Click on a year below to view a list of soapbox entries.
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Soapbox for 2025
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| 9L8MD [photo/doc] |
Was great ever first activation of 9L, Sierra Leone. I'm Emil, de DL8JJ, the EME guy in the group. I used 1 single yagi, boom: 10.5m, CROSS, 30 El, 15dB gain. |
| BA7LVG [photo/doc] |
Portable antenna operation test. Sad that IC-9700 was connected to AC power not 13V battery. Not fully portable. Need battery to try next time. Design of array: https://github.com/XianmingFeng/one-man-432mhz-eme-array |
| BH2RSJ [photo/doc] |
I'm a radio operator from China. I just assembled the antenna and RF amplifier before the weekend. There were many people in the weekend, and the atmosphere of hb9q forum was also very good. ,, |
| BY1QH |
28 years ago, Tsinghua University club radio (BY1QH)’s student operators and some foreign friends successfully made the very first EME contacts in China during the ARRL EME Contest 1997. 28 years have passed, almost everything has changed a lot, but nowadays there’s a group of young students aiming for the moon in Tsinghua again. In 2023 BI1QGX (me) completed the first EME QSO in the ARRL EME Contest that year, which was the first EME activity in Tsinghua after 1998; and this year, with the club station’s new rig, antenna array, as well as PA getting ready one-by-one, BY1QH is QRV for EME again! We worked 15 stations from 11 different countries during the contest. The result matches our expectations for our current setup. Sometimes it needs a bit of patience, but it feels incredibly rewarding when we succeed. It's great to see our OMs from the moon- after finishing a random 432 QSO with PA2CHR Chris, he told us that “our previous one is in 1998”. “It’s an echo not only in signal but also across time - the cosmos let us meet again.” A member of our OP team wrote these words. And what's even more exciting is the influx of fresh blood. Our recent attempts and successes sparked a trend among young hams in China to try EME. As a result, a chat group called Qiangji-sheyue-she (“Big-gun moonbouncing society”) was formed, where a lot of crazy ideas (including 2 versions of portable 432 yagi arrays) were proposed and implemented. About 10 members made their first EME QSOs after joining, and at least 5 participated and scored points during this year’s contest – which is unimaginable in 2023. We are delighted to have made a bit of contribution to the atmosphere of EME in our country. |
| CP7DX [photo/doc] |
We are very HAPPY !!! This operation was our FIRST !! operation in EME, Never before try EME, This was our first EME station made !! By the way, we are VERY HAPPY Next year will return to CP7DX in a new HF DXpedition and also EME operation See you next year |
| DL0SHF |
Thank you all for this nice experience in the EME contest. I was able to contact many small stations down to 100w and a quadloop antenna. Never thought, that this would be possible. I could only be on only part time and I was glad that on both weekend no "Murphy" had appeared. Christoph DF9CY operator at DL0SHF |
| DL5BBH [photo/doc] |
Hello everyone, Unfortunately we had a lot of problems this year. First the software, then the rotor control. So we couldn't even attend half the time. But it was still a lot of fun. Thanks to all participants. vy73, DL5BBH, Gerd |
| F5AOL [photo/doc] |
QRP station, 1.8m solid dish, 100W at feed |
| G4BRK |
Using my 23cm tropo system, Hermes-Lite 2, HB transverter, YD1336 PA (300W), single 36 el yagi with no elevation, G4DDK preamp in shack. |
| KB2SA [photo/doc] |
By far the best contest to date for me! I used my new 1.0m mesh wire dish antenna for all 4 days of this contest on 23cm. 114 QSOs, 104 unique with 86 grids. Most all Q65-30B with a handful using Q65-60C for very small stations. The QSO with Bob, KA1GT, used the very fast Q65-15A mode. 1.0m dish details will be published in DUBUS 1/2026. Bill, KB2SA |
| KG0D [photo/doc] |
Great Fun with the 1.5m solar cooker dish this year. 400 watts at the lightweight OK1DFC septum with experimental 100mm x 200mm diameter flare and WD5AGO ULNA. Six hours of operating on first moon rise. Then six hours of operations on moon set the second day. Two 15A QSO's, one 60C QSO and the rest 30B QSO's. Station is battery powered so these shorter QSO's were a help! Tried to connect with 8Q7UM both days but our common footprint had obstacles at each end on both days. Looking forward to next year! |
| LA3PNA |
Good to be back at 23cm. Got a slow start, mounted feedhorn on antenna on the last saturday of the contest, with 53 QSOs it was ok. Good to see new stations. |
| LA4ANA |
Unfortunately, I was only able to participate during the first weekend of the contest. On Saturday, I had a good start by making 3 QSO's with my minimal set-up (10 Watt into a 90 cm off-set dish). On Sunday however, I experienced problems with my pre-amp, making further QSO's impossible. Anyway, I had fun and am looking forward to next year's contest, hopefully with more reliable equipment. |
| NJ9R |
Fun contest with good participation, rule confusion seems to keep participants away. Hopefully ARRL makes it simple next year |
| NO9E [photo/doc] |
2 x M2 9V + Beko amp + BEKO preamp + S.A.T. antenna controller. Wooded area. rees obstruct angles to above 20 degrees. Using Flex 6600. MAP65 and WSJT-X connected simultaneously. Lots of noise when antenna hovering around the shack but so far. Will do noise hunting soon. Sometimes a slow pileup and sometimes no QSO in hrs. Perhaps time to change to 4 x 9. |
| OK1IN [photo/doc] |
My 1st EME CTest, use HM 4x27 el Yagi on 9m tower, too HM PA with GS-35b, 600W at feed. Thanks for all QSOs - especially for the CW, which I hadn't hoped for... |
| OK1TEH |
