[TAC] Fw: [amsat-bb] FP DXpedition summary

[Ian Hill]

Here is the summary of my trip that I sent to the AMSAT BB. It's obviously
slanted toward my satellite operations from there.

73,
Ian K8MM

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ian Hill" <ihk8mm at chartermi.net>
To: <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 6:21 PM
Subject: [amsat-bb] FP DXpedition summary


> Hello everone. I'm back from St.Pierre and Miquelon. I had a great time
and
> the pile-ups on HF were huge. Satellite operation was a blast and I'm
really
> glad that I took it along with  me. I was using my IC-910 with a pair of
> homebrew K5OE TPMII antennas along with Icom preamps.
>
> Sunday night, the first night of the expedition, was spent at the Hotel
> Robert on St. Pierre. The local terrain was not favorable for satellite
work
> as I could only hear the overhead passes. The first bird I managed to get
> into was VO-52 and I called cq for close to 10 minutes without making any
> contact as nobody was listening to the bird at that time. After a couple
> more fruitless tries on FO-29 and AO-51 I took the gear down and repacked
it
> for the ferry trip to Miquelon in the morning.
>
> Monday greeted us  (K8DD, AC8W and myself) with sunny skies and calm seas
> making the hour long boat ride a pleasant experience. We arrived at the
dock
> and unloaded all of our gear and waited for Christina from the Maxhotel to
> pick us up. At the hotel K8AQM, K8GL and W8IQ, who flew to
> Miquelon the night before, already had an HF vertical set up and they were
> on the air. That morning we set up our HF antennas and began testing
> them to prepare for the CQWW CW contest. The antennas worked very well and
> we ran the pile-ups for many hours after that.
>
> Tuesday morning was spent setting up the fiberglass mast for the 80 and
160
> antennas and finished just in time as our nice WX had run out. Tuesday
night
> met us with 100kph winds and rain making work outside impossible so we
> stayed inside for the next 24 hours and handed out qso's on CW and RTTY
with
> a little bit of SSB too.
>
> Wednesday morning we awoke to the same gale force winds and rain and we
> hunkered down for another day of being stuck indoors and playing
> radio....some guys have all the luck ;-)
>
> That evening came and I had my fill of  HF pile-ups for a while. I dug out
> the satellite antennas, put on my rain gear and braved the elements. You
> have not lived until you're tried putting up antennas in 70mph winds! I
did
> manage to get them installed but they were only 4' off the ground and the
> wind was giving them quite a beating. I went back inside brought up
satPC32
> and the next bird to come up was AO-51. The bird wasn't due up for 35
> more minutes so I got back on 40M cw and ran the pile-up until the bird
was
> ready to come over the horizon. I had to wait until AO-51 was about 20
> degrees in elevation before it wasn't blocked by the hotel or the mountain
> and I could hear it clearly. There weren't any qso's in progress so I gave
a
> short CQ with my call and the bird quickly sprang to life with KB2YCC
> calling me. We exchanged info and he was the first satellite qso in the
log
> for the dxpedition. More guys that were quickly worked on that pass were
> VO1ONE, W8EH, AJ9K and N8BBQ in that order. A look at the computer showed
> that FO-29 would be giving me an EU pass later on so it was back to
working
> down the pile-up on 40M cw.
>
> When the time was close for FO-29 to come up I put my rain gear on and
went
> back
> outside to point the antennas toward the East. It would be a rather low
pass
> but most of it would be unblocked by the large hills that hampered the
> passes to the west and it was directly over the sea for the portion of
time
> EU and FP were in it's footprint. Once the bird came up being a cw man I
> went down below the SSB guys and sent out a couple CQ's. I knew I had
> someones attetention as the usual string of dits commenced while they
zeroed
> in on my frequency. When my cq stopped F6BBJ came back and was quickly
> worked and in the log followed by ON5NY. A couple more cw cq's rendered
> nothing so I went up to the phone portion and found a hole. I gave out
> another short CQ and waited....then all hell broke loose! Lot's of
stations
> coming back made it sound like a pile-up on 20M! I managed to dig PH7PCF
out
> of the din and completed a qso with him quickly followed by 2E1EUB and
> PH7AT. I could have worked many more stations that pass but there was an
ill
> mannered Italian station that kept calling no matter who I went back too
and
> he ruined it for many other guys. I made a mental note of who it was and
> made sure not to work him at all during the DXpedition.
>
> I worked as many passes as I could and stayed up late and got up early to
> catch the
> EU passes as often as I could before the contest started. There are many
> more stations
> in the log than are mentioned in this email.
>
> During the contest I operated 20 and 40M for the most part and we had a
> phased 2 element 40M vertical array that was switchable between EU and the
