The results of the Helvetia H26 contest were recently published.
We reached with our contest call HB2T the first place in the category multi operator SSB!
We always tried win this one and finally we did and additionally set a record!
Congratulations to all the participating stations.
See you in the next one 🙂
73s de HB2T
As every year, we joined the the Helvetia H26 contest. This year we participated in the MO SSB category. Due to the bad weather forecast for the weekend, we were not sure whether we should use the station of HB9ELV or if we should risk a the definitely colder weekend at the contest site of HB9EE :p
Since the weather forecast was excellent until Friday, Chris HB9ELV and I HB9EMP decided on Monday to build everything up at the HB9EE contest site during the remaining evenings. With the help of Peter HB9BUN we could do it very efficient and on Friday evening we were ready with all the antennas and just had to wire the shack (which was quite some fun :P). Finally all was tested and put in place. During the last couple of contests it showed us that we have all the problems regarding PA malfunction caused by power generator failure and the internet timeouts fixed. We were quite confident that the equipment will work and so the result was only a matter of HF propagation and skill 🙂
The Operators, HB9ELV HB9EMP and HB9BUN met at 1 o’clock on Saturday HB time to verify everything and to decide the strategy.
We started on time and had some acceptable rates until Sunday mid-morning. Starting on the high bands was the correct strategy. The propagation was quite good. USA was more or less always open either on 40m, 20m, 15m or 10m. JA was very strong, but somehow large pile-ups did not occur. We were also very happy that south cook, the Salomon island’s and other more or less rare countries called us.
It finally lead to a result of more than 1400 QSOs and a total of around 900’000 Points. Until the mid-morning of Sunday we thought that the million is maybe reachable but the rates descend more more towards the end of the contest.
Over the half of the QSOs were with NA. Thanks for this great participation from overseas! Unfortunately we just know the scores of two other station so we don’t know where we really are, but for sure our score is not too bad 😉
Congratulation to HB9CA breaking the 1 Mio. barrier 🙂 You guys have always an excellent operating and a good nose for the band openings 🙂
As every year the main competitor was HB9Z. We think you also reached a good score – congratulations! This year they used the special call HB90IARU which seemed to work out well. Our post-contest DX cluster analysis showed us that they got spotted a lot more than we got spotted 🙂 By the way we analysed all HB DX cluster entries for the period of the H26 contest and found some revealing results. We will not publish any of them since it is up to the contest director to decide whether first he wants to analyse this and second whether he wants to take some actions or not. We just analysed it because we already observed some interesting things going on and so we were interested what was happening precisely 🙂 And in fact we know now!
We also appreciated the excellent catering of Chris HB9ELV. It consisted of Snickers, Knoppers and boiled eggs (including mayonnaise and aromat). 🙂 But also a big thank you to Peter HB9BUN for offering some croissants on Sunday morning and his great support in general 🙂 We also want to thank Steve HB9FPS for his help on the antenna installation. HB2T is now also on Facebook. Feel free to hit the Like button on your right. By the way the all of the equipment survived and did a fine job and also the WX was not too bad. Some rain on Saturday evening/night but beside that it was dry.
We hope to reach you in the next contest!
Vy 73s
the operators of HB2T
The team of HB2T during the Helvetia H26 HF contest in 2015. HB9EMP ( doing the Mr. Spock salute in memories of Lenard Nimoy), HB9ELV and HB9BUN
The results of the last year’s CQWW SSB have been published shortly. Every operator at the HB9EE clubstation and at HB9ELV’s QTH set a record! And here they are:
Thanks to all the supporters and the great effort at HB9EE. We are always very pleased to join the major contests and increase our score every year!
