THE HAMRADIO DOT COM

The second day – the first full day. It is always like a day to get used to DX-pedition-life. You start to remember all your routines and start to work by them (this is our 5th trip to this same place!). Weather was stable, only some new snow in one point which was nice as we got some outside work to do.

Coronal hole’s stream was in action. Propagation was unstable but we were still able to catch a couple of interesting stations. The morning was good to South America. Brasil was strong, one of the best catches was 1380 kHz ZYJ831 Radio Frequencia, Garopaba SC. But it was mixed bag – Rebeldes were also strong and lasted till 0800 UTC. Nighttime propagation to US was weak. During the day NA condx were spotty, only new one was 1680 KRJO Monroe LA. Propagation was to East Coast (nothing special) in the early morning then shifting to West Coast. Suprisingly FBC Fidzi 990 was strong at 1049z with some common Hawaijian stations. In the evening coronal hole stream started to effect more and we couldn’t hear any Far East etc. India and Iran were strong. From East we got 1215 CNR7 Voice of Old China (Huaxia zhi Sheng), Zhuhai (GD), but we haven’t check much of those files. Propagation forecast claims that condx will be better on Tuesday. We will see…

Our dinner was the almond potatoes with chicken and Koskenlaskija cheese in cream sauce with Aihkiniemi Salad. The best beers: tie with two strong Swedish beers – Dugges Plum Spices Imperial Stout and Electric Nurse Barrel-aged Dark Skull.

AIH91 DX-pedition kind of started already on Friday when Timo (TIK) and Patrik (PW) traveled 14 hours from Vaasa to Ivalo. This year we drove our trip in two parts as we stayed for the night at River Camping Ivalo. Basic new cottage for two cost 45 euros. They also served breakfast (for money) but we went to Hotelli Kultahippu for a bit better breakfast buffet. Our aim was to be in Aihkiniemi at 12:00 local time as this was the time when AIH90 JY & YK finished their DX-pedition. Before driving to Partakko, we visited The Samí Museum Siida. Very interesting exhibitions about Finnish sami history. Then to the DX cottage – we noticed several reindeers on the way. Not so much snow on the ground this year.

We changed few words with Juha and Ykä and started unpacking. The boys told that propagation has mostly been to the West coast. We started listening immediately and 11 UTC the first recordings were made. The bands to North America didn’t sound very promising but after careful listening of 1100 UTC file produced two new stations for us: 940 KFIG Fresno CA and 980 KFWB Los Angeles CA “La Mera Mera”, which sounded like an ad first. Next hour produced 1220 KHTS Canyon Country CA so the best propagation was to California. Weak opening continued till 1400 UTC when another new CA was heard: 1650 KFOX Torrance CA. Coronal hole from the sun made band unstable and India & Iran were strong quite early at 13 UTC. We even noticed two Africans 845 and 950. 891 and 729 aussies were on the band briefly but so far we have not found anything interesting from East. We also recorded a bit on shortwaves and got new Danish station Radio OZ-Viola on 5825 kHz.

Brasilian stations were noticed already at 2100 UTC. At 2130 UTC there was a short US opening before the band closed to USA. No daytimers identified anyhow. Propagation forecast says that the effect of CH will be on the band next two days, on Tuesday condx should improve.

And yes we also had a dinner – pasta and ground beef with cream sauce with Aihkiniemi Salad. Our beers for the first evening were below average but the best ones were Braufactum Clan and Brewski Pango IPA.

Me and Patrik (PW) are soon on the road towards Partakko in Inari and Aihkiniemi DX Cabin. On Saturday the 8th of December will start our 5th Aihkiniemi DX-pedition, to be known as AIH91. We expect less snow than before this year but temperatures should be around -15C at the start of our trip. Propagation looks promising too.

Tein SRAL:ia varten HF-kilpailukalenterin teemalla “vuoden 2019 tärkeimmät HF-kisat”. Jaan sen nyt tässäkin:

Huomaa, että tällä listalla ei ole puhtaasti kotimaisia kilpailuja. Kalenterin löydät myös Google Drivestä.

