Contest on 6 meter

Saturday afternoon, I was listening on 6M because there were conditions. I heard that there was a contest and on the internet I found out what kind of contest this was. I came to the following information. In this contest you change a report, serial number and locator.
Among the other activities, see previous posting, I have made a total of 20 QSO's.In this picture are the lines through the various contacts visible. Clearly the most possibilities were to eastern Europe. The farthest distance was with UU9A in KN64SM, over 2000km.
I made the qso's with cw/ssb and the most with 20 watts, 2 with 10 watts. From the 20 qso's there were also a few new squares: JM68, JN94, KN44, KN64, JO91 and KO14.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

Genesis Q5 (30M) transmitter repaired and modified

Today I repaired my Genesis Q5 transmitter.
First I had to remove transistor T2 and then I could remove the IC. Then I placed the new IC and I measured that the oscillator was working, yes!
Now I could replace transistor T2 and the transmitter was working again, the frequency 10.11574, it's too low. (When you've read my previous article about the Q5, you could see that with the value of 33pF (C7) the frequency was nearly 10.117 Mhz. The 33pF which I installed today was another.
I received the advice to change capacitor C7. First I replaced this by one with a value of 22pf. I measured that the frequency was 10.12012, much too high. The next step was placing a capacitor with a value of 27pF.
The transmit frequency is 10.11595. This deviation from 10.116 Mhz is acceptable for me.



I finally placed the 27pF capacitor.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

J-pole antenna for 2M

Last week I made a J-pole antenna for 2M. This antenna is made of 300 Ohm ladder-line I found in my junkbox. Yesterday evening I used the antenna indoors, hanging from the curtain rail, and could reach PI3AMF, a repeater in Amersfoort. A distance of 28 km. I used my FT817nd with 2,5 watts output.
This weekend I want to measure the swr with an external SWR meter.

The rest of this week I had no time for the hobby.

18:30 UTC. I saw that my swr meter is not suitable for 2m, stupid of me. Now I should just borrow one from a colleague in the neighborhood.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

How long does a computer live?

Yesterday I came home after a weekend in Utrecht. When all things were cleaned up I started my computer. There appeared some reports that I made me not optimistic. After a restart everything seemed to function normally.
This morning started the computer again but this time the monitor was just on and off again, the situation remained so. Checked all cables but this did not solved the problem. Luckily I have a spare monitor and it works simply. Unfortunately, this screen is smaller and the resolution has to get used to.

My computer is almost worn out after 5,5 years loyal service.

After my weekly sports I came home and heard on 6 meters different beacons, there was again sporadic E. Among other activities, I worked through some stations.
OY1CT in IP62LC, In the past I worked this station also on 30M.
IK5GQK in JN53OS (Florence)
And finally for this day in UX2SB in KN28IX, a new square.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ

Paper cards (QSL)

Yesterday evening I visited the monthly meeting in this area where the QSL manager of R30 is always present.
The last time I made a lot of qso's on 6 meters and gave this cards to the manager. What I got back was not much, only 2 cards.
A card of IK5ACO. Last year I worked this station on 6 meters.




With this card the square JN52 is now confirmed.

The other is a qsl of OH5B.







This is a confirmation of the first qso I made with the new digital mode ROS. I wrote about this for the first time on February 22 this year. After a few contacts, this mode is no longer used by me.

73, Tjeerd (Gose) - PA3GNZ