[OKDXA] VP8STI ending date/time

[Roger Simpson]

===========================
Reply from   K5RKS:


Here is the latest stuff I got straight via an E-mail that was released 
by the chief pilot of VP8STI / VP8SGI

Jan 26 Start to dismantle some antennas
Jan 27 Afternoon: Depart from South Sandwich in the afternoon local time

Jan 30 Plan to be QRV on South Georgia with several stations by the 
before daylight ends.  Check VOACAP for local sunrise / sunset at South 
Georgia.
He is four time zones east of us. Also he is very far south so he has 
very long daylight periods each day. Of course, summer in the Antarctic 
region happens during our Northern Hemisphere winter.

This is a very very difficult station for most of us to work. The condx 
are terrible -- Huge solar storm caused NIL propagation for about a 24 
hr period of time -- much worse than predicted by VOACAP.

I have NOT even been able to hear him at all at any time over the entire 
time he has been on South Sandwich on 30m or 40m.  I have heard him -- 
just barely but not workable -- several times on CW on 17m or 20m.

After about five days of not being able to hear him well enough at any 
time on any band so that he is workable, I finally snagged him at 0900 
UTC {i.e. 3AM Central Standard Time} on 20m CW. I woke up in the middle 
of the night and came up here to the shack. I went through all my memory 
presets for him on the rig -- i.e. all his announced freqs for CW and 
SSB on each band from 40m to 10m. I couldn't hear a thing of him 
anywhere but on 20m CW. He was just barely above the noise. He was 
calling CW with no takers: Just the slightest whisper of VP8STI calling 
CQ and listening UP 1. So I gave him a call and he came back 
immediately. I just BARELY made out my call. Talk about living on the 
edge. I guess the only reason I worked him was that FINALLY he was just 
barely copyable through the QSB and also he had worked the band dry and 
there were no other callers. Doing this crazy hobby requires living on 
the edge. Sort of like rappelling up Half Dome without leaving the 
comfort of your shack.

I sent an e-mail to the East Coast Pilot   W2IRT.    Peter told me not 
to give up. I guess that is good advice. Evidently the guys down there 
know we up here in NA are having a tough time.  So I think the best 
strategy is to see if you can find any tiny openings and then exploit 
them. This is not a 9 to 5 --business as usual -- DXpedition. For most 
of us small guns with minimal amounts of aluminum in the air this is 
almost literally a 24/7 exercise.

P.S.  If you go to his online log you will see that several members of 
the OKDXA with large antenna farms have worked him on many bands/modes/

73   Roger    K5RKS

===================================




------ Original Message ------
From: "John Geiger" <af5cc2 at gmail.com>
To: "Oklahoma DX Association" <okdxa at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: 1/23/2016 9:32:17 PM
Subject: Re: [OKDXA] VP8STI ending date/time

>Lets hope so!
>
>On Sat, Jan 23, 2016 at 9:23 PM, Ryan Lewis 
><ryan.a.lewis101984 at gmail.com>
>wrote:
>
>>  I think I read on the website that they were planning to be on 
>>Sandwhich
>>  for 8 days. I think they fired up on the 18th..?
>>
>>  So that means they should be there for another 2 or 3 days.
>>
>>  Ryan
>>  Wo0kee
>>  On Jan 23, 2016 8:39 PM, "John Geiger" <af5cc2 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>  > This potential ATNO for me is proving to be very frustrating so 
>>far. Have
>>  > they announced their ending date and time from South Sandwich?
>>  >
>>  > 73 John AF5CC
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