Currently viewing the tag: "TF4X"

51st Scandinavian Activity Contest 2009 – TF4X

By TF4M On December 6, 2011 · 2 Comments · In Amateur Radio

Update 06 December, 2011:

The SAC Contest Committee, in their wisdom, have refused to acknowledge the fact that TF4X had the top score in Scandinavia in the category and only marked the certificate as 1st Place – Iceland…

All attempts at diplomacy failed, although the Contest Committee became divided over the issue.

I have therefore marked the Certificate accordingly myself. A simple and elegant solution.

It is a little known fact that TF4M/TF4X and socially mature TF stations have since 2009 boycotted the SAC to bring pressure onto the Contest Committe in this matter.

If you have wondered about the absense of the top TF stations, this is the explanation.

It has now become crystal clear that the top TF stations will never again take part in the Scandinavian Activity Contest.

It is easy to win a contest, when the competition is absent.

———————————————————————————————————————-

previously published in 2009:

Yngvi, TF3Y operated TF4X in the 51st Scandinavian Activity Contest on CW over the weekend.

sac_cw

The day before the contest, he made around 800 contacts to get acquainted with the new shack.

The score is higher than last year´s winning score in the Single Operator – 20M category.

Yngvi, TF3Y operating TF4X

At this point it looks like TF4X has the highest score in this category – this may of course change as scores get submitted…

UPDATE: The results have been published and TF4X is the winner of this category!

Single Op./Single TX/Single Band/14 MHz

[SINGLE-OP 20M]

Pl. Call QSO QSO-p Mult Score Op. --- ----------- ----- ----- ---- --------- ------
 1. TF4X         1.037   2.426    60     145.560   TF3Y
 2. OH7WW          771   1.882    55     103.510
 3. SM6A           632   1.577    63      99.351   SM6BGA
 4. SM3PZG         489   1.175    55      64.625
 5. SM7ZDI         503   1.244    51      63.444
 6. OH3I           390     992    47      46.624   OH9MM
 7. OH2AAZ         466   1.089    40      43.560   OH2BSI
 8. OH3LB          424     940    43      40.420
 9. SA3C           403     894    43      38.442   SM3CZS
10. OH2VZ          325     723    44      31.812

11. LA1QDA         364     792    36      28.512
12. OH2BCD         289     638    44      28.072
13. SM2CVH         298     637    44      28.028
14. SM7N           298     733    35      25.655   SM7NDX
15. SM3RL          297     657    35      22.995
16. SMØQ           274     604    37      22.348   SMØOGQ
17. SM1ALH         137     315    30       9.450
18. OH1ZE          123     261    32       8.352
19. OZ1IKY         123     291    25       7.275
20. OH6MBQ          92     213    32       6.816

21. OH3MC           99     241    28       6.748
22. OH1FJ           98     224    26       5.824
23. LA6GX           99     202    21       4.242
24. SM6WET          76     195    20       3.900
25. OH6NPV          70     155    22       3.410
26. SM3DFM          46     112    22       2.464
27. SM5DQE          33      76    14       1.064
28. SM6WZH          27      66    13         858
29. SM7DAY          21      51    16         816
30. OH2BN           13      30    10         300

31. OH7WV           11      25    10         250
32. SM6LTO           1       2     1           2

I made some recordings of the contest with my Beverage antenna system and the PERSEUS SDR.

You may download a file (147 MB) of the last few minutes of the contest spectrum on 20M CW and play back the spectrum using WinRad on your own computer.

In order for WinRad to be able to play back recordings made by the PERSEUS software, you will have to download the PERSEUS DLL for WinRad and extract the files to the WinRad directory.

If there is demand, I can provide larger files of the last hour of so on 20M during the contest.

The station performed as expected, except we discovered, when I operated TF4M on 80M, that the 80M antenna is located too close to the JA rhombic, causing 80M operation to trip the protection circuits on the amplifier on the 20M station.

