Archive for the ‘dx’ Category
Fickled Propagation, Working FT5ZM
January 29th, 2014 | 
Author: For those trying to work FT5ZM from the states it has been widely chronicled that the signals are coming in via multiple paths, even the indeterminate "skew" path. In other words just rotate your antenna until the signal peaks. I have heard them on such a path which is more east that the SSE short path heading from my QTH. Last evening they were spotted on 12m, 15m and 17m. I swung the beam SP and, as I would expect, nothing but noise. Skew path, same thing. Well, let me try long path and viola, there they were. A very nice signal on 15m, a fluttery signal on 17m and nothing on 12m. The better signal on 15m was also heard very well in JA as that was all the operator was working. So let me try the weaker signal on 17m. First find where he is listening....he is working a W7, good, and I can hear both ends of the QSO, cool,.....I drop my call in figuring other west coasters will beat me out, but what do I hear? ....AD5A 599...jubilation...... and with that another band counter in the log.
They will be there for two weeks and working them should get easier, but don't give up, try some of the sneaky ways into the log, it's a lot more fun.
I must issue a disclaimer: This is not a QRP story, I was hitting on all cylinders on this one:-)
75% Chance of M-class Flares, 30% For X-class
Solar Flare Alert:
Active Sunspot Region 11944 has a 75% chance of producing an M-class flare, and a 30% chance of producing an X-class flare, in the next 24 hours. Smaller flares are also possible.
We are expecting a glancing blow from a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) sometime in the next 24 hours.
The Earth’s polar regions are under a proton event (Polar Cap Absorption, or PCA, event). This is degrading HF communications over polar regions.
(Live data and more info at https://Facebook.com/spacewx.hfradio or http://SunSpotWatch.com/ )
Random Thoughts and a Missed QSO
As I have mentioned before, I am a guitarist for The No Refund Band, www.norefundband.com, and we had a great show on Saturday night. It was one of my better performances, landing all the notes and licks in front of a nice crowd, very satisfying. Check us out on iTunes, Amazon or most any digital outlet.
That brings me to radio. I guess I've been spoiled with the last few expeditions as I have documented here, getting nice band counters from S21 and XZ on the high bands. With higher sunspot numbers long path to Asia has been fantastic here in Texas, with loud signals and relatively easy QSO's. With the VU7AG expedition I expected nothing less than to make contacts on 10m and 12m. However, this chase was very different. Texas and VU7 just don't have the same path as the aforementioned countries. I listened and listened and listened. The long path was working to the US east coast, but stopped somewhere in the mid west. Kudos to the operators who tried to make this path work, but it just wasn't, until Sunday morning. I was in front of the radio, antenna turned to long path, nothing but static. Then I see some spots from W5 stations, still nothing, what gives? I turned my antenna to short path and there he was, a decent signal with a touch of artic flutter, but otherwise a great signal for short path 10m at 8:30 am from India to Texas. Unashamedly, I cranked up the amp, found the station he was working and started calling, expecting a QSO at any minute. After all, I am destined to salvage this expedition on 10m, aren't I? I called for 30 minutes when the signal began to fade and soon there was no signal and no QSO. The expedition is now QRT. Unlike the hunt and the gig, not very satifying.
However, as I said, I am spoiled. I did manage two new bands, 17m and 30m and a new mode, RTTY. As satisfying as those QSO's were, the lack of success on 10m seems to have dulled the accomplishment. But I'm over it. I still have some excitement waiting for me in the future. If we don't have hope, what do we have?
I am addicted
Hello …. my name is Larry and I am a pileup addict.
Or at least that’s the way it seems lately! For the past few days, everytime I have gotten on the air and worked a station, I had to bust a pileup in order to do it. Of course, the Fox hunts are nothing but a big QRP pileup and I snared both Lee AA4GA and Johnny ACØBQ on 40 Meters last night. OK, there really wasn’t much of a pileup on Lee, I have to confess – but there was for a while. By the time I was able to hear him well enough to work him, his pileup had dwindled.
But after the Fox hunts, I swung down to the low end of 40 Meters and busted the pileup to work Jim J6/W4QO, one of the QRP guys who is on DXpedition to St. Lucia. Then, I beat two pileups at lunchtime today. The first was to work another good QRP friend on St. Lucia. This time it was Jerry J6/N9AW on 17 Meters. That was a full blown pileup and Jerry was working them fast and fierce, in a manner that would make any grizzly hardened DXpedition veteran proud. And lest I slight him, Jim’s performance last evening was every bit as good as Jerry’s. Two top notch QRPers and all-around ops in Jim and Jerry.
See, participating in those Fox hunts DOES help! We actually learn a thing or two – not only how to navigate pileups, but also how to manage them.
Later at lunchtime, I busted a pileup to work ZD8UW on 12 Meters – Ascension Island. At 5 Watts out from my end, that came out to just a smidge more than 1000 Miles per Watt.
Working a pileup can sometimes make you want to bang your head against the wall. You’re in there, sending out your call in what seems like a hopeless battle, ala` Don Quixote. But then, you hear your call coming back to you and you complete the exchange for another rare one in the books, and all thoughts of bloodying yourself disappear in the breeze!
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
PS: I am working on the finishing touches to a new Christmas story. Look for it here as we get closer to the Holiday.
CQ WWDX Results
My CQ WWDX results are insignificant. I spent probably a half hour at the most (more like 20 minutes) behind the key last Sunday morning.
I am used to the contest being held on Thanksgiving weekend. Since November 1st was a Friday this year, that meant that this year, the contest was held the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving. I have way too much to do the weekend before Thanksgiving, getting the house ready for the guests who will visit on Thanksgiving Day. I didn’t have much time to breathe, let alone sit behind the radio for an extended period of time. When the contest is held on Thanksgiving weekend (like next year), the house has been cleaned, for the most part chores are done, it’s the one weekend that grocery shopping is a real quick trip – ideal for sitting behind the radio and giving out points.
