Back to Flores Island, EU-089, Azores

CQ World WIde 160-Meter Contest

Three members of the 2009 team CR2W of the CQWW 160m CW contest will be active again in this contest: Antonio, CU8AS, Rudi, HB9CQL, Hermann, CT3FN/HB9CRV. Call sign will be CR2W again.
QTH is the station of CU8AS next to the lighthouse of Albarnaz, WLOTA 0947, locator HM49jm.
Date: Friday, January 27, 2012 22.00 UT until Sunday, January 29, 2012, 22.00 UT.
QSL via HB9CRV, lotw and bureau are OK.

New team member

19.01.2012: Tozé, CT1GFK joined the team. Welcome on board dear Tozé in our 160m team

Mexico International RTTY Contest

CT3FN will be active in this contest as a single operator high power entry, using CR2V as call sign. Date: 4. February 2012, 18.00 UT until 5. February 2012, 17.59 UT.
QSL via HB9CRV, lotw and bureau are OK.

CQ World Wide WPX RTTY Contest

CT3FN will participate into this contest as a single-operator high power entry, using CR2V as call sign.
Date: Saturday, February 11, 2012, 00.00 UT until Sunday, February 12, 2012, 23.59 UT. As single operator operating time is limited to 30 hours out of the 48 hours.
QSL via HB9CRV, lotw and bureau are OK.

Outside the contests, there will be activity on the low bands profiting from the special low band receiving antennas which will be temporarily erected for the 160m contest. Antonio, CU8AS will apply for a 60m license. Frequencies will be 5403,5 kHz, 5371,5 kHz and 5288,5 kHz.

November 2011 activity from Portugal

For this activity we erected the following single element antennas:
- Interlaced diamond antennas for 10m, 15m and 20m
- 40m delta loop with vertical polarization
- 20m high ground plane, with top and linear loading for 80m and 160m
- 154 m long Beverages in direction of NA and EU
- 2 magnetic coax loops for 160m towards EU and NA
Pictures can be viewed at the picture side under CS2W November 2011.

RSGB 1.8 MHz CW contest

First activity was the RSGB 1.8 MHz CW contest. Conditions on 160m were bad and a high atmospheric noise was even present on the Beverages. Furthermore, the participation was low. The result is:

MODE   QSO DUP DXC  DIST  POINTS
----------------------------------------------------
CW      90   1     0      31     284
---------------------------------------------------
TOTAL    90   1     0      31     284
=======================
TOTAL SCORE : 284
Only 31 British stations could be contacted. Towards the end of the contest a DX QSO with PJ2/K8ND was the highlight.

LZ-DX contest

Around the 1.8 MHz RSGB contest we entered the LZ-DX-CW Contest to check our 10m diamond loop and the 40m delta loop antennas. Call sign used was CT7/CT3FN. The result, after 4h25 is:

BAND   QSO DUP MLTS  POINTS  
--------------------------------------------
80     0       0     0       0 
40    40      0    11     120
20     0      0      0       0 
15     0      0      0       0
10   265     2    30     658
-------------------------------------------
TOTAL   305   2   41     778  
====================
TOTAL SCORE : 31 898

Antenna test went on in the following week and showed us that our single element antennas perform well and often better than expected.

CQWW DX CW Contest

We changed the planned single band entries to the category m/2 and used CS2W as call sign. Station set up was an Elecraft K3 with OM2500HF PA and an IC7000 barefoot.  Logging software was Win-Test with a WLAN network. The team CT1EPV and HB9CRV has been reinforced on Sunday for an hour by Goncalo, CT1GPQ and Miguel, CT1IUA. As the primary goal was to test our single element antennas setup participation time was 25h49 and the result is:

BAND   QSO  CQ DXC DUP  POINTS   
--------------------------------------------
160    146    9   45   0     213  
80     230  11   51   0     318 
40     318  14   56   1     618 
20     390  22   80   1     793 
15     278  20   74   0     496 
10     683  21   69   5    1822
---------------------------------------------
TOTAL  2045  97 375   7    4260 
====================
TOTAL SCORE : 2 010 720

10m was wide open and NA stations could be worked Saturday and Sunday afternoon / evening in a continuous pile up.  On the other side 160m was difficult and noisy. But thanks to our Beverages RX antennas we could work DX stations on 160m as well.
Overall we are very satisfied with the outcome of our antenna test weeks. The loop antennas will be used in the IOTA contest 2012 from INSUA island, EU-150. The ground plane has been dismantled and packed up for a sea transportation to Flores island, CU8 where it will be used in the CQWW 160m CW contest January 27 until January 29, 2012.

Top band activity from Portugal

In preparation to the CQWW 160m contest end of January 2012 and as antenna test of a top and linear loaded ground plane for 160m several activities will take place between November 18 and November 28. QTH is Sto Estevao / Benavente, locator IM58PU and operators are CT1EPV/CU8AS and CT3FN/HB9CRV.

RSGB 1.8 MHz CW Contest

Date 19/20. November 2011. Time 2100 UT – 0100 UT

Call sign: CS2W

Operator: CT1EPV

Section: Single-operator entries, overseas.

AOEC 160m All Austrian 160m Contest

Date 19/20. November 2011. Time 1600 UT – 0700 UT

Call sign: CS2W

Operators: CT1EPV and CT3FN

Section: MOST multi operator single TX.

CQWW DX CW Contest

Date: 26-27 November 2011. Time 0000 UT – 2400 UT

Call sign 160m: CS2W. Category: Single operator high single band

Call sign 40m: CT7/CT3FN. Category: Single operator high single band

Operators: CT1EPV 160m and CT3FN 40m

QSL route: CS2W and CT7/CT3FN via HB9CRV. Bureau is OK and all QSOs will be uploaded to the LotW.

CS2W Operation from Insua island, EU-150, WLOTA LH-2869

Following the IOTA Contest operation under CR6W, 3 operators decided to stay 6 days longer on Insua, EU-150. The operators were Antonio, CT1EPV / CU8AS, Hermann, CT3FN/HB9CRV and Siggi, DL2HYH. There was and still is a great need of the HAM community worldwide to work Insua which is normally only QRV during the 24h of the yearly IOTA contest. Of course the same is true for the lighthouse WLOTA LH-2869 / ARLHS POR-28 situated on the rampart of the fort INSUA. We agreed with our skipper

Mario to sail us every morning to Insua and every evening back to the mainland. Staying overnight on Insua meant to sleep in a tent and to take a ‘shower’ in the ocean. Nothing for the already aged operators…

After the contest the team dismantled the rotary dipoles and both 80m dipoles leaving us the 40m delta loop on the beach and the Butternut HF9V. In addition, we erected a 17m diamond antenna. The shack was reorganized composing now of an Elecraft K3 with a 500 watts FET PA and an ICOM IC7000.

Operation started on Monday, 1th of August at 12.45 UT on 17m and the pile up was there almost immediately. As usual propagation on 17m faded out around 14.30 UT and we switched to 20m one hour later. During the whole operation propagation in the afternoon was weak and bad and pile up only rebuilt after 16.00 UT. Unfortunately, the use of the PA resulted in a high QRM level on the second station and we couldn’t be QRV with 2 stations in parallel, even when using band pass filters.

Our skipper Mario could only sail during day light and was also dependant on the tide levels and WX conditions. Normally he took us up around 19.00 local time. However, Thursday afternoon it happened that we had to QRT in a hurry. Our captain Mario showed up 2 hours earlier due to fog closing in warning.  On Friday noon we reached Insua without problems and so far our operation resulted in 2400 QSOs. In the afternoon bad weather started with heavy wind and high waves. Our captain Mario had problems to land and we got problems to enter his small boat. Due to high waves Antonio took two times a bath in the ocean but thanks to our help he finally reached on board. Hermann was half wet as well. All of his electronic devices (GPS and cellular telephone) worked after a cleaning and drying operation well.

The bad weather with heavy rain and storm lasted until Saturday morning and a landing on Insua was only possible around 12.00 UTC. When starting the generator Mr. Murphy visited us: During the night water came through the roof and dripped into multi Schuko extensions. That caused violent short circuit and the generator failed. We are very sorry about this bad luck and had to QRT our operation from Insua for this year. During the afternoon, we dismantled the antennas and stations and packed up all the stuff for the boat transportation. Sunday afternoon everything was back at Caminha and the trailer loaded. We reached our homes on Monday late night. See you all next year again!

Here is the final result of the CS2W operation:

BAND    SSB     CW   RTTY OTHERS   DUP
------------------------------------------------
30      0    140      0      0     3
20     51    833    62      0    34
17     17    685      0      0    14
15      1     413      0      0     7
12     11    117      0      0     1
10      0       73      0      0     1
-------------------------------------------------
TOTAL  80   2261     62      0    60
========================================
TOTAL QSO : 2 403

73 Hermann, HB9CRV