I operated TF4M on 80M for 45 minutes out of the 24 hours and made 50 contacts.

Without bandpass filters in place, this discovery would have followed the total destruction of the 20M transceiver. As it were, there was no damage, although the JA rhombic was picking up 50W or so from the 80M antenna….

The first indication of a problem was that I could hear faint noise coming from the 20M operation when listening on the TX antenna – there was no trace of any noise using the Beverage system.

I cascaded two sets of bandpass filters on both 80M and 20M stations, but I could still hear faint interference and then we noticed the faulting of the 20M amplifier when the station was switched to the JA rhombic.

I will solve the problem by relocating the 80M transmit antenna.

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Arctic Pinnacle Performance

By TF4M On October 31, 2011 · 4 Comments · In Amateur Radio, Food, The Arctic

Yngvi, TF3Y piloted TF4X in the CQ WorldWide SSB Contest in the Single-Operator, Single-Band, High Power Category.

TF3Y@TF4X

When the dust settled, the score was as follows:

3124 QSOs

93 Countries

25 CQ Zones

for a final score of 571,710 points.

Due to the recent sun spot minimum more or less since 2003, there has been little activity on 10-Meters and almost no activity from my station.

Yngvi´s score was 5 times higher than last year´s top score in this category from Europe and his QSO total is similar to what Multi-Operator stations in the US and top stations in the Caribbean accomplished this year.

KC1XX had 3061 QSO’s, the K3LR super station had 3033 QSOs on 10 meters and W2GD made 3356 contacts on 10 meters from P40W in Aruba to give a few examples from the contest this past weekend. TF4X´s 3124 QSOs compares very favorably considering the difference in propagation in the frigid north to what stations further south experience.

Most of the contest was recorded, both the audio and the 10 Meter Band spectrum using a Perseus SDR.

Here is a recording made on Sunday:

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Andrey, DL/KL1A sent me a link to a recording he made of TF4X in the Contest.

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Yngvi wrote in his Soap Box comments :

“Had a great time. Ten showed a bit of life but still big room for
improvement, e.g. no JA’s. Being able to transmit to many Rhombics
while selecting others for reception is a big plus. The performance
of the station was excellent apart from a 40 min. electricity outage
due to a fault at the power company. Thor’s station keeps improving
year by year. Due to poor conditions in the past few years there has
not been much activity from the station on ten meters. We now have
proof that the Rhombics do a great job on that band as well. “

It’s not all work and no play, we also take time to enjoy good food and wine, it has become a tradition that my visitors contribute to the food over the weekend in exchange for the use of the station.

On Thursday I put a leg of Mountain Lamb into the oven to slow cook for 24 hours at 60°C – it turned out absolutely magnificent – I will be using this method often in the future.

Yngvi generously brought a very nice aged T-Bone steak 5cm thick which I prepared in my gourmet kitchen for Saturday’s evening meal.

The raw T-Bone steak ready to cook

Ready to eat!

Perfect ! – details of cooking method provided on request.

The best T-Bone in the Arctic.

Sunday morning we had Spinach Shakshukah and in the evening slow cooked chicken…all dishes washed down with conservative amounts of fine wines.

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VE2XAA visit

By TF4M On July 11, 2011 · 4 Comments · In Amateur Radio, Visitors at TF4M

Alexey, VE2XAA visited my station and operated the IARU HF contest with the call TF4X.

He made 1876 QSOs for a total score of 770,400 points in the contest.

Alexey became interested in visiting my station after we worked on 160 meters when he was QRV from Zone 2 in last years CQ World Wide Contest.

Propagation was poor due to Aurora and as a result most of the contacts were made on 20m.

Despite 24 hour daylight, Alexey made 14 QSOs on 160 Meters during the contest.

Before the contest Alexey operated my station as TF/VE2XAA and made another 2,300 QSOs for a total of more than 4,000 QSOs during his stay.

