Beginning of October (1st to 16th) is time of the year when amateur radio operators from Užice participate in celebration of Užice City Day by activating Užice Award .
Užice is old city. It’s first mention in written document is in document found in Ragusan archives, dated October 9th, 1329, almost 700 years ago. However, city is much older, it was on map of Roman Empire, and archeology found evidence of settlements as early as Neolithic age.
As award manager I have to give good example by participating in award activation. For me that means going portable as I cannot practice ham radio at my home. October 1st, the first day of Award activation for this year was Sunday, so I went to my parents home just outside of city and set up portable station in their backyard.
Spending nice early October sunny day outdoors is always enjoyment, especially combined with radio, and especially combined with portable ham radio, which I am fond of. I am always looking forward opportunity to set up my portable station.
I used Yaesu FT857D and tri band dipole antenna covering 7, 14 and 18 Mhz. Dipole was set in Inverted V shape supported by telescopic fiberglass pole. As I was in inhabited area I used power from power grid instead of batteries.
While setting up antenna I stumbled across strange issue. As I got antenna higher in air, SWR became worse. Dipole was resonating properly, but starting SWR raised with raising height. I concluded it must be influence of surrounding trees and as there was no space to change wire position, I simply decided to keep antenna at lower height so I ended up with dipole only five meters high. It worked fine.
Bands were ok too. 20 meters band was so-so. I had to squeeze it a lot with CQ-ing to get some contacts. In the afternoon I switched to 40 meters. That band was real open and noisy and crowded with overpowered Italian stations splattering more than 5 Khz wide. It was hard to find spot for CQ-ing.Unfortunately, with evening, at the time when conditions for 40 and 80 meters were better and better with each minute I had to pack and go home.
At the and of the day I ended up with 58 QSOs in a bit over three hours of operation which actually is not bad.
Let’s put counting on the side, most important and joyful for me is meeting people. I met few hams I already knew but most were new to me. Lots of stations were portable which are my favorites. Hit of the day was contact with HB9EDT/P, operator Michele, I heard on 20 meters. He used 12 watts military radio and if I recall well, about 60 meters of wire and he had booming signal, stronger than most stations I heard for that day. He also had excellent modulation. Making contact with Michele really made me smile.
So, the first points for this years award run are shared. I am looking forward for next session. Chase me and chase other stations from Užice. Wining Užice Award is very easy. Awards looks really good on the wall so it pays good for small effort.