Somehow my interest about radio comes from my childhood. Those days I was already
fascinated by listening to international broadcasters on the old tube radio of my
grandmother and trying "strange" antennas in order to improve the range of my
"walkie-talkie". Anyway, let's say that I officially began in 1983 when I got my
VHF license (EB6KU).
Although it took me some years to get ready on my own for VHF DX'ing, I used to
participate in the VHF contests with the Radio Club Mallorca team (EA6RCM). We had little
experience and few equipments but a lot of willpower and effort. Without any doubt my
interest about the VHF was born those days.
Later I shared the activity on HF and VHF for some years, moving finally to the last
one for many years. As an anecdote I remember that the first station I heard with my own
station (144-28 transverter and collinear antenna) was SV1OE by sporadic-E on June
1985. An encouraging beginning, without doubt !.
The experiences I remember the most are those related to portable operations. I
specially remember the National UHF contest in 1984 when I operated, together with EA6JD,
EA6UV and EA6UW, from "puig Galatzo", a 1025 m. high mountain that can only be
climbed by foot. We spent a week moving the material day after day, including a 2.5 KW.
generator, an FT-902 as IF for the transverter and two 20 elements Yagis. We didn't win
the contest, but the experience was unforgettable.
There are also difficult to forget the first big tropo and
sporadic-E openings. I was
fascinated with their charm and how easy was to work so far away stations with so little
working conditions (10 W and 11 elements).
I was soon interested about Meteor Scatter. Many times I tried to listen on
random, but without success. I suppose that because due to the lack of preamplifier and
mainly of information. Even so I made a program for the ZX-81 in order to be able to
transmit QRQ and I came out on the European VHF net for the first time in order to get
some skeds. There I found, in general, many HAM's that helped and supported me with my
first tests. Finally and using a "mechanically-braked" tape I completed my first
skeds with DK2PR on January 1986.
Regarding the Moon Bounce on 144 MHz, although I had heard some stations
via the moon, I didn't try any QSO till I got a good power amplifier. On January 21st,
1991 I called W5UN with a single
Yagi,
but without an answer. The day after I got a phone-call from an EA6 HAM passing me a
message from Dave telling he had heard me perfectly well but that he had had problems to
reply. One week after we made the QSO very easily. From that moment on I began to plan to
be regularly active with an array. I want to thank the support I got from EA2LU and
EA3DXU at that time. In 1992 I had a 4x17 Tonna array with which I was regularly
active, giving the chance to work a new country to many stations around the world. In 1994
I set up an array of 8x17 M2 that I used till
Nov-2001 when it was destroyed in a wind storm. In
Oct-2004 I set up a new array, similar to the
former (8x17 M2 5WL), but making it more robust and slightly improving the gain.
With this array I currently can work stations as small as a single
long Yagi and 50 W in JT65B and with some more power even in CW.
Regarding 50 MHz, in 1992 I got one of the first permissions to operate in
this band in EA. Little after I set up a 6 el. Cushcraft antenna on top of the
HF antenna and with this system I worked 146 DXCC until 2009, when
I replaced the 6m antenna by a larger 6M9HKW,
alone in the tower.
My first tests on 23 cm. were during the summer of 1989. In this band any QSO is very
exciting from Mallorca, if you take into account that the closer stations are more than
200 Km. away (a real DX). Without doubt, one of the most exciting moments in my live was
when I heard from JM19QS the CW signal from YT3WW on 1296.100 MHz via tropo. confirming my reception,
in one of the first ever QSO (if not the first) between EA6 and YU on that band.
In 2014 I replaced the old tower that was
holding the 6m antenna and in the new tower I added a 5 band (10-20m) 10 el,
EAntenna 59+, which is giving me excellent results and many new ones on the HF
bands. I also added wire dipoles for the lower bands.
Since then I have had the chance to meet many VHF DXers
and it has always been a good opportunity to share impressions about our common
hobby.
.
My activity nowadays
My QTH for radio is an old farm in the middle of Mallorca, 35 Km. away from the city
of Palma. The main advantage of this QTH is the fact that the closest
neighbour is more than 500 meters away, and there is no TVI problems at all, and the main
disadvantage is the high electric noise level of the area. One of the bigger transformer
stations in the island with several power lines of 220 KV. is less than 1 Km. away.
Depending of the power consumption and atmospheric conditions the noise can be up to S9+10,
making impossible any traffic. Apart from that it is not specially good for tropo except
from 10 to 45 degrees where I have a very good
takeoff.
My working conditions now are:
TS-790 for 144 MHz-EME
Converter + SDR for 144-EME reception.
IC-9100 for 144 MHz, 432 MHz and satellites
IC-7000 for HF and 50 MHz
Transverter LT-23S from SSB-Electronic for 1296 MHz
Click here to view some pictures of my shack
and antennas in 1993
Click here to view some
pictures of my shack and antennas nowadays
I also have a modest station at my home in the city
of Palma. 12 el. M2 for 144 MHz and 27 el. M2 for 432.
I am currently regularly active on 6
meters (as EH6VQ till mid July 2006) , 2 meters Moon-Bounce and
in the HF bands. Skeds for 144
MHz EME and MS can be
requested sending me an E-Mail
Do you have a directional antenna, a 2m SSB transceiver with 50 W
output and a PC?
If your answer is YES then, believe it or not, you are capable of
making a QSO with EA6VQ (and other stations) using the Moon as a reflector. Click
here to know how.
Awards
These are just a few of main radio awards I have received:
5 Band DXCC
Actually 11 band
144 MHz DXCC
50 MHz DXCC
Mixed DXCC
1.8 MHz DXCC
IOTA VHF
IOTA 600 HF
144 MHz WAC
50 MHz WAC
5 Band WAC
144 MHz WAS
100 EA CW
CIA Oro CW
CIA Oro Phone
CIA Oro Mixed
EA DX 100 50 MHz
EA DX 100 CW
EA DX 100 Phone
EA DX 100 MIXED
Locator EA 144 MHz
Locator EA 50 MHz
TTLOC 144 MHz
TTLOC 50 MHz
TTLOC EME
TTLOC MS
TTLOC HF
40 zone WAZ EME
QSL card Policy
My QSL card policy is very clear and it is always based on following rules:
I only send QSL cards in advance for special QSO (New countries, grids,
etc).
QSL cards received via the buro are always returned
via the buro as soon as I can process them. (Always within the year)
QSL cards received direct are returned depending on the following:
If they come with a SAE (Self Addressed Envelope) and
at least two $US (IRC's are no longer accepted) they are returned direct within one week.
Otherwise, they are returned via the buro.
I also regularly upload my log to Clublog and LoTW
My activity as a Radio Amateur
German
French
Portuguese
Russian
Home page
Site map
Radio Sherlock search engine
Terms of service
Privacy
Cookies