[ADXA] VP8, DX, Etc.

[Joel Harrison]

Its been a wild couple of weeks of DX excitement.

The Intrepid-DX Group survived South Sandwich Island and moved on to South
Georgia Island, where they are now. Quite an impressive effort by them.
I'll be honest, I thought after the horrible storm they experienced, and
survived, on Sandwich that they would pack it up and head home but they
regrouped and stayed on plan. I know several of the team personally and
they are a great group!

I hope you were able to snag them on Sandwich. This was a tough path and
rough condx. While not an all time new one for me I was able to pick them
up on some bands I needed them on. The signals from South Georgia seem
much better and they will be there through this weekend so schedule some
time to get on and work them if you haven't. Remember, this one won't be
back on for some time so do not miss this chance.

Over the weekend I was one of the operators at the W2GD Multi-op for the
CQWW 160 meter CW contest. I have never operated from John's station, in
fact I've never operated a 160 meter contest from the northeast. I have
been at N2CEI's in Florida a couple of times for 160 contests and have
operated a contest on the higher HF bands from the northeast but this was
quite an experience for me on 160 meters. John's 160 meter station sits on
a salt water marsh on the southern New Jersey Atlantic coast about an hour
and a half south of New York City, 30 miles north of Atlantic City, NJ.
Being able to run EU on 160 meters like a 20 meter run was exciting and
impressive. We just can't do that in Arkansas because of our geographical
location and band condx. From the posted scores it appears we handily won
North America and have place pretty high "World". I flew up last Thursday
and have been assisting John with improving some of his receive antennas
for 160 meters. John and Dan, W2NO, have continually been working on the
station to eliminate interstation interference between the run and mult
stations and have made significant improvement. I was quite impressed with
their progress. The mult station can get within about 2 KHz of the run
station and not interfere with each other, the two can still function and
work stations independently. Quite an enjoyable experience!

DX still to come:

A35T Tonga February 17 - A very experienced group of operators and they
will focus on low bands

VK0EK Heard Island March 16 - If you need to make an improvement to your
station, do it NOW as this is one that won't be back on the air for 15
years, if ever.

FT4JA Juan de Nove -March 29

Also tons of other DX on the air now depending on your current level of
"chase". Keep checking your favorite DX news source for details.

73 Joel W5ZN