DXpedition Day 2 - good conditions to Europe and JA on 20m and 15m SSB

Day 2 went to plan where I focussed on JA for 15m SSB to maximise the non-working day for people in Asia. 15m was open most of the day and there was a nice steady stream of contacts. Some Europeans started to make their way into the 15m SSB log but I wasn’t really expecting too many as I knew the band would be full of QRM with the Worked All Germany contest. But I happily continued making JA contacts and every now and then there would be a nice little run to Europe until contest activity would have swamped my little signal in Europe.

Once the contest activity on 15m SSB slowed my rate to zero, I jumped on 15m PSK from 1030 – 1130 UTC until the band closed. At 1130 UTC I jumped on 20m SSB, with the WAG contest not finishing until 1500 UTC I was expecting to work mainly Asia and then a little run to Europe after the contest. I was very very surprised to be heard in Europe and the majority of the QSOs were with the Europeans. The rate was significantly slowed because it was hard to work split and there was lots of QRM for everyone. After 1500 UTC when WAG finished the rate picked up nicely until the band closed at 1630 UTC, it closed so fast I almost thought someone had tampered with my antenna! So in that 1130 – 1630 UTC period there were 460 QSO’s and around 85% were with Europe.

Only 3 North Americans in that lot during the evening, so I’m very aware of the lack of this part of the world in the log so far. If anyone in USA is hearing me during the EU pile ups, send me an email at vk4ldx@yahoo.com.au letting me know when I'm being heard, I'll start listening for 'North America only' at these times for the rest of the week. After going to bed at 1630 UTC (2:30am) I made sure to somehow wake up by 2030 UTC (6:30am) to look for long path America’s on 20m. There was nothing on SSB so I spent a couple of hours on the 14070 kHz PSK31 waterfall. I announced on the cluster where I’d be and called cq for a while, but no USA could hear me and only a sparse handful of QSO’s with JA and UA0 resulted. So I hunted for Americans on the waterfall. I couldn't see any traces of W/VE at all. I had fairly good ‘cq dx’ signals from CO4SM, HK6DOS, CE4RWS, PT2ZXR and KP4RY but they could not hear me calling them. I did manage to contact HI8MU and YV6BFE after many many tries though. So it’s fair to say that 20m long path in the 2000-2300 UTC period isn’t going to be very successful. There was nothing later on 15m either.

So I’m hoping that the DX nets will be a chance for me to get into the America’s log today. This time of year, the best bet for me is 40m PSK31 in the 0900-1200 UTC period. So today I’m really hoping to make some QSO’s with you guys from that part of the world. I didn’t bother with 40m PSK during the past 2 evenings because of the JARTS RTTY QRM on the 40m PSK segment. So I hope to work you guys on the nets today, whether it be ANZA DX on 14183 at 0515-0630 UTC, HHH on 7190 at 0700-0830 or the 7130 DX Net at 0930-1030. In between these nets and after the 7130 DX Net I’ll visit 40m PSK31. If there is no luck with North America after 1200 UTC I’ll head to 20m SSB for Europe.

As of 0000 UTC on Monday, after 2 days there are now 1542 QSO’s in the log, the majority are with Europe on 20m and 15m SSB and JA on 15m and 20m SSB.

DXpedition Day 1

The DXpedition has started. I have the Butternut HF9V located close to the water’s edge on the beach which has a water path to Asia, Europe s/path and North America l/path.

Unfortunately in my beach cabin room I can’t access the internet, but I can take my laptop down the path on the way to the resort and get reception. So I can’t announce myself on the cluster in real time. But I will check the internet for emails to vk4ldx@yahoo.com.au and comments on the blog during quiet times, such as 0000-0400 UTC. At times I will go on the internet and announce where I may be in say 5-10 minutes as I rush back to the cabin with my laptop under my arm!!! That depends on the monsoon rains of course :)

I started yesterday on 15m SSB around 0600z yesterday and had a great opening into JA and then later on in Europe. This lasted until 0800z when we went for dinner – remember it’s a holiday style DXpedition. At home the HF9V on 15m is a waste of space but on the beach it was like my 3 element monobander – the funny thing is, my last QSO before dinner was with Steve 9M6DXX and he had the same experience on OC-295 with the same antenna where it was a champion on the salt water. In those 2 hours I made just over 200 QSO’s, about a quarter Europe and the rest JA.

