HAGAL INTERNATIONAL
3
3
conducted by Ron Gang 4X1MK
THE HOLYLAND CONTEST 2008
An example of the trophies for the first place winners
in the 2007 Holyland Contest. No – it
isn’t a real microphone, but rather a casting.
Quite a refreshing change from the cups awarded over the past
years. The trophies were in memory of two
dear silent keys, Ahron Kirshner 4X1AT and Maier Lang 4X1OZ, whose widow,
Naomi, made the presentation at the Spring Fest in the
For the 24 hours of April 19th, the bands
were buzzing with activity for the annual Holyland DX contest. Your intrepid scribe decided to make another
crack at portable operation, and loaded his low power gear (FT-817, “HF-Packer”
35 watt after-burner, and two 7AH 12v gell-cells on his bicycle. I pedaled out
into the fields over the line into the Holyland C22BS square. Throwing a wire up into a Casuorino tree, and
trailing some counterpoises on the ground, I set up shop under the shade of the
very same tree, and tried my luck on the bands.
Things seemed pretty quiet, and it turned out that conditions were
pretty stinko as there had been a minor geo-magnetic storm coupled with zero
sunspots. However, not knowing this, I
did some antenna lengthening, thinking that the tree was absorbing my power and
wanted to get some of the radiator farther away from the tree. This must have upset the balance of my
previous wire setup, and I got some serious RF bites off my radio. I then
trimmed the counterpoise to a quarter wavelength for the
Well, it was
still a struggle, and
It was also
the evening of the Passover holiday, so I had to help out at home for the
preparations for the seder, traditional dinner
and service. I don’t know how much this
cut into the operations of others, so we’ll have to wait for the logs to see
how the operations from 4X went.
Nonetheless, our fearless contest manager, Mark Stern 4Z4KX, noted 120
different Israeli callsigns on the air, so there was no doubt good activity.
Last year’s contest had better conditions, with even a
decent ten meter opening. Then the
leading single-operator in the mixed mode category Dov Gavish 4Z4DX running
4X0MDC made a staggering 1677 QSOs. He
was followed by 4Z5JM and 4Z5QQ in 2nd and 3rd place
respectively. The top 3 CW-single-ops
were 4Z5LY, 4Z4BS and 4X4FC, and the leading 3 SSB’ers were 4X1IM, 4Z5LZ and
4Z5RR. The top 3 digital-mode operators
were 4Z5CP, 4Z5AV and 4Z5IY (out of a total 4 ops in this new category which we
hope will grow in the next year).
_ . . . _
THE
4X6KJ REPORT
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
U.S. Airways Flight 1233 took
off from one of
The first leg of our trip was with a regular airplane a
European Airbus 320, the second part was with a kind of aircraft, well …
maximum occupancy is 35 persons and it flies rather low as well.
Arriving at our final destination at the
Hal and Jerry have operated from 4X for the past few
CQWW Phone Contests as 4X0WV and last year as 4X0C. They have also operated during the past few
years in January from various locations in
After checking into our hotel, and having a bite to
eat, we made it with some delay to the West Virginia DX Association meeting
which was located at the
Nipper
the dog listening to His Masters Voice.
The museum features not only radio, but also Television
is represented there, for example the first color camera used to broadcast the
1938 Worlds Fair from the exhibition grounds. And of course not to forget
computers, who remembers the “Commodore” and the “Apple II?” But let’s get back to the WVDXA meeting.
For those interested in the Museum, here is the link:
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~postr/MRT/
After each participant
introduced him or her self, the meeting was on its way. The Chairman, Clark
W8TN addressed the assembled and called for
Garry, W8OI, who gave a presentation about the last
radio transmission from the Titanic which included an actual recording of the
spark signal as received at a Marconi shore-based station in
After that it was Hal, W8HC, who had earlier in the day
picked up a Proclamation from West Virginia Governor, Joe Manchin, making 4X6KJ
an Honorary West Virginia Mountaineer!
After receiving the Special Award it was my turn to
take the podium, and not knowing where to start I asked the assembled if there
were any questions, explaining that it is better to answer questions than to
tell something nobody is interested in. Most of the questions were amateur
radio and IARC related, some of them had the Country
as their subject.
This lasted a bit more than half an hour or so,
afterwards it was time for the much deserved coffee break. Not knowing what
else was in store, a huge cake was brought in, courtesy of Stephanie & Hal,
our hosts.
Time went just too fast and a quick look on the clock
revealed that it was time to bring a visit to our suitcase, which we had left
unopened in the hotel.