Here are Alexey´s comments on his operation :

First of all I would like to thanks Thor TF4M for a great opportunity to see and use his
Super Station with unique Antenna Farm on the surface of 1500 hectares!
Before the contest I decided to participate in phone category but during first 6 minutes
of the contest was no phone QSO at all! So the mode was switched for CW and run
started on 20 m band – the only opened band at the moment. Time to time I did check
15m and 10m but it was no whisper on the bands. Finally I did a few QSO on 15m with
big troubles but 10 m was close during the contest completely. 20m was surprising: I did
expect that run on 20m will stop after a few hours as usually for my home location; that
will be already no new stations on the band and I can start hunting for multipliers; but
pile-up had no stop! The flat rate of 120-140 QSO was continued after 5, 6, 7…hours
of the run! The stations with High Power, Low Power and QRP had almost the same
signal level! The Otradalur Antenna Farm did a work perfectly and stack-match box
let me separate EU-USA-JA directions just with push on one button! Amazing! In 10
hours I had already more than 1200 QSO only on 20m and did expect to have a good
run on other bands to make same number of QSO for other 14 hours. But after 12 hours
of run somebody on the sky decided to switch off the light, put night Aurora cover on
Iceland and told: OK guys, now you can relax and go to sleep, it will be no propagation
for you for next few hours! It becomes nightmare: all bands closed, only big-guns were
on the bands, QSO rate drops for 10-20 per hour… Nice moment was on 160m: “Arctic
King” antenna was doing the work very well: on each 1 kHz distance I heard HQ or other
powerful stations with S7…S9, but they did not hear my 1 kW signal! Probably they
had other receiving directions except Arctic. With big difficulties spending 2-3 minutes
for each contact I was able to make a dozen QSO on 160m despite 24 hour day-light at
Island! Thor TF4M did not very good antenna, but exceptionally perfect!
Thanks to every one for the contacts and hope to see you in the other contests.
73! de Alexey VE2XAA

The local hot pool.

Birta – Magyar Vizsla with VE2XAA

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CQ World Wide 160-Meter Contest CW 2011

By TF4M On January 31, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio, Visitors at TF4M

Richard, K5NA piloted TF4X in the CQ World Wide 160-Meter Contest.

He made 1620 contacts (1531 after dupes), 42 Sections/States and 77 DXCC countries for a raw score of 1,056,244 points.

Considering the poor conditions this is an amazing accomplishment from this Arctic location although we are no longer surprised at the Arctic King´s performance and that of the location.

I believe that the noise level here may be up to 60dB less than that experienced in other countries and built up areas.

His score exceeds that of some Multi-Operator stations. I would like to mention that he was called by ZL3IX for the 5th QSO in Communications History between TF and ZL. Three of those QSOs belong to ZL3IX. He was also called by CE1/K7CA in Chile for the second ever QSO between TF and CE.

His QSO with VP8ORK in South Orkney is the First Ever QSO between VP8 and TF.

All equipment performed flawlessly during the operation and the Arctic King never wavered in his resolve.

All Hail the King !

Richard wrote the following ‘soapbox’ about his effort:

TF4X – 2011 CQWW 160M CW

In early December, 2010, TF4M (Thor) contacted me about doing the ARRL 160M Contest from his station near Bildudalur, Iceland. Since it was too late for me to arrange my schedule for that event, I asked about the 2011 CQWW 160M CW Contest. After Thor checked his schedule and commitments, he agreed for me to come for that contest.

The first thing we did when arriving here two days before the contest was to get a tour of the antennas. They are amazing, to say the least, and represent a degree of work and commitment that few in the world would attempt. On the HF bands Thor has installed five rhombics in all the major directions. Two rhombics are reversible giving seven total directions. I played with them a little before the contest and was impressed. If the station was in the direction of the rhombic, you heard it. If you switched rhombics, the station disappeared. Amazing.

