First SOTA Norway activation

First, please accept my apologies for the very short operation!

I only had time to do a 30 minutes activation the first day of SOTA Norway. LA/OS-003 was chosen because of easy access and the little time I had. I am satisfied with 7 QSO’s in about 20 minutes with a long-wire about 2-4 meters up. GW0DSP was the first QSO in log at 06:37 UTC. See all QSO’s in my SOTA log.

It was great fun and I am already looking forward to activate a new summit. It will be a summit north of Oslo.

Congrats to LA1TPA and LA1ENA for their activations on day 1.

Thanks to all for calling.

QRP in Vigeland Park

LB8IB Olaf and I went with our families to the Vigeland Sculpture Park in Oslo this Sunday. This time we didn’t go there to look at the sculptures, but to see the new kids play ground. Turned out the kids would rather play in the many leaves on the ground than the overcrowded play castle.

Luckily I brought the KX1 with me to show Olaf how great this small rig is. We threw the 5 meter “long” wire up in the nearest tree and found a contest running. Turned out this was OK/OM DX contest, but we didn’t make any QSO’s as the contest was over before we could finish any contact. LB8IB made two half QSO’s, RN6AP and ON7BIP I believe it was. He lost them both before the QSO was completed. I managed to make 1 QSO with OK1HB who was running 1W into a dipole in Dubne, CZ. Ruda OK1HB had a good signal and it seems he copied me well since there were no questionmarks during the QSO. In the picture you see the play castle on top, and LB8IB in action below.

Had lots of fun, but will find a new wire for the long wire. The one I’m using now is much thicker than neccessary, making it hard straightening it.

First time in the field

Since we were going for a sunday walk and the weather was nice, I decided to take the KX1 with me. This the first time I try it in the field. I tied a short branch to the end of the wire and threw it up in a short tree. The wire is just 5 meters long and the counterpoise just about 2-2.5 meters or something.

This worked great on 20 meters and signals were loud and clear. Found DJ7AC in QSO on 14.061 and waited for him to finish his QSO. Read the rest of this entry »