73s
HB9EE and fellow members
This year we started early with the installation of the antenna and all the other equipment. It seems to be the first contest where we did not have to repair PA’s or antennas or other broken stuff just shortly before the start of the contest – great success 🙂
The plan was to participate in the M/2 category. Unfortunately many operaterors refused our invitation in the last moment. Due to that we decided that every operator that is present, attends in a SOSB (A) category. The goal was to beat as many Swiss record as possible :p
So let’s have a look at the results:
| Category: | Call: | Operator: | Station: | Operating Time: | QSOs: | Zones: | Countries: | Claimed Score: | Swiss Record: |
| 10m SOSB (A) HP | HB9EE | HB9CVQ | HB9EE | 18.7 | 1477 | 34 | 140 | 629'532 | 77'235 |
| 15m SOSB (A) HP | HB9ELV | HB9ELV | HB9ELV | 21.45 | 1207 | 37 | 121 | 389'154 | 29'192 |
| 20m SOSB (A) HP | HB2T | HB9EMP | HB9EE | 24.34 | 1567 | 32 | 123 | 373'860 | 0 😛 |
| 160m SOSB (A) LP | HB9FFU | HB9FFU | HB9ELV | 5.22 | 157 | 5 | 35 | 6'240 | 0 :p |
Of course the records were not really records, but we pushed the level a bit higher for the future 🙂
Yes also at HB9EE the propagation was outstanding. Endless Pile-Ups on 10m towards USA. Infact I only worked during the day on 20m and as I heard from other competitors, 20m was more open during the night. But even during the day it was more or less good. At least for what you can except if 10m is so open :P.
The equipment did an excellent job. No PA blew up or other things happened. It seems that we have the problems solved now.
We are also having now a LTE link for the internet and this worked without one interrupt for the whole contest time 🙂
In total we took it not too serious but we were successful for just the few hours of operating 🙂
73’s de HB9EE
This year we joined again the HB9HQ team. After an excellent meeting at HB9BF we got 20m SSB and 10m CW at HB9EE. The preparation went successfully. We used the HQ version of Wintest which was connected to the other HB9HQ stations via the tunnel software. This worked even though we had some timeouts with our UMTS internet link. LTE is planned 🙂 But since there was a nice step-by-step manual, the set-up of the software was easy. Especially it was very nice to see what the other stations do and have a bit of an idea how it is going.
Thanks to the guest operators for support and especially thanks to all of them who helped installing the antennas.
Operators: HB9ELV, HB9EMP, HB9CVQ, HB9DUR, HB9FGO, HB9EFK , DL1II
The antennas were:
20m SSB: 5 over 5, OB 9-5
10m CW: 7 El. US,3 el. SA, 4 el. US, Dipole 2x42m
Beside the Contest there was enough time to have some great conversations and eat some BBQ.
Since we made some improvement on the power supply, the whole equipement worked without any problems.
©pictures HB9DUR, thanks for providing them!
The final result of HB9EE is:
1565 QSO’s on 20m SSB and 585 QSO’s on 10m CW and plenty of multipliers.
Infact the goal were 2000 QSO’s on 20m which we did not reach but we try to improve next year. On 10m predictions are always hard 😉
We don’t know the overall result yet.
THANKS TO THE WHOLE TEAM AND FOR SURE WE IMPROVED THE 10MIO. RESULT OF LAST YEAR!
The HB9HQ Team at HB9EE during the IARU HF World Championship.
Last Weekend we were participating in the Helvetia H26 HF contest in MO SSB category with our Contestcall HB2T.
Everything was ready on time so we could start at 15:00 HB-Time. On Saturday the conditions were actually not too bad except on 15m and 10m. As we saw in the analysis after the contest, there was an opening on Saturday evening to south america and on 15m to north america which we both missed, since we were busy on the lowbands where the rates and QSO points were less. This resulted in a lost of many dx points and country multis on the topbands…
During the night 20m and 40m was open towards north america. Our Stack on 20m did a fine job and so the two element yagi on 40m.
