DL1QQ
Sandy Raeker
Hoexter, Germany

We are a group of 10 hams setting up a joint location in Ottenstein. That’s a small village on a mountain plateau in the northern part of Germany. For the high bands we use monoband yagis. For the low bands we only had dipoles so far. Our newest purchase now is a vertical for 80 and 40m. We picked the DXE-8040VA-1 Thunderbolt from DX Engineering. No problems with shipping from the USA to DL. And the antenna was very easy to install. Even though we don’t have very much space at our location (there is no possibility to spread out 40m long radials in all directions), the performance of the antenna is great. During WAE SSB Contest on the second weekend in September, I used the antenna for the first time. In spite of poor conditions I got to work many DX stations on 80 and 40. I am looking forward to more operations with this antenna. 73/88 Sandy