EU HF Championship 2013 by SCC

Slovenia Contest Club (SCC) organized again a fine contesting event, the European HF Championship 2013, which despite being held in a contest-reluctant period, it yet attracts hundreds of participants ... including myself.



I only took part for a few hours into a part-time participation, since Mojitos by the seaside were calling for me all day long ;-)

Joined the SOMBLP SSB category and managed to reach 231 QSOs, working quite a few mults, as well.

Oldest licensee that checked in my log has been an amateur since 1955 !! Good going, OM !!

Filled in all intermediate years from 1967 to 2013, so very nice indeed to see participation from all age ranges.

Below is a EU map of my QSO dispersion:



and here is a link to the respective .KML file, for any reference:

 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2pGUI_hdLXGWjlRenRGbE1LbDg/edit?usp=sharing

 

All contest audio has been recorded by Writelog for Windows, and is available through a searchable contest audio database, clicking the following link:

 

http://www.sv5dkl.eu/Audio/euhfc2k13/index.php

 

Enjoy Contesting !!

 



IOTA QSOs to KML in Google Earth Maps

Here is a nice screenshot of my QSO dispersion in Europe, during the 2013 RSGB IOTA contest:

 

and here is my full .KML file with all my QSOs from that contest:

 

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2pGUI_hdLXGVy1WcmRZMV9BZkk/edit?usp=sharing

 

These were produced by SH5 contest statistical analysis software by Dmitry, UA4WLI.

 

It is very strange how come Greece, a country with so many islands and IOTA groups, had so few participations ... again !!



RSGB IOTA Contest 2013 - Aftermath

Once again, a full weekend is over ...

Family schedule was inavoidable, so between swimming with my baby daughter at the seaside and home shopping on Saturday evening, as well as going out for a coffee on Sunday morning, I participated in this year's RSGB IOTA contest.

IOTA supports 12 hour participations, which was perfect for my schedule, so I organized my operating strategy accordingly. Last minute decision was my participation category. After a long period, I decided it was time to try an all SSB participation, so I took part as SOAB(A)SSB 12H LP from my home QTH in Rhodes Island, Dodecanese, with IOTA ref. nr. EU-001.

I did not expect to have so much traffic due to this, but on the contrary, I made my best ever score in IOTA, exactly 1,2 Mio points with 850 QSOs in total.

My strategy was to work more on 40m/80m, in order to work more EU mults, to compensate for the non-standard mult gathering of 10m/15m, which seemed to work as calculated.

As an aftermath, I concluded that IOTA final score depends mostly on worked multipliers, no matter the casual traffic.

In general, it was a very good lesson to learn for next year's event. Surely, next year will do more S&P.

Low bands antenna system calibrated during last winter performed quite well on 40m/80m, despite the humidity QRN on 40m. High bands antenna was again the Cushcraft A3S and my FT-2K ran smooth at ~95W during the whole contest.
I used Writelog with DXCluster support and contest audio recording.
Here is a link to my best 10-minute rate audio file:

Link

And here is a link to the contest analysis statistics, produced by SH5 software:

 Link

 

Stations worked on 4 out of 5 bands were: CS5DX, CT3DL, G6PZ, GM2T, OH6RX and PI4DX.

My contest log has already been uploaded to LotW.

 

Congratulations to J49A for a good score from Dia island, EU-187 (my neighbours).

 

Looking forward to the results in RSGB IOTA Contest web site.

 

 

Even more paperwork ...

Quite earlier than what it used to be in the previous years, I received yesterday in the mail the two paper awards, concerning the CQ WW contests of 2012.

Here they are:

In the CW part, I just fooled around, working new band-slots for my DXCC Challenge award, but in the SSB part, I was devoted to the event, resulting to a 

good ranking, having in mind the vast participation in my category, plus a new country record for Dodecanese.

Having the latter in mind, there has been a spark at the back of my head, about a new long-term target, as far as contesting is concerned ... TBC ...

Well, well ... what is this ??

Had a notification of courier mail on my door today, so just went out for a walk and passed by the courier service office to pick up my package.

It was from Austria ... "Hmmm ... I am not expecting anything from Austria, hmmm ..." 

Opening it up this is what I found inside:

 Hmmm ...

Hmmmmmmm ...

What could be inside this nice box ??

Having heard of the news today, that a package exploded in the Greek Postal Services premises, which headed for some high-ranked guy, I got skeptical ...

Nah ... I haven`t hurt anyone, nor am I high-ranked ... let`s open the damned thing:

How could I forget one of my favorite contest`s last year participation ??

It was a very nice present from my good friend Gerhard, OE1GTU and a fine pay off for my effort in 2012`s International Naval Contest.

Really looking forward to INC-2013.

RSGB IOTA Contest 2013 coming up !!

This year's RSGB's IOTA Contest is special, because RSGB celebrates its Centenary, since it was founded back in 1913.

That is why, there are special awards for those participating in VHF Field Day or RSGB IOTA Contest.

Specifically for the latter, all you need to have is at least 100 QSOs including 20 multipliers, in order to be eligible for these special awards.

