[SFDXA] VP6D Insider Final Edition

Thu Nov 29 10:14:51 EST 2018

VP6D Insider Final Edition
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Newsletter Ducie
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  The Insider

	The Insider Newsletterï¿½ | Tue 27 November 2018 | 	

    Dear William,

    The VP6D Insider - Final Edition
    <http://www.vp6d.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=235:the-insider-final-vp6d-edition&catid=79:the-insider>

Welcome to the final edition of The VP6D Insider.

Itï¿½s been an exciting 18 months of planning, meeting people and finally 
getting on airplanes and boats to bring VP6D to life. By all measures 
that we can see, and from the e-mails weï¿½re receiving, the DX community 
seemed happy with VP6D.

We were very happy with how the project unfolded. The voyage aboard 
Braveheart was smooth and quick, arriving Ducie Island 12 hours sooner 
than expected. All the planning paid off, we hit the island running.

Our campsites were already cleared of bush, the same areas used by 
previous DX-peditions. We were not permitted to remove large areas of bush.

Unloading the boat went relatively quickly and by sundown Friday Oct 
19^th we had the sleeping tents and radio tents assembled. At the next 
sunrise we were back at it working on antennas and finalizing the setup 
activity. The shipï¿½s crew built a kitchen, complete with a kitchen sink, 
BBQ pit, gas fired grill and a covered eating area. The refrigerator was 
stocked with food and some liquid refreshments.ï¿½ï¿½ They installed a 
freshwater shower near the lagoon, each team member was allocated enough 
fresh water for one shower a day, and all oneï¿½s drinking needs. Three 
meals a day were prepared by 1 or 2 of the shipï¿½s crew who remained on 
the island 7X24.

As the days went on more antennas were assembled and radio operations 
were busy. The CW camp was about a kilometer from the SSB and main 
campsites. The walk was not possible through the dense jungle-like 
vegetation. To go between camps one would walk about 100+ meters to the 
lagoon, follow the lagoon along its rough exposed coral beach and after 
several hundred meters walk back into the bush to transverse the island 
to arrive at the CW camp. Initially the walk took about 25 ï¿½ 30 minutes, 
but after markers were installed it could be done in about 15 ï¿½ 20 
minutes. We had to be extremely careful walking on the exposed coral, it 
was uneven, very sharp, slippery when wet, and easy to get injured, some 
footwear was ruined by the sharp coral.

 ï¿½The first few days were hot and humid, followed by several days of 
rain, heavy at times. Some of the sleeping tents were wet inside and the 
SSB tent had water on the floor. Eventually the weather settled down and 
for the remaining days it was tolerable. We didnï¿½t need many clothes, 
 ï¿½Braveheart provided laundry service every 2 days, several DX 
foundations, clubs and suppliers provided shirts, we went home with more 
clothes than we brought.

Radio operations opened with a bang. Most bands were wide open and QSOs 
were rolling down the laptop screens. We did have some issues with the 
network caused by the wet vegetation between the camps and a few 
unexpected power failures. We raised the WiFi antennas to get over the 
trees, and put the local network switch on a UPS.

We had 4 BGAN terminals (2 on-line and 2 backup). When one of the 
prepaid accounts had a problem we swapped BGAN terminals and the 
problemï¿½ continued. We called the service provider in California on the 
sat phone to understand what was happening. We took action to resolve 
the problem and things got back to normal. These were the reasons you 
saw DXA dropping out. DXA itself worked perfectly, but it has a 
dependency on rock solid local area and satellite network connections to 
present near real time reporting, lose either and reporting is delayed.

The pilot team lead by Glenn KE4KY and staffed by: Luke VK3HJ, Mason 
KM4SII, Hiro JA1WSX, Andre V51B, Alex 4L5A, Tomi HA8RT and Cesar PY2YP 
were sending regular updates, where possible we made operating 
adjustments, but we knew itï¿½s impossible to satisfy everyone. They also 
forwarded some of your e-mails. As propagation allowed all 8 stations 
were manned. When propagation dropped out weï¿½d shift to FT8. During the 
night shift it was not unusual for one operator to be running 2 or 3 FT8 
stations, 24,400 FT8 QSOs was the result.

