update:

QRV from at home only - 60km south of my contest location - antenna is 8ele vertical circle array - see front to back performance presentation on my youtube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/on5kq1?feature=watch

For the moment my contest station is not operational. Originally I planned to extend the station for other bands as well, however due to the ever increasing noise level at that QTH, I decided not to do so. In the meantime this area is in the middle of large solar cell installations (about 100.000m2 are installed so far in direct neighborhood of 100m and less). Also the area is used for wind energy production - there are 15 windmills setup in close neighborhood as well. All of this brings the noise level about 15db higher than at my home location.

My home is 60km south of this location and I enjoy my new 8ele circle vertical array in a semi rural area - My home 8ele in direct comparison with the old conteststation has higher gain and 15db less noise - a lot better !

http://www.webmaatwerk.com/hamradio/8-circle-array/

http://www.webmaatwerk.com/hamradio/8circle-array-audio-files-for-demo-Front-to-back/

I will try to get on air on 80m and 160m with a single 20m vertical ASAP.

(I have no particular interest in the high bands.)

regards,

Ulli; ON5KQ

http://www.on5kq.be

---------------old station --------outdated information ---------------------------------------------------------------

For the moment 40m ONLY contest station. The picture shows the blue building on the left, which houses the shack. 2000m2 of steel roof is ideal for the 40m 4square made of 4 quarterwave verticals. All saltwater sourrounding, which makes it a great location! However very strong winds and storms here at the north sea coast very often requires maintanance and repair of the antennas. It's a pain, as the contest station is about 50miles to drive from my home and it takes me a lot of time to repair everything. The corrosive saltwater environment is very aggressive and often I need to exchange material, as it simply disappeared over time. Most of metal is changed to dust and blown away in 2 or 3 years time.

The elements are made of fiberpoles. In the beginning I used DK9SQ 10m poles, but over time, they either broke down from high winds or had to be exchanged due to the high UV - flexibility of the fiber was lost, which makes them break very easily. I am now using fiberpoles by Spiderbeam - lets see, whether they last longer.

I cannot easily guy aluminium tubing - that's why I still use fiber poles, which are nog guyed at all. Please see my website - www.on5kq.be - for further info.(recently updated in aug2008)

RIG: FT-1000MP + 1kW homebrew amp (monoband fixed 40m) Computers + Internet for DX cluster N1MM contest logger

In season 2008, I plan to participate in most of the bigger international contests as SOSB40m entry.

Contest claimed scores are always put on www.contesting.com

All my QSO's are available at Lotw, but I also QSL via the bureau to countries, which are not yet confirmed. Incoming QSL's are always answered 100% via buro or direct if with IRC.

73's de op Ulli, ON5KQ ex-PA5AT, ex DF8MQ