On Sunday not only the weather was bad, also the conditions on 10m and 15m were gone at all. Just a few dx could be logged on 10m but that’s all. The rates were really bad and the chance to improve our old scores was far far away – here the result:
BAND CW SSB C DXCC POINTS AVG
———————————————————–
160 0 43 17 10 45 1.05
80 0 100 23 22 104 1.04
40 0 302 25 40 328 1.09
20 0 331 20 48 695 2.10
15 0 140 18 31 284 2.03
10 0 31 12 9 45 1.45
———————————————————–
TOTAL 0 947 115 160 1501 1.59
=================================
FINAL SCORE: 412 775
Operators: HB9ELV, HB9EMP, HB9CVQ, HB9BUN, F4FVI
Luckely Murphys stayed at home and the equipment survived the 24 hours. 🙂
Congratulations to HB9Z, it seems you won it this year 🙂
73’s de HB9EE
Our current, time limited, contest call HB2T started a big discussion in the Swiss amateur radio society. Until now we acted reluctant with comments in discussions but since some planning is ongoing, where rules regarding contest calls will be set for the future, we have to list the facts and clearly point out our situation.
How it started.. A couple of years ago, at the “KW Tagung” in Lucerne there was discussion about the disposal of contest calls in Switzerland. Since the attendees were discordant, the USKA told that they will discuss it with the Swiss Federal of Communication “Bakom” at their next meeting. HB9ELV and I were pretty happy because we saw a chance to get a short pretty contest call like the contest ham radio operators of the rest of the world can have except Japan and Australia 😛
The years went by and nothing happened. This caused us to ask at Bakom directly, since the CQWW WPX (this means: work prefixes for the non-contesters) was just a few weeks away. Finally we got the exclusive license of HB2T limited for one year as an experimental call. Additionally we are only allowed to use it during a contest. Since regulatory authority only has the law to give calls starting with HB this action was fully legal! All other limitations like HB4 for army stations etc. are guidance rules, no law at all as Bakom says.
And now.. Our effort shows that contest calls are demanded in Switzerland as the call request at Bakom shows. Also a current poll in the USKA group on Facebook definitely shows that this is something ham radio operators especially contesters want to have.
The criticism that HB2T is to close to HB9T is simply not acceptable.
– HB2T is a unique call as HB9T is
– HB2T only does QSL via LotW and this is clearly defined on the internet
– HB2T does only Contest – The Argument that the USKA QSL bureau is not informed is simple to solve. Use the stamp “Non Member” and return the card.
– If a QSL card goes directly to HB9T, do whatever you want, we simply dont care.
As a comparison, in Germany exists DR1A, DR2A, DR3A, DR4A, DR5A, DR6A, DR7A, DR8A, DR9A. For us this argument is just nonsense.
And the Future.. The example above shows that this is a wish and so the Bakom and especially USKA must react now. At the moment it looks like that the USKA wants to give HE calls for contest stations. As an argument they say that HB1,2,5,6,7,8 has to be kept for special calls. Like HB2 was a special prefixe for the year 2000, they want to keep the other numbers of HB. In the year 5000 we are might allowed to use HB5 (remember HB3 is for the small license and HB4 for army stations). One thing we don’t get is HE8? This was the anniversary call for USKA where HB9 Radio amateur could use this as prefix for a year. So what happens if somebody wants HE8 for a contest prefix? This was also once a valid call for many single letter suffix callsigns. Do we not we have the same problem again? Additionally HE9 stations are SWL amateur operators. HE is nice for SSB. But in CW it is difficult especially in a contest. When we do CW at HB9EE every CW operator complains about the EE and for sure we have very skilled CW operators, no beginners! This is contest skill, they don’t have to learn.
We are a bit afraid that decisions get taken behind the backs of the contest stations and all the ham radio operators. So what we would like: Involve us and the others as well! Make a meeting or similar but don’t do it just somehow. For sure we find a solution where everybody will be happy.
Feel free to make comments here, one of the latest possible Swiss HAM platform to make comments since the good old hamnews.ch website doesn’t exist anymore 😉 We are happy about every discussion.
73’s de HB2T HB9EE HB9ELV HB9EMP.
PS: I wrote it in English that our friends from the Ticino and from the Western part of Switzerland also understand it. If somebody wants a translation into German, just ask.
Last weekend we participated the CQWW WPX 2014 M/2. The goal was to beat the current M/2 Swiss record. The only problem we got was the amount of operators. Mostly only three were present. During the whole weekend the following ones were operating:
HB9ELV, HB9EMP, DL2YL, HB9FFU, HB9BUN
Since we didn’t have a lot of time before the contest, I was on holiday and Chris was busy unmounting the 3 element for 160m, we decided to operate from the station of Chris, HB9ELV. This limited us of course in the beam direction to SA and also we just had the following antennas.
