After the forced interruption during the April round of the SSB League, I was looking forward to the OM Activity Contest. Connectors and cables are certainly the most common problem with electronics. I replaced my unreliable microphone cable after the SSB League. However, the date of the OM Activity Contest coincided with an amateur radio gathering in Drozdovo. It was expected that some stations would choose to attend that gathering rather than participate in the contest.
In such a case, stations that aren’t far from Drozdovo—like Tibor OM3SEM—have an advantage. Now in his eighties, he is a regular contest participant and a very skilled operator. We’ll try the first contact before 7:00 a.m. I receive a 59 report on QRP. After increasing the power to 100W, the signal gains an additional 15 decibels. Here’s what the contact with OM3SEM looked like during the contest:
Propagation conditions seemed very good, but even so, there was probably room for every station to send out a call. Many times I saw an open frequency with no stations at all. This time, Jirko OK2PGJ decided to run QRP, and this is how he sounded:
I struggled to hear Laco OM2ADM’s signal:
Which signals, on the other hand, were the strongest? I’d pick Martin OM4MM’s signal:
Then Dan OM1DK’s signal:
I’d also include Jan OM0AJ among the strong signals, but I made the contact with him on the second receiver of my Yaesu FT-1000MP transceiver, so he isn’t audible in the recording. But Laco OM2RL is audible:
In the end, there were 51 contacts and 22 multipliers, which is more than the course of the OM Activity Contest had suggested. At the very end, I managed to make contacts with OM3KWZ, operated by Števo OM7KW:
And also a contact with Honza OK1MNV in the very last minute:
All contacts in MP3 format from the April 2024 OM Activity Contest: