RTU Vollversammlung

The general assembly of the „Radio-Amateur-Klub der Technsichen Universität Wien“ took place on Wednesday July 17, 2019. Seventeen club members met in the Seminar Room 389-2 at the Institute of Telecommunications. Club members were invited to bring along a (small!) piece of hardware or an introductory presentation slide. Please contact OM Chris, OE1VMC, in case you didn’t receive the invitation by email.

AGENDA

1. Welcome
2. Introductory Round
3. Activity Report by the Board
4. Report by the Treasurer
5. Member Reports
6. Resolution on Suggestions to be forwarded to the Board
7. Social Event

73!

 

 

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With 40 dBW EIRP on the X-Band

The X-Band Rig was recently boosted from 250mW to 4W transmit power. Edgar, Jakob OE1JMW, and Martin OE3UMB rewired the OE1XTU Rig and included the 4W power amplifier supplied by DB6NT into the setup. Together with the 57cm diameter offset dish, this yields  40 dBW (EIRP). After initial measurements, the Rig went on air. Several QSOs with  OE3A, OM3KII, OM3LQ and OE4WOG/p were logged on June 2 and two weeks later, on June 16, using SSB modulation. 73 de Chris

 

HAMNET @ TU Wien

Since today, 16 May 2019, the Radio-Amateur-Klub of the TU Wien is connected to HAMNET. Daniel, OE3MZD, installed a suitable Wireless LAN router with directional antenna on the institute’s roof and established the bidirectional link between OE1XTU and OE1XTW at a data rate of approx. 100 MB/s. More to follow and congrats!

OE1XTU in All Austrian Emergency Exercise 2019

May 1 is the traditional date of the All Austrian Emergency Exercise (AOEE). The announcement (rules) for the All Austrian Exercise AOEE 80 / 40m can be found here

The radio amateurs of Austria, together with the Austrian Red Cross, the Johannitern, the ORF and A1 Telekom Austria on May 1 participate in the Austria-wide emergency communication exercise using shortwave radio to capture the situation and support the ad-hoc erection of emergency telecommunications infrastructure.

This year, our OE1XTU Team consists of the following operators: YL Laila OE1LZA, OM Dieter OE8KDK, OM Horia OE1BQH, OM Markus OE1AKA, OM Gerald OE1GAQ, OM Chris OE1VMC, and Ivan. Ivan is eagerly aspiring his amateur radio license and plans for the exam in June 2019. We take part in the AOEE contest as a high power station (using 200 W transmit power) in SSB.

Hypothetical scenario for the emergency radio exercise:

An atomic explosion in the higher air layers in eastern Europe triggered a NEMP (Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse) and destroyed all commercial electronics in the area directly affected. The NEMP damaged the control system in an unknown number of nuclear power plants in such a way that in some reactor blocks the cooling failed and the meltdown occurred there. The aftermath was a blackout in much of Europe. Austria is also affected by the Black Out and the nuclear Fall Out.

 

 

 

Ivan, OE8KDK, OE1BQH

SteppIR DB36 Yagi

SteppIR DB-36 Yagi

OE1XTU Rig

Ivan, OE8KDK, and OE1BQH

Ivan, OE8KDK, OE1AKA, OE1BQH

OE8KDK, OE1BQH, and Ivan

 

We logged a total of 319 QSOs during the contest of which only 15 were on 40 meters. The table below follows the recent solar trend. The Austrian map below illustrates the geographical distribution of our QSO partners: blue areas show districts contacted on 80 meters, red areas show districts which we contacted on both 80 and 40 meters. White areas were not contacted at all.

The jump in the number of QSOs between 2018 and 2019 is partly due to our increased transmit power. During the years 2015-2018, we used the FT-2000 transceiver, barefoot, with only 100 W whereas this year, we upgraded to FTDX-5000MP giving 200 W.

 

CQ WW SSB 2018 Score

The scores of CQ World-Wide SSB Contest 2018 are now announced. The Radio-Amateur-Club of the TU Wien participated in the category „Multi-Operator Single-Transmitter – Low Power“. It was lotsa fun. Further details on scores, categories, and stories are found here.

Unboxing the FTDX-5000

Today, we unboxed the FTDX-5000 and installed in our shack. This replaces our HF rig and main workhorse, the FT-2000. Previously, this FTDX-5000 radio served the team  Team Y82F during WRTC 2018. The Y82F team consisted of Emir, E77DX (OE1EMS) and Chris, 9A5K . In the fotos below, you see Gerald, OE1GAQ, and Stefan, OE1ABU, eagerly testing the almost new FTDX-5000 transceiver.

OE1XTU Rig

 

Microwave Activity from Gloriette

Chris, OE1VMC, took part in February’s microwave activity using handheld equipment only. QTH was Gloriette hill in Schönbrunn garden, 231m above sea level. Equipment for 70cm: a modified Alinco DJ-S45CQS. Equipment for 23cm, 13cm, 9cm, 6cm: El Cuatro, see fotos below.

Regarding propagation conditions: the photos below show high level of air pollution over Vienna with lots of atmospheric scattering. The Cobenzl, Kahlenberg, and Leopoldsberg are totally obscured.

OE1XTU Shack Redesign

Finally, the historical wooden drawer cabinet needed to retire and we acquired a fancy modern one with blue drawers. This was the start of a major redesign of the shack layout. See photos below with Gerald OE1GAQ and Stefan OE1ABU hard a work. Still a lot of things need to be sorted out. After the dust has somewhat settled, we will replace the FT-2000 by our new FT-5000MP.

OE1XTU Rig

First contact with OE1XAW on 23cm

On Jan. 9, 2019, Herbert OE3KJN and Chris OE1VMC scheduled a first QSO between OE1XAW and OE1XTU on 23cm in F3E. We used „El Cuatro“ EC19r handheld transceiver with two Vivaldi antennas (H-Pol.) designed by Fred OE8FNK on the roof of the Institute (Locator: JN88ee47me,  28m AGL). On the side of OE1XAW, the Rig is a FT736 which supports 6m, 2m, 70cm, 23cm and the antenna is a discone. Foto below shows the El Cuatro with its two Vivaldi antennas (separate antennas for Tx and Rx) and two additional 70cm walkie-talkies used for QSO coordination.

OE1XTU with FT8 in ARRL RTTY Roundup 2019

The Radio Amateur Club of the TU Wien participates in this year’s ARRL RTTY Roundup.  This  is the first amateur radio contest on the short wave bands which fully supports the digital mode FT8. The new FT8 contest mode is implemented in the WSJT-X software version 2.0.0, available since early December 2018. Apart from the new FT8 contest mode, also the message decoder has been improved.

The WSJT-X decoder for FT8 includes optional initializations that exploit the incrementing information during a minimal QSO. This a priori (AP) information increases sensitivity of the decoder by up to 4 dB, at the cost of a slightly higher rate of false decodes. The FT8 decoder threshold is around a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of -20 dB when AP information is not exploited. When AP is enabled, however, successful decodes are obtained down to an SNR of -24 dB which is nicely illustrated by the screenshot below. OE1XTU always uses „Deep“ decoding with „enable AP“. Many thanks to OMs Joe K1JT and Steven K9AN, and all the WSJT-X developers for this great mode.