HB9CRQ, JN46je, Brione sM, Switzerland

GRID Expedition 2020

Team Members

HB9COG, Sam

HB9CRQ, Dan

Sue, Dan’s YL

Equipment

1.5m dish 1x2mm mesh, homemade automatic az/el control

1296: 100W at feed, circular, preamp at horn

23xx: 90W at feed, circular, preamp at horn

3400: 80W at feed, circular, preamp at horn

5760: 80W at feed, circular, preamp at horn

10xxx: 50W at feed, v-pol, preamp at horn

Results

We worked a total of 108 QSOs and 89 initials on 5 bands in 5 moon-paths of 5-6h only. As always, it was nice to work a total of 23 CW QSOs on 5 bands.

23cm:
39 QSOs (4 CW, 35 JT65C)
34 initials
16 DXCC
4 continents
Smallest station worked: DF2VJ 2.6m mesh dish 140W at feed (-29/R-26)

13cm:
12 QSOs (1 CW, 11 JT65c)
11 initials
7 DXCC
2 continents
Smallest station worked: all big guns, sorry, no small station this time!

9cm:
13 QSOs (3 CW, 10 JT65c)
8 initials
5 DXCC
2 continents
Smallest station worked: OK1DFC 2.5m offset dish 45W (R-22/-24)

6cm:
22 QSOs (10 CW, 22 QRA64D)
14 initials
10 DXCC
3 continents
Smallest station worked: KN0WS 1.8m mesh dish 50W (-22/R-21)

3cm:
26 QSOs (5 CW, 21 QRA64D)
22 initials
14 DXCC
3 continents
Smallest station worked:G4CBW 1.5m offset dish 55W at feed (-18/R-15)

The HB9CRQ, JN46je Story

In summer 2019 we booked flights to Rhodes (SV5) and a house on the southeast side of the island directly on the beach. But than Covid-19 hit the world! Late April our flight to Rhodes was canceled. Switzerland and Greece were still in lockdown and it became obvious that there was no chance this year to activate SV5. So we had to postpone our SV5 DXpedition to May 2021!

Fortunately in Switzerland lockdown started to ease-up early May. So we decided to do a GRID-Expedition to JN46. Dan & Sue own a house in Brione sM in the canton of Ticino. The QTH is at 400m asl, this is 200m above the lake Lago Maggiore, located on the south slope of the Swiss Alps, close to the Italian border.

Unfortunately, although the house has a spectacular view of the Lago Maggiore, moonrise and moonset are obstructed by large trees and bushes. So the usable EME window is restricted to only about 5-6h. Never the less we felt it might be of interest for the microwave EME community to add a new initial and a new grid to the log. We apologize to our JA and VK friends, for not being QRV for them!

2320/2304 and 3400 MHz are not part of the HB9 license. To operate on this frequencies you need a special permit, which we got just in time to operate from JN46je.

It is a 2.5h drive from home to Brione sM, crossing the Swiss Alps through the 16 km long highway-tunnel. We arrived a few days before the activity and enjoyed very much touring the region in beautiful and warm late spring weather. On Friday 22. May we built and tested the station. All was ready for the weekend on 23xx and 3400 MHz.

On Saturday 23. May and Sunday 24. May the weather was perfect for EME, sunshine and a few clouds, only very little wind and not too hot. Although we had only a very limited window, from about 150° to 250° of azimuth, we had a great time working a good number of stations on 23xx and 3400 MHz.

Monday through Thursday we again spent a lot of time hiking the nice valleys of the area.

On Friday 29. May, still perfect EME weather, we were QRV 5760 MHz. Everything was working perfectly. Same situation on Saturday 30. May on 10368 MHz and also our last activity day Sunday on 1296 MHz was just perfect. We had a great time, many thanks ALL for working us!

On 4. June we drove back home.

This is the first time we only operated on weekend days, this in an effort to make it easier for our „customers“ to be QRV and work us. We have the feeling it was worthwhile. We will do this again in our next DXpeditions.

QSL information: please direct QSL with SAE to HB9Q, P.O.Box 133, CH-5737 Menziken, Switzerland