But I was here for the 160M contest and that was a different set of antennas. Thor has installed a vertical transmitting antenna that he calls the “Arctic King”. The antenna is a very large straight pole (It is the largest in diameter, weight, and height in Iceland) with two wires up the sides to a capacity top hat. This antenna is on the shore surrounded on three sides by seawater. It is located a long ways from the station and Thor ran thousands of feet of very large low-loss hardline to get to it. The antenna works!

Just as impressive is the receiving setup. Thor has installed four reversible beverages for the major directions. Added to the receiving setup is another 160M vertical located a long ways from the transmitting antenna. They all WORK very well. Anything that could hear me, I could hear even better. Imagine listening from a location that has zero atmospheric noise. That is what I had here.

I just reviewed the spots for the contest and found that many spots said that I had “good ears”. I had to laugh because I remember the comments I would see after a 160M contest from noisy Texas when the comments would sometimes say, “no ears”.

The only confusing factor of hearing so well is that sometimes we did not have transmitting conditions to an area that I was hearing quite well. So it would seem that sometimes we were not getting out, but in reality we just had poor conditions in that direction. Aurora is always a factor in transmitting from this part of the world. That’s why Thor has put so much effort into a superior transmitting antenna.

I used a K3 in diversity mode for practically all of the contest.

Operating this contest somewhere other than the USA is a real education for me. The band seemed always open to Europe even hours after European sunrise. There are many, many stations operating this contest in Europe. The band is as crowded here as it is in the USA during the contest. There is lots of splatter and key clicks, but you learn to live with it and do the best you can. The conditions to Europe dominated the contest.

The USA and other parts of the world were a different matter. I had hoped that the spots would bring lots of USA QSOs, but there were not many callers. I missed a lot of W7 multipliers and I probably should have done more searching and pouncing to find them. But I worried that even if I heard a station well, there was no guarantee that they could hear me. I seemed to hear everyone regardless of conditions. However, I did work a number of California stations.

One of the surprises was hearing and working J28AA in zone 37. Thor had said before the contest that he only needed zone 37 to complete his 160M WAZ After the QSO, I immediately jumped up and called Thor. Thor rushed in and started calling and in a couple of minutes had his last zone. It was a magic moment for all of us, me, Thor, and Susan. We drank a toast to Thor’s success while I continued to call CQ and work stations.

Two other QSOs come to mind, having VP8ORK answer my CQ and later, having KH2/N2NL answer my CQ. I worked a couple of Jas, not nearly as many as I expected. So conditions were not very good in that direction. Someone on my frequency said a BA1 was calling me. I listened but I never heard anything of it. That was the only thing that heard me that I did not hear all weekend.

It was a pleasure to operate from Thor’s station. Thor is an excellent cook and introduced us to many of the traditional Icelandic dishes and treats. I probably gained a few pounds from all the good food. He is a fine host.

This was truly an adventure.

73, Richard – TF/K5NA

Soapbox comments from other contestants may be read on the 3830 reflector.

The Certificate has arrived!

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TF3DX surveys the King

By TF4M On October 11, 2010 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

The designer of the Arctic King, Villi, TF3DX arrived to inspect and salute the King on Thursday along with his brother Gunnar.

In between measurements, we rummaged in my “junkbox” (several outbuildings) for High Voltage RF Capacitors and adjustable Inductors which will crown the King at a later date when 80m capability will be added.

Villi operated TF4X casually in the Oceania DX Contest – CW and in between consuming good food and wine, we also watched the stars and the Aurora and a historical First Ever QSO was made in this contest with KH6ZM in Hawaii on 160 meters.

[View with PicLens]

IARU 2010 by OH1RX

By TF4M On July 12, 2010 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio, Visitors at TF4M

Jouko, OH1RX who was on a Salmon fishing trip visited my area with his group and operated TF4X in the IARU contest.

Conditions were rather poor, but this was to be expected at this time of the year.

