Srdjan Vucinic

Solunska 39                 89101Trebinje                      Republic of  Srpska

Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Spring, 2010.

At mountain house near the town of Cajnice in East Bosnia (my wife's home town ;-) 120 km NE from Trebinje, at 1000 m altitude in locator JN93MN I managed to set up a weekend working type location  with simple INV-V antenna and my old equipment. First I used TS-430 and 20m dipole for testing the location but left final set-up with T-599/R-599 trio unit and added INV-V for 40m. Concerning the fact that my output power is maximum 20-50W because of lower input voltage in the whole village, this turned out to be a perspective DX location.     

 TS-430 and T-599/R-599 Kenwoods in action near Cajnice (JN93MN)

   A look from house window at driving part of simple 40m INV-V with center put at 7m height, with morning fog covering the forest trees  

Winter, 2010.

I bought used Kenwood TS-430S unit with AT-230 antenna tuner, and activated a new working site inside apartment in residential building at 4th flour. I managed the combination of two fishing rods and made it attached as extensions to balcony fence, therefore succeeding in making enough room for mounting og Inverted-V dipole antenna for 20m. This antenna is driven by 5 m long RG58 coax directly and without any symmetric matching parts. After connecting the outer coax shell with  metal building rain guide structure, the "broom" previously present in output signal was significantly diminished.

 Inverted-V Balcony Dipole for 20m at 4th flour (yellow shows radiating part) and look from the balcony to NE

Home set-up in 2010

This set-up made it possible to work at 30/20/15/10m bands using 50-100W output. Configuration and constrains of the antenna position made it somewhat closed for signals from SW direction, but I manage to make some DX contacts on regular bases which comes as bit of rewarding with this modest home station. From here, I base activity mostly at 30/20m with digital modes and CW, but for contests I usually use club's locations and equipment.

2008 - 2009

Since 22nd march of 2008, my DXCC country changed assigned prefix to E7, so I got a new call - E78CB, and still using this one. Today, I am active mostly on HF bands, with 100W TX and dipole and GP type antennae, from my QTH. Sometimes I am present on 6m and 2m band, from club's locations (E73DPR/E73ETB). My activity is now days mostly based on CW and digital modes, although I always try to be open for all bands and modes that runs on the Air. At least to try them all and push the ones I like... From time to time, I also explore a QRP and mobile work-out with my old but solid PRC515 (RU-20) military-made unit.

I am registered user of eQSL and LoTW services, and member of digital groups: EPC, DMC, 30MDG and FHC. Although I like working some contests, still find my self to be more of a DX chaser operator type.

I am still present in club's activity and also in SRRS.

At the Club PPS1 set-up, 2009.

     My PRC515  unit (30W) in action at the temporary sites in 2009, supported by MixWin/UR5EQF software and Sangean SW receiver        

                                                    Main home set-up in 2009 with some EPC and eDX awards at the background

Working in IARU R1 VHF Conest on september 2009 from Club location on Mt. Leotar - Gallery

The Club in 2009

Today, the Club has three activity locations, one in the town, and two other out of town, one of which is at the top of the nearby mountain Leotar, at 1228 masl. used as main contest location and fixed E73ETB location. The other one is at the local scout's and mountaineers rest-spot Tuli, at the 900 masl, 10km from the town and up till now it is used as temporary contest activity site only with callsign E73ATB.

The city of Trebinje is located at the very South of Bosnia and Herzegovina, about 20 km NE from the Adriatic coast. It lays at the 240 masl, with population about to 30,000 souls. It is in the territorial entity Republic of Srpska, which is serbian part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and by its location Trebinje represents the biggest serbian town in Herzegovina.

                  Club PPS1  set-up in 2009 with TS-930,  manual ATS,                                     Club PPS2  set-up in 2009 with FT-897,                                        antenna switch and Pentium IV                                        IC-7000, ATS, Yaesu rotator for 6m Yagi and Pentium III

                                               Radio Club Trebinje E73DPR town location (PPS1 and PPS2) in winter                                                                                                         with 20/15/10m GP and 6m Yagi at the top and HF dipoles across the field

    Club contest location at the Mountain Leotar 1228masl. (blue truck container). When not in contest function, this is fixed location for club HF activity as E73ETB. The basic HF set-up inside the container with solid FT-901  and Pentium III is showed on the right, and fragment from contest activity done by club members at same location at the bottom.