Nice EME contest with my old single 23el yagi, activity was little bit weaker however compared to last year I was QRV only for shorter time period.. For next contest in 2026 season I'd recommend to change rules that for multiplier could simply count any contact with W or VE station (not LOC) and every CW QSO could count for bonus points even if the station was already worked in DIGI mode (good example is ARI EME Contest). QSO shoud be completed only if dB level, RST or M/O is exchanged and QSO is CFM by final RRR. This could make contest rules easier and support the CW activity too. |
| ON4PB [photo/doc] |
EME truly helps develop patience and knowledge ! 73s ON4PB |
| RD4D [photo/doc] |
The correspondent with the callsign YL2GD refused to work with Russian operators due to racial discrimination. A lot of time, effort, and nerves were spent. Please take action, as this is an international and top-notch competition. Thank you for the exciting event. In this file: all_qmap ARRL.txt shows the activity of all stations and complete disregard for Russian callsigns. |
| SA5IKN [photo/doc] |
This year I participated in the 2025 ARRL International EME Contest using my portable, battery-powered 10 GHz EME system (photo attached). Even with a small setup consisting of a 0.9 m dish and 27 W, and limited by the battery capacity, I managed to complete 40 QSOs, including a couple of dupes. It was a thoroughly enjoyable pair of weekends in August and September. 73, Max Romensky, SA5IKN |
| SM4GGC [photo/doc] |
Fun contest and some new stations from China showed up in the second weekend. I did not spend any night hours this time only to 2300 local time and from mornings around 0600 local time. In the second weekend did I have some trouble with disturbance in elevation caused by HF so had to do some fix with ferrites at the rotator so lost almost all time at Saturday morning second weekend. 1 CW and 74 digital QSO on 70 cm this year. 73 Stig SM4GGC |
| SP7EXY [photo/doc] |
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| SP9VFD [photo/doc] |
| (no comments) |
| VE3WY |
My best score to day beating my last year's score. First 5 hours of the contest were tough due to the aurora that was lighting up the sky. Worked some new calls along with some of the more regulars. |
| VK3VJP |
Only a short window to operate the contest this year, great pleasure to make QSOs with old EME friends, as well as some new inits. |
| VK4CDI |
First weekend my newly installed 600W PA stopped. Lucky it was a power supply problem, but unable to repair it in the dark.Switched back to 250W amp for the rest of the weekend.Second weekend I still had not received a replacement PS, but no major problems and achieved a personal best with 74 QSO's. |
| VK7ZBX |
Always fun to make new friends and revisit old ones on the moon. Always like to fly the flag for VK7. Thanks to organisers and to all who came on. 73 Richard |
| W2LPL |
Fun, Fun, Fun Only operated at my home station (W2LPL) for few hours as I was privileged to be part of the W2ZQ club station with a talents group of EMErs. At home made 35 contacts with a 1.5M Solar cooker and 300W. A few months ago, the use of a Solar Cooker was just a $50 funny joke, but it really works! And not just to work the big dishs but you can work other Solar cookers due to the amazing sensitivity of Q65 as this contest proves. Moon position was not ideal as most of the time I was shooting through the canopies of my trees, so mostly were working the big guns. Contacts were so much faster then in the past with the use of 30B mode, even worked Bob on 15A. I had planned to get on 2M EME with my 4X2XP9 and a KW, but was having so much fun on 1296 I never got around to it. At W2ZQ we had a 4.7 solid dish and 600W. With my 1.5M pea shooter Echo's were in the -24db range most of the time but on the 4.7M dish, echo's were audible at -8db. What a difference! 73 Les W2LPL |
| W4HFZ |
Very exciting to get started in EME with a very modest station. Appreciate the help and patience of so many on these first QSOs. Won't be the last EME contest! |
| W4ZST |
After about 8 unsuccessful submission attempts and trying to get help from ARRL, Rick K1DS finally got my log in proper form to submit and be accepted. thanks so much to Rick for helping out folks like me who have such tremendous problems with getting logs submitted for the EME contest. Similar problems last year too. There is no way it should be this difficult and I am not a computer novice. Logged with N1MM and produced cabrillo that was never accepted. Somebody make this less difficult!! |
| W6BVB [photo/doc] |
I participated as part of a K0PRT team in October session of the contest and as Single OP 144MHz from my own station for the November session. For my own station this EME year was hard for me. I went trough constant fight with very high local noise, system optimization and system re-work. But last session of ARRL EME bring some joy. I can see real improvement of my station receiving performance and found best time windows to operate in the contest. Initially I was not willing to participate from home station, but changed my mind and went for score. |
| W8TN [photo/doc] |
This was my VERY first effort on 23cm EME. I did not complete the construction of the station until the Sunday of the first weekend. Then, on the Sunday of the second weekend, I took down the portable dish and when I laid it on the floor of my garage, I passed out and did a "Face Plant" on the concrete. Lots of injuries from that but none of them reduced the enjoyment I had from working this contest! |
| W9IP [photo/doc] |
Unsettled geomagnetic conditions and mediocre degradation made this contest a challenge. Activity in Europe seemed brisk but the Southern Hemisphere and Oceania (except JA) were largely quiet. My behind-the-barn remote station worked well so I was able to focus on operating rather than troubleshooting. I look forward to the EME contest every year. |
| WA4LM [photo/doc] |
First ever 23cm EME contest for me, what a blast! Mid-Russia to Japan & Australia was best DX 1st OCT day. Strong storms kept me QRT 2nd. Operated both nights in Nov. I learned I need a cot and coffee maker in shack for next year! 350w at septum feed to 2.4m dish, .25dB LNA, IC9700. |
| XQ3SA [photo/doc] |
| (no comments) |