On the road again, and this time on the road toAfrica to reach their next QTH on far from Harare: just in the middle of a great safari land . As a matter of fact, the leader Antonio, IZ8CCW and the co-leader Gabriele, I2VGW, are happy to announce to the Dxer Comunity the new adventure with the international MDXC team: Zimbabwe 2018. The license is already in the leaders’s hands as Z23MD and they planned to be on air from October 26 to November 6th According to the evaluations that they have done, they are confident to give to a lot of dxers the possibility to work this Country in the Low bands, Warc and especially in the Digis modes. At the moment the team is already built by experienced operators: 20 peoeple coming from 8 (eight) Countries. On the air will be five stations, any mode, around the clock. For any further news and updates please stay tune: the official web site of this new great adventure is coming. Of course any donation and sponsorship will be very very appreciated by the entire team! The official web site by the way is already on line: http://www.mdxc.org/z23md/.
IZ8CCW Team Leader MDXC #004 I2VGW Coleader MDXC #012
The complete LOTW log will be uploaded after 5/6 months .
We will upload LOTW contacts during the expedition for all $10 contributors
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For direct qsl, I require that you provide appropriate SASE or SAE+greenstamp for direct mail return.
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. DUE TO NEW POSTAL CHARGES YOUR CONTRIBUTION MUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW:Italia 1,10Euro Europa 1,15 Euro Americas & Africa & Asia 2,40 Euro Oceania 3,10 Euro We remind you that 1US$ = 0,75 €PleaseNOirc (all personal contribution of 15$ and UP, will receive a direct QSL from our qsl manager, without making any application).for OQRS via paypal please send 3 USD for Europe, 4 USD for USA, for Oceania 5 USD thanks.
ALL QSLs received without these requirements for direct return will not be processed
The fastest way to receive the qsl is to use OQRS
After that, DON’T send us your card through the bureau, we don’t need it, thanks
WSJT-X 2.0 A fourth candidate release ("RC4") of WSJT-X 2.0 has been available for download and use by beta testers since 13 November. The "Quick-Start Guide to WSJT-X 2.0" has been revised and extended, and must be read thoroughly before using RC4:
The version of FT8 (and of MSK144 as well) in the new release is not backward-compatible with the original protocol. This means that anyone using an earlier version of the software will be unable to decode transmissions from users of v2.0.0-rc4, and vice-versa. "To minimize this cross-protocol interference we suggest initially using the RC4 release at audio TX frequencies 2000 Hz and higher. As more users upgrade their software to RC4 or later, activity can gradually move downward in audio frequency. By December 10 or very soon afterward, everyone should upgrade to the full WSJT-X 2.0 general availability (GA) release".
Download links for RC4 on Windows, Linux, and macOS can be found on the:
È stata rilasciata una quarta versione ("RC4") di
WSJT-X 2.0, questa relise è disponibile per il download e l'utilizzo da parte
dei beta tester dal 13 novembre. La "Guida introduttiva a WSJT-X 2.0"
è stata rivista ed ampliata, e deve essere letta attentamente prima di usare la
versione RC4!!
Il sistema FT8 (come per MSK144) nella nuova versione non lo
è retrocompatibile con il protocollo originale. Questo significa che chiunque
usa una versione precedente del software non sarà in grado di decodificare le
trasmissioni dagli utenti di v2.0.0-rc4 e viceversa. "Per ridurre al
minimo l'interferenza con questo nuovo protocollo si suggerisce di utilizzare inizialmente la
versione RC4 in TX su frequenze audio di 2000 Hz e oltre. Man mano che più
utenti aggiornano il loro software su RC4, l'attività può gradualmente
spostarsi verso il basso nella frequenza audio. Dal 10 dicembre circa, sarà rilasciatala
versione “full” (GA) WSJT-X 2.0 pertanto tutti dovrebbero aggiornare con questa
nuova versione”
I link per il download di RC4 su Windows, Linux e macOS sono
disponibili su:
Mayotte
(FH) is a French overseas department located in the northern part of Mozambican
channel in the Indian Ocean is one of the four major islands of the Comoro
group of islands, but it does not belong to the Union of the Comoros (a DXCC
country D6). It's area is about 400 square km (i.e. a bit smaller than the city
of Prague). Its population is about 200 thousand people. The highest mountain
is called Benara, about 660 m a.s.l. The official language is French, but some
people speak Shimaor. As it's a French territory, the euro is used as currency
despite it being over 7000 km from Europe.
