OE0HQ in IARU HF World Championship 2020

The Radio-Amateur-Klub of the TU Wien participates in IARU HF World Championship 2020 (during July 11-12, 2020) as one of the Austrian headquarter stations with the special call OE0HQ of the Austrian Amateur Radio Society.

Multi Operator and IARU Member Society HQ Station operations must adhere strictly to the regulations and physical distancing guidelines issued by the responsible health authorities and the World Health Organization and in effect at the time of the event, even if observing the guidelines is not legally required in our location.

We will work you on the 10m band in SSB. 73 es GL in Contest.

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WPX Contest in CW 2020

During the last weekend of May, we enjoy the WPX Contest in CW.
This classic HF contest is based on an award offered by CQ Magazine for working all prefixes. Held on the last weekend of March (SSB) and May (CW), the contest draws thousands of entries globally. The radio amateur club of the TU Wien takes part as Multi Operator, Single Transmitter, Assisted Station on all bands with the call OE1XTU – even in the times of Covid-19. We observe the rules, use facial masks, and frequently disinfect our hands. The fotos below show the operators Gudrun, Horia, Helmut and Chris during our Sunday-only activity. We worked 230 QSOs yielding 62k raw score in the contest.

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Japan on 6m

On May 23, 2020, Tom, OE3PTC, worked Japan in FT8 on 6m using 50W transmit power and a 5-element Loop Fed Array (EAntenna 50LFA5). See WSJT-X screenshot below:

Exploring Microwaves with El Cuatro

Bernhard and Chris met on May 17 near Jubiläumswarte for exploring wireless connectivity at frequencies above 1 GHz. The sightseeing tower is still closed to the public, so we set up our El Cuatro gear with Vivaldi antennas nearby at 449m above sea level. Alas, no activity observed besides us on the 23cm, 9cm, and 6cm bands. Only on 2401,9 MHz we were able to hear some QSOs via the OE1XKU repeater.

Bernhard and Chris

El Cuatro with Vivaldi

Bernhard

All OE Exercise 80/40m – Do you know your status?

In times of the virus, it is even more important than ever to know your status. In the morning period, only the 80m-band proved to be useable with little exceptions on 40m (mostly ground wave contacts, very few by sky wave). The screenshot below shows our coverage of Austria’s administrative districts and other AOEE status details after the morning exercise period: coloured in blue: contacted on 80m only, coloured in green: contacted on 40m only, coloured red: both bands usable. White spaces: no contacts.

SaigaAOEE Logger

 

In the second AOEE period, the 40m-band proved to be more friendly for contacts, especially during the end of the exercise when 40m suddenly opened up nicely.

The map below shows our coverage of Austria’s administrative districts at the end of AOEE. Still, there are many white spots on the map (meaning that we didn’t reach anybody there, e.g. the district JE), most districts by far were successfully contacted on 80m only, but in the last exercise minutes, additional contacts on 40m quickly added to the picture.

Multi-Operator Station OE1XTU in Times of the Virus

Are strict social distancing rules compatible with running a multi-operator station? Well, yes and no, sort of both. Legally yes, but wearing a facial mask during a contest is a competitive disadvantage. Fotos below give some impressions of the team (OE1KDK, OE1BQH, OE1GAQ, OE1OMA, OE1VMC): The paper work before the contest, using WebSDR on an iPad to follow the traffic when not actively operating, … and last not least: can you spot the hand sanitiser near the rig?

 

Horia, OE1BQH

Dieter, OE1KDK

Gudrun, OE1OMA

Paper Work

Chris, OE1VMC

Gerald, OE1GAQ

Preparing for the All OE Exercise AOEE 80/40m

The Radio-Amateur-Klub of the TU Wien prepares for its participation in the upcoming All Austrian Emergency Exercise on May 1 in times of COVID-19: AOEE 80/40m. This year, the OE1XTU team members will be Dieter OE1KDK, Gudrun OE1OMA, Gerald OE1GAQ, Horia OE1BQH, and Chris OE1VMC. The implementation of the required social distancing rules pose an extra challenge for any multi-operator station in the 2020 edition of the contest. We keep you posted.

In parallel to the traditional AOEE, there will an event called Hedy Lamarr emergency radio exercise. Together with OE1XAW, the club radio station of the A1 in the arsenal and the CARO club station OE1XRW of the ORF, this event will be started in parallel to the AOEE 2020, in which information from all over Austria will be obtained via radiograms / radio email and voice. The aim is to be prepared for emergency situations in which the reporting of traditional news providers to the ORF fails and information can only be provided by local people. Approximately 5000 radio amateurs are licensed in Austria and regularly take to the waves to exercise their skills and capability to assist in emergency communications.

Finally, the CQ WW DX 2019 Results!

Wien Rundspruch in times of the virus

You can listen to the Vienna broadcast („Wien Rundspruch“) on each second and fourth Sunday of the month at 09:00am local time.

In times of the Covid-19 induced restrictions, the Wien Rundspruch proves to be a stable institution of high popularity. Many thanks to the Team. Speakers of the Vienna broadcast are YL Karin OE1SKC, OM Andreas OE1ADS and OM Roland OE1RSA. Music editing is done by OM Andreas OE1ADS, while the broadcast streaming is managed and implemented by  OM Roland OE1RSA and the Editor-in-Chief is YL Karin OE1SKC.

It is actually broadcasted in parallel by very diverse technologies (analog and digital), different transmission media (fixed and wireless), and carriers (from baseband via HF, VHF, UHF to SHF). For the complete list of your reception possibilities, see here.

The photo below shows the OE1VMC/P setup used on March 22 to receive the Vienna broadcast on 2401,9 MHz in F3E on the 13cm band transmitted from OE1XKU. The portable rig is an El Cuatro EC22R connected to a 12-element Yagi-Uda antenna for vertical polarisation.

Stay healthy, 73 GL de Chris

6th Icebreaker Round

All German-speaking freshly licensed, re-entrants, SWLers and „old hands“ are cordially invited to the 6th Icebreaker Round on January 7th, 2020.

YL Gudrun OE1OMA and OM Lukas OE1LHU (foto, below) organised and moderated this round. The rig is the VHF/UHF all-mode transceiver IC-910 and the antenna is shown below: it is a high gain vertically polarised triple band antenna (Diamond X-5000, antenna gain 4,5 dBi on 2m band, 8,3 dBi on 70cm band, and 11,7 dBi on 23cm band).

Gudrun OE1OMA and Lukas OE1LHU

OE1XTU antenna farm

Click here for further details