Past Feature Stories (Newest to Oldest)


The SO9Q Contest Station - Piotr Sanecznik SP9QMP
December 2014
Our club was founded in 1994, with assigned call SP9YDX. Responsible operators at that time were Jan SP9EIJ, Alek SP9NLK i Roman SP9FOW. Right now after a few changes the list of responsible operators is as follows: Peter SP9QMP, Woj SP9PT, Zygi SP9IJU.

The exact location is within the small town of Rydultowy in close proximity to the border with OK and OM. Our club is hosted at Auto Service PTA Sanecznik – car service owned by Peter SP9QMP, where all the antennas and shack are located. Peter SP9QMP is a well known polish dx`er and he is also a president of the SO9Q club.

Since 2006 we use the special call SO9Q. We take part in most major contest events such as: ARRL DX Contest, Russian DX Contest, WPX Contest, Worked All Europe, SP DX Contest, IARU HF Championship, CQ World Wide DX Contest, both in CW and SSB. Sometimes we are active in RTTY contests.    more
The K9CT Contest Station - Craig Thompson K9CT
September 2014
The K9CT Contest Station was created as a project and challenge for myself. The spark that lead to this was the compromises of living in close quarters to my neighbors and finding out what could be done to get to the next level in contesting. My curiosity of all of the technologies and designs that could be implemented whet my appetite for the project. But most of all, the camaraderie of the dxpedition team environment lead me to the multi-operator contesting setup.

I wanted a blank canvas to work with and needed some land for the project. My search for property started in 2008 and continued until 2009 when I acquired 18 acres of flat land about four miles from my home and station. I did some research before looking for the land. Contesters were surveyed and responses were gathered. Generally, I was advised to find a flat rectangular plot of about 10 to 20 acres. The long portion of the rectangle needed to run north-south so that the towers would line up and the EU and JA paths would provide isolation between antennas.    more
The DF0HQ Contest Station - Ben Bieske DL5ANT
September 2014
The contest club station DF0HQ is located on a small hill (550m asl.) in Ilmenau, Thuringia, Germany, JO50LQ. The first activity at this QTH started in 1970 setting up a 3 band cubical quad antenna using the famous call Y34K. This is our favorite antenna type up to now.

Over the years five different quad antennas were designed using EZNEC and covering the bands from 40m to 10m.

For the low bands we use loops, ground planes and Beverages in five directions.

The rigs are mostly Kenwood TS 950 and 850 installed in 6 places for 6 Bands operating at the same time.

Since 2005 we use WinTest contest software as a replacement for CT.    more
The YT8A Contest Station - Dušan Ćeha YU1EA
September 2014
The station is located about 45 km from Belgrade. Me and my friend and neighbour Ivan-YU1LA are using this location only for contesting.

There is a field of different kinds of HF antennas such as verticals, log periodics, rombics and some wire antennas: beverage for USA, beverage for Japan, beverage for Brasil (all 380m long).

My favourite category is SOSB 40m HP, sometimes SOAB HP. The most favorable bands are 40m, 80m and 160m but I have the best results on 40m.

My favourite contests are: CQ WW CW/SSB/RTTY, CQ WPX CW/SSB/RTTY, CQ160 CW/SSB, Russian DX Contest, IARU Contest, EU HF Contest, ARRL CW/SSB.    more
The LY2W Gang - Sam Zalnerauskas LY5W
August 2014
LY2W is the personal callsign of Arturas Snipas (ex-UP2BGF, LY2GF). You can find this call on all bands during the major contests of the year: CQ WW DX Contest, CQ WW WPX Contest.

For these contests a Multi-Operator team is usually organized, mostly in the Multi-Two category. The quantity of operators varies from 5 to 12, depending on people available.

At present we have verticals for 160 and 80 meter bands, 3 element full size Yagi about 30 meters up. For the 20 meter band we have a 5 element monobander about 20m high. For 15 meters a 6 element monobander is put on a 20m high tower. The antenna for the 10 meter band is in the design process, temporarily a 5 element Yagi is used at a modest height.    more
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