[Elecraft] DX News and two questions

Tue May 23 19:16:53 EDT 2006

Bekir:

Since many operators communicate from ships, cars and airplanes in 
motion, you should be able to operate from a train in motion. 
Obviously if the train car is metal, an indoor antenna would be 
ineffective. Can you mount a mobile whip on the exterior of the car? 
Would clearance through tunnels and bridges be a problem? If you need 
to be low to the roof on a metal roofed rail car, it might be 
possible to construct a DDRR  (information available on various Web 
sites) antenna for 15 or 20 meters on the rooftop. (Big problem: 
you'd need a very high voltage capacitor to tune the antenna.)

With respect to long haul QRP DX:

You did not mention the height of your inverted-V antenna. If the 
apex is low, say 5 or 6 meters above the ground, then it will be very 
difficult to work consistent long haul DX with a QRP rig.

However, it most definitely is possible to transmit a consistently 
readable signal between Turkey and North America using 5 watts and 
simple antennas.  On 14 MHz I use a straight dipole 12 meters above 
ground, and on 21/10.1/7 MHz I use a straight fan dipole 10 meters 
above the ground. From my QTH in Maine, using 5 Watts, on all four 
bands I have worked many stations both in and near Turkey, including 
A4, A6 and A7 stations through pileups. By reciprocity, if people in 
your region can hear my 5 Watt signal, then we should be able to hear yours.

Several things you should consider:

1) Favorable propagation is critical to QRP long haul DXing. Use a 
propagation program like VOACAP to find the predicted times and 
frequencies of openings to the regions that you wish to contact. 
Also, check http://dx.qsl.net/propagation/ for real-time conditions; 
if the K index is over 3 or the A index is over 7, you will have a 
very hard time working long haul QRP DX. On the other hand, if both A 
and K are 2 or less you should see some spectacular worldwide 
openings. To verify current conditions, check the NCDXF/IARU beacons 
(for information see http://www.ncdxf.org/Beacon/BeaconSchedule.html 
) Each beacon sends long dashes at 100, 10, 1 and 0.1 Watt. If you 
can hear the QRP dashes, operators in that region should be able to hear you.

2) Although you hear the occasional story of people making a 
spectacular DX contact with a few milliWatts to a short wire in the 
attic, in reality those occurrences are rare. If you want consistent 
QRP DX, get your antenna 10 meters up or higher, and minimize your 
overall system losses, by using good quality coax with relatively few 
breaks and good weather sealing.

3) It is important to get your signal well centered into the passband 
of the receiving station. If you're using a K2 or another rig with 
split VFO capability, and you hear a station with whom you want a QSO 
having a QSO with somebody else, then adjust your transmit VFO to 
have a precise zero-beat with the station with whom the desired 
station is communicating. Then your signal will be at its maximum 
strength in the desired station's passband. When that QSO is 
finished, you can call, and the desired station is very likely to 
hear you. (On CW, people calling 100-200 Hz off the passband 
frequency will be perceived by the receiving station as being 10 dB 
or so down compared to what they would be if they were centered in 
the passband.)

4) Do not forget the DX effect. Many North American operators 
consider Turkey to be semi-rare. If people can hear you at all, they 
will want a QSO.

BTW, if you figure out how to work East Asia (excluding Japan) on 
QRP, let me know how you do it.

Good luck and 73,

Steve
AA4AK

At 05:13 PM 5/23/2006, Bekir Kemal Ataman wrote:
>Hi,
>
>Here is some brand new first hand news to Elecrafters.
>
>This year is the 150th anniversary of railways in Turkey. So I am planning
>two major events.
>
>One will be to broadcast from Haydar Pasha train station, which is
>celebrating its 100th year, with the callsign TC150HP. I hope to be on the
>air between 30 May (the day construction began at Haydar Pasha station)
>untill 30 June, in my SPARE TIME, whenever that may be.
>
>The other will be from several train stations around the country with the
>callsign TC150DD (TCDD is the abbreviation for Turkish Republic State
>Railways), between 23 August and 23 September (the day the railways were
>first built). In doing this I was wondering whether I could also transmit
>from train wagons as a "rail mobile" station. It is obvious I cannot do
>this from electric powered trains. However on diesel or steam (if there is
>any left around) powered trains, I cannot think of any reason why this
>should not be possible. I am sure this must have been tried in earlier
>years of HAM radio but I haven't come accross any mentions of it in my
>limited HAM life since 1999, the year of the catastrophic earthquake in
>Turkey which led me into radio communications. Is it possible at all to
>work from a train in motion?
>
>The second question relates to stations in Americas and Oceania. With my
>QRP K2 and inverted V dipole setting, I had QSOs with almost all of Europe
>(the most difficult of which was with Ireland), North Africa, Middle East,
>Eastern Black Sea and many parts of Russia, as well as quite a few stations
>(probably big guns) in Japan. However, I have never heard any stations from
>Australia, New Zealand, Central America nor Eastern Asia. I have heard one
>or two stations from the US (but not from Canada), Indonesia, South Africa
>and South America but could not get them to hear my QRP signals over the
>pile-up. So, I was wondering if it is at all possible for me to have QSOs
>with these countries. I have got a feeling I am either in the air at the
>wrong times to hear many of them or that they are just too far away for my
>simple setting. Ideas?
>
>BTW, if I can get the "rail mobile" station to work properly, I will
>(hopefully) be broadcasting from 9 portable and 9 "rail mobile" locations.
>With the addition of a few other TC150xx stations, I have got a feeling I
>can turn this into an award setting, where stations contacting say 10 of
>these settings will be issued an award. What do you reckon? (Ooops, this
>has become the third question <g>.) Is it worth looking for sponsors?
>
>Thanking you in advance for your help.
>
>73!
>de TA2RX
>
>----------------------------------
>Bekir Kemal Ataman
>ArchiMac BBS Sysop & Webmaster <http://www.archimac.org/>
>
>
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