HF-pääkilpailukalenteri 2019 (kokosi Timo Klimoff, OH1NOA)
Ajat UTC

Tammikuu 2019

1.1. 0800-1100 SARTG New Year RTTY Contest
1.1. 0900-1200 AGCW Happy New Year Contest
5.-6.1. 1800-2400 ARRL RTTY Roundup
13.1. 0530-0730 NRAU-Baltic Contest, SSB
13.1. 0800-1000 NRAU-Baltic Contest, CW
19.-20.1. 1200-1200 Hungarian DX Contest
25.-27.1. 2200-2159 CQ 160-Meter Contest, CW
26.-27.1. 0600-1800 REF Contest, CW
26.-27.1. 1200-1200 BARTG RTTY Sprint
26.-27.1. 1300-1300 UBA DX Contest, SSB

Helmikuu 2019

2.-3.2. 1200-2359 Mexico RTTY International Contest
9.-10.2. 0000-2400 CQ WW RTTY WPX Contest
9.-10.2. 1200-1200 Dutch PACC Contest
16.-17.2. 0000-2400 ARRL International DX Contest, CW
22.-24.2. 2200-2159 CQ 160-Meter Contest, SSB
23.-24.2. 0600-1800 REF Contest, SSB
23.-24.2. 1300-1300 UBA DX Contest, CW

Maaliskuu 2019

2.-3.3. 0000-2400 ARRL International DX Contest, SSB
9.-10.3. 1600-1600 EA PSK63 Contest
16.-18.3. 0200-0200 BARTG HF RTTY Contest
16.-17.3. 1200-1200 Russian DX Contest
30.-31.3. 0000-2400 CQ WW WPX Contest, SSB

Huhtikuu 2019

6.-7.4. 1500-1500 SP DX Contest
13.-14.4. 0700-1300 JIDX CW Contest
19.-20.4. 2100-2100 Holyland DX Contest
20.4. 0500-0859 ES Open HF Championship
20.-21.4. 1200-2359 CQMM DX Contest
20.-21.4. 2100-1700 YU DX Contest
27.-28.4. 1200-1200 SP DX RTTY Contest
27.-28.4. 1300-1259 Helvetia Contest

Toukokuu 2019
4.-5.5. 1200-1159 ARI International DX Contest
11.-12.5. 1200-1159 CQ-M International DX Contest
11.-12.5. 1200-1200 VOLTA WW RTTY Contest
18.-19.5. 1200-1200 His Majesty The King of Spain Contest, CW
18.-19.5. 2100-0200 Baltic Contest
25.-26.5. 0000-2400 CQ WW WPX Contest, CW

Kesäkuu 2019

1.-2.6. 1200-1200 SEANET Contest
8.-9.6. 1500-1500 GACW WWSA CW DX Contest
15.-16.6. 0000-2400 All Asian DX Contest, CW
22.-23.6. 1200-1200 Ukrainian DX DIGI Contest
22.-23.6. 1200-1200 His Majesty The King of Spain Contest, SSB

Heinäkuu 2019

1.7. 0000-2359 RAC Canada Day Contest
6.-7.7. 1100-1059 DL-DX RTTY Contest
6.-7.7. 1400-1400 Marconi Memorial HF Contest
13.-14.7. 1200-1200 IARU HF World Championship
20.-21.7. 1200-1200 DMC RTTY Contest
20.-21.7. 1800-2100 CQ Worldwide VHF Contest
27.-28.7. 1200-1200 RSGB IOTA Contest

Elokuu 2019

3.8. 1200-2359 European HF Championship
10.-11.8. 0000-2359 WAE DX Contest, CW
17.8. 0000-0800 17.8. 1600-2400 18.8. 0800-1600 SARTG WW RTTY Contest
17.-18.8. 0800-0759 RDA Contest
24.-25.8. 1200-1159 SCC RTTY Championship
24.-25.8. 1200-1200 YO DX HF Contest

Syyskuu 2019

7.-8.9. 0000-2400 All Asian DX Contest, Phone
14.-15.9. 0000-2400 WAE DX Contest, SSB
21.-22.9. 1200-1200 Scandinavian Activity Contest, CW
28.-29.9. 0000-2400 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY

Lokakuu 2019

5.-6.10. 0800-0800 Oceania DX Contest, Phone
12.-13.10. 0000-1559 Makrothen RTTY Contest
12.-13.10. 0800-0800 Oceania DX Contest, CW
12.-13.10. 1200-1200 Scandinavian Activity Contest, SSB
19.-20.10. 1500-1459 Worked All Germany Contest
26.-27.10. 0000-2400 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Marraskuu 2019

