{"id":4521,"date":"2023-10-30T13:43:12","date_gmt":"2023-10-30T11:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/?p=4521"},"modified":"2023-11-28T13:04:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T11:04:37","slug":"arrl-eme-contest-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/?p=4521","title":{"rendered":"ARRL EME Contest 2023."},"content":{"rendered":"

First Leg (28-29, Oct.2023)<\/strong>
\nPlan was to participate only on 23 cm, because all was perfect: RIG and the dish.
\nMy 70 cm array (2×19 el) was damaged  2 weeks ago by a strongest storm.
\nBut Mr. Murphy was waiting for me this time!
\nAfter the first 9 QSO, I heard an unpleasant sound inside my 1 KW SSPA, similar to the sound of a welding arc. That’s all. PA died…
\nAfter a couple of hours I grabbed from the shelf a spare 200 W SSPA and tested my echo.
\nOn average, I’ve got -21 dB (it was -11 dB before) and continued. Before  the Moon was hided behind the trees, I completed 29 QSO. All were digital. No one CW QSO, because I couldn’t \"\"<\/a>hear my echo. Big stress…\"\"<\/a>When I open my PA (this is not a home built, but Kuhne, (MKU PA 23CM-1000W CU), I saw a terrible picture.  And absolutely inexplicable: a lot of dead insects inside!
\nHow they could get inside a completely closed amplifier is impossible to explain. But they were there! 
\nHowever, later I saw a small hole (2mm) in the lid. Why was it made? Who made it? I did not purchase this amplifier new. The previous owner had it located outside, next to the parabola, but in a completely closed box. Of course, the box was not hermetically sealed. This amplifier worked for me for a year and a half in light mode . No more than 20A at 50 V.  The SWR (cable + septum) was 1: 1.17 (checked immediately after the accident).
\nCould these insects be the cause of the accident? Maybe… I have no idea whether such extensive damage to the board can be repaired? Need to ask any advise from the EME community. 
\nThe result after the 1-st Leg: 48 QSO, all Q65 mode. Much less, than 1 year ago…<\/p>\n

2nd Leg is finished (25-26, Nov, 2023)<\/strong>.
\nAdded  21 QSO more (+3 CW). Total  result – 67 QSO<\/strong> only on 23 cm. Sure, to work with only 150 W at the feed is not the same, as 700W@feed… But still possible! I was happy to get new DXCC – 4W8X (Timor Leste) during this contest. This is the big DX-Pedition to Timor-Leste. They are on the all HF bands + EME on 50,  144, 432 and 1296 MHz! More information regarding to this great DX-Pedition is here<\/a>.
\nAnd below my ARRL EME Contest 2023 QSO-Map:
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Leg (28-29, Oct.2023) Plan was to participate only on 23 cm, because all was perfect: RIG and the dish. My 70 cm array (2×19 el) was damaged  2 weeks ago by a strongest storm. But Mr. Murphy was waiting … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contests"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4521"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4537,"href":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4521\/revisions\/4537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/es1rf.interval.ee\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}