As I said earlier, I managed to sit down for about 20 minutes on Sunday morning before leaving for church and worked these stations:
OP4A
G2F
S52OP
OC4CW
LX1NO
ED7A
T7T
G4BJM
And it looks like T7T was a pirate, a fake …… I got “slimmed” as they used to say. T7T shows up in none if the callbooks and shows up on DX Summit and the Reverse Beacon Network maybe once or twice. So it was either a fake, or someone whose fist was so shaky that I totally got it wrong. It was suggested to me that perhaps it was TM2T, but man – even that’s a stretch. If I heard it wrong and got the number of dits wrong, MAYBE it could have been TM5T, because – – … (7) sounds a lot closer to – – . . . . . (M 5) than – – . . – – – (M 2). But I kept listening for a while, even after I made my QSO and it sure sounded like T7T to me. In any even, it was a busted QSO that I am not including in my official log.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
A good week for QRP DX
I should have posted this earlier, as now it’s Thursday …….
This weekend is the CQ WWDX Contest, one of the “Big’uns”. This is one where a lot of folks travel to distant destinations, just for participation in the contest. So all during the week, visitors as well as indigenous Hams have been tweaking their equipment, and have been getting on the air to try things out. As a QRPer, this is a good thing to take advantage of. The bands are full of DX and now is your chance to work it. Pickings are good and I have worked Cape Verde Island, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Dominica, Morocco, and the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Bermuda – all with 5 Watts in just within the last few days.
The bands are expected to be in good shape for this weekend. So if you have the time, you can get on and you can net a lot of DX. If you’ve never started your QRP DXCC, now is the time to begin! If you go all out, I am willing to bet that you could conceivably earn it this weekend.
For the new QRPer, there are some things to keep in mind. At the beginning of the contest, code speeds are going to be fast. Some of these guys will sound like a buzz saw! Don’t get discouraged. The DX will keep on sending their calls a lot, so if it takes multiple attempts for you to copy, you’ll get plenty of them. Towards Saturday night into Sunday, when some of these guys get tired, they tend to slow up a bit, too. A tip to keep in mind is that the slower speed DX stations tend to congregate UP, towards the top edges of the CW bands, so that’s a good place to start. However, if you make a good effort to copy code that is faster than what you are used to, I can pretty much guarantee a 10% or better improvement on your copy speed by the time the contest is over.
The loudest stations are probably running the most power, but they probably also have the best antennas. Cherry pick those, and they’ll probably have an easier time hearing you, rather than the guy half way around the world who is running 100 Watts to a dipole only 25 feet up. You may work him too, but it will probably be a bit harder. Another thing to keep in mind, is that as the contest winds down on Sunday afternoon into Sunday night, the hard core contesters will be desperate for points. It’s more likely they will take their time with you, if you happen to have a weak signal on their end . REMEMBER – QRP does NOT necessarily mean weak signal! If propagation is favorable, and your antenna is decent, there’s no reason that your signal can’t be 579 or better on their end.
The exchange is super easy – RST and your CQ Zone. For those of us on the East Coast, I believe that is 5. Most Amateur Radio maps and/or logging programs will provide that for you. I’ll provide one here:
Don’t get hung up on not being able to work someone. If you’re trying to work a loud station, and he can’t hear you, don’t be afraid to turn the dial and move on. Maybe props aren’t the best between you and him at that moment. Go work someone else and come back to him in a bit if you can. With enough experience, in no time you’ll be able to tell who you have a reasonable shot at working and who you don’t.
The most important thing is to have fun! Don’t get discouraged or frustrated. If you end up working 100 DX entities, that’s great! If you only end up working 5 – so what? The bottom line is to enjoy yourself.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!
I Couldn’t Stand it Anymore
Last weekend I missed the opportunity to work XZ1J during a 10m LP opening into Texas, not only on 10m, but also on 12m. I was just not paying attention and by the time I realized I needed XZ on those bands, the opening was closed. So all week I've watched the DX cluster from my office as these LP openings have become daily happenings. Very frustrating, as there have been no evening SP openings. To make matters worse, I will be out of town this weekend and will not have a chance to work them then.
So, this morning, my oldest son Michael, AB5EB, who lives about 30 miles from me, sent me a text tell me he worked S21ZBC on 10m SSB and 17m RTTY. I checked the spots quickly to see that XZ1J was coming in as well. Well that put me over the top. If you remember the Popeye character from cartoons who used to say, "I've had all I can stands and I can't stands no more". I had a couple of hours clear on my work calendar, so back to the house I went.
The drive home is about 30 minutes and I got behind every slow car in the area. Finally I get to the house sprint to the shack to go the XZ 10m frequency. He's there and loud. Quick, find the station he's working in the pile-up, right there, make the call, de AD5A AD5A...... AD5A 5NN.....sweet. First call. Now the S21, which I also need is a few KC's up the band. He isn't as strong, working up two. I put in my call....... AD5A 5NN, sweet again. Two new ones on 10m in a matter of a minute, each on the first call. Now what about 12m? No spots, I tune the band, no XZ or S21. I text my son to post my response to his DXploits and comment that now they need to move to 12m. I tune the CW portion and hear CQ CQ CQ de S21ZBC up 2, what???? I put in my call 4 or 5 times and then, AD5A 5NN...ecstasy. I text my son who needs S21 on 12m. He had to turn around and go back home to make the QSO.
So, I drove back to work feeling satisfied and accomplished. Even though no XZ on 12m, one can't get greedy, save a little fun for later.
I do like this radio stuff.