Why
Mayotte? The idea to make an DXpedion to this DXCC country came up on the
journey from another expedition to D6 in 2016. We learned how the waves “work”
in this part of the world so we knew what propagation we could expect
considering also the current phase of the solar cycle. Since our next DXpedions
was to Mauritania (5T5OK) in 2017, FH had been postponed to the future.
However, it turned out that the “future” was not that far away.
When
browsing through our logs we found out, with some surprise, that FH is not that
common of a country as one might expect. Although most of us already have it
CMFD on all bands from 160 to 10m, the last “classical” DXpedition took place
in 2013 (TO2TT). Only seldom random holiday-type activations have occurred
since. FH is number 95 in the Clublog so a major DXpedition was very welcome.
Therefore the decision had been made to activate Mayotte in 2018. The group of
hams OK1BOA, OK1FCJ, OK1GK, OK2ZA, OK2ZC, OK2ZI and OK6DJ planned the journey
with regard to time availability of all of the participating hams. The
departure was set for August 19th and arrival for October 7th. That was the
maximum that most of the guys could make with regard to their jobs and other
obligations. This schedule would ensure at least 13 days of activity in the
air, including participation in the CQWW RTTY Contest, and give large number of
hams the opportunity to make a QSO with a new DXCC and/or a contest multiplier.
For financial reasons, we choose the flight from Vienna International Airport
via Amsterdam and Nairobi to Dzaoudzi. Karel OK2ZI took care of all of the
communication concerning flight tickets, baggage and equipment transport to
Vienna, and booking the rental car in Mayotte. He also arranged for the license
and the callsign TO6OK which we obtained after providing all needed documents
and paying the fees.
We spent
almost all of June looking for a QTH which turned out to be unexpectedly
difficult. Only after that did we understand why no major DXpedition had taken
place in FH for so long and why it's even not activated in the major WW
Contests. The problem was the place for erecting larger antennas. Eventually we
had chosen the village Mliha which is not optimally located, but it offered
enough space for our antennas.
July was
marked by preparations for the rig setup. Everybody was given a task to put
together one station so it could be used for all modes (CW/SSB/DIGI/FT8). We
prepared four K3's, one TS590SG and two TS480HX's. One of them was a backup in
case of any failure. The rig also included six Microhams MKII set up for the
relevant modes. We intended continuous traffic from 160 to 10m with six
stations and five 1kW PAs. Unfortunately we weren't granted the license for the
60m band and we also gave up on the 6m band due to the current propagation
conditions. The antennas were the same proven ones as in the previous
expeditions D66D/5V7P/5T5OK/Z66D. The only improvement was a 4SQ at 30m instead
of the simple vertical. The rig preparations were completed by the beginning of
August so we could start the packing things together. We completed the packing
and plastic wrapping of all baggage at the pre-expedition meeting on September
8th at Peter's place in Ritka. We also discussed the general strategy, cleared
all details, and finished the setup of the sixth station. After the meeting
OK2ZA took all five bags with antennas and masts to his QTH from where we were
leaving for the expedition on September 19th.
Operators: Petr OK1BOA, Petr OK1FCJ, Pavel OK1GK , Ruda OK2ZA, Ludek OK2ZC, Karel OK2ZI, David OK6DJ
Tuesday,
September 18th
OK1BOA,
OK1FCJ, OK1GK a OK6DJ met in the late afternoon at OK1FCJ's place in Ritka and
set out to Moravia to Ruda's (OK2ZA) place. OK2ZC and OK2ZI were already there
so the team was complete. The DXpedition started officially before midnight. We
ate goulash, discussed the last details and checked the baggage. The entire
weight of all materials was 450 kg.
Wednesday
September 19th
The van
arrived at about 2 am to take us to the Vienna airport. We set out at 3am
according to the plan. Despite our big baggage there were no problems at
check-in and we boarded the first short flight to Amsterdam. There was a two
hour layover there, an eight-hour flight to Nairobi, and then we landed at late
night. We spent the next 15 hours waiting for the flight to Dzaoudzi at the
Turkish airlines lounge which is the only non-stop open. We again discussed the
details of erecting the antenna and the entire tactics, and also tried to get
some sleep after the previous night spent on the flight.
