As the Corona virus or COVID-19 spread rapidly around the world including Thailand, we have been on lockdown from 31st March 2020 to 30th April 2020. A curfew has announced that people are not allowed to leave the house from 10:00 PM to 04:00 AM. In the part of the association, there was no monthly party meeting of the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand in April, as well as many DXpeditions around the world would be canceled or postponed indefinitely.

The situation of COVID-19 in Thailand is that the government is still able to control the epidemic very well. Thai citizens are aware of daily life, and keep everyone at home. Therefore, the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand (RAST) has organized the "STAY HOME and Turn on Your Radio" activity. On the VHF and HF bands, and with a daily signal test at 144.9375 MHz and 7.128 MHz starting at 1300 GMT, members will rotate into Net Control and use the call sign HS0AC throughout April.

SSTV activity during STAY at HOME

IO86 Satellite during STAY at HOME

In late March 2020, the E21EIC’s station (also club callsign E20AX and Contest callsign E2A) was renovated in Bangkok. The original antenna has been in use for more than 10 years, belonging to the Force12 type C-4XL. There are many friends come to join and help this time including HS1FVL, HS1JZT, HS0KRM, HS3NBR, HS5NMF, HS5XWY, E21FYK, E23NEZ, E24MMU, E24MMV, and E25JAI.

Take Force12 C-4XL down

In the morning, the C-4XL aerial antenna was removed from the 30 meters high tower, and after everything was brought down by heavy rain caused the entire team to take a break. Then the new antenna assembly, which were JK-MID-TRI antenna (3-el 20 m, 4-el 15 m, 5-el 10 m) and Creative Design CY-402 (2-el 40 m).

Install JK-MID-TRI Antenna

In the afternoon after the rain stopped, we have installed the antenna, starting from the JK-MID-TRI, installed at the top of the tower, followed by CY-402. In the installation there were some problems due to the narrow space, but we were able to finish installing the antenna, and checked the VSWR come out very well. The side of the Tower 1 is equipped with C-3 antenna (20 m-15 m-20 m), fixed the direction to Japan at a height of 15 meters.

E23NEZ, HS0KRM, HS5XWY, HS5NMF

Winch for Antenna

HS3NBR and HS0KRM adjust CY-402 Antenna

CY-402 up on tower at night

Antennas at E21EIC’s Station

As for the Tower 2, the top antenna is Nagara T3-3VX for the WARC band (30 m-17 m-12 m). HS3NBR has modified 5-el 10m Yagi antenna and installed additional rotators on the side of the Tower 2 to allow the antenna to rotate between Europe and Japan.

The installation has been completed at approximately 09:00 PM, which is all done and ready for the CQ WPX SSB 2020 and JIDX CW 2020 competitions.

For the E21EIC’s station, it is designed as a Single-Op 2 Radios (SO2R) contest using 4O3A band pass filters.

Filters system at E21EIC

E21EIC’s Shack

For the CQ WPX SSB competition on the weekend March 28th-29th, 2020, I participated in a Single-Op All Band High Power competition with a call sign E2A. The CQ WPX was one of the Qualify WRTC 2020, and the condition was quite good. On Saturday I was able to make contacts with Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. On Sunday, the condition was not as good as Saturday. E2A made 1,560 QSOs and 2.4 million points.

CQ WPX SSB 2020 Contest Breakdown

I had an opportunity to participate in the Japan International DX Contest CW (JIDXCW) 2020 competition, April 10th-11th, 2020. I competed in the Single-Op All Band High Power and used the call sign E21EIC in this program. JIDX Contest is a fun program and can make contacts only with Japan. As a result, I made 652 QSOs and 91,653 points.

Japan International DX Contest CW (JIDXCW) 2020 competition Breakdown

E21EIC and YB9AY

Finally, the new antennas work well. In addition, the Low Band antenna which is the Creative Design model CD78-5 for the 80 m area will be installed very soon, and I would like to thank everyone who helped install the antennas at the previous E21EIC station.