I worked 9A63AA in s.s.b. on the forty meter band: Tom also celebrates an anniversary of his amateur radio license with a special prefix in 2020.
Though I joined the mock ROUNDUP in 2018 to test FT8 in contest mode and later FT4, I cannot join the ROUNDUP in 2020 with my special prefix,
so I joined the ROUNDUP with RTTY and PSK. 245 QSOs.
Fldigi not been used for some years, I made a few lapses, sorry about that.
I joined the UBA PSK63 Prefix Contest for a while, where each prefix counts as multiplier. 215 QSOs. #45, #1 in Austria.
I exchanged reports with Rick DU6/PE1NSQ in FT8 on the 17 meter band and we confirmed them. Both stations using a special prefix need a workaround like in old times:
200109_100945 18.101 Rx FT8 -8 0.3 1928 CQ DU6/PE1NSQ
200109_101000 18.101 Tx FT8 0 0.0 1928 OE1970WWL
200109_101015 18.101 Rx FT8 -10 0.3 1929 DU6/PE1NSQ
200109_101030 18.101 Tx FT8 0 0.0 1928 OE1970WWL
200109_101100 18.101 Tx FT8 0 0.0 1928 OE1970WWL -10
200109_101130 18.101 Tx FT8 0 0.0 1928 OE1970WWL -10
200109_101200 18.101 Tx FT8 0 0.0 1928 PE1NSQ -10
200109_101230 18.101 Tx FT8 0 0.0 1928 PE1NSQ -10
200109_101245 18.101 Rx FT8 -12 0.3 1928 PE1NSQ R-09
200109_101300 18.101 Tx FT8 0 0.0 1928 OE1970WWL RR
200109_101330 18.101 Rx FT8 -10 0.3 1929 OE1970WWL PE1
200109_101330 18.101 Tx FT8 0 0.0 1928 DU6/PE1NSQ
I joined the CQ World-Wide WPX RTTY Contest, where each prefix counted as multiplier. 245 QSOs. #1 in Austria.
Having read some home pages of worked stations, I found various anniversaries. I found a picture of an old Heathkit SB series. And a story of a program that worked 200 contacts in a contest automatically before ceased to develop it further ...
I enjoyed to contact special event stations like OE17AAW, SN95IARU and 4UNR.
I enjoyed to contact special event stations like OE25XKJ and TC1054L. I was happy to contact 9V1YC, California and Australia.
I joined the EA PSK63 contest. 59 QSOs, #148, third best Austrian participant.
After many FT4 connections I discovered rtty signals. Unintentionally I participated in the BARTG rtty contest for the rest of the weekend: 57 QSOs. #68 in Austria.
I joined the CQ World-Wide WPX s.s.b. Contest as OE0WWL. 353 QSOs, despite headphones or rather because of headphones I was too loud in the night: limited time. #2 in Austria in low power classical, 12th best Austrian participant.
Not every pile up is in the dx cluster, but then it is a heavy pile up.
OE3FVU 50313.6 OE1970WWL jn78ve<>jn88ef ft8 2020-04-29 09:14:00
OE3ZJC 28495.0 OE1970WWL 57...73 danke 2020-04-25 08:46:00
IU7GUW 7152.0 OE1970WWL 50 anniversary 2020-04-24 14:37:00
DL1NCH 3575.0 OE1970WWL ft4 +01db 1841hz 2020-03-21 22:18:00
RX3DR 7049.3 OE1970WWL ko85xm<> ft4 2020-03-20 20:27:00
IN3BFW 7043.3 OE1970WWL psk63 2020-03-15 15:55:00
YO3BR 3765.0 OE1970WWL tnx 2020-03-14 20:26:00
DL4HWM 3765.0 OE1970WWL dnk wolfgang 73/88 de helga 2020-03-14 20:20:00
DO2QS 3765.0 OE1970WWL thanks for the call. 2020-03-14 20:15:00
IV3LEA 3765.0 OE1970WWL tnx 73 2020-03-14 20:02:00
M1SEM 7047.0 OE1970WWL ft4 jo01mc -> jn88ef 2020-03-03 16:24:00
EA5D 7049.0 OE1970WWL ft4 -08 2020-03-03 16:21:00
OE6BMG 3572.5 OE1970WWL ft8 -05 in jn77... 2020-02-24 06:43:00
EA7CB 3573.0 OE1970WWL ft8 2020-02-24 06:20:00
ON4DMF 7151.0 OE1970WWL tnx qso and congr. 2020-02-15 09:18:00
IZ1CJZ 7151.0 OE1970WWL ..ses.op.wolf.(vienna).tnx 2020-02-15 09:10:00
IW8ELR 7151.0 OE1970WWL 59 tnx 2020-02-15 09:09:00
IZ2LSP 7151.0 OE1970WWL tnx for the qso 73 marco 2020-02-15 09:01:00
F5ILV 7187.0 OE1970WWL 2020-01-27 16:29:00
F4HTJ 7187.0 OE1970WWL tnx wolf 73 2020-01-27 16:28:00
F4DXP 7187.0 OE1970WWL tnx qso 2020-01-27 16:15:00
PA3ECZ 7180.0 OE1970WWL 73'....tnx 2020-01-23 12:56:00
IK1RDF 7180.0 OE1970WWL 2020-01-23 12:49:00
DB3TH 7180.0 OE1970WWL 59 in jn48kg 2020-01-23 12:29:00
OE3FVU 18100.4 OE1970WWL jn78<> ft8 2020-01-16 15:37:00
DJ6GI 7043.8 OE1970WWL 2020-01-12 10:51:00
After the April storms my son and I installed the inverted L in our summer cottage (на даче) at my location in OE4. I've been using this end-fed aerial for years.
