Band maps of worked squares. FT8/4 @ M0BEW 15/01/2020

Band maps of worked squares. FT8/4 @ M0BEW
Updated 01/01/2020. FT8 qsos. 18982.

All Bands Europe/World. 1343sq 

2m Europe/World. 134sq 

6m Europe/World. 418sq 

10m Europe/World. 298sq 

12m Europe/World. 150sq 

15m Europe/World. 565sq 

17m Europe/World. 576sq 

20m Europe/World. 1020sq 

30m Europe/World. 571sq 

40m Europe/World. 826sq 

80m Europe/World. 663sq 

160m Europe/World. 310sq 

Tim M0BEW.

CQWW CW 2019 SO[A]SB80 HP M0BEW

CQWW CW 2019 SO[A]SB80 HP M0BEW
Contest         : CQ World Wide
Callsign        : M0BEW
Mode            : CW
Category        : Single operator
Overlay         : ---
Band(s)         : 80
Class           : High
Grid square     : IO82RJ
Operating time  : 32h 17m

 BAND  QSO  Z  C DUP POINTS  AVG
--------------------------------
  160    0  0  0   0      0 0.00
   80 1929 23 98 114   2897 1.50
   40    0  0  0   0      0 0.00
   20    0  0  0   0      0 0.00
   15    0  0  0   0      0 0.00
   10    0  0  0   0      0 0.00
--------------------------------
TOTAL 1929 23 98 114   2897 1.50
================================
      FINAL SCORE: 350 537

Comments.
TS590SG 400W. Dipole. Beverages.
Still wasn't sure what cat I was going to do for this even by Friday evening.
All I knew I was doing an entry to earn SCC points.

First session to sunrise was busy. First hour was a 170. With every other hour 100+ things looked promising. The western beverage was fabulous to use running Na.

Coming back to radio at sunset had two issues. firstly I lost internet connection losing assistance, this would not return for the rest of the weekend. Secondly the band seemed down to the east, very down.
I was hearing many far east mults on the East beverage well before darkness that I couldn't even raise a ? out of. Not really breaking the pileups there until thier sunset. It was a real struggle working to the East, which as a rule is not a problem direction from here.

Finding mults is hard without assistance in cqww. Most dx runners use the lack of signing to manage the pileup I think. So in between having to wait around for them to sign, and usually trying to hear them do this through a pielup of blind callers that clearly couldn't hear the dx very well was a chore.
Much of the dx moved around the band a lot as well not always being in the same place they were twenty mins before. I found it tough.

As I started with and used rbn in the first session I have to enter (A). However without it for the majority of the test my mult total finished quite poor. I did try hard to find new mults by tuning but clearly was not very successfull compared to what was actually available looking at the assisted guys totals. This failing will hurt my score a lot.

Overall lots of fun and good experience.

Tim M0BEW.

50MHz New squares worked 15/09/19

50MHz New squares worked 15/09/19

MM0GPZ IO75

R6KA KN75

7X2TT JM16

JA opening. 04 July 2019.

9G2HO JJ06

OD5PY 

E44WE KM71

TF8KY HP83

HB0WR JN47

4Z5AV KM71

Tim M0BEW.

@ M0BEW 160m long NW Beverage single wire

@ M0BEW 160m long NW Beverage single wire

Single wire 160m long beverage pointing north west.

Using the kits from OK1ZAW.

Tim M0BEW.

@ M0BEW Station 21 element 432MHz LFA-LN Yagi

@ M0BEW Station 21 element 432MHz LFA-LN Yagi

My current 70cm antenna here @ M0BEW
Performance, details, construction and comments.

Performance.
Gain: 18.81dBi @ 432.200MHz
F/B: 40.75dB @ 432.200MHz
Peak Gain: 18.97dBi
Gain 10m above Ground: 24.77dBi
Peak F/B: 42.32dB
Power Rating: 3kw
SWR: Below 1.1.1 from 432.00MHz to 433.00MHz
Boom Length: 5.210m
Stacking Distance Vertically: 1.36-1.7m (best trade-off 1.622m)
Stacking Distance Horizontally: 1.37-1.8m (best trade-off  1.710m)
Following figures calculated at 432.200MHz
2 Stacked Vertically 10m up @ 1.622m spacing - Gain: 27.47dBi
2 Stacked Vertically 10m up @ 1.622m spacing - F/B: 37.83dBi

2 Stacked Horizontally 10m up @ 1.710m spacing - Gain: 27.65dBi
2 Stacked Horizontally 10m up @ 1.710m spacing - F/B: 37.95dB
4 Antennas 1.622m V x 1.710m H Gain (corrected): 24.41dBi, F/B: 36.24dB (free space)
Sky Temperature (corrected): 25.45 Kelvin @ 432.200MHz
G/T Figure (corrected):  10.35dB @ 432.200MHz

Construction.

Comments:
Well built antenna. Very solid.
One or two little issues but were sorted very quickly.
I first tested the antenna in a RSGB 70cm activity contest and it appeared to perform as expected.
I gather the overall conditions were not very good so it'll be intresting to test it again next month.
Seemed good towards the north and poor towards the south east.

Fed the driven from around the rear and back around the boom underneath.
Needed some very exact measuring while assembling as the elements weren't marked and within 0.5mm of each other. ie. 272.5mm, 273mm, 273.5mm and 274mm.
Testing with a 10 year old piece of Ecoflex on a flat band I'm hearing GB3FNY, GB3UHF, GB3MCB and PI7CIS consistantly.  There are others that come in/out of the noise during an evening if I monitor long enough.

The pattern is as sharp as a torchlight. Quite an eye opener compared to some VHF yagi patterns im used to. Checking performance, pattern and swr in  heavy rain appears to have no effect. Good news.

All in all very pleased so far. Be nice to set up a box or a 4 stack for contesting. But be rather an expensive luxury for my current uses.... we will see.

Tim M0BEW.