Antennas and equipment performed without incidents.

Jouko commented to the contest organizers:

“Great experience to work agn from ultima thule at Thors fantastic station. Bands are never kind to the ops above 64N, but his time it was a real uphill. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed couple of low band mults from TF!

CUL agn de Jouko OH1RX”

It was an honour to have such an accomplished contester operate my station.

I hope to see OH1RX again perhaps for a serious effort one day.

OH1RX wrote about the contest on his web site.

OH1RXTF4X 4

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The Arctic King Rocks!

By TF4M On February 2, 2010 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio, Visitors at TF4M

CQ 160 Contest – TF4X #2 in Europe, #3 World !

Yuri, K3BU operated TF4X in the CQ WW 160 meter contest in the Single Operator High Power category.

A solar flare about a week before the contest started caused worry that conditions would be poor. The band seemed to have recovered nicely, but the Aurora Index stayed high during most of the contest and it became clear that conditions were disturbed.

Iceland is greatly affected by any Auroral disturbance, much more so than neighboring countries and Yuri observed, for example, that my Great Beverage antennas showed almost no directivity during the contest. I know for a fact that they work very well, but during the weekend it seemed that signals appeared to come from all directions simultaneously. I understand this may be due to a high arrival angle during disturbed conditions.

Some juicy DX was worked, two KH6 stations for example, it is only recently that the historic first QSO with KH6 was made from my station – this is quite remarkable considering the disturbed conditions.

The raw score is as follows:

1643 QSOs

51 States/Provinces

80 Countries

Total Score = 1,317,729

At present TF4X has the second highest reported score in Europe and is #3 worldwide. This may of course change as and/or when other stations report their scores, but it is incredibly satisfying to see all my hard work being justified with such superior results.

Note: The final score was #2 EU and #3 WORLD ! ( NOTE: #3 among stations outside North America – two canadian stations were in places #2 and #4 putting TF4X in #5 overall. The reason for this is that North American scores are separate due to the scoring system)

Note: The Diploma has arrived. It puts TF4X in #6 Overall and #EU

It was quite illuminating to observe such an experienced operator running my station – at times I feared that my amplifier would literally melt, but it performed to my full satisfaction and there were no equipment/antenna issues whatsoever during the contest.

Yuri wrote in his comment to the 3830 Reflector:

Last minute adventure to the Aurora zone, taking up Thor’s invite.
Being rusty from dormant period, problems with equipment setup,
drivers, but got ready for the start.
Stories about Aurora wipeouts made it a big if.
Thanks to Thor and his magnificent station it ended up being fun and decent
score, even if coming short of beating the Eu record.
The background noise is probably the lowest in the world allowing to
hear lot more of the juicy stuff than working it.
Thanks for wonderful hospitality and station from Thor, TF4M and all the QSOs
and points. Lot of dirty clixing signals and rude behaviour by “CQ pirates”.
Will have more later.

Yuri, TF/K3BU

I used my PERSEUS SDR receiver to record the entire contest 1800-1900kHz. The recording obviously contains the entire contest effort of TF4X and in addition it contains the contest effort of everyone else heard at my location.

This consumes two hundred GB of data, please contact me if you are interested in specific time periods.

A new chapter in the History of Amateur Radio has been written.

[View with PicLens]

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CQ WW 160 – TF4X

By TF4M On January 17, 2010 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

Siggi, TF3CW was going to activate TF4X in the CQ WW 160 meter contest, but unforeseen circumstances caused him to cancel.

Yuri, K3BU, has stepped in and will operate the station in the Single Operator High Power category.

I sincerely hope that there will be no sun spots and no Aurora.

This may be the last chance in our life time to enjoy these fantastic conditions on Top Band.

I also hope the activity will reflect this – it would be so very cool if Yuri was able to work All 40 Zones in the contest !