2.-3.11. 1200-1200 Ukrainian DX Contest
9.-10.11. 0000-2400 WAE DX Contest, RTTY
9.-10.11. 0700-1300 JIDX Phone Contest
9.-10.11. 1200-1200 OK/OM DX Contest, CW
16.-17.11. 1200-1200 LZ DX Contest
23.-24.11. 0000-2400 CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Joulukuu 2019

6.-8.12. 2200-1600 ARRL 160-Meter Contest
7.-8.12. 1600-1559 TOPS Activity Contest
14.-15.12. 0000-2359 ARRL 10-Meter Contest
21.12. 0000-2400 OK DX RTTY Contest
21.-22.12. 1400-1400 Croatian CW Contest
28.-29.12. 1500-1500 Stew Perry Topband Challenge
29.12. 0000-1159 RAEM Contest

My next trip was to Karkku, which is a former Finnish county now a part of Sastamala county. We drove about one hour to Lake Ritajärvi protected area. This place is quite large and there are several options where to operate. We went to the parking place near Lake Alinen Ritajärvi (=lower Ritajärvi), from where a marked path to the lake started. Not an easy task with all my QRO equipment as it was about 600 meters walk. The place itself was nice, there was a fireplace, a building to arrange the meetings, a toilet and the wooden benches and tables. So I could build very comfortable place to operate. And I could set up the antenna also nicely just few meters from the lake. Before I started to operate Saku OH2NOS came to visit. Saku is the prominent Finnish WWFF-activator and he is not living too far from this place. We chatted a while and same time I build station up. There were also lots of other visitors in the site, this lake seems to be extremely popular among the hikers.

Operation went smoothly. This is the 2nd activation of this reference. Very good pile up in the start on 40m CW. I worked 36 qsos in 17 minutes before moving to 40m SSB which produced nice pileup as well. From here 20m SSB was also in a good shape. Perhaps the reason was that I started operation around 10Z, later than normally. Total qso count was 160 with 132 unique hunters. Operation time was 2 hours and 10 minutes.

OH2NOS filmed a short YouTube-video:

Next site was not too far from Lake Vuonajärvi. Direct path is less than 9 km but via road it is of course longer. Now my station was right in the middle of the forest. I also found that I lost my plug from CW paddle to Lake Vuonajärvi. Fortunately I had another one in my headphones, the negative side was that I needed to listen without headphones.

I noticed that my signal was weaker from here. I got lots of 559 reports when I started on 40m CW. But still it took only 26 minutes to reach 44 qsos. It was nice to work P2P-qso with OH2NOS/P who was from Koskeljärvi OHFF-0542. He was something like 35km from my place. I finished my operation after 1 hour and 24 minutes. So far my lowest qso count (but also the shortest time): 115 qsos but ok 111 unique hunters.

I uploaded few videos to YouTube:

New weekend and I planned to do double-double activation this weekend. Weather forecast was a bit unstable but at the end wx was quite ok during the daylight hours. OHFF-0244 Vuonajärven luonnonsuojelualue or in English Lake Vuonajärvi protected area was a new one for WWFF. This area is not far from Pinkjärvi OHFF-0237, just slightly more south and on the other side of E8-road. The protection area itself is few hundred meters from Lake Vuonajärvi and it was nice, calm pine forest with the rock base. We found a good place to park our car and I decided to set up the station on the rock to the few meters higher ground only maybe 50 meters from the parking point.

Again I started on 40m CW and the pileup was deep. I managed to work “the mandatory” 44 qsos in 21 minutes. From Vuonajärvi 40m SSB was also running very nicely – 42 qsos only in 19 minutes! So location was good although the lake itself wasn’t helping – it was in the SE direction. Added more contacts on 80, 30 and 20m and packed after 1 hour and 45 minutes. Logged totally 163 qsos and 143 hunters – exactly same amount of unique calls than from OHFF-0170.

My 4th OHFF-activation was to OHFF-0170. It is in Finnish called Haapakeitaan soidensuojelualue, in English Haapakeidas swamp protection area. I was in the northern part of Mustasaarenkeidas which is one part of this huge 5779 ha swamp area. OHFF-0170 was now activated for the first time.

There were few options where to operate this reference but I decided to go Isojoki county, which is in the OH6 call area. I noticed from the map that there is a protected area which has forest which means that there should be some dry land for operation site plus there was a small parking area and signed nature path into the area. This place was 80km from my home, so it was like one hour drive. Landscape was nice countryside landscape. Ww were travelling through the small villages of Suojoki and Piikkilänkylä on the way, not many houses. There was also commercial summer cottage village just before the operation site.