After dinner at 1000 UTC I jumped on 20m and spent the next 7 hours working into JA and Europe, around 550 QSOs were made, with about 80% of them being into Europe which was great. I had visions of being QRT at 1500 UTC due to QRM at the start of the Worked All Germany contest. There was bad QRM and my rate slowed considerably, but the band held out until 1700 UTC – 3am local!!! Thanks to a few Europeans on the other end who helped to keep my frequency clear in the busy contest environment.

So I passed out into bed just after 3am local. I did manage to stagger out of bed to check the band around 2200 UTC but there wasn’t much around on 20m and I’ve just been scratching around on 20m SSB/PSK31 and 15m PSK31 picking up a few QSOs. As of 0000 UTC which is 10am Sunday morning local time, there are 802 QSOs in the log, 75% 20m SSB, 25% 15m SSB with a handful of 15m and 20m PSK31. The good thing is that I’d say well over 50% are with Europe. I’ll be looking to put up a dipole on 40m towards North America because I don’t think 20m or 15m is going to be very good from here, although the EU pile up I did work VY0PW at 1449, W7VS at 1507, VE5UA at 1523. So it’s time to recover and get ready for 15m later on today for JA/Europe again and then 20m for JA/Europe. On Monday UTC I’ll be on the 14183 kHz ANZA net at 0515. Then I will look to be on the HHH net and then the 7130 DX net at 0930 UTC to try and get North America in the log.

Operating frequencies

Considering that there will be massive activity on the bands as a result of DXpeditions to PJ2, PJ4, PJ5, PJ6 and PJ7 beginning on October 10^th, I thought I might announce my likely modes and frequencies. Hopefully I’ll be able to put on the DX cluster where I am in real time, however mobile phone reception for my internet access is not guaranteed to be reliable on the island.

Here are my likely operating areas depending on propagation and the PJ DXpeditions.

40m PSK31

7035 kHz segment from 0800-2100 UTC. The PJ6A 40m CW band plan will be 7031-7040 kHz, so I’ll avoid wasting my time with PSK31 to North America if they are on. I’ll do my best to be active on 40m PSK for North America in the 0800-1200 UTC period when PJ6A are not operating 40m CW. Another option is for me to operate in the 7070 kHz PSK segment at that time as it’s less likely to have RTTY interference from the PJ6 and/or PJ7 operations. Interference to Europe shouldn’t be a significant problem until around 2000 UTC.

40m SSB

As long as there is no interference from the PJ2 operations, I’ll be on the 7130 kHz DX Net that begins at 0930 UTC on Monday 18/10, Wednesday 20/10 and Friday 22/10. 7126-7135 kHz is the receive frequency split range for PJ2. PJ2T may be there on the Monday night, but this DX Net should be free of PJ activity on Wednesday and Friday.        

20m PSK31

The PSK31 segment could have problems from CW at PJ7 and RTTY at PJ2. I’ll be on 20m PSK31 anytime from 2000 – 1500 UTC. PJ2T finishes on Oct 18, so hopefully I can sit high on the 20m PSK31 window and avoid interference and make the trip particularly into Europe around 1200-1500 UTC.

20m SSB

During the weekdays, I will look to check into the ANZA DX net that starts at 0515 UTC on 14183 kHz. The PJ4B DXpedition could be a problem, but if you’re in VK/ZL, this is the best place to find me. I’ll start checking into the net Monday, if I’m in a little pile up somewhere else, I may check in late or not at all. I’ll do my best to be there at least a few days during the week.

I could be on 20m SSB anytime in the 2000-1500 UTC period. I’ll try for Europe each evening at 1200-1500 UTC period above 14255 kHz. Anything under 14255 kHz will be mayhem with the PJ operations, it’s highly likely that I’ll be above 14300 kHz. If I can’t get anywhere with SSB, I’ll go to PSK31 to be available for Europe in this period of time.

