[50mhz] TX5K initial summary
Lance Collister, W7GJ
w7gj at q.com
Sun Mar 17 19:11:35 EDT 2013
Hello,
As I write the initial summary, I am on the Shogun on the return trip from Clipperton
Island. As you can well imagine, the trip was very exhausting, as I was essentially
on my own to set up the 6m station as far away from the HF operations as possible,
and then race to get things set up to operate EME all night. Because we were a day
late in landing on the island, it was struggle to get the 6m beam assembled and up
before nightfall on the first day of March, but I did get the antenna up just after
sunset, in time for moonrise on the second day of March GMT. In addition to missing
a good day for EME at the beginning of the trip, I missed most of the last two EME
days, when cndx were just beginning to improve. That left me with the worst week of
the month for EME. Of course, I was very disappointed in the EME results, and the
fact that I had no terrestrial propagation toward NA, aside from two contacts who
apparently linked to an Es opening.
While the number of EME stations worked was not as high as my operation from Fiji,
the results were surprisingly close, and suggests that another dedicated EME
DXpedition to some rare place during the BEST week of the month for 6m EME could
yield at least 50 to 60 contacts. Despite all the difficulties encountered, the EME
results were better than the Rarotonga, Samoa and Niue operations. As it turned out,
I had no access to any internet at any time, so could only tell if a station received
my RRR, completing the contact, if I received 73's from them. Below is a list of the
6m EME contacts, along with stations copied through Saturday March ninth when I was
forced to shut down at sixteen-forty UTC:
TX5K 6M LOG FROM 50.190 MHz
NOTE: ? Under NOTES indicates RRR were sent but no 73's received
QSO/
STN # YR MONTH DAY UTC CALL -DB MODE NOTES
1 2013 MARCH 2 0536 G8BCG 21 JT65A
2 2013 MARCH 2 0544 ON4IQ 11 JT65A
3 2013 MARCH 2 0556 S59A 22 JT65A
4 2013 MARCH 2 0606 S57RR 22 JT65A
5 2013 MARCH 2 0612 ON4GG 15 JT65A
6 2013 MARCH 2 0622 K2ZD 17 JT65A
7 2013 MARCH 2 0636 OZ4VV 18 JT65A
8 2013 MARCH 2 0642 SM7FJE 26 JT65A
9 2013 MARCH 2 0427 WA4NJP 26 JT65A ?
9 2013 MARCH 2 0652 SM7AED 17 JT65A
10 2013 MARCH 2 0740 N3XX 28 JT65A
11 2013 MARCH 2 0758 K6MYC 20 JT65A
12 2013 MARCH 2 0704 0K7XX 17 JT65A
13 2013 MARCH 2 0750 G4IGO 21 JT65A
14 2013 MARCH 2 0852 W6BBS 24 JT65A
15 2013 MARCH 2 0950 ZL1RS 25 JT65A
16 2013 MARCH 2 1002 N7NW 24 JT65A
17 2013 MARCH 2 1026 K7XQ 27 JT65A
18 2013 MARCH 2 1044 FK8CP 26 JT65A
19 2013 MARCH 2 1232 N3CXV 24 JT65A
20 2013 MARCH 2 1324 N8JX 23 JT65A
21 2013 MARCH 2 1554 K7CW 25 JT65A
22 2013 MARCH 2 1612 W7IUV 17 JT65A
23 2013 MARCH 2 1618 W6BBS 24 JT65A DUPE
24 2013 MARCH 3 0632 IW5DHN 15 JT65A
25 2013 MARCH 3 0714 GW4WND 23 JT65A
26 2013 MARCH 3 0706 G5WQ 25 JT65A
27 2013 MARCH 3 0728 OZ1DJJ 28 JT65A
28 2013 MARCH 3 0748 S51DI 26 JT65A
29 2013 MARCH 3 0754 GM4WJA 22 JT65A
30 2013 MARCH 3 0831 OT1E 18 JT65A
31 2013 MARCH 3 0850 F6BKI 29 JT65A
32 2013 MARCH 3 1016 KH7Y 25 JT65A
33 2013 MARCH 3 1040 ZL3NW 26 JT65A
34 2013 MARCH 3 1242 VE3KH 26 JT65A
35 2013 MARCH 3 1318 VE3MMQ 26 JT65A
36 2013 MARCH 3 0712 K6QXY 26 JT65A
37 2013 MARCH 4 0756 HA8CE 26 JT65A
38 2013 MARCH 4 0806 OZ1DJJ 24 JT65A
39 2013 MARCH 7 1114 OZ7OX 27 JT65A
40 2013 MARCH 7 1142 OK1RD 27 JT65A
41 2013 MARCH 8 1110 ES6RQ 23 JT65A
42 2013 MARCH 8 1120 OH6MIK 22 JT65A
43 2013 MARCH 8 1140 LA8AJA 22 JT65A
44 2013 MARCH 8 1230 N6RMJ 26 JT65A
45 2013 MARCH 8 1336 W7MEM 27 JT65A
46 2013 MARCH 8 1358 N2TIN 24 JT65A
47 2013 MARCH 9 1206 UT7QF 26 JT65A ?
48 2013 MARCH 9 1236 SP3RNZ 24 JT65A
49 2013 MARCH 9 1316 HA0DU 26 JT65A ?
