[OKDXA] Fw: Zorro in Eritrea

[Roger Simpson]

------ Forwarded Message ------
From: "Roger Simpson" <rksimpson1 at cox.net>
To: "OKDXA Reflector" <okdxa at mailman.gth.net>
Sent: 9/15/2014 8:19:41 PM
Subject: Zorro in Eritrea

As most of you know, Eritrea may be activated next weekend. Zorro, from 
JA land, is going there for about a week. He will be busy in various 
meetings most of the week but there is a possibility that he may be able 
to get on the air and work some DX on Sept 20 and/or Sept 21. 
Scuttlebutt I'm getting here says that if he does get on the air, then 
he will most likely be on during HIS evening -- (maybe 7PM to 4AM local 
E3 time ??) [i.e. 11AM to 8PM Central Time].  This is the same as 1600 
to 0100 UTC.

When Zorro was operating from Myanmar he had halfway decent gear and 
antennas and there were a couple of other guys helping him. He was able 
to QRV with a decent signal.

However, in this case Zorro is evidently using whatever gear and 
antennas he can take with him on the plane as luggage. So this could be 
a tough one for us.

I ran some propagation predictions using VOACAP from Okla to E3. I 
assumed a 50 foot yagi and running 500W here in Oklahoma. On Zorro's end 
I assumed dipoles and verticals running 100W. Even with this less than 
optimal situation there is some hope. There will be a pretty decent 
opening on 15 meters from about 11AM to 7PM Central Time -- [which 
corresponds to 7PM to 3AM (i.e. "evening") in E3]. There will be shorter 
openings on 17m [about 3PM to 8PM CST] and 20m [about 6PM to 10PM CST]. 
Some of us who have large antennas [this leaves me out] may have a shot 
on other bands also -- assuming Zorro comes up on 10m, 12m, 30m, 40m 
etc.

Eritrea is number 16 on the QRZ DX 2013 DX most wanted list.

If Zorro shows up then, I'll see you guys in the pileups. If this 
happens at all it will be tough. There will only be one op over there 
who is QRV for either zero, one, or two days.

According to various DX tip sheets that I'm aware of, there has not yet 
been any announcement as to what call Zorro will be using. Zorro's home 
call is JH1AHT so possibly his call will be JH1AHT/E3.

Heading to E3 is about 40 degrees. According to W3UR, the last time E3 
was activated was 8 years ago or more. I don't recall E3 having ever 
being on since I've been into DXing which dates back to about 2004.

According to today's Daily DX, Zorro has arrived in E3. His gear is 
coming on a separate flight tomorrow.

73   Roger   K5RKS