> US. The low band propagation from there is amazing! Lot's of cool DX was
> worked and 8Q7DV just about blew me out of the chair when he answered one
of
> my cq's. Other cool dx that I worked on 40M was A6, A4, HZ, EY8, 9J2, and
> ST0 to name a few. The band was always open to some part of the world and
> many qso's were made in the early afternoon over the pole. After the
contest
> was over we spent the next day tearing down the antennas in beautiful
clear
> and sunny wx.
>
> I set the satellite station back up and was really hoping to catch a
couple
> guys back home before I left Miquelon and returned to St. Pierre. I worked
> one more EU pass on FO-29 and managed to work a couple of stateside guys
> then I tuned around and found MM5AJW calling cq and answered him for my
last
> EU qso from FP.
>
> The next bird due up was VO-52. I was starting to think I
> wouldn't work my friends back home because I was going to pack up the
> satellite gear in a coule hours and there wasn't any sign of them being
on.
> When VO-52 got high enough above the horizon I tuned around and found a
> familiar voice. It was K8ZZU in conversation with another station. Jim was
> saying he was looking for me. Well I was relieved to have finally caught
up
> with him and waited for him to turn it over to the other station. At the
> break in the qso I dropped my call in and waited. I was met with a
surprised
> K8ZZU coming back to me and we exchanged our info and he made it in the
log.
> I thought to myself one down one more to go. Jim told me that the other
guy
> I was looking for, K8NWD, was going to brave the wind and rain at home and
> look for me on the next pass of an FM bird. By this time VO-52 was getting
> close to going  behind the mountain but I managed to put 4 more guys into
> the log before that happened.
>
> Next up were AO-51 and SO-50 at the same time! Which one would Tim be on I
> thought. Looking at the computer showed me that AO-51 was a pretty low
pass
> for him and that SO-50 was a higher one for both of us so I took my chance
> on SO-50. I had to run outside and pointed the antennas in the proper
> direction. When I came in and sat down it was just in time to here a call
> from K8NWD.
> Tim and I completed our qso and K8DD AND AC8W sitting next to me got a
> chance to work him as well getting him halfway towards qualifying for the
> WAMO award. Worked All Miquelon Operators that is. This was to be the last
> pass for me and I was putting the gear away. The last few guys to make it
> into the log were. KO4MA, K1PL, WI2W and KC8ZFN. W0SAT was worked by
FP/K8DD
> during that pass as well and FP/AC8W worked a couple of stations a couple
> days before that.
>
> When the bird went behind the mountain I packed up the gear and we walked
> into town to celebrate a succesful DXpedition at the town's only
restaurant
> and luckily for us it was still open at that hour. I don't remember much
of
> the French I took in jr. high so ordering off the menu was interesting to
> say the least but all the meals I had on the trip were excellent.
Sometimes
> some of us didn't get what we thought we ordered for dinner and one of us
> got two dinners instead of one. Even our defacto interpreter made the
remark
> that he didn't understand a darn thing the waitress said to him at one of
> the places we ate :-) LOL. A good time was had by all.
>
> Our return trip to St. Pierre went well and the WX was perfect again. At
the
> hotel Robert AC8W set up his buddy-pole and made a few more contacts but
the
> local terrain made for difficult propagation and we were spoiled by the
> great
> location we operated from on Miquelon. The next morning we we headed to
the
> airport with the gracious help of Jean-Pierre FP5CJ whom we met 9 days
> earlier. Then it was off to Halifax then Newark, NJ and then back to
> Detroit, MI where the group parted ways and headed home.
>
> It was an excellent adventure for sure and I can't wait to go on another
> one. Thanks
> to everyone that worked me and  behaved themselves in the pile-ups. For
> those of
> you that were black listed and never made it in the log, I suggest you
learn
> some polite
> operating skills.
>
> If anyone is thinking of going to Miquelon there isn't a place that I
can't
> recommend more highly than the Maxhotel and I left my TPMII satellite
> antennas there for anyone that wants to use them. Thehotel is ham firendly
> and
> Christina at the hotel went above and beyond the call of duty and was a
> great
> person to deal with. She speaks English wonderfully too.
>
> For those of you wanting a QSL card please use my CBA on QRZ.com and send
an
> SASE.
> It will be a little bit before I have cards in my hands to give out so
> please be patient. I will also
> be putting my logs on eqsl and lotw later on too.
>
> If you find any spelling erros please forgive me as my spell checking
isn't
> working right now.
>
> 73,
> K8MM
> ----
> Sent via amsat-bb at amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author.
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