Antennas:
– Optibeam OB 11-5
– 2x 42m Dipole
– 80m Vertical
Before the contest started we realized that both VL-1000’s were broken again. So we spent four hours to fix them – just finished one hour before it started. :p
The conditions were OK but big pile-up’s were not possible. Additionally it was hard to operate 48h hours with that limited amount of operators. But in general we are pretty happy with the result.
And here the result:
----------------------------------- 160 97 1 14 197 2.03 80 505 5 267 1252 2.48 40 911 6 224 2123 2.33 20 1185 19 343 1981 1.67 15 615 8 213 1116 1.81 10 345 5 152 747 2.17 ------------------------------------ TOTAL 3658 44 1213 7416 2.03 ==================================== TOTAL SCORE : 8 995 608
Last weekend we participated the CQWW SSB 2013 M/2. This year the following operators were at HB9EE: HB9ELV, HB9EMP, HB9FIY, HB9CVQ, HB9EOU, HB9HLM, HB9FGO, HB9EFK
We started to build up the stations two weeks before the contest and this year we managed to get everything work 4 hours before the contest started – new record! :-p
Since the propagation forecast looked amazing, the goal was to beat our result of 2011 and maybe even the Swiss record of HB9H in the year 2002.
Antennas:
160m: Deltaloop
80m: Deltaloop
40m: 2 El. Beam at 26m, Dipole
20m: 5 El. Monoband at 12m, Optibeam 9-5 at 12 meter.
15m: 5 El. Monoband at 26m
10m: 7 El. US, 3 El. RA/JA, 3 El. SA
RX: Beverages
TRX Equipment:
Station 1: Yeasu FT-2000, Yaesu VL-1000
Station 2: Yeasu FT-2000D, Yaesu VL-1000
and some filters.
We started on time and everything worked fine. The rates were good and the condition on 15 and 10 meter were excellent. The operators were on time for their shift like a swiss watch 🙂 But then, Murphy arrived on Sunday afternoon. Both VL-1000’s blew up and we lost many points. We had to repair one VL-1000 and the second one we could luckely replace with an Acom 1000. Also the Six-Pack started bitching – this thing is rubbish! Finally in the evening everything was replaced or repaired and we could go back to normal operation 🙂
And here the result:
Band QSOs Zones Countries ------------------------------ 160: 290 9 49 80: 694 15 67 40: 767 30 97 20: 918 36 119 15: 1404 37 113 10: 1307 38 119 ------------------------------ Total: 5380 165 564 Total Score = 7,759,476
We’ve beaten our score of 2011 but it wasn’t enough for the Swiss record ;-( Congratulations to HB9H for their excellent score in M/S!
We are already planning the 160m CQWW contest – it will be big 😉
Thanks for all the support and the points.
73’s de HB9EE
Last Weekend we had the honor to operate the 15m and 10m CW band for the HB9HQ Team.
Since most operators of HB9EE are not very CW experienced, we invited as last year some guest Operators to use our Conteststation.
The following operators were on air:
– HB9CVQ
– DJ3CQ
– DL1II
– OZ1IKY (Operator of TX5K Clipperton Island)
We started to build up the station already two weeks ago, to make sure everything is ready for a good result.
The working setup consisted of the following Antennas:
15m:
– 5-El. Monoband Yagi
– Optibeam 9-5
– GP
10m:
– 7-El. Monoband Yagi
– 4-El. Monoband Yagi
– GP
Propagation were a bit shaky, especially on 10m we were not sure how things will work out. Once the Contest started, it showed that the equipment is working well and also North America was present on 10m, due to our excellent 7-el Yagi. The Rates were acceptable, despite of up an downs on 10m. We are happy to announce that we logged this year 1160 QSOs on 15m CW and 600 on 10m CW.
We want to thank all Operators for their fine job and all the helpers who made it again possible. Especially Chris huge effort in coordination and managing the HB9EE part of HB9HQ.
73’s de
HB9EE