 

The dates, rules, and all information you may need on 2013's RSGB IOTA Contest may be found here.

 

If you are interested in the announced IOTA operations for the IOTA Contest, just visit NG3K's respective site here.

 

And, if you're interested in the RSGB IOTA Programme in general, here is the official web site.

 

Following last couple of years' top rankings in my participation categories, I will be again present in the IOTA Contest, putting EU-001 on-air from my home QTH in the island of Rhodes. I will decide my category of participation, most possibly, the day before the contest, due to several other commitments.

 

73 es hpe to cu on air during the IOTA Contest.

Stathis, SV5DKL

Rhodes Island, EU-001

 

 



 

1600 DXCC Challenge points overpassed !! Next target ... 1700 points !!

My buddies from DX Plus M.I. Hellenic Amateur Radio Team uploaded their SX5KL Dxpedition log to LotW, which gave me 3 new DXCC Challenge confirmations for SV5 (!!!) on 160/30/12 meters. Tnx a million for a great one, boyz !!

Believe it or not, even if you are a SV5 station, you cannot easily confirm your own entity on every band so easily ...

Maybe this happens because only a handful (or even less !!) SV5 stations use either LotW or RAAG bureau services, instead the majority of active ops demand a SASE + postage expenses, "money" as I like to call it.
If your purpose is to cover maintenance costs, guys, why don't you ask for some sponsorship from EU DX Foundation ?? ...

Anyway, with the new Challenge confirmations, my current (13/Jun/2013) DXCC Challenge totals has reached number 1601 !! That was a good target set back on late November 2012 and was relatively easily reached.

Next target set is 1700 DXCC Challenge points to reach until end of 2013 !!

Below, are my current DXCC Statistics from my LotW account, both for my current (SV5DKL) and my old (SV1DKL) callsigns:

 



At the same time, I have updated my current DXCC scores, which you can have a look at, clicking "My DXCC scores" tab at "My pages" column at the right side of this blog.

 

Enjoy Radio !!

 

2nd GTC CW Cup awarding ceremony ... 3rd GTC CW Cup on the way !!

Yesterday, 9th June 2013, during the Greek Hamfest organized by RAAG, was held the awarding ceremony of the 2nd GTC CW Cup, of the trophies and the paper awards for the respective winners of each category.

As I am the GTC CW Cup Manager, I had the honour to present the trophies and the paper awards to all winners that were present. Below are some photos from the event:

 

Further details at the official site of Greek Telegraphy Club at the following link:

http://www.raag.org/displayITM1.asp?ITMID=512&LANG=GR

 

With this awarding ceremony, another successful organization of the Greek Telegraphy Club has been completed.

 

Currently, we are finalizing the last details for the 3rd GTC CW Cup and a complete, fully detailed informative e-mail will follow in the upcoming days.

















11th World HST Championship - Borovets, Bulgaria - September 2013 - 2nd Official Bulletin

BFRA, being the Organizer of the 11th World High Speed Telegraphy Championship to be held in Borovets, Bulgaria during 22-26 September 2013, has issued just yesterday the 2nd Official Bulletin for the event.

You may read the original text clicking the following link: 2nd Official Bulletin

And for those that haven't already read the 1st Official Bulletin, here is the respective link: 1st Official Bulletin

Think seriously about participating in this large scale HST event. It will be a great fest and celebration of CW, where every CW lover will have the chance to meet with the best HSTers worldwide, make new friends and experience the participation in such an event, which is a real thrill, believe me !!



 

1st Balkan HST Championship - Official Results

1st Balkan HST Championship was held during 31 May - 2 June in Lovech, Bulgaria, with great success.
I was lucky to be there and participate in the championship, managing to finish 2nd in Category F (Males).

Below are the official results of the Championship, as distributed by the Organizing Committee:

and, below is my Certificate for my achievements in the Championship:

I also got a silver medal for this ranking, which will be uploaded soon at "My trophies" page at the right column of the present blog.

I enjoyed the most of the 1st Balkan HST Championship and I am really looking forward to the next main HST event, if it will not be the World HST Championship in coming September in Borovets, Bulgaria, it will definitely be the 2nd Balkan HST Championship next year in Romania.

DARC DLD-400 Award Approved

It's been a while since I had applied for DLD-400 (at least 400 German DOKs confirmed) on 15m band, solely through DARC's DCL, in collaboration with eqsl.cc

I recently got the approval and below is the finalized result of my application:

 

Soon, I will receive the original paper award + the respective DLD-400 lapel pin, to be included in "My Trophies" page.

 

I hope soon enough I will be able to apply for the DLD-500, too. I'm already half way there ;-)

 

2nd GTC CW Cup results are out

Since yesterday, the final results of the 2nd GTC CW Cup are published at the official site of Greek Telegraphy Club.

Visit http://www.raag.org/displayITM1.asp?ITMID=513&LANG=EN to view them.

We are all looking forward to the 3rd GTC CW Cup, which will be held on the 5th & 6th of October 2013, with better organization and interest.