our second antenna (from left to right : DL1WA, YU1JB).
 

Regarding last September contest a lot of work was done by our "constructors in chief" DK4RC and DL6AUI.The equipment run well all over the time, especially the new GS-35 PA (thanks to extensive testing by DK4RC prior to the contest).

One week before the contest weekend some significant improvements on the TR-144H transverter were made by Michael, DB6NT (tnx). As a result, reduced noise spectrum and increased Rx - performance were experienced. See details on the picture.
From left to right : 2nd antenna rotator, power supply, TR-144H transverter, PA-144 MOSFET driver, 2nd computer monitor, TS-950, 3rd antenna rotator, PR transceiver, stacked antenna switches 2x2, IC-746 as 2nd RX.

Propagation conditions were good but not excellent, i.e. there is still headroom for even better results. Especially direction G was fine and a lot of "backpacker contesters" with 10w only came into the log. The 3rd antenna also paid off, so we could leave at least one antenna dir S. As a result 62 x I were in the log (more than PAs!). During the night no CW was made because of the pileups but nevertheless some distant YU >1000km were worked.

We achieved new high scores for our team: 1262 QSO's, 130 locs, highest points per QSO, therefore highest total result, highest number of locators, highest number of DXCC, best tropo ODX........

 

 

 

Lets have a look at the top DX - QSOs : All in all 13 QSOs >= 1000km were made with SK3MF in JP92FW as our best tropo ODX on 144MHz.

UTC	CALL	LOC	km
09:26	SK3MF	JP92FW	1443
12:31	GI6ATZ	IO74AJ	1205
09:12	SM0DFP	JP90JC	1166
08:17	SM4DXO	JP70VO	1151
10:29	GD0EMG	IO74QD	1114
11:38	GM4JTJ/P	IO86RP	1101
02:35	YU1R	KN03EH	1091
02:45	4N5M	KN03DI	1084
13:49	G0KYS/P	IO82AQ	1041
04:53	LA0BY	JO59IX	1039
11:01	GW0PZO/P	IO83ID	1004
21:11	YU7AAA	JN94XC	1002
02:51	YU7ACO	KN05QC	1000

The happy contest team left Schneekopf mountain at 1700 UTC after taking the traditional final photo.

 

See you all on IARU UHF/SHF contest in October.