Greetings all,
Nice activity on MF last night. Would have liked a bit more crossband
activity (especially from the DI stations) but none of them seems to
have been active for xband QSO with those poor fellows without tx
permission on 500 kHz.
I could significantly improve the rx quality at the club station (DF0WD)
so a couple of QSOs was possible with "armchair" copy this end (rx on
MF). Thanks everyone involved, especially Finbar and Graham.
The big difference was a large resonant tuning coil (which will one fine
day be used as a loading coil). 20 cm long, 15 cm diameter, 60 turns of
1.8 mm enamelled copper wire neatly separated by a plastic wire
("Maurerschnur" in german, can't translate that into english). L approx.
320 uH, and Q at 500 kHz about 500 (calculated). The primary's ends were
connected to a 10 meter vertical wire, and the "MF earth" on an
earthstake located as far away from the shack and mains as possible. A
secondary winding with few turns (tapped for 50 ohms) acted as
insulation between "shack earth / mains ground" and "antenna earth",
spaced a centimeter above the primary coil layer. When connecting
"ground" and "antenna earth", there was tremendous QRM (only OK2BVG,
G3KEV, and IQ2MY audible). With separate grounds, DI2AG, DI2AF, DI2AM,
many UK, PA and OK stations were nicely audible after sunset.
(crossband) QSO were made with EI0CF, GB100MGY, OK2BVG, IQ2MI. Sorry to
have missed you Mal, you were very solid copy during your QSO with Finbar.
All the best,
Wolf
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