It is interesting to note that I have followed the Tesla Radio Club project for years and several times I have been on the verge of writing to Yuri to invite him to my station !

CQ WorldWide DX Contest 2009 – CW

By TF4M On November 30, 2009 · 5 Comments · In Amateur Radio

2009 CQWW CW Contest: 0000 UTC, November 28 through 2359 UTC, November 29.

Three operators arrived from Reykjavik to operate the contest. Yngvi – TF3Y, Kiddi – TF3KX and Oddur – TF3OO along with a Sveinbjörn – a Gourmet Chef who had planned the feast for weeks.

Conditions were rather poor, not a single sun spot during the weekend made conditions on HF rather poor and in addition there was some Auroral activity affecting the lower bands.

Despite this 4525 contacts were made in 48 hours of operation.

You may listen to the activity from TF4X:

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The menu was fantastic. On Friday we had Tom Ka soup with Halibut followed by Real-Vanilla ice cream and cake, on Saturday the menu was Pigeon breast, Elk meat with carrots boiled in orange juice and Sunday we had icelandic mountain lamb fille, with baby tomatoes braised in olive oil and Maple Syrup garnished with fresh Timian.

The Arctic King awed us with the performance – 1270 QSOs were made on Top Band and this was only matched by 20M where 1306 QSOs were made using an array of Rhombic antennas.

We used Win-Test contest logging software which performed flawlessly on 5 computers during the entire contest.

We used a feature of the software called Targets Tracking, which showed us real-time graphs on the screen of our progress compared to last year´s effort. Right from the beginning things were going much better than last year and this was very inspiring throughout the 48 hours.

This graph shows the over-all difference on an hourly basis compared to the effort of 2008.

This graph shows the hourly over-all rates compared to 2008. 2008 in grey, 2009 in violet.

This picture shows the zones worked on all bands.

The Icelandic record in the Multi/Single Category was set by TF3IRA in 1980 at the height of the Sun Spot Cycle.

That record stood at 2,169,760 points. They made 3004 QSOs and they worked 85 zones and 231 countries to accomplish this.

We beat the 29 year old record handsomely as can be seen in the summary.

It is interesting to note that Yngvi, TF3Y and Kiddi, TF3KX were operators when both records were set.

Highlights of the operation was working a Pile-up of JA stations on 160 meters – this is the first time in history that JA/TF QSOs are made on Top Band during this contest.

KH6 (Hawaii) was worked on 80 meters for the fourth time in TF history that I am aware of. Prior to this, only Boggi – TF3TF (SK), Yngvi – TF3Y and Gudmi-TF3SG have worked Hawaii on 80 meters.

It was interesting to note some extremely strong poor signals that obliterated parts of the bands along with some strong EU stations that seemed to be completely deaf. It took me 46 minutes of constant calling to raise one of these stations on the low bands. It is absolutely necessary to have separate receive antennas for the low bands (160/80) to be able to operate there with any kind of efficiency.

A very successful weekend is behind us and a what a good omen of things to come.

Our SoapBox comment to 3830 was as follows:

Comments:

This was the first CQ WW with TF4X being active. TF4X is a
special call issued to the TF4M station. The latest addition, the
phenomenal Arctic King 160m antenna took us by surprise. Almost as
many QSO’s on 160 as on 20. Numerous new Beverages and zero noise
level on RX. The strength of the station is displayed by low band
performance. First time JA pileup for us from TF on 160m in CQ WW.
Propagation was relatively good as we had little Aurora and definitely
better on the Saturday. According to the raw score the 29 year old M/S
record from TF was broken by 1.1 million points.

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TF4X – QSL Manager

By TF4M On November 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

Phil, G3SWH has accepted to be the QSL Manager for TF4X.

My plan of QSLing this call sign only via LOTW met with some grumbling – many DXers, even those using LOTW – still like a traditional paper card for their collections and I understand this perfectly.

Received direct requests will be forwarded to G3SWH.