At the end of May, I fine-tuned the antenna. It was resonating at nearly 3800 kHz, which wasn’t optimal. Extending the arms of the inverted V shifted the resonance by about 60 kHz lower, as intended. No other changes were made to the contest setup, so it consisted of an FT-1000MP with an INRAD roofing filter, a small transistor amplifier delivering about 300 W to the aforementioned antenna on an RDM-12 mast, and N1MM+.
However, even during a test contact with Števo OM7KW and other radio amateurs, I noticed relatively poor reception. I cannot tell, though, whether this is due to propagation conditions or noise generated by electrical equipment in the vicinity. Lately, there’s been a flood of devices that produce a significant amount of interference on amateur radio frequencies.
In response to the SSB League call, Cyro, OM7AAC, calls—my father, Števo, OM7KW. The contact lasts until the start of the contest and is thus the first entry in my log. Reception remains challenging, and I often have to ask for the data to be repeated. Milan OK1IF, for example, got through apparently on his first try. Many of the call signs of those calling are new. This is likely due to the fact that there are groups of amateur radio operators in the hills preparing for the OM3AU Memorial and the Microwave Contest. As a warm-up, they probably also tried the 80-meter contest.
QSO rate in the SSB League 06/2023
I was lucky—I managed over 100 contacts in the first hour. I hadn’t managed that in quite a while. It wasn’t easy due to the challenging reception conditions, as you can hear in the recordings: