DL1HCM/HI8
CQWW DX Contest CW 1997 SOAB

Operator: Mike DL1HCM

Many thanks to my host Erwin DL4NCF.

The DL1HCM/HI8 log is here.

QSL Information for this activity
The QSL information for this activity is via DL1HCM.
The QSOs are already confirmed and the QSLs are out via the buro.
The QSL route via the buro is preferred.

The QSL card. I made the photo in El Rincon at the beach.

This was really a great holiday season with the radio. I stayed in HI for four weeks 
and the main emphasis was to activate the low bands 160m and 80m.
The QTH was in Las Terrenas on the Samana peninsula.

I decided to start with 100W only, prepare everything this year 
and make another CQWW entry in the HP class in 1998.

	Antenna work The normal work before each contest activity abroad. Here we are installing the 80m pyramidal antenna.  The guy on the roof is Mike DL1HCM.  I met the other two guys here.  They are interested in amateur radio and  helped me to set up the station. During the contest they came along sometimes to see  and listen what I was doing.
The station.  I made a CQWW entry barefoot with only 100 watts in 1997. And, yes, in 1997 I logged on paper. The laptop crashed two days before. Later when I arrived home I had a great job: hack all QSOs into the computer.
	The 3 ele Yagi for 10, 15 and 20m on top of the 18m tower  and the 80m pyramidal antenna from the top of the tower.
The solution for 40m was simple. I just put the vertical into the green. About 26 radials are used with this vertical. This antenna worked great for EU but I experienced a disadvantage for the SA stations. The SA signals were weak but the stations were workable. NA on 40m was never a problem.

The 160m dipole was between two palm trees about 10m high.

The electrical power was produced by a generator. Unfortunately the generator was not available the whole time.
Sometimes it failed which results in missing of QSOs during the contest.

The 80m antenna worked only for a few hours in the first night. 
Due to the salt environment close to the sea the contacts became worse until there was no contact to the feed line.
So I went through the remaining contest without 80m.

The call sign was to complicated and to long for the contest which was a real disadvantage.

Finally 6537 QSOs are in the log. It was a great time.
Thank you to all stations who worked me. See you next year in the CQWW.

The DL1HCM/HI8 log is here.

www.dl1hcm.de / 15.02.2006 / Contact