QTH: Hornisgrinde (JN48CO)

After our experiences in May this year we wanted to learn more about our new location, 13m below the summit of the Hornisgrinde. First of all, and to reduce the necessary work, we abandoned the idea of having a separate fixed group towards the south.

Second, we wanted to see how big the influence of the antenna height really is. Therefore we wanted to install three fixed 4x5el DK7ZB groups to a mobile lifting platform. OK, that leads to a lot of phenomenas because they will influence each other, but we like to experiment.

We started at Friday morning, left home in time and arrived at the Hornisgrinde. Well motivated we started to setup the antennas. After taking some parts of the equipment out of the car we closed the deck lid. The lid hit the key and locked itself together with the rest of the antenna equipment in the car. It took us roughly two hours to get the second key of the car and to continue building the antennas. Fortunately we had really good weather.

We started our tests in the early evening. To the north we experienced a lot of noise which seems to come from the SWR tower. Lifting or lowering the platform just a small amount seemed to reduce the noise level significantly. Lifting or lowering the platform just more brought the noise back. Obviously we experienced interference patterns.

The second funny conclusion was that the noise level was much higher with our TR144H. Using our old LT2S reduced the noise level a lot while having a higher signal level of the beacons we looked at. No one expected that.

We decided to use the LT2S and to lift the platform to a height with a minimum noise level.

Preparing our station was hard this time. One of our PAs broke and while trying to adjust the output level with the spare one we blew that, too. The RF Power Regulator of the FT1000 doesn't work in FM. Another experience no one thought of.

All that happened just minutes before the contest and therefore we had to start as DK0A with just 300W coming from our transistor driver PA. After fixing the main PA we worked at a lower power level than we wanted to because we were afraid of blowing it again.

The contest itself was real fun but strongly affected by other stations. DR9A produced a lot of splatter and DK5DQ worked on the same frequency. Obviously our signal was too weak.

The results to the east were very low, very high towards England, but not record-breaking at all.

Thanks a lot for the QSOs and see you again on 144.225 MHz.