Thursday
September 20th
We woke up
in the morning after an uncomfortable night spent in armchairs. The 3 hours
flight to Dzaoudzi departed at noon and it was on time. We landed there at 3:30
pm local time and (surprisingly) the baggage was also complete. Despite our
concerns there were no problems at customs either. We were really relieved as
we knew the horror stories of other DXpedions. The Dacia Dokker rental car was
waiting for us as well so we could load our stuff and OK2ZI and OK1FCJ could
set out. The rest took a cab and all moved to the port to board the ferry to
the main island. After disembarking it was only about 30km to our QTH, but it
took over an hour on the tortuous and crowded roads. It was dark when we
arrived to the QTH. We were tired but really happy that the journey went
smoothly. We postponed the QTH reconnaissance to the next day and just checked
the building. There were two rooms connected with a covered veranda, a bathroom
and a large kitchen. There was also a pergola standing separated in the garden.
It looked like a camp facility or something like that. We set up four of our
stations that evening still. We decided to split them to both rooms for
acoustic reasons. One room was for SSB (operators Petr OK1BOA and Ruda OK2ZA)
the other one primarily for CW. The DIGI modes were possible in both rooms as
necessary.
Friday
September 21st
We got up
at 7 am. After a quick breakfast we started the reconnaissance of the QTH. A
busy day filled with antenna erecting was before us. We split into the groups.
OK2ZA a OK6DJ put up the Spiderbeam Nr.1, OK1BOA Spiderbeam Nr..2, OK1GK with
OK2ZC the 4SQ for 40m and vertical for 80m. OK2ZI and OK1FCJ went to the town
for shopping afterwards. We decided to cook as we had a kitchen, fridge,
freezer and microwave. Around noon a police patrol came around asking who we
are and what we were up to there. They checked our license and rental contract.
All was OK so they gave us a couple of useful pieces of advice and left. Our
QTH was at the end of the village. There was just a small scuba diving club
behind it and then a smaller military base. The soldiers passing by said hello
to us and informed us that there's a permanent service even with a medic on
their base in case we needed it. We hoped not. We worked on the antennas the
whole day. OK2ZI erected the multiband vertical dedicated to FT8 in the
backyard. OK1FCJ set up the Spiderbeam Nr.3 and the day was finished by putting
up the 80m INV VEE on a palm tree. We were tired in the evening, nevertheless
we started our operation. At 7pm David OK6DJ (as usual on the other
expeditions) called the first CQ on 20m CW and the first station Lada,
OK2PAYwas in the log. Petr OK1FCJ started on 40m CW, but he had to stop after a
while as the neighbor's cows decided to go for their dinner to the place where
the 40m 4SQ was standing. We were afraid that they may get tangled up in the
guy ropes and radial wires and we tried to chase them off, but without success.
Fortunately the owner appeared and lead them away. Karel OK2ZI and Ludek OK2ZC
tried the 30m and 80m CW with the multiband vertical. We tested the 80m SSB
into the INV VEE later, but the antenna did not work. It was a task for the
next day to get it work. After about 500 OSOs we went to bed to get some well
deserved rest.
Saturday
September 22nd
We got up
early again. After breakfast we ran on 20m, 17m and 15 m CW. The rest put up
the 30m 4SQ a couple of meters off yesterday's high tide limit. However, some
people passing by alerted us that the day's high tide would be much higher and
our antennas would be standing in water. Therefore we extended the fiberglass
rods by 1m and moved the entire system off the highest possible tide. It was
noon and we ate an excellent lunch cooked by Karel, OK2ZI. It qualified him (to
his bad luck) to the cook position for the rest of the stay. We managed to
finish the third Spiderbeam in the garden, tuneINV VEE to 80m SSB and match the vertical for the 80m CW. Then we had
SWR better than 1.3 on all antennas – we are satisfied. Although we planned 2
VDA's we put up only one for 17m for the time being. We gave up erecting the
160m antenna for the moment as there were lot of people and kids on the beach.
We postponed it to Sunday afternoon. The propagation was very bad, no stations
on 10m and 12m at all. As our SSB stations were already active we did a little
research about the interference between the bands and tried to find out the
best antenna and bands combination for inband traffic. Although each station
was equipped with the band pass filter there was still some interference
between certain bands. Towards the evening the 40m and 30m bands worked quite
well. On the other hand 80m did not open before dark. The 30m and 40m closed at
about midnight, with no response to our CQ at all. We saw an aurora warning in
the propagation forecast which boded ill.
