BARTG RTTY sprint instead of CQ WW 160

Instead of the CQ WW 160, where the windstorm broke our TOP band vertical, we participated in the BARTG sprint. We did this contest mainly as the training of SO2R for the upcoming CQ WPX RTTY. Everything worked perfectly and we enjoyed the contest, working interleaved on two bands was totally exciting! We used the IC7800 + IC7600. There were exactly 900 QSO in the log and pileups were great during the first 12 hours. The other half, thanks to less participation and bad CONDX, was boring and much slower. We worked 200 x NA and 80 x JA. Anyway thank you for the nice contest and every QSO, see you in the WPX RTTY.

We could not RUN CQ WW 160m but I played a little bit with skimmer RX. I used two RedPitayas, one with beverage on 160m CW and second on 40m CW + RTTY.

Pavel OK1MU using both hands :)

RBN: where we are and what we hear 

ARRL RTTY RU 2018

Again the contest was superb fun and we enjoyed it as much as possible!  This year, compared to the last one when it was -25°C and a lot of snow, there was +10 C and no snow at all, just a tons and tons of mud... 

There were good conditions from the central EU on 40m and 80m, and many amazing signals from W6/7 on the low bands.  I do not remember time when at 12.00 GMT we played at west coast on 40m! We were on RBN since 12GMT to the end. 

And also nice singal at WC on 80m :)

The 20m band was average and unfortunately closed here very soon. On 15m band we made just 3 QSOs and in almost zero activity... Nothing on 10m.

Here is the number of our QSOs with the NA stations over the last 6 years, when we regularly participate in ARRL Roundup:

2013 - 693 QSO
2014 – 682 QSO
2015 - 443 QSO
2016 - 515 QSO
2017 - 425 QSO
2018 - 444 QSO

After 11 years of QTH building, it was also first time we used our new large bathroom, so another step to the further and our women and girlfriends are celebrating that we made something useful also for them , hihihi …..

We used three decoders: MMTTY, 2tone and GRitty

Thanks again for all QSOs  and see you next time!

Pavel OK1MU on behalf OL7M team

Photos from Olda OK1YM: