Contesting from CR3L (Madeira Island) with RRDXA

I am back from the megalocation at CR3L Madeira Island after working CQWW SSB with the R25 RRDXA team. It was a great weekend and we achieved good run rates however our targets were set at a higher QSO number. Since CR3L is in AF zone 33 we worked three pointers both to Europe and US and got a good score. That was fun. Claimed score looks like we will be around number 9 worldwide (a bit above 15M points). The CR3L Madeira station is located at Santana in a mountain side on Madeira overlooking salt water.  Thanks to the team! Ops: DF4UM, DH4JQ, DJ5KW, DJ8VC, DL1EK, LB3HC . Stay tuned for 2013 events.

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Claimed #9 WW score in CQWW 2012 contest from CR3L (Madeira) LB3HC in the foreground and DH4JQ in the background (we are working pileup) DF4UM in the foreground and DJ5KW in the background (working pileup)
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DH4JQ on rig A DL1EK in the foreground and DL8VC in the background (working pileup) N1MM logger
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RIG B Weather changes fast. Here the shack and the lower antenna in fog! The team after the contest
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The 80m vertical The 10m 5 el tower is “adjusted” by DL8VC! The lower Threebander and 160m ant
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Ready for takeoff from Madeira Island Approaching coastline from flight over Atlantic Ocean On the way back to mainland Europe

Azores Island Hunt. Captioned pictures from CU2ARA

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The teams are arriving at the airport in Ponta Delgada at Sao Miguel island. A lot of luggage was brought in. Here the
Danish and German teams are waiting for their taxis. The DARC journalist is checking his photos on the digital camera as well to the left.
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A too small car for rigs, linears and antennas when 9  teams arrive at the same time…
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A team photo was taken in the backyard of the CU2ARA club station before teams were departing to their individual islands
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Antenna and rig discussions are taking place in the backyard. The short CU2ARA tower that we used can be seen in the middle of the picture
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Our guide Mr. Rui is also a pro photographer. Just look at all the cameras!
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Ghis ON5NT is busy adjusting the inverted vee antenna to resonance
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Marius, LB3HC is using his DG8SAQ Vector Network Analyzer to check the multiband antennas before the event.The CU2ARA members CU2IF and CU2CN and are helping out
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The organizing committee is formally opening the event!
IMG_1080 Since we had a city location with some noise, we wanted to do a remote hilltop station experiment to learn from that experience for future events. After first checking with the official organizers for  approval, we travelled to one of the points in the island where there is almost 360 degrees negative horizon and no broadcast installations.This would enable a good remote location. On the above picture you can see the takeoff towards Europe. Wow! We did have some technical challenges that were solved, but the main QSO amount by far was made with the main stations down at CU2ARA. The remote station was left operational so the CU2 ops could do more work on it after the event IMG_1127  Above:
CU2CN climbs the tower on the mountaintop to put up the highest point of our sloping antenna. The antenna was sloping towards west (US).
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Here is the house where the experimental remote station was mounted. We had a 100mbit/sec WLAN connection down to CU2ARA.
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Another picture of the takeoff to the east (against Europe). A pretty good QTH for the remote site.  (The Azores are full of beautiful views like this. Visit to see for youself!)
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Our remote station is located inside the hilltop house. A Yaesu FT857 and HRD was used. More dedicated remote systems should be used in a future event it was decided.
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Here is the HRD remote screen where we controlled the hilltop remote station. This was done down in the city where the CU2ARA shack is located. (As OH2BH encouraged, we did it the innovative Arcala way!). Notice the Norwegian flag by the way!
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ON5NT is working pileup
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LB3HC is working pileup
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The CU2ARA residents are working pileup
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Our antennas downtown at CU2ARA. We used a 3 el yagi for 20 meters and inverted vees for the other bands (17 and 40).

AÇORES PT