Sunday
September 23rd
Before we
could erect the 160m antenna we had to repair the 30m 4SQ because the high tide
had loosened one of the ground spikes which caused one of the masts to fall
down. After that we erected the 160m vertical at last. It required all of us to
participate except Petr, OK1BOA who didn't feel well and stayed in bed for the
rest of the day. The 160m mast was 18 meters high with capacitance hat. The SWR
was not quite ideal, but we left it so for the first night. Ten radials were
laid on the wet beach and weighted it with stones. The difference between high
and low tide was about 3 meters, but as the beach was very low-pitched the sea
moved back over 100m at the low tide. We also had to move the multiband
vertical to the beach. We put up another VDA for 12m next to it as none of the
Spiderbeams had a good SWR on 12m band. The last antenna was 240m beverage to
EU. OK2ZC and OK2ZI pulled it through the banana grove. We were testing all
possible bands over the day and experienced even the opening of the 12m band.
It gave us hope for better propagation although SFI was 67.
Monday
September 24th
Monday was
supposed to be the first “full activity” day. We logged the first 50 QSO on
160m band at night including three W stations. The beverage worked very well.
We were missing the DHDL RX antenna for JA, though. It was planned for today,
but...We found out that the 30m 4SQ didn't survive the night. The high tide had
loosened the same ground spike as before. We fixed it again and put more stones
on the radials hoping that this would survive, but mother nature proved us
wrong the very same day. We worked on higher bands until noon and thanks to a
good antenna placement we were able to work inband on 20m, 17m and 15m in any
mode combination. That was perfect, we could use the openings at maximum. We
also worked FT8 mode either together with CW or SSB or at the band
opening/closing when the signals were too weak for other modes. We had good
propagation to EU and AS, but NA and SA suffered due the hillock west of our
QTH. As we were receiving the first complaints about the low number of QSOs to
NA we realized that it was a problem. We had less than 5% of QSO to W. We tried
to call specific CQ to NA every afternoon, but undisciplined stations from EU
(including many OKs) made our work difficult. In the afternoon a tidal flow
higher than before had come. The 160m vertical stood in the water although we
thought we had placed it out of the highest surf, but it held up for the time
being. The 30m 4SQ was much worse. Three masts have fallen down. There was a
lot of garbage like plastic bags, ropes or branches entangled in our radials
and guy-wires. We had to pull them out of the water and clean everything up.
The next day we wanted to find a safer place for it. We checked the 160m
vertical at low tide in the evening, but it seemed that the mast survived
without any damage. Unfortunately we couldn't say the same about the radials.
Some were even gone, some were so entangled that they couldn't be loosened any
more. Fortunately the salt water itself renders a good ground so the loss of
some radials didn't play that big role.
Tuesday
September 25th
We worked
from 160 to 30m at night, but the bands behaved very strangely. There was always
a period of about two hours when all bands were closed. Karel OK2ZI with Luďek
OK2ZC watched the greyline to W and JA in order not to miss any DX window on
160m and 80m. This definitely paid off and we logged DXs on both lower bands.
As soon as the conditions in the morning allowed, we moved to higher bands, but
there had been similar dropouts as on the lower ones. We also looked for a new
place for our 30m 4SQ, but there was no safe free place within the property so
we put it up behind the fence. There was an opening even on 10m this day. We
logged the first 250 QSOs on this band. At about 2 pm David, OK6DJ and Pavel,
OK1GK moved to 30m and 40m to give W6/W7 stations a chance via long path as FH
is very far for them and hard to work with. The predicted highest tide of the
season was coming. The sea level got about 4m higher. It was close to the edge
of the bay. It brought a lot of branches and garbage. The base of the 160m
vertical was still holding up, but it was completely under water and all
radials were gone. We had to rebuild it. We shortly discussed whether to move
it to a safe place off the sea or just to replace the ground radials by two
elevated ones and leave the vertical at the optimal place on the beach. We had
chosen the latter solution, although it meant that we would have to roll up the
radials every morning after the end of the activity on 160m and stretch them
out in the evening when the traffic started again. We hoped it would work
otherwise we would have to move it, although it might have been difficult to
find a suitable place.
Wednesday
September 26th
The
vertical with the elevated radials seemed to work. We made further contacts on
the topband. In the morning we rolled up the radials and left them at the
vertical base. Although they were at about 2m we didn't want to leave the wires
stretched over the day due to people walking across the beach. This procedure
became routine till the end of the expedition. The propagation was quite good
on this day considering the poor solar cycle. All bands including 10m were open
over the day. We made a short QRT at noon and Karel OK2ZI served another of his
excellent lunches. Lunch was the only time we could rest a bit, relieve our
ears of the headphones and talk shortly. We worked all night on 160m and 80m.
