3B8M will again be active M/M in CQWWCW 2024. Team in 2024 will include G0CKV (3B8HA), KX7M, 4O3A, 3B8GL, E70A, SM0CXU, YL3JA, YL2KL, YT1HA, YT7KM, YU6DX, YU9DX.
Kazu, M0CFW (JK3GAD) will in 2024 again be 3B9KW for a SOAB entry.
This is a field-day style operation. All antennas and stations have to be erected and assembled and then taken down in a few days around the contest weekend. Antennas at 3B8M are all vertical wires on Spiderbeam poles and next to the Indian Ocean with an unobstructed take-off in most directions. On 160 a toploaded vertical (umbrella) is used, on 80 an inverted-L and on 40 a vertical dipole. The 40m antenna is out in the lagoon on a rock. For 20, 15 and 10 VDAs are used and also omni vertical dipoles. Our VDAs are typically 2-element vertical dipole arrays (vertical yagis). In 2023 we also played with pairs of ‘stacked’ VDAs. We used stackmatch and control boxes from Jan at qro.cz . This allowed the operators on 20, 15 and 10 to select VDA 1, VDA 2, both VDAs or the omni vertical dipole. In 2024 we might add aluminium vertical yagis to the mix.
Noise is high on the LF bands in the tropics. Our location has low noise locally but propagated noise level is high when the bands are open. We have little space for receive antennas but as an experiment we have built a K9AY which we hope to put some 50m out on a rock in the lagoon. A receive triplexer makes the K9AY usable on 160-80-40. The K9AY setup also uses hardware from qro.cz .
In 2024 we will use a mix of K3, FTdx10 and Flex radios with SPE, Juma and PGXL amplifiers running 800W and will try some inband QSOs too.
