VKVPA, where everything worked. Over the past month, I’ve been battling COVID-19, so there weren’t many opportunities for innovation. Just before the VKVPA deadline, Jano OM0AAJ visited me and expressed interest in coming to see how I was transmitting.
February weather is unpredictable. While Storm Ylenia was raging a few days before the February contest, and very strong winds were blowing in some areas even over the weekend, conditions near Trenčín and Myjava were bearable. On Sunday morning, however, snowflakes began to fall, and it rained heavily for most of the drive up to the hilltop. We were lucky here at JN88ST—there was only a thin layer of fresh snow on the ground, but not a trace of it after the rain.
This time, I also had a second radio set ready as a backup, as well as a backup power source in the form of a battery. But neither was needed. The generator started on the first try, and we didn’t shut it off until after the VHF contest; the Kenwood TR-751E was working fine. So, an 8-element DK7ZB Yagi and 25W. I’m logging in N1MM+ and using wtKST connected to AirScout.
Most of the time I was scanning for stations and simultaneously arranging contacts via the KST chat. It’s a shame we didn’t manage to make a contact to the east. We tried several times with Gabo OM0ATP and Peter UT5DV, but I only picked up an unreadable signal once. We also couldn’t make a connection with Fedor OK1TRW, whom Draho OM3CQF heard from a nearby hill.
The log is also missing the JO60 locator and a contact to Germany. Apparently, propagation conditions were better at the beginning, and later, when stations from there started beaming toward us, making contacts became more difficult.
Jano OM0AAJ was watching and was probably thinking his own thoughts. Operating the radio, logging contacts in N1MM+, communicating via the KST chat, and adjusting the antenna all at once can be quite a challenge. In the first hour, we made 25 contacts; in the second hour, one more; and the last hour yielded the fewest contacts. So, in the end, we had 68 contacts and 17 locator squares
By noon, the temperature outside had risen to a pleasant +8°C. We packed up the entire setup in twenty minutes (thanks, Jano!).