We also tried 40m, but neither SSB nor CW worked on this band. VK2IR asked
David OK6OJ for a FT8 sked on 20m. David went out to turn the antenna using his
mobile phone as a torch. As he got to the mast a guy jumped out of the bushes,
attacked him with a cudgel and knocked the phone out of his hand. David had
been taken by surprise. He hesitated a couple of seconds what to do, but then
he decided probably for the best solution. He quickly picked up the phone and
ran back to the house. He managed to make the sked with VK2IR at last, but it
was the first very unpleasant experience on the island. It was as if this
incident was a sign of further troubles.
Thursday
September 27th
Two days to
the start of CQWW RTTY Contest. All antennas were tuned and ready except for
the 80m vertical which was still tuned to the SSB band. We prepared two shunt
pieces over the coil to shift the resonance to 3.600 MHz and 3.750 MHz
respectively. The antenna was prepared for both SSB and RTTY now. The bandwidth
of all verticals was amazing in this environment. We could cover 300 kHz on 80m
with only two settings with the acceptable SWR, but we wanted the SWR better
than 1.2 hoping that it would reduce the mutual interference. We tried to call
on SSB and CW just to test it, but with no response. The landlord came in the
afternoon to tell us that there would be a big party for about 100 people in
the garden just among our antennas. We were astonished as nothing like this had
been announced or negotiated before. It could be very dangerous for the people
to move among the all guy ropes and wires. We tried to discuss with him, but to
no avail. We gave up one day of the traffic as we wouldn't be able to read weak
signal in the loud music, anyway. But that was not all. Local municipal police
came later to tell us that the property we had rented was actually not private
land, but belonged to municipality and no antennas are allowed there without a
special permit. We managed to get the contact to the responsible person at the
city hall, but the communication was difficult. Eventually they referred us to
the prefecture in the capital city on the other side of the island.
Friday
September 28th
Early in
the morning OK1FCJ and OK2ZI were getting ready to go to the city to negotiate
with the prefect, but before they left an army officer had come and told us,
that the 4SQ antenna behind the fence was the on the army property and must be
removed immediately. We dismantled the antenna to avoid another conflict and
made a simple dipole to hang on the palm tree. It was about 15m high and worked
quite good, but the long path to W6/W7 in the afternoon was not possible any
more. We were nervous about the result of the negotiation with the prefect.
After a couple of hours the guys returned back with no result. There was a
strike in front of the prefecture and nobody was working there. In the meantime
the state police came up. An officer told us with broken English that the
permit for building the antennas we've got had been issued by an unauthorized
person and if we don't get a new valid permit all antennas must be removed
before Monday. In the high emergency we contacted our friend Wil F4ESV,
explained to him our situation with the authorities and police and asked for
advice how to proceed. Wil acted immediately. He called the local authorities
and explained to them what the ham radio was about, that we posed no danger and
that's a hobby. He managed to obtain a verbal assurance that the prefecture
would issue the right permit for us on Monday.
Saturday
September 29th
We started
the CQ WW RTTY Contest at 0000 UTC. We ran multi-two category. We began on 80m
and 40m, but no response neither to our CQ nor to our calls of other stations,
although we heard a lot of stations from EU and NA. They made QSOs with each
other and didn't turn their antennas to Africa. We logged just a few QSOs in
the first couple of hours. Some improvement came in the morning with opening on
20m and 15m. However, even these bands didn't last over the day. We again
experienced the drop outs as in previous days. While two stations ran the RTTY
the others were trying CW and SSB and even FT8 as the last resort. Before noon
the garden party participants were coming and installing the music systems. It
was clear that no CW nor SSB was possible any more due to high noise so it left
us with the digi modes. The party lasted till night time. We were not very
successful with the RTTY Contest. We left the 15m band in the evening and
worked on 40m where the directions to EU and JA were open. However, we had only
one thousand QSOs in the log after the first day which was much less than we
had hoped. The 40m band closed about midnight. There were just a few callsigns
in the log in the last couple of hours.
