It is nice when preparations pay off. Last years CQ 160 was such a case. Previous year could not have participated due to storm winds at my remote QTH and the 27 M vertical had to been winched down.
Author: Kari
Drilling a new tower base on a rock
Building a tower base on regular soil is a relatively easy task. But what if the “soil” is hard uneven rock?
Here is a photo of my situation. The starting point is an uneven rock measuring 1,6 x 1,6 meters. The blue stand offs are the old tower base.
The challenge is how to drill vertically over 16 holes 30 cm into the rock? Professionals do it by big diamond cutters/drill machines that are vertically positioned. Hilti, Huskvarna etc makes these. However, this requires a flat surface to mount these on. So it wont work in my situation…:(
So use a regular SDS Max drill and attach a horizontal libel (see photo below).
This is how it is done. Of course you would need a steel template for the hole pattern to allow you to drill vertically.
This is how it looked out when all completed.
1 st Contest Diploma!
My 1st presence last year in a contest in 20 year or so. ARRL Int DX Contest CW. Unfortunately bad conditions 1st day.

SAL-30
My remote set-up
This is the actual home base set-up. Expect the station monitors you may take with you on travel all these stuff.

This has evolved over the years. Here is a schematic over it:

DXlog
What is the latest thing in remoting?
Welcome to the world of remote DX-ing and Contesting
I have been doing remote DX-inf for about five years and remote contesting for about a year. This blog will focus on enhancements to the remoting that have evolved over the last years due to internet technology.
with the new technology achievements you can easily integrate stations and accessories together in a way that was difficult say five years ago. This also means you can easily change your layout and expand it without spending an awful lot of time on “debugging”.