COPIED BUT NOT COMPLETED:
1 G3WOS
2 G8VR
3 JR6EXN
4 K4RX
5 K7TNT
6 K8SIX
7 K8WW
8 KJ9I
9 KR7O
10 LY2BAW
11 LZ2WO
12 N5DG
13 ND0B
14 NN7J
15 N7IP
16 OK1DO
17 S57A
18 S51D
19 SV8CS
20 VE1JF
21 W5UWB
22 W7UT
23 W9GA
24 YT1AR
We completed over 260 contacts via Es and TEP, and spent many hours beaconing when
not on EME. Very briefly, a few of the problems encountered were:
1. Delay in landing by a day while searching for a place that would permit us to
get through the reef
2. My having to haul all the equipment, operating tent, sleeping tent, generator,
fuel, water, etc. by hand cart south of the landing point and set it up before
nightfall. This was very time consuming as well as exhausting.
3. Gasoline rationing in the middle of the week forced us to only run barefoot when
beaconing or working TEP - there was no EME on those days anyway because of the high
Degradation, but it limited our ability to put out a big signal on terrestrial
propagation on those days.
4. The antenna location fifty meters from the pounding surf caused everything to be
drenched in salt spray. The result was that the antenna performance degraded daily,
my K3 became inoperable at over 10 watts, the 6M1000 amplifier relays became
intermittent on receive, and the number and a few other keys on my laptop computer no
longer work - I have to copy and paste them from the station log in order to enter
numbers into this email.
5. My operation was forced to shut down earlier than planned because of anticipated
difficulty in leaving the island on time, causing me to miss valuable moon time of
improving cndx.
6. The consistently high winds made it difficult to move the antenna around -
especially at night, because it had to be well tethered.
7. All my clothes, along with my LMR600 coax were washed in salt water in the hold
of the ship for 10 days en route to the island, and the cardboard boxes containing
all my gear I had were destroyed. The connectors on the 25' emergency extra length
of LMR600 coax were all corroded, so I had to use jumpers in series with the 50'
length so it would reach the operating tent.
8. The 6m operating position was too far to connect with the wi-fi network that
would permit real time posting of the 6m contacts via the DXA page and it turned out
that there was no way for me to access the chat pages even via a low bandwidth telnet
client. At least on my other DXpeditions, I was able to get messages out by
occasional internet connections.
9. A number of large 6m stations were apparently not able to get on the air to work
this rare DXCC
10. I had hoped for some terrestrial propagation toward asia, but did not have any.
11. Ground gain on moonset was not as good as I had hoped.
12. Unlike the situation for the HF operators, whose gear is being shipped home for
them by the DXpedition funds, I will have to figure out some way to ship all my gear
home from San Diegopier at my own expense.
A few of the unexpected positive events included:
1. Only a few storms dropped only a few minutes of rain
2. We were able to depart the island around noon on Monday despite the tidal
extremes associated with new moon
3. Nobody was seriously injured
4. At least some people who made the effort to get on EME got a new country
despite the poor EME cndx and the obstacles on my end
5. It was possible to endure the extreme heat by cutting open the operating tent to
let the wind blow salt and sand through, and generally the evenings were quite bearable.
6. The French public TV crew got some great photos of the 6m EME operation, and
hopefully we will be able to pass some of these on to you eventually.
7. There was absolutely NO interference from the HF operations, so the effort to
get down far to the south of them was successful.
8. Ground gain on moonrise was outstanding, due to the proximity of the antenna to
ocean.
9. I was very pleasantly surprised to get two USA stations in the log on
terrestrial propagation.
10. I made the first contact of the group from TX5K, by working G8BCG on EME.
A more complete report with photos will be prepared as soon as Ican put something
together from home with a computer keyboard that is not damaged. I also have a lot of
photos to share, some of which are really GREAT. I will try to post a number of
these on my FACEBOOK page.
The Alpha 8406 amp that was very graciously loaned to me from RF Concepts worked
great, until my K3 was damaged and could no longer drive it toward the end of the
trip. As soon as I get it back home, I will be soaking all the parts of the 6M8GJ
yagi in a hot water bathtub to remove all the salt, and will plan to use the anti
corrosion compound on ALL the connections next trip, even it it delays me getting on
the air a day. The K3 will also need some major repairs after the damage caused by
the salt spray corrosion...
ManyMANY hanks again to all of you for your support and effort in watching for us.
It certainly was a HUGE effort by everyone and I only regret that I could not put
more stations in the log - including W7GJ. HOWEVER, it WAS the most successful
combined HF/6m EME DXpedition to date. Given all the difficulties I faced, though, I
am inclined to stick with the solo operations in the future...
VY 73, Lance
--
Lance Collister, W7GJ
(ex WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8, E51SIX, 3D2LR, 5W0GJ, E6M)
P.O. Box 73
Frenchtown, MT 59834-0073
USA
TEL: (406) 626-5728
QTH: DN27ub
URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj
Windows Messenger: W7GJ at hotmail.com
Skype: lanceW7GJ
2m DXCC #11/6m DXCC #815
Interested in 6m EME? Ask me about subscribing to the Magic Band EME
email group, or just fill in the request box at the bottom of my web
page (above)!
More information about the 50mhz
mailing list