The
next day we would be visiting other parts of the State of
On the following day we traveled with Hal, Stephanie
and Jerry by van and visited some other very nice WV tourist sights; the New River Gorge Bridge, and its observation
point, The Greenbrier Hotel and resort, originally
built in 1778. The Greenbrier has long
been considered a premier hotel frequented by numerous world leaders and U.S.
Presidents over the years. The
Greenbrier is also the site of a massive underground bunker that was meant to serve as an
emergency shelter for the United States Congress during the Cold War.
The State of
Joseph 4X6KJ
_ . . . _
The Fourth Annual Antenna Fest, Field Day and Picnic was held at the
An estimated 150 amateurs plus families gathered
together to set up portable stations, offer the traditional burnt offerings
from the barbecues, and most important – socialize.
4Z4GT and 4X1HJ
4Z4IZ with his homemade portable “Buddy Pole” clone on
his collapsed mast, photographed just as he was
packing it all up.
4X1MK 
4Z4ZC
and 4Z5AY string up a dipole
Some horse-trading going on by
4Z5KJ’s flea-market. If my eyes fool me not, that’s a vintage Swan
linear amplifier and power supply and a huge stock of aluminum antenna tubing.
Hat’s off to 4Z4KX, 4Z5KJ and their assistants for
pulling off this great event. Hams came
from as far away as Beer Sheva in the south and the Afula area in the north.
If conditions were bad a few weeks earlier for the
Holyland Contest, there was an even bigger solar storm, and by noon the bands
were as dead as a virtual doornail. So
the only RF contacts made were within the forest, notwithstanding the excellent
conditions nurturing the fine eyeball QSOs going on all the while.
Here
to the left we see 4Z4NB’s
monster mobile antenna mast. This home-made piece of structural art telescopes very high as the
picture and the unidentified YL bear witness. Two steel feet braces are lowered onto the
ground so
that the vehicle won’t start rolling away when 4ZNB starts
chasing DX. Over the years we displayed
photos of 4Z5NB’s mobiles escapades, and this one for sure
takes the cake.
On the right we have a few pictures of Yuri 4Z5PZ from
Yuri 4Z5PZ and his handiwork
4X1UK, 4Z5PS, 4X6ZH
THE
By Shlomo Bauer
4Z5SW
The 2m "Greater Jerusalem Information Net"
that meets the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 8pm on the 146.625 repeater
continues to experience record low check-ins.
20m Propagation has been up and down recently. A couple of weeks ago, I
was able to QSO with European stations 24 hours
a day on just 5 Watts. But, in general, since propagation follows sun
spots and they've held a constant 0 for a while, we can
only hope for better numbers and better propagation in the future. It is
almost axiomatic that in times of poorer propagation
conditions operators compensate by using higher power. Yet, I've found
that even in these bottom-of-the-cycle conditions,
QRP is a lot of fun.
My QRP station is quite modest: FT-817, Z-11 Pro Tuner, and an hfP
vertical from Ventenna. I've worked many different countries with this
set-up including some USB contacts. Before giving my impressions of the
FT-817, I'll
first review the radio for those who aren't familiar with it.
The FT817 is small (
My rig has the 500 hz cw filter. It's a lattice
filter with steep skirts that really help separate incoming signals. I
use the built-in iambic "B" built-in keyer. If you never used a
keyer, you'll find it takes a bit of practice to get used to the
"auto-completion" feature of iambic "B" (check the web for
differences between iambic A and B modes).
The keyer is functional but lacks memory --- with only 5 Watts available, you
sometimes need to call CQ many times before getting a call back. If you
prefer a straight-key or bug you can use them and if you want to use your own
keyer you can do that as well.
The FT817 is a great rig for QRP cw --- and since it has two antenna
connections you can leave attached the standard vhf rubber duck making it easy
to check the local repeater. They keyer easily handles 30 wpm and is
comfortable even at 18. The 1/8" plug means you can use standard
headsets for the output.
I am getting ready to test a
72, 73,shalom
- Shlomo
_ . . . _
ATTENTION FT-817 OWNERS
Most hams whom
I personally know, yours truly included, who own an FT-817, have become at one time or
another a member of the BFC – The Burned Finals Club. The consensus on the Yahoo FT-817 owners
group is that when the internal batteries left in the rig drop below a certain
voltage, the finals go into an uncontrolled UHF oscillation, draw much current
and self-destruct. (the power switch does not
disconnect the finals from the power.) There is one modification on the group’s
files section to reverse the phase between the driver and the final
module. Your humble scribe, once burned,
simply never leaves batteries inside the rig any more, and generally operates
it with an outside
power source. So to be on the safe side and safe aggravation and
money, take the batteries out!
You have been warned.
-
de
4X1MK
The 4X1MK portable station – HF Packer Amp, Tea Box
Antenna Tuner and FT-817