Last year I wrote that the weather forecast was grim, but that it turned out OK. This time the forecast was accurate! A full gale with strong wind gusts and lashing rain. Inevitably tropo conditions were rock bottom, but at least thanks to increasing air traffic there were plenty of opportunities for aircraft scatter contacts. With the tower only half way up, the dishes for 13cm and above were below the tops of the trees in the garden, so inland into the UK was poor. I had removed the 24GHz system on Friday once it was clear there would be no stations in range to work on that band, which reduced the wind loading a little. The heavy rain did give some good rain scatter on signals into Europe on both Saturday and Sunday, even signals on 23cm sounded scattered at the start.

Operation on 432MHz was mainly from 0700z to 0945z on Sunday. As usual DL0GTH and DR9A were good signals almost all of the time. QSOs over 600km were F4BKV (IN95), DL0GTH (JO50), DR9A (JN48), DO3BST (JO51), HB9AJ (JN37), OL4A (JO60), OK2A (JO60), DK2GR (JN59), DJ6OL (JO52), and DH3NAN (JO50)

1.3GHz was down to 65% of the number of contacts made last year, although the points per contact were better. Contacts over 600km included DR9A (JN48), DH1NAX (JO50), DF4IAO (JN48), DF0YY (JO62), DJ6OL (JO52), DH3NAN (JO50), OK2A (JO60), F4BKV (IN95), DJ3AK (JO52), and best DX OL4A (JO60) at 867km.

2.3GHz was well down on usual, aircraft scatter provided the only DX. UK activity seemed very poor. Aircraft scatter contacts over 500km were DR9A (JN48), DK1PZ (JO41), DH1NAX (JO50), and DL3IAE (JN49).

My 3.4GHz system is not working properly, the transverter PLL seems to lose lock when transmitting SSB and needs some work. A few QSOs were made but activity was poor.

5.7GHz was a surprise with a loud signal from DR9A by a mix of AS and RS, excellent DX at 632km. Other stations with 6cm capability seemed few and far between.

Rain scatter was usable on 10GHz throughout the contest, with good signals from F/ON/PA on Saturday, and some weaker DX from DL on Sunday. Very few UK stations seemed to be active. The pick of the DX were DF0HS/P (JO31), DK0PU (JO31) and best DX DF0MU (JO32) at 416km

73

John G3XDY

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