[ADXA] Heard and the Herd

[Joel Harrison]

Heard Island came on the air a few days ago and the wild herd of DX'ers
seeking to work them fired up!

Propagation to the island from W5 land has not been good. The first couple
of nights they had set up 40 and 30 meters. The 30 meter sig was decent
but 40 was not good. After a couple more days of antenna work they fired
on more bands but we are still experiencing poor conditions here in W5
land. Our common daylight/darkness with Heard doesn't help. In the
evenings we only have about one hour of common darkness at the most so low
band possibilities are extremely difficult. By the same token the common
daylight is also only about an hour so that doesn't give much time for the
sun to do its magic on the higher bands, plus the SFI and A index haven't
helped either.

Right now we have some weak prop on 17, 15 and 12 around 8:00 AM and that
is it. In the evenings from around 7:30 - 9:00 PM listen on 30 meters and
lower.

I do not need Heard Island for an all time new one as I have it on 20
meters and 30 meters, SSB, CW and RTTY from previous operations but I am
deeply involved in the DXCC Challenge and working individual band
countries and on a pursuit to reach the 3000 mark. I am currently at 2940
so every little one counts and Heard is one I need everywhere except 20
and 30. I was very lucky to work them not only on 40 meters and 80 meters
as well Friday evening......an accomplishment I call 99% luck and 1%
skill! This morning I was able to nab them on 12 meters. They had a really
nice SSB sign from about 1300z to 1330z and then the bad died here.

Deciding which band to listen to when they are spotted several places is a
hard decision. When I was a boy I loved to quail hunt with my dad. It took
me a few times to learn when a covey erupted from their cover and birds
were everywhere to focus on one rather than just shoot among the entire
covey feverishly flying away. Working a DXpedition like Heard is similar.
This morning I was trying to listen for them on 17, 15 and 12. Their CW
sig was weak on 15 but was the only band I could hear them on and given
the sig was weak I simply assumed there was no propagation on a higher
freq, so I focused on 17 and 15. After a bit I just happened to notice a
signal on their freq on 12 meters on another radio I had on and it was
VK0EK, a very good 59 sig!!! I almost missed the brief opening because I
had given up on 12 meters based on their 17 and 15 meter sigs.

So, the lesson from this is focus on one band at a time but stay cognizant
of the other bands as well. After you shoot the one bird you need to know
where to move quickly to next! Understand propagation and when you should
expect to hear the DX station. Our W5 land band openings to VK0 are short.

VK0EK is scheduled to be on for another 13 days so you have some time to
get them in the log. As time goes by the pileups will calm down a bit and
hopefully the sunspot #'s will improve. Just remember, this is one you
really need to focus on and work because it will not be back on the air
for a very, very long time if ever again. The last operation I recall was
VK0IR in 1997.

I still need them on 160, 17, 15 and 10 so if you're in the pile on those
bands I will be as well.....assuming we can hear them!!!

Oh yea....and one other VERY IMPORTANT POINT - remember they are working
SPLIT so make sure you're not calling on their xmit freq. Also they are
listening DOWN so don't go up and call unless you hear the op specifically
say so.

73 Joel W5ZN