   Radio-club Trebinje was founded in 1948. Today, we try to keep the constant effort to be present on HF and MF, digital and all modes, 160m to 70cm, to keep the everyday activity and also be showed up in contests and to build always better operating locations and antennae. This continuous struggle through the years, against limited possibilities and capacities, is mostly led by our fellow man Zoki - E73S, and it brought us to become the most active and leading party in the region of Herzegovina and south of Sarajevo and among most active clubs in the Bosnia and Herzegovina. More on Club's activity, look at www.radioklub.org

2005-2008

However, my "personal call activity” started more significantly in 2005 (still YU4CB) when I   managed to buy an old Kenwood "trio" unit T/R-599s from 1973 (yes, the same unit that club used for more than 30 years, but still running very fine) and managed to put up a home made Inv-V dipole for 40m, up to 4m height in my backyard house garden. I based the activity on 40m to 10m, CW, SSB and some RTTY/PSK. Later, I put the aerial up to 6m height, now making it a little better, and also activate on 80m band. As YU4CB I made 1,553 QSO's, and worked 124 DXCC and 528 WPX, most of these were done on 40m/CW. In 2006 I was elected to operate the function of Secretary General of Amateur Radio Union of Republic of Srpska (SRRS) that gathers amateurs from serbian entity of BiH since 1993, and is one of three Amateur radio societies in Bosnia and Herzegovina, today.                                                                                                                                At Home set-up in 2006

                                                                                                   (Kenwood T/R-599s 100W, TM-261 VHF FM-50W, Pentium III)

                                 7m high support for Inv-V 40m dipole and 10m dipole between support and the house roof

          Closer look at 10m dipole (the white spot is The Moon)                                2m 10el. Yagi at 4m high support in 2006

2002-2005

In this period I was sporadically active with my call YU4CB, mostly from clubs locations, because I didn’t have a capacity to get my own transceiver and put up my own working location. Partly, this was because of my specific job activity of working as seaman and navigation officer on the tanker ships at that time. On the other side, hopefully, I was in chance to do some maritime mobile activity with clubs call YU4ETB/MM, being active during passage from Arabian Gulf to Far East and back, for four months in 2002. There is a detailed story of this “expedition” on this site.

                     Radio-club Trebinje YU4DPR, set-up (2004)                                              YU4ETB/MM transceiver set-up (2002)

        (TS-930, HF 500W amp, ATS box, Dipoles 80/40m, Pentium III,                      The tanker ship radio room (700W to multiband GP)                      FT-480/FT-225 VHF,  2m Yagi 12el.)

This was a truly interesting and useful operating experience, as I was mostly working in SSB pile-ups, with only pen and paper, on robust “never seen before type” radio-console unit of 700W and 30m high GP. When at home, in periods between ships, I was active from clubs locations in Trebinje.

1990-2001

Born in 1977, I started my operating activity in 1990 in local radio-club YU4DPR, in Trebinje,  when still in elementary school, getting "C" class license in former Yugoslavia.  My first QSO was with LZ2KLS on 80m, CW.  In those days my activity in the club was mostly guided to getting every day practice and working proficiency by chasing DX on CW and SSB, on 80m to 15m bands, and chating with local friends on 2m FM .

The equipment in the Club those days was based on two 100W RX/TX units (IC-745 - dated 1984 and Kenwood TR-599s from 1973) and Club made dipoles for 80m and 40m bands, set about 10 meters up. We also used a home made amplifier 500W and once in a year we practiced some "out of town camping location activity" with GPs and dipoles, witch was very useful and fun experience. Think I've made close to 8,000 QSO, as "C" class operator using club's callsigns YU4DPR, YZ4T, YU4ETB, 4O4T, (and X5DPR) untill 2001, when I got the "B" class license and finally activated my own personal callsign YU4CB, in 2002. By the way, radio amateurs of Bosnia-Herzegovina, from serbian and croatian part, never accepted assigned prefix T9 and maintained activity using YU4,YZ4,YT4,4N4,4O4, also X5 and 9A11, until 22.03.2008, when all was "cleared out" by E7.                

Radio-club Trebinje YU4DPR set-up from 2002 (TS-930 HF,                                                                                                                          500W amp, ATS, FT-480/FT-225 VHF, Pentium II,                                                                                                                                 Dipoles 80/40m, 2m 10el Yagi with rotator...)

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