May 31
144 MHz EME
27 May 2011 I have been listening for a while on the moon and copied some stations.
8 May 2011 I worked K6MYC on his 74th birthday and later added I3MEK (JN55) as #101. These were the first stations I worked with the Flex-1500 and the transverter. With the SDR-IQ and MAP-65 as 2nd receiver, I was able to receive 20 more stations. I even found stations I did not see on the logger.

144 MHz
26 May 2011 I was late for the big opening today. I had an ear on 2m, but no Es signals were copied.
3 May 2011 NAC (Nordic Activity Contest: Conditions were not bad and I worked up to 850km. All in CW

50 MHz
31 May 2011 Open in many directions. Worked were JY4NE (KM71) and 5B4AIF (KM64). Heard were 9Y4VU and KP4EIT with good signals.
30 May 2011 Just listening some Es signals - nothing worked.
29 May 2011 This was a rather silent day on 6m; but suddenly in the evening there was a lonely CQ-caller and I worked him: A92IO (LL56).
27 May 2011 It was silent in the morning until Aurora came up - I had to be away for the next two hours. When I returned the Au was gone but big Aurora-E opened. I worked a number of stations with best of all was TF3ML (HP94).
26 May 2011 I came home rather late and had limited time. 6m was wide open, but nothing really new was heard. I had my fun with listening and worked only a few stations (OK1 and SP7) , where the skip was just a little over 600km.
25 May 2011 A day with little activity. A few Italian stations were heard.
24 May 2011 Strong opening to the south-east. I heard a weak 4X in between. To the other side it opened to the west. I could work KP4EIT (FK68 / 7860km) - my ODX this year so far.
23 May 2011 I tuned around on the band, but nothing special heard.
22 May 2011 Some stations from UR, I, EA6 and EA3 were worked. Alltogether I got more than 70 stations in the log this weekend.
21 May 2011 6m opening all over Europe. Starting with North-East I worked ES, YL, LY and SP2 (only 555km). Later propagation swapped around and I caught a lot of stations from the UK and Ireland. Again strong backscatter present. The 2m opening did not reach here.
20 May 2011 I worked a few EA3 and I1 and DK1MAX via strong backscatter. Many stations were heard via backscatter.
19 May 2011 HA5JI was worked with a very fluttery signal. Sounded more like IonoScatter with Meteor bursts. Nothing else.
12 May 2011 First real loud Sporadic E worked. ODX was EA8BWL (IL18). A high-speed CW contact was made with 7X2ARA (JM16). EA6, IS0 and I8 was worked too. The D4C/b beacon was in and out up to S2.
1 May 2011 The Sporadic E (Es) openings do not reach up here in the North often. But The first contact was made today with EB4IC (IM78) which was a new grid.

Posted by Christoph Petermann

May 17
Since a while I am running the ZX6-6 on the 6m band, which is a very rugged antenna with good performance. As there is nothing what could not be made better I calculated an extension to that antenna, which improves its antenna gain by 0,8 dB. The first sample has been built and it is already doing a great job.



Read more in my article on the ZX6-7CY Antenna

Posted by Christoph Petermann

May 9
On Friday the 6 May I wanted to do some EME operating on 2m. I found the preamplifier and the coaxial relais on my tower dead. I had to take it down and make the repair. On Saturday it was working again and I had some time for EME on Sunday.

Posted by Christoph Petermann

May 2
Weather was unbelievable. After 2 years I took my stuff outside and mounted the new D7000 camera onto the GP mount. Just for test I imaged the Ring Nebula M57, North America Nebula NGC7000, the Global Cluster M13 and other. I exposed the images no longer than one minute and switched off the noise suppression. So not many words here; go to the images which are HERE !

Posted by Christoph Petermann