ZEELAND's RAID
IOTA Contest 1997
ZEELAND's RAID
IOTA Contest 1997
PA/ON7PC
During our last years participation to this nice contest, we did enjoy improving our equipment
and techniques of operation.
Our first attempt in 95 was made from the Faroes Islands
EU-018 with the call OY6A
The second one occurs at Goeree-Overflakkee EU-146 with PA/ON7PC/P
We decided to go back to the Goeree-Overflakkee Island located in Zeeland, the South-Western part of the Netherland. As this location is close to Belgium, seems to be wel fited for the radio waves and our host very gentel, the choice was rather easy.
The multi operators category will allow us to use a
multiplier station.
A plus point this year will be a tent for the catering ! Nothing very
"Ham" but always good to know as we are use to rainshowers during
the lunch time.
This Raid is more or less based on the same kind as a Field Day: no building
to operate or to sleep.
The only difference is that we can use the farmer's mains. So no use of
generators.
We first decide to travel to a more Northern direction to find a good place for the IOTA contest 97. Because of personal conveniences, we had to postponed this idea. Thanks to two members of our crew who gave us the impulse to “strike back”, we again manage to operate from EU-146. We’ve been there in 1996 and made a good score from there; enough to try to make it better this year !
Our aim: to make as many QSO as we did in 95 (OY6A) and as
many multipliers as in 96 (PA/ON7PC/P).
We therefore counted on two plus points:
 | new good operators
| an effective multiplier station | |
The team was on the Contest site, Goeree-Overflakkee Island, in South-West Holland, the Friday evening. Saturday morning, 06:30 was not too early to breakfast and to install the entire equipment.
The 3 elm beam FB-33 was first raised followed by the C-3S
on a 6 meter pole. The van used as shack was then fully equipped. The running
station had the opportunity to use a FT-1000. A TS-850 with a FL-2100 linear
amplifier was ready to add a big amount of multipliers. 
In addition to some portable PC’s and a
DX-cluster radio link, we thought to be ready only a few minutes before the
beginning of the contest.
But this is without taking care of the unexpected problems !
The mains was provided to the van via a 50m cable and the 220v was falling down during the transmission. Result: our equipment gave some alarms and unusual phenomena where encountered. We had to reduce our power consumption: that also means our power output. And to help us in this way, we discovered that the linear amplifier was adding only 60 watts to the incoming power: so no need to carry on with it. We started with the running on 20 meters and stay on this band very late. In the afternoon we raised a 20.5 m high vertical antenna for 40 and 80 m who was used during the night.
And two more problems: stormy wind and logging errors.
The wind was blowing very hard, about 5 to 6 Beaufort with peaks at 7. Fortunately, the poles where enough guided to fight against bad wind. But one of our sleeping tents wasn’t: ... blown with the wind ! Around 3 AM, the multiplier logging was out of order, some records were corrupted. A few quarters after, the running station had to stop the PC logging and use the old way of paperwork. Our software specialist was waken and after one hour of work and re-encoding, we were back “up and running” in normal conditions.
At the end, this seems to be the fun of those contests held in unusual places: you have to face unexpected problems and work them out. The final score was about than last year’s edition with more then 1400 QSO and 230 multipliers. The pictures we took in '96 were not good for a QSL, but we promise to send a special qsl card for all contacts in '96 and in '97. Many thanks for this nice contest and to the crew made of: N4XYA, ON1KSZ, ON1MCT, ON4LAM, ON5OO, ON6AH, ON6QR, ON7PC, ON7ZV. We already have plan for next year.
So ear you end July 98 …
Why not for next year's edition ?
You are a good operator, you can help us, so why don't you send a mail to [email protected] end tell us what are your
wishes ?
© WEB Designed by Fred ON6QR
Last update on 06/10/97
Why not for next year's edition ?
You are a good operator, you can help us,
so why don't you send a mail to [email protected]
end tell us what are your wishes ?
Back to the Belgian DX Pedition Committee
© WEB Designed by Fred ON6QR Last update on 21 mars 2001