So swamp it was and also a birding tower plus well-kept wooden path through the large swamp. I set my station up to the place were the wet swamp was starting but just to the drier forest side. Antenna was quite low, 40m dipole end not more than 1,5 meters from the ground and only meter or two off the radio. I started again operation on 40m CW. Bang – huge pileup immediately. Apparently my signal was not so good and pileup was quite rude also. Somehow I was able to manage it, longtime contesting experience helped. 40m CW produced 80 qsos in 36 minutes. 40m SSB was not productive, I couldn’t find clear QRG, so went to 80m CW&SSB for some close-by stations. Then to 30m were I got nice small pileup. Now 20m was also somewhat productive what it has not been in the previous operations. Not too many stations but some: 13 on CW and 16 on SSB. Then I tried again on 40m SSB, only 3 qsos. Then to 40m CW for few more. Finished on 80m SSB but got only one OH. Activity from Finland was not huge.

Before packing I made a short walk to the bird watching tower. On the way back to the car we saw lots of cranes above us. QRM was loud hi. Thanks for 170 qsos to everyone who called.

My 3rd OHFF was probably also the third closest reference to my home. Pinkjärvi (“Pink Lake”) is some 30 minutes drive from Pori city. My radio club activated Pinkjärvi as the new one in August as OH1AB/p (see video). They made a trip to the small island at the lake but I activated OHFF-0237 from so called “double lean-to” called Vuotava. It is possible to drive to park place which is only 100 meters from the lean-to. Lean-to itself is about 20 meters from lakeshore.

What made this operation interesting was that big storm called “Mauri 2018” hit the west coast of Finland on Saturday morning. Fortunately it didn’t make much harm to my operation as my QTH was in the middle of the forest trees. Lean-to had very nice wooden table and bench, so it was the most comfortable OHFF-QTH so far. I put my antenna up between forest and lean-to. The place was not the best possible but as I have quite short coax cable, erecting antenna to lake shore what not an option. Europe is on the forest side so take-off was not the best.

I started again 40m CW, then moved to SSB, then 30m CW, 20m CW and SSB then back to 40m. I also tuned my 40m dipole to 80m and worked some stations on 80m CW and SSB as well. So I will use 80m also in the future with this antenna. Signals from Europe on 40m and 30m were strong. Again I couldn’t get much going on 20m. Total qso count was 117 qsos in 2 hours. Not too bad for this not so optimum site.

Now after 3 references I have 358 qsos in total. It is quite funny that qso counts have been 122-119-117, almost identical.

My second activation was to another OHFF-reference close to my QTH. It is only 10 minutes drive from my radio QTH. Yyteri Beach and its dunes are most likely the most famous beach in Finland. It is extremely popular among the sunbathers during the summer and it has also other interesting history. Eg. The Rolling Stones played there in 1965. Nowadays the large path of it is protected by EU’s Natura2000-programme. The Sand beach shore is one of the most interesting places for birdwatching in Finland (like my first OHFF-0040).

I arrived to Yyteri just before 07z. There is a car park area near the dunes so reaching the actual OHFF-0330 is easy. It is possible to operate just some 50 meters from the car park at the top of the highest dune, Keisarinpankki (“Ceasar’s Bank”) but I decided to carry my equipment closer to the sea. I chose the place where there was only one dune between me and sea. Funny thing is that this is the nudist part of the beach. Of course in late September with +13C, wind and a bit of rain, we were alone there.

The station went up quickly and I started on 7024 kHz CW. Unfortunately I had some problems with my Bencher keyer. Probably wind blew some sand and made contacts a bit unstable. I needed to clean it several times during the operation when the keyer started to send extra dahs. After 25 minutes and 43 qs and moved to SSB. Not much there, so I went to 10 MHz. When I changed the band from the antenna, I noticed that another half of my dipole was in the “30m position” (ie. shorter). So no wonder that my signal was maybe not as strong as expected. 10 MHz propagation was nice, I even got OH7MFO and OH3GZ which are normally difficult even on 40m because of the short skip. After the first hour at 0815z I had 81 qsos. 10 MHz is very good band for WWFF, hopefully more stations could be QRV there. Then I tried some 20m CW and SSB but they produced only 9 qsos so I returned to 40m SSB. There I got nice short pileup, lots of SPs. SM5CNQ from the other side of the bay was real S9. The final 10 minutes I spent on 40m CW for few more extra qsos. Last 45 minutes produced 41 qsos so my QSO total was 122 qsos.