[OKDXA] Best times for VU7

Fri Dec 6 16:16:48 EST 2013

FWIW, my qsos with VU7AG have been short path. I have not yet heard them 
long path. Ironically, easiest band was 20 meters. They have a good 
signal on 40 meters, but the pileups are nuts.
Bob

On 12/6/2013 1:12 PM, Roger Simpson wrote:
>
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Gary McCrorey
> Sent: Friday, December 06, 2013 12:10 PM
> To: Oklahoma DX Association
> Subject: Re: [OKDXA] Best times for VU7
>
> Know how you feel John,  been trying them for new one here also. Hear 
> them
> on 40m in evening but seems as though when they start coming up enough to
> work, they either qsy or disappear.   Looks like this is not going to 
> happen
> for me.  Only using inverted vee and 500w.  Sure could use them.
> Good Luck on working them.  Have fun.
>    73 Gary  WQ5R
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Geiger" <af5cc at fidmail.com>
> To: <okdxa at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Friday, December 06, 2013 9:55 AM
> Subject: [OKDXA] Best times for VU7
>
> ======================================================================
> """    Comments from K5RKS
> ======================================================================
> My experience is the same as everyone else's in terms of the best time 
> to work them on
> 15, 17, or 20m. According to VOACAP these are the best times from 
> Oklahoma to VU7:
>
> ALL TIMES IN UTC
> 10m  --  1400 - 1700  LONG PATH; no decent short path opening
> 12m  --  1400 - 1600  either long or short path; with peak of the 
> opening at about 1530 long path
> 15m  --  1400 - 1600 long path; 0000 - 0200 secondary peak long path
> 17m --   1400 - 1700 short path with a slight long path possibility
> 20m --   2100 - 2200 short path; 0100 - 0200 short path
> I have four QSOs with VU7 and all of them are within the VOACAP 
> guidelines
>
> I have "marginal" antennas. I have not been able to work them on 
> either 10m or 12m.
>
> 10 meters: On 10m I have never heard him.
>
> 12 meters: On 12m he was working NA but it seemed like 80%+ of the NA 
> was east of Mississippi and Great Lakes. In terms of his signal 
> strength he was barely workable here. With my antenna I wasn't able to 
> blast through East Coast NA wall. This morning [Friday AM OK time] he 
> was not on 12m during the NA opening. On many previous days he was on 
> the during the Oklahoma morning opening but I couldn't break through. 
> With a better antenna I'd be able to hear him better and also stand a 
> decent change of working him.
>
> However, there some of our OKDXA members, with large plantations of 
> Aluminum in high places have worked him on 10 and 12.
> I'd say tribanders etc at 60 feet might be the dividing line. If you 
> have a tribander (or equivalent) at 40 feet [like me] it would be 
> tough on 10 and 12.
> Stacked yagis at 80 feet plus or a monobander or log periodic at 80+ 
> feet would likely do the trick.
>
> I looked at the VU7AG log to see how some of us OKDXA guys are doing. 
> I think to a first order approximation there is a correlation to the 
> size of the antenna farm and the number of VU7 band/modes worked. I've 
> been told by several of our big guns that the three most important 
> aspects of any station are (in this order) antennas, antennas, and 
> antennas.  Then comes operator perseverance, rig, power, etc.
>
> Fortunately, for Amsterdam, even though it is farther away from us 
> than any other DX location, and it is VERY RARE, the propagation is 
> pretty good from Oklahoma. So if we are diligent we should be able to 
> work him.  I am working now on a short path / long path table for 
> Amsterdam in a grid form. I'm taking the stuff from the VOACAP website 
> and redrawing it into a grid I can look at -- at a glance -- to see 
> what's going on. The VOACAP website shows the propagation as a wheel, 
> which for me, is next to impossible to interpret in a quick glance.  
> Amsterdam is going to be crazy. A quick glance, based right now on the 
> December 2013 timeframe, shows there will be quite a few times where 
> long path is better than short path and there will also be times where 
> long and short path are more or less "the same".
>
> 73  Roger   K5RKS
> ================================================================================================================ 
>
>> Still hoping to work VU7AG for an ATNO before they leave.  What have 
>> others in Oklahoma found to be the best times and frequencies to work 
>> them? Don't have much of a station here but did hear them pretty good 
>> on 17m one afternoon.
>>
>> 73 John AF5CC
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-- 
Robert Redmon K5SM
AMA 58073