[EIDXA] K7C

[Nelson Moyer]

EIDXA'ers

 

As the K7C operation fades into the sunset, I thought I would share my
impressions with the faithful, and perhaps provide fodder for discussion at
ROMEO, though I have a conference call and won't be able to make it. First
off, they were very weak on the high bands except for occasional openings on
17 and 15 early in the operation. I could tell they were there on 12 meters,
but that's about all. Nothing on 10 meters. I suspect the choice of SteppIR
vertical dipoles had a lot more to do with that than the low solar flux. The
disadvantage of the dipole approach is that they radiate poorly compared to
yagis, and they are bidirectional, which means in this case that the JA wall
was virtually impenetrable. Listening experience suggests that the normally
polite JAs have joined the Europeans and Americans who don't copy enough CW
to understand UP or NA, who tune up on the DX frequency, and who call
incessantly over QSOs. The ops apparently failed to understand the rudiments
of sunrise openings on the low bands, and they worked JA when they should
have been working NA, or they didn't show up at all. The real clue that they
were clueless re propagation was the break to call for EU on 40 meters this
morning at noontime in EU! Most of the 80 meter activity was SSB, suggesting
that they didn't have enough CW ops, and the amount of RTTY has been minimal
to date, despite high need for that mode. I don't think they have operated
PSK yet. Fortunately, I didn't need KH7 anywhere but RTTY and 160, or I
would be even more disappointed with K7C. I missed the all night marathon on
160 this week (I slept through it after working the day before and having to
work the day after), but I did manage to catch them on RTTY on 15 meters
early when the band was better and the crowds were thinner. Altogether, this
operation should serve as a lesson to others re the need for antennas with
forward gain, the need for enough good CW ops for low sunspot operations,
and the need to understand and apply propagation science. This should not be
the DX'pedition of the year.

 

Nelson, KU0A