15m PSK31

The PSK31 segment could have problems from CW at PJ7 and RTTY at PJ2. I’ll be on 15m PSK31 anytime from 2200 – 1000 UTC. PJ2T finishes on Oct 18, so hopefully I can sit high on the 15m PSK31 window and avoid interference. I’ll look at being on 15m PSK31 for any openings to North America around 2200-0100 UTC and Europe at 0500-0900 UTC which have been quite good lately.

15m SSB

This is the least complicated situation as there are no PJ operations under 21275 kHz. So I’ll be anywhere from 21200-21270 kHz on SSB during the day from 2200 UTC until the band closes. This will be the best place for Asia to find me.

Overall

Fingers crossed that internet access is reliable from my operating position, so at least I can let you know where I am through the DX cluster. The feeding frenzy will hopefully have died down a little by the time I start operating on the 16^th, which is 6 days after the new entities begin. I have a feeling I could be spending a lot of time on 15m as the QRM won’t be as bad. I have constructed an aluminium vertical dipole for this band which I’ll put out on the beach. For North America, the best bet will be to get me on 40m PSK31 and for Europe I’d say in the 1200-1500 UTC period on PSK31 and SSB.

Anyway, I’ll give it a go and try to get my signal out there!!

Update on 20m and 40m propagation to Europe & the Americas

I’ve been testing and using a variety of wire and vertical antenna’s for 20m and 40m at my home QTH in Townsville which I’m bringing to the island. Last night both the dipole and vertical worked well on 40m PSK at 1030-1300 UTC before I had to go QRT. 40 stations were worked from the east coast of USA and Canada through to the mid-west following the greyline sunrise nicely until it reached CA/WA/OR when I had to go to bed. Others worked were LU, YV, XE and CO (and also XR200R on SSB), so I’ll certainly be looking to get into this part of the world on PSK31 (& maybe SSB) from 0700 UTC through to west coast USA sunrise.

As for Europe, I was able to work 40m PSK31 this morning just before I went to work in the 2000-2030 UTC period. So it should be ok for me to get into Europe on PSK31 (and maybe SSB) from European sunset until my sunrise at 2030/2100 UTC. On 20m, during the WAE SSB contest last weekend, I had no luck at all with the Fitzroy Island antenna set up on 20m long path. But the great news was that later on, the short path opened up nicely and I was even able to run for an hour!! So that was a huge relief. On the second night I struggled, but I could still give QTC’s to the big guns. As for PSK31 and RTTY, 20m into Europe on the short path should be no problem. So the 20m band on the short path to Europe is getting better week by week and should be good in the 1200-1500 UTC period for SSB and even later for PSK31.  

As for JA and Asia, 20m and 40m should be no major problem. During the day I’ll also be on 15m SSB, RTTY and PSK31 with the vertical dipole so I hope to see you on that band.  

Sorry I don’t do CW, but I’ll be on PSK31 a lot, at least 50% of the time to maximise my low power and modest antenna operation. I’m hoping the close proximity to the water with the beachside cabin will help me to give you OC-172.

ANZA DX Net

I will look to check in most days to the ANZA DX net which starts at 0515 UTC everyday on 14183 kHz and usually goes for an hour. I’ll be setting up antenna’s on the Saturday (16th) but I definitely want to check in on the Sunday.

Holiday Style DXpedition booked for Fitzroy Island

I'll be visiting Fitzroy Island for a holiday style DXpedition in October 2010 with my wife. My equipment will be an Icom IC706MKIIG with verticals operating on 15m, 20m and 40m SSB, PSK31 & RTTY.

We'll arrive Saturday October 16 and the antennas will be put up later that day. So I hope to be on the air that evening. I'll be operating whenever the bands are open through to late Friday evening October 22. The antennas need to be taken down Saturday morning for our 10am (0000 UTC) check out.

I've managed to book a beach side cabin so I hope to get the verticals close to the water. There is a clear take off short path to JA/Asia, short path to Europe/Middle East/Africa and long path to North America. There may be some blocking from the hills of the island to short path North America and/or long path Europe.

Anyway fingers crossed for some good results. I'll be assembling the antennas and testing them this week at home here in Townsville, QLD.