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Double x-pedition to Kuhmo, Katajavaara, KP53DX and KP54DA, 7-11. june 2003
Operators: Aulis OH6JW, Jukka OH8MSM, Jussi OH6ZZ and Johannes OH6HFX
Experienced of the multi-station simultaneous working test in KP13SX, OH8K team activated two rare squares in eastern OH. KP54 was also activated before, but only on SSB MS. The 54/53 square border goes just on the top of nice 278m asl hill called Katajavaara (in english something like juniper-hill - it deserves the name, i think...) additional info: 6 bears were seen just that weekend only 25-30km north in Elimyssalo nature reserve area.
The stations were placed just so near each other it was possible - to be sure they are in different squares! We had also 50m of CAT5 ethernet cable for connecting the stations for time synchronization, that was also one reason not to move them too far away from each other. KP53DX 2m MS station was placed inside warm and comfort caravan, while KP54DA 2m MS station was inside army tent with 100 mosquitos! 50MHz station was in separate barrack where Jukka OH8MSM worked 300 ES-qsos.
The results were good for this kind short-reflection stones like Arietids and z-perseids. On early morning to about 08 utc the conditions were best, after that many hours of NIL cqing or only some QSOs after hard trying. However, with two stations txing at the same time we could take the advantage of the stones X 2!
1 minute HSCW period - good or bad?? Same length for FSK441 period?? On this expedition we used 1 minute period on HSCW and experienced it to be powerful despite of CW mode. If there is adequate amount of stones, 1 minute is long enough to catch all the info needed even on 1500lpm speed. For example, we runned UT5ER in 6 minutes HSCW! Other advantages are that PA will not get hot, periods are easier to calculate "in head", and tired operator will not get enough time to fall asleep during TX period... Negative side we did not think earlier is the interference in other end - one station running 1min period, others 2,5 min. Now when PCs are getting more and more general among HSCW enthusiasts, the old 2,5min time (which is based on time which was needed for analog tape-systems and because time sync was not so accurate than nowadays with all GPS, Funkuhr, SNTP etc synchronizers) could be also less. Would we think this 1min period also as standard Europe-wide? Or even standardize FSK441 periods to be also 1min to totally prevent QRM from other stations nearby? Because of these thoughts, we would like to get your comments of the shorter period time to XXXoh6jw@pp.inet.fi (remember to remove XXXs!) or questbook. Please tell what do you prefer, new 1min or conservative 2,5min ??
RESULTS IN NUMBERS
KP53DX 63 worked / 59 complete 2m MS-qsos
To not confuse people too much, we decided to use call OH6JW in KP54DA. That worked good and stations learned to connect the calls to right square. In KP53DX we used two 2m antennas, one rotatable 16-el and "long John" 38-el rope-supported beamed fixed to 235 degrees. 3cx800 linear amp was driven by IC-7400. In KP54DA we used single 15-el yagi, hand-rotatable and 350W amp driven by FT847.
Something technical about the time sync: the exact time was taken from the GPS receiver which was on during the whole x-pedition. The reception in tent was 100% good showing nearly 10 satellites all the time. The PC in KP54DA was taking time from GPS, and the other station in KP53DX was asking its time every five minutes from KP54DA PC via TCP/IP SNTP client. That way we had not even think about time sync, it just happened on the background and both stations could work at the same time with same tx periods.
Logbooks
KP53DX 144MHz QSOs in ASCII file MP3 audio files
DL5MAE_030611_002.mp3 HSCW 6m audio samples from OE3MWS (Thanks Fred!)
OP Jukka, OH8MSM working 6m SSB length 1:03
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(c) J. Karhula, OH6HFX 2003