[Elecraft] Fwd: PT0S update

[Mike Harris]

For info.

Mike VP8NO

<quote>
Winds have further increased during the later afternoon and evening, 
During high tide the waves were crashing over the south perimeter rocks, 
flooding the area around vertical No 2 (our 80 to 10 antenna for Station 
2). One of the waves has ripped off the coax cable from the antenna 
coupler, breaking in tow a large male N connector, as well as causing 
some other damage. We had to wait until low tide to fix it but it is 
back in operation as of 1600 Z. Waves also took out our new 10 m 
antenna. It is also fixed now. The combination of swells and high waves 
makes a pretty sight around the rocks, with lots of white water all 
around, but it makes working on the antennas (which are naturally close 
to the water) very difficult. Another challenge we face is noise (the 
acoustic kind, this time). The huge waves crashing against the rocks 
create a constant noise, even the rocks under us are tremble at times. 
There is also noise from the various activities by the Navy, and just 
simply noise from being so cramped together. On the other hand, the 
Brazilian Navy guys have been very friendly, accommodating and helpful. 
Without their support this operation would not be possible.

We are also experiencing failures with our K3 radios. We brought four 
K3-s and had problems with three of them so far. We have been able to 
repair two of the problems, but the third one seems to need a firmware 
download, which is not possible from here.

The pile-ups are large and we are trying hard to hear the callers but it 
is proving to be very difficult. We are now spending more time on 30 and 
12 meters, but there the narrow band makes our pile-ups even more 
troublesome.

Low Bands:

160: Excellent conditions during the early part of the night, but later, 
from around 0300Z, we had increasing lightning QRN. Worked UA0 but still 
no sign of JA-s.

80: We continue working JA-s on 80 early in the morning.

40: Was excellent the short time we spent working it.
<unquote>