We had N1MM ï¿½ WSJT-X logging issues. After the DX-pedition our log team 
in Europe (Pista HA5AO) cleaned and merged the logs, removing over 5,000 
FT8 dupes generated by the WSJT-X software. As we uploaded the logs Tim 
M0URX processed LoTW confirmations for the early donors, and afterwards 
for all donors. We will review the wisdom of having both DXA and the 
on-line log which was updated once a day. Many callers didnï¿½t understand 
the difference and sent countless e-mails and social media comments, we 
wonï¿½t make that mistake again. When we returned to Papeete we learned of 
LoTW upload issues, after investigation we reported the problem to ARRL, 
a few days later all was working fine.

Every morning we reviewed the previous 24 hours of logs and saw about 
10,000 QSOs a day, it was looking like we would exceed our estimate. Of 
course, propagation was with us on most days / bands.

On about Oct 30^th the skipper announced the seas were getting more 
unpredictable and we had to plan our departure around the tide, we 
expected to leave sooner than planned. There is no natural harbor, our 
only way on and off the island was to find beach areas where the zodiac 
can get close enough to shore so we could safely walk out into the surf 
to meet the zodiac.

Arrival day was easy, the sea was calm, we walked out into the surf and 
set up a chain gang, removing items from the zodiac and handing items to 
people down the line until it reached the narrow beach. Departure was a 
different story, more like what you see in action movies with the zodiac 
being pushed around by the surf and people being ï¿½helped inï¿½ï¿½ at just 
the right moment before the skipper hit the throttle.

Departure was in 2 phases, Phase 1 in the afternoon when the team was 
removed from the island. All equipment and personal gear remained on the 
island overnight. For the second phase on the next morning 4 (younger) 
team members assisted the crew with retrieving everything from the 
island, it was a long and wet task. They walked the campsites, cleaned 
and raked out the areas we used and left the island.

36 hours later we arrived at Pitcairn Island to rain, wind and choppy 
seas. The island residents sent out the longboat to bring us ashore, it 
was a very wet and exciting 40 minute ride. There is no harbor at 
Pitcairn (one of many reasons the mutineers selected the island) and the 
approach is dangerous, with rocks and unpredictable surf conditions. 
Visitors to the island are brought ashore by the islanders who have 
worked the longboats since they were children, learning to navigate the 
choppy waters.

We were greeted by a Pitcairn Island Police and Immigration officer, the 
Quarantine Officer and several of the residents. After passport and 
arrival card formalities we were free to look around the island. Several 
residents arrived ï¿½with their quad bike and showed us around the island. 
Some team members hiked to high points on the island.

We were invited to the home of Steve and Brenda Christian for a 
wonderful lunch, and stopped at the local gallery for souvenirs. It was 
Saturday, the Sabbath for many of the islandï¿½s residents who attend the 
Seventh Day Adventist Church on the island.

The sun actually came out while we were on the island and it turned out 
to be a pleasant day. By the time we were ready to return to Braveheart 
the seas had calmed and the trip back in the longboat was relatively smooth.

It was an uneventful journey back to Mangareva. At the wharf the 
Braveheart crew had a BBQ for us on the fantail. There is only one 
flight a week between Mangareva and Tahiti, miss the flight and you 
spend a week waiting for the next one, we made it with plenty of time to 
spare.

On our departure morning we removed personal gear from the ship. We 
walked across the wharf to the waiting ferry which would take us to the 
airport, located on a strip of coral, a 45 minute ferry ride from the 
wharf. We had about a 2 hour wait for the flight, then a 4 hour flight 
to Tahiti.

Back at our Papeete hotel by 6PM we met in the restaurant for a well 
deserved dinner, we celebrated the birthday of one of the team members 
with a prearranged cake. The team was tired but in good spirits, team 
members left for home over the next several days.

We think youï¿½ll agree, the pileups were mostly well behaved and we had a 
lot of fun, we hope you had fun working VP6D. The team worked well 
together during the entire project.

Of course, we want to thank - you - our individual donors for your trust 
and confidence in our team. We met every goal, and then some, including 
the first 6 meter EME and FT8 contacts from Ducie Island.

Many of the VP6D team members will be attending the upcoming events at: 
Visalia, Dayton and Friedrichshafen. We hope to meet as many of you as 
possible at these events.

Where are we going next? Weï¿½ll be discussing a future project at 
Visalia, sorry ï¿½ no hints.

Thanks again for your help with VP6D and please have a happy holiday season.

Team Ducie, 2018

P.S. Weï¿½re in the process of writing a detailed report that will be 
published in various club and foundation journals and on our website.

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