For the first time in many months there was an opening on the 10 meter band this evening.

I had a little problem getting the half G5RV dipole tuned for this band, so I switched to my Diamond CP-6 vertical. Normally I rather use the dipole because the vertical is very narrow when tuned and needs to be tuned again after turning the dial for more than 30 kc's.

I worked 12 different European countries this evening on 10 meter and had some nice QSO's with John IW6ATQ, Pierre HB9TMS (in FM), Henryk OK2SAI and some more.

It was a beautiful sunny sunday afternoon with just a little wind and a temperature of 22 °C. So it was time again to go on the air as PD3EM/P/QRP.

This time Peter PD1AJJ and I wanted to do it the easy way: QRV within 5 minutes after arriving!
No dipole and mast today but simply putting the Outback 1899 on the car and the FT-817 in the back of the car.

Last weekend we went into the field for our first /p operation.
It was a nice Saturday afternoon and I went together with Tjakko PA2TA and Peter PD1AJJ to a field very close to my home.

Peter took his Yaesu FT-817 and 12AVQ vertical and was QRV within a few minutes. He made the first QSO with one call immediately after switching on the rig.
He also had a very nice QSO with a Dutch guy living in SM-land.
!

Today was a nice relaxed day and I decided to do some preparations for the upcoming fieldday-season.

About a month ago I bought two 8.5 meter long fiber-glass masts on a Ham Radio Market. Each mast is build up out of 7 peaces of fiber-glass poles. Earlier I made some calculations on the length of the guy ropes. The masts are guided two times: at about 4.8 meters high and at the top.

I didn't go into the fields to test the masts but stayed in my garden. There was just enough space between the trees and the house for the guy ropes and lifting the mast.
All was easy to setup and all guy ropes were at the right length, distance and angle.
I made a pulley block in the top of the mast. With that it will be very easy to lift a dipole to the top after both masts are raised.
Today I used some small tent pegs for the guy ropes. In the fields I will need a bigger version, so I'm going to make some 30-40 cm long angle steel pegs.

Last Friday at our local radio club we had the luck to be the first Europeans to see and hear the presentation about the K5D DXpedition to Desecheo Island.
Mike N6MZ was one of the team members on Desecheo Island last february.
He arrived in Europe last friday and came allmost straight away to our club to tell us about his experience with his last DXpedition.

Mike told the complete story, starting with all the preparations, the problems with the helicopters and the boats for getting all the gear on the island, about how much more load a generator can handle and much more.

All together, it was a great presentation and before and after there was time enough for Mike to have some nice eyeball-Q's with all the visitors.

Last weekend I tried to make some QSO's during the CQ WPX Contest.
There were no sunspots, but the conditions where good enough to put some new DXCC entries in my log.
I made a total of 114 QSO with 96 different prefixes and 42 different countries (20.064 points).
Well, not a bad result with 25 watt and a half G5RV!
A few stations from my log: E21EIC, 9M8Z, ZY7C, 8P5A, PY2YU, OY9JD, ZF1A, PJ2T, VP59V and FM5BH.
Some of the QSO´s were quick and easy but others were though and took some time.
Thank you all for your patience and good ears!

Last week I received a direct QSL card from Steven, WPE3AZC.
He´s a 93 years old SWL who has traveled around a lot.
Now he still enjoys listening to all of us at the bands.

Well Steven, I hope that you can enjoy our hobby for many more years to come!

My QSL card is on its way.

This week, two new direct QSL cards arrived in my mailbox, both for contacts on 20 meters.
Thank you both Nigel 9Z4CT and Tim K3LR for the QSO and QSL card!
The cards can be seen in my QSL Gallery.