Hello friends,

Hereby some information about my activity during the contest at the first weekend of May 2006. As Thomas, DH1NFL couldn't spent much time for amateur- radio, I decided to participate at 432MHz as a single operator.

Most time nobody else was in the shack who worked at the other bands beyond 70cm.

The station was working fine as usual except few problems with the rotator.

It's always an impressive view to see the huge antenna if we stretched the tower at its full length.

At begin of the contest it's my opinion that we had quite good condx, because the initial contact was with HA5FMV, more than 600Km - not so bad-. When I called direction east, south- east sometimes French stations answered over more than 500Km.

In this first part of the race there was no time to take some DX- water!

Of course the famous "Ahornberger Landbeer" supported my voice and kept it ready for calling 24Hours!

Here some snapshots which Thomas took when he visited me in the evening. Some concentration is necessary to reduce the mistakes at a minimum because I am not quite common to talk and write at the same time.

The power input was in a normal range

As well as the Plate- and Grid- current

And the power- output

It is always the same procedure, calling and listening!

A highlight of course is to work good DX like M1CRO/p over nearly 800Km!

59 333 was reason to interrupt the stress and do something for the operator. In Germany such a number is called a "Schnapszahl!" Bernd, DL7APV was the lucky friend who could receive this number from me.

Thomas, DH1NFL made 5 contacts on 10GHz, Helmut, Sven and Marion preferred to activate the stove!

At Sunday afternoon the conditions in our area became very poor, also the activity became weak. Maybe a reason was the formula 1 race at the "Nürburgring", famous as the Grand Prix of Europe. As I called quite often without getting any answer I could relax and watch also motor race at our little TV!

After the contest ended at 14:00 UTC there was only little work to do at our QTH, after half an hour the tower is down in his normal position. Here I was supported by Sven, DH8NAS.

Anyway after an interruption of more than one year, where I concentrated my activity more to the frequencies beyond 1GHz there was a lot of fun to participate again at 70cm. Many old friends called me and supported me with points. Also I am sad to I miss some famous callsigns which were workable in every contest some years ago. I have to say thanks to all my friends for a lot of fun. The final result was about 355 complete contacts, to 17 countries in 68squares. The final score is abt 103 000 points and the ODX was M1CRO/p over 788Km.

Dear friends so far the story from JO50VF, I hope You got some fun when You read my mail and watched the pictures. Also I have to say thanks to Thomas, DH1NFL who tested his new camera and took much more pictures.

If You don't like to get further more information in the future, please let me know it.

73s see You in the next contest

Reinhold, DL6NAA