Maintenance

The contesting calendar for 2019 just began and PY0F is once again on the air!

This time, the contest was not our main goal. Since last CQWWs contests we had a lot of new ideas and so we prepared ourselves to put the station “in test” but not “in contest” once again – Hi!.

The main goals for this contest were:

Test the new RemoteQTH RX Antenna System;
Setup a 200m long beverage antenna in NA direction;
Setup and test a new and exclusive power distribution system for the linear amplifiers;
Stress the Alpha 374 linear after a long QRT on the bench;
Test the 4O3A HP BPF filters, specially the triplexer with 2 x 1kw signals in;
Test crossband interference between two HP stations running the actual antenna system;
Try to have some fun between all of that tests… tests.. and tests… Hi!

Ville and Renner met up in Fernando de Noronha Isl just a few days ahead of the contest. A lot of work had to be done before the contest, including the setup of a new and exclusive power distribution system for the amps. This was done by our host Marenga, PU0FDN and worked flawlessly.

PY7RP_OH2MM_PU0FDN — From back to front: Marenga – PU0FDN, Ville – PY2ZEA/OH2MM, Renner – PY7RP

The station is undergoing constant modifications according to the learning achieved in each operation and the ARRL CW is only the third contest in which we participate.

We had a lot of work setting up the RX antenna. The 200m long antenna, just crossed the borders of Marenga´s property. Fortunately the neighboor was very kind and allowed us to deploy the other half of the RX beverage antenna on his terrain. This antenna is not supposed to be fixed but will be setup and dismantled just after each contests end.

The first 100 meters of the beverage antenna had to be deployed in the middle of a dense forest. The wire in this part was just layed over the arbusts and trees. After this first hard part, already on the neighboor´s property, we made it easy to assemble the rest of the antenna.

Ville, OH2MM, used his criativity to make this wire support with 2 pieces of PVC pipes crossed in “X” form to support the wire. The height of the antenna varyed from 1.5 m to 3 m above the ground.

The beverage antenna was used together with the RemoteQTH RX antenna system. With this equipament we may share the reception of up to 7 RX antenna to up to 3 different operating positions. This system also includes 3 x BPF (for 160-80-40) and built-in preamplifier. The entire system worked like a champ. You can see some of the videos we made while testing the shared beverage antenna and cross band interference at same time.

RemoteQTH RX Antenna Switching in action

This was also the first time we used 2 HP running stations into the 4O3A triplexer system. Personaly I got very impressed with the filtering capability of the system. Both stations were running around 1 to 1.2 kw on the same antenna at the same time and we did NOT realize any kind of any mutual interference.

WhatsApp Image 2019-02-15 at 11.47.34 — 4O3A filters + triplexer and Ville (PY2ZEA/OH2MM) ready for action

In the image below you can see both operating positions. Both of them now with RX antennas controllers by RemoteQTH.

RemoteQTH controller: Its composed by 7 position rotary switch with led display in left, the 4 position switch for selecting internal BPF filters for 160-80-40-Bypass, single switch on/off for built-in preamp and in right corner, a 2 position switch for all system bypass.

Left to right: Ville OH2MM (PY2ZEA), Marenga PU0FDN and Renner PY7RP

This was my first contest on which there was NOT any signal of Murphy rounding us! Hi Hi.. Everything (for my surprise) run quite and smoothy. That was great. Thanks to our host Marenga, PU0FDN and Lola (Marenga´s XYL) for the super 5-star service.

We hope the station keeps moving forward and maybe, sometime we can definetively move to HP category. For now, mission, accomplished!!. And now goes our final score:

The QSOs on 160 m and 80 m really amazed us!

Thanks for calling us!

73 PY0F team

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Some videos with our signals during the contest:

Video by WX0V

After a long absence Murphy’s Law reappeared a little before the week of the CQWW SSB.

The Yagi antennas of the hunting station had serious faults, Yagi 2el to 40m with the reflector out of position and the tri band KT34XA with SWR very high in all 3 bands.

The two antennas were removed from the tower with the 40m yagi being quickly repaired but the tribanda required more time to analyze what was happening.

These tasks consumed time and effort from the operators delaying the completion of the station assembly.

It’s the first operation in SSB with station being set up for the first time and much work was done until the beginning of the contest.

It was 5 days of hard work, a lot of dedication, a lot of effort and all this under the strong sun and heat characteristic of Fernando de Noronha.

Congratulations and thank you to all the team and all who have contributed in some way to being in this tropical paradise practicing our hobby and doing what we like so much: contest.