[50mhz] Success at Perigee ;-)

[Lance Collister]

I am pleased to report that JT44 worked its magic again this morning!  Even though
only one day from APOGEE, ES8X and I completed a FB 6m JT44 contact on their
moonset. It was my 6m DXCC #71 ;-)  The last seven new countries for me on 6m have
been made by working single yagi stations on their moonset, using JT44.

ES8X is a VHF/UHF DXpedition to Kihnu Island (KO18xc) being put on by the Viimsi
Radio Club (ES2WX).  This portable operation involves operators ES2NA, ES2QH, ES2RJ,
ES1DW, ES2EZ, ES1LAA and ES1TGO.  They will be QRV until August 6.  Here is info
from them on what they are/were running:

  Bands: HF,50,144,432,1296 MHz
  Modes: CW,SSB,FM,HSCW,FSK441,JT44
  Activities:  Terrestial,MS,EME
  Equipment:
                 HF: FT920 barefoot, R-700, 80m Sloper, 20m Delta Loop.
                 50 MHz: FT920+PA 600w, 5 el Yagi.
               144 MHz. TS790E+PA 300w, preamp, 2x9 el Yagis
                              FT 847+ PA 300w, 9 el Yagi
               432 MHz TS790+ PA 250w, preamp, 19 el Yagi
                              FT 847+ PA 300w, preamp, 4X12 el Yagi with elevation.
             1296 MHz TS790+ PA 160w,preamp, 44 el Yagi, low loss cable.
                              FT 847+ xverter+ PA 30w, low loss cable

  Their main activity was for the Estonian Open Field Day contest. At least two
station setups (maybe three)   will be active on different frequencies for
HSCW,FSK44. We are ready also to try tropo and EME skeds using   JT44.
  QRGs for HSCW will be 144.133, 144.173 and 144.193 MHz.
  QRGs for FSK 441 will be 144.357 and 144.367 MHz
  QRG for JT44 EME and Tropo will be 144, 153 MHz.
  QRG for monitoting tropo,ES or Aurora:
      144,050 CW & 144300 SSB
      432,050 CW & 432,200 CW and SSB
     1296,200 CW and SSB
  How you can contact with us:
  In request we are able to take skeds from VHF net on 14.345 MHz,
  or send a short E-mail to es2na@erau.ee 100 characters max,
  or if we can receive any Packet Cluster on the island then this way is also OK.
  Separate setup with modem and antenna will be installed for that purpose.

It truly is amazing how weak signals can be and how easily you can copy once you
reach the stage where only 2 (or fewer) character messages are being exchanged!  So,
the required "RO" and "RR" went by so quickly we had to continue with "73" and "TU"
;-)

I can't wait to see how many new countries I can work in 2 weeks when we have
PERIGEE!  GL and VY 73, Lance
-- 
Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex: WN3GPL, WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8)
P.O. Box 73
Frenchtown, MT  59834  USA
QTH: DN27UB
TEL: (406) 626-5728   FAX:(406) 728-6320
URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj