5P5T, full setup at the contest site  Since 2007 5P5T has been active in the Region 1 VHF September contest, with 2024 it makes 18 consecutive tests in a row. The equipment and team have seen changes over the years, but long-lasting friendships and a barn at OZ1FDH has enabled us to build up and develop our station setup. Last year after successfully testing an Italab PA we decided that going forward it was time to make the full change from tube PAs to LDMOS. More than a decade of bumpy transport and use had taken its toll on the old PAs, they had started breaking down and a major refurbishment was needed. Another reason was the Russian tubes used in the PAs. Supporting Russian manufacture is not good for anybody, and we decided to get rid of every piece of Russian derived equipment for good. Station and antennasThe setup we are using is a 3-array phased system of 8x3 element each and 4x10 element, all DK7ZB designs and all vertically stacked to secure as wide a hor ...

A different year The year 2020 has been the year of anomalies, also for VHF-contesting. With the covid pandemic and the IARU Region 1 shut down of multioperator contesting in the spring, the question was if there would be a September contest at all. A number of individual IARU member states had opened for multioperator contests in the late spring and early summer, but IARU was still taking a cautionary approach. Furthermore, in the weeks leading up to the contest the infection rates were rising and maybe PA5DD Uffe could not join the team due to travel restrictions, and definitely AG6QV Frank would be locked down in the US. It turned out OK, IARU decided under the extraordinary circumstances not to impose their own rules but would leave it up to national guidelines and the individual member organizations whether or not to allow multioperator contesting. For OZ we were in the clear, but of course we also asked ourselves if it would be safe to participate in light of a covid infection ri ...

In 2018 we had a major redesign of our antenna system inspired by a lecture given by Henning DF9IC at the Nordic VUSHF meeting, where he described how DR9A had redesigned their multi-antenna system to obtain a more uniform radiation pattern. The idea on our side was to obtain a more homogenous pattern of radiation by phasing our 8x3 el antenna systems. Having 3 systems in phase would in theory enable us to cover from 90 to 270 deg. Lots of time was spend in the summer of 2018 to rebuild, extend and redesign everything, but the final test during the contest failed because some of the driven elements were not in phase. Read the full story of the 2018 phase-disaster here. The antenna setup prior to 2018 and 2018/2019 is shown below.  Figure 1. 5P5T antenna setup. distance between 4x10 and the phased system is approx 25 meters. Drawing is not to scale. For 2019 the strategy was quite simple. No more changes to the setup, focus on getting the new antenna system up in the right or ...

5P5T Region 1 VHF test 2013 –best contest ever! Looking back at the past 20 years region 1 VHF contest, it is pretty clear that you have to live near central Europe if you want to win. In 2004 G8P won the contest, but otherwise the winners has all been located in central Europe. Thus for stations located at far away from the main activity centers you need a little bit of luck in the form of good con and no major equipment failures, tough work and a good station. In the weeks leading up to the contest we followed the weather forecast anxiously. Heavy rain makes access to the Kongsbjerg very difficult, but the forecast looked good and Hepburn gave indications of good conditions. Kongsbjerg is the southern tip of the limestone formation on the island of Moen. The site is 134 m ASL and from 90 to 270 degress there is a clear view to the ocean giving an almost perfect horizon. Besides being a good radio QTH, it is also very beautiful and scenic. Preparations for a big test like this a ...

The region 1 VHF contest is usually a 2-month event around here. Come July we start checking and repairing equipment and antennas preparing for the contest 1st weekend of September. This year was different, as we started preparing one month earlier, all because of a lecture. At the Nordic VUSHF meeting DF9IC Henning held a fantastic lecture about how DR9A had phased and rearranged their arrays not only in terms of electrical length but also in terms of radiation patterns making it as uniform as possible. The outset of their work was an observation that their combined radiation pattern had some pretty deep 10-20dB holes. The results of all their optimization work is quite clear, they are way ahead of everybody else in the big 144 MHz contests. You can watch Henning’s lecture here. This started a lot of discussion among the 5P5T group. Could we modify rearrange our antennas along the same principles as DR9A? Our basic setup was 4 systems; 2 times 8x3el, 4x3 el and 4x10 el. All DK7ZB de ...