Due to the
national holiday we have started loading on Thursday already. There were some
ideas to go to the Mt. "Schneekopf" on Friday but they were discarded by the
crew at last. Thanks to all OMs supporting us when loading.
Each member of the crew was watching the weather forecast patiently but it was
useless at all. That's what we had to expect : temperatures of 5°, heavy rain
and hail storm up to a wind speed of 7. Slight improvement on Sunday but cold
instead. Our slogan was :
"We do it anyway !"
We started on
Saturday 0600UT as usual not without the obligatory doughnuts. Just arrived we
had a small breakfast with doughnuts and beer (yes, it is tasty). During the
meal endless discussions on the weather. Meanwhile the fog became thinner and
thinner, the rain stopped and after a while the sun began to shine brightly.
There must be an angel among the "weather men".
Nice to remove all that waterproof clothing and to build up the equipment in
bright sunshine! Building up the stations was finished quickly and we had a
plenty of time for testing until the contest started at 1400UT. The microwave
OP's were very satisfied with antenna rotor adjustment which was much easier now
because of several mechanical improvements done in the last months. We built up
an "H" with 4 x Mē 432M13WL (10m each antenna!) on 70cm for the very first time
(see picture). On the other bands we had our dishes as usual.
During the whole night we could hear the deer's bell around our QTH. Very strange!
( Will take a night vision with me next time :-) )
Sunday started with fog and again fog. The humidity was extreme high so that water
condensed right on the antennas and dropped down constantly. All microwave conditions were
cut off. We were begging for clear weather but a heavy rain storm started
instead. This bad situation was remaining until we finished loading the vans
after contest. Yes, the sun came back : at approx. 1700UT just when we were
going to leave the "Schneekopf". The following conclusions established by DL6AUI
:
1. Once again a usual contest weekend after a long row with extraordinary
good weather conditions.
2. Really bad weather happens on contest weekends only
3. There is only one true weather rule for contesters and is mentioned above
already.
All in all the
results were quiet good regarding the conditions. Nothing extraordinary, only
light rain scatter on Sunday. No new top scores. See some more pictures and logs
after 20th of October.
The contest season for DL0GTH is over. Thanks to all for the points. Look for
the private call signs of our crew members in Marconi. 73!
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Mounting the main antenna for 70cm. |
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Ready for take off : 4 x Mē, 10m long each. |
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There is still a lot of work to do with the microwaves. |
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The antenna farm from 1.2 GHz - 47GHz. |
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Peak load on the microwaves. |
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Trying to make the last QSO on 24GHz with DF0MTL. |
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