I tested it successfully with Italian stations in Formia and Olbia. Then I called CQ and a Brazilian station answered: a nice and stable s. s. b. contact on 20. Then I called cq on the 40 m band. Dominik in Switzerland called me and we had a 20 minutes' conversation. After this I had a long pile up.
ROS is a popular digital mode according to PSK Reporter. So I installed ROS. Despite a security warning. When I run it, it lacks mscomm32.ocx registered. I cannot copy the file into the system folder. All attempts were in vain.
I installed JS8call for the digital mode JS8 successfully. Years ago I was a beta tester for a little while. I was happy a special event station PE75OUW called me.
I called a testing qrp station on 80 from the area where I come from in Upper Austria. Surprised Mike OE5MSM comes back on my call and we chatted almost one hour.
Having had a problem with my radio, an IC-7300, I took it back home to Vienna. After professional help and a reset, it s now working again. Instead of the home brew long wire (with an automatic tuner), it is fun to use commercial antennas. I used my new IC-7300 the first time in Vienna. After a few days I swapped them and brought the IC-7410 back to Vienna.
I added the submodes FT4 and MSK144 for the mode MFSK to the database and to my program jtxdupes for WSJT-X.
I developed a bash script (with gawk, sleep, and curl) to download an image from eQSL. On a second day a loop downloaded all cards for a weekend. On a third day I modified the parameters to download a bunch of cards for another call sign. So by and by I got more cards for OE1970WWL.
On the first Saturday afternoon I found the twelve meter band open and called cq in FT8 mode for almost an hour with often 3 or 4 answers at the same time. This was another highlight in June.
25 QSOs during the last hour of the IOTA contest. It was the contest without dxpeditions.
Fairbanks, Alaska called me after a Japanese station on the 17 m band.
There were two contests on the first weekend I participated a while:
For the All Asia Contest I worked 3 stations on Saturday morning on the 20 m band and 1 station on Sunday morning on the rising 15 m band. I could not even hear stations from Japan. Others worked them.
For the IARU Region 1 VHF contest I worked 13 stations on s.s.b. on Saturday with 25 W to a vertical with elevated radials, odx 230 km: #859, 9th best Austrian participant.
Late Saturday evening I made 8 FT8 QSOs on 1840 kHz; early Sunday morning I made a few FT8 QSOs on 10136 kHz. I do not have an antenna for these bands in Vienna.
I spent a weekend at my birthplace city in Upper Austria, just twenty kilometers from the Bavarian border. Only in FM on the VHF and UHF bands I called on the local repeaters. That was very nostalgic.
The last weekend in September I took part in the CQ WW RTTY DX contest, again in J2B instead of F1B as in old times. 171 QSOs. I successfully reached New Zealand and Afghanistan on the 40 meter band.
It was not fair during the s.s.b. WW DX Contest to use my special call sign OE1970WWL: anyway 85 QSOs, 17 of them on the 160 meter band. This band works well with an external tuner for my long wire.
On the last days of October I made over 50 FT8 QSOs on 160 m and over 120 QSOs on the 30 meter band. I won't have these bands in Vienna. It was the last chance to use these bands in our summer cottage.
Some dx to Canada, USA, Venezuela, Mongolia, Japan, China, Kazakhstan and South Africa.
Simon on the island of Guernsey called me in FT4, days later in Hellschreiber (Feldhell) and Thor. New modes for me. Simon is member of the Feld Hell Club.
Nice contacts on the local repeaters.
A SIM31 activity day (7 to 11 Z) was a new experience with a new digital mode for me. It has flavours of JS8 (free messages) and PSK (69 years of age). I made a few QSOs on 40 and 20.
A few days before Christmas Eve the authority allowed the sixty meter band in Austria. Unfortunaltely, I have already winterized my end-fed antenna. The winter rest lasts until spring for OE4WWL.