Sunday
September 30th
We
continued the futile effort in the RTTY Contest on 40m and 80m. The propagation
was even worse than the day before. We were virtually unable to make a single
QSO. We decided to let our PAs cool a bit and started again at 0200 UTC when
the dawn comes. The situation was a bit better for us now as the big stations
had made QSOs between them already and had more time to look for weak signals
on the band. We changed regularly at the rig, and the others worked SSB or CW
inband or on the WARC bands. In the afternoon we decided to move our multiband vertical
from the beach to the hillock. We hoped that we would get better propagation to
NA and that the distance about 100m from other antennas would enable to operate
three stations on the same band so we would be able to run CW, SSB and FT8 or
RTTY simultaneously. The multiband vertical worked well on the hillock. It was
actually the same antenna Karel OK2ZI successfully had used during his holidays
as 3B8/OK2ZI.
Monday
October 1st
The
propagation got better on the lower bands in the night on Monday. We logged
further W stations on the topband. As we made only about two thousands contacts
in the CQWW RTTY Contest we decided to continue RTTY in the following days. We
all were nervous about the result of Wil's negotiations with the local
authorities. We called him after the breakfast and he informed us that all was
still in progress. The municipal police appeared again. We told them that the
things were being resolved. They called Wil who was trying to explain all
details to them. To make things even worse, a woman from the neighborhood came
up and complained about our beverage antenna in her banana grove. It was very
hard to talk to her as she spoke neither French nor English. We used our arms
and legs to communicate. Eventually we agreed on a “bribe” 100,- euro to settle
the thing. She left apparently satisfied. We continued running on 20m, 17m and
15m. After the lunch we took a couple of group pictures for the media and
returned back to our stations. There were over four thousand QSOs in the log.
It was not bad, but still less than we had expected if we took into account the
number of antennas and rigs. We couldn't do any better, though. It is simply
too far from FH to any other part of the world and the propagation was not
good.
Tuesday
October 2nd
The resolution
of our legal situation came (unexpectedly) on Tuesday. First, another inspector
arrived. It was a higher secret service officer with two army interpreters.
They again checked all our documents and made copies of our passports.
Fortunately we were prepared for a situation like this. We had a lot of color
copies of all documents to give away. Karel OK2ZI and Peter OK1FCJ spoke with
the officers over an hour, but the result was uncertain. They left us
eventually promising to give us further information later. We were really
nervous as we felt that this might have been the decisive moment. It would be a
big disappointment to have to finish the expedition prematurely. Fortunately
Karel received an SMS after an hour which said that the situation had been explained
to the mayor, our documents were OK and we could continue our expedition. They
even wished us success in our efforts. That called for a drink. We QRX for a
while and opened a bottle of good rum. We drank to the success of the
expedition, but after a while we were back at our stations.
Wednesday
October 3rd
The
operation continued routinely. OK2ZI and OK2ZC did their best on 160m and 80m,
Petr OK1BOAon 20m and 40m. When the
propagation didn't allow SBB any more he switched to FT8 and went on till the
bands closed. Only after that he got some sleep. OK1GK (who usually didn't
operate at night) got up almost at the same time. We had an opening on 17m and
15m in the morning and on 12m and 10m in the afternoon. After the lunch we
shortly discussed the process and order of dismantling antennas and stations.
We worked out a detailed plan of which stations would be dismantled on Friday
and which would run till Saturday morning. The last antennas had to be easy to
take down as we were leaving for the airport on Saturday at 11 am.
Thursday
October 4th
The last
day of the full scale operation. The night shift went to bed early morning.
There were a couple of new contacts on the lower bands in log. The day shift
consisting of OK2ZA, OK1GK and OK6DJ started on 30m before closing and then
continued on 20m, 17m, 15m and 12m. 20m band was working very well today, but
other bands were poor. It just confirmed our experience from the previous days.
Much more frustrating was that tens of stations were running FT8 although their
signals up to S5 would be good for brisk CW or SSB. We were calling CW and SSB
and selfspotted us in the DX cluster but to no avail. After ten empty minutes
we switched back to FT8 and we got a pile-up almost immediately. A nice
surprise had come in the afternoon. After the poor morning when we made less
than a thousand QSOs the higher bands opened again. We ran on 10m/12m/15m/17m
simultaneously with all six stations of ours. Even the reserve station equipped
only with TS480 (200 W) without PA had a good CW pile-ups. The number of QSOs
was increasing rapidly. The 20m band stayed open longer than usually and we had
a good propagation to W at long last. If the propagation like this had been
every day….We were looking forward to the night as we hoped that the
propagation on the lower bands would be better, too. We started the night on
80m and we were not disappointed. We logged a lot of EU stations including OKs
who couldn't hear us in the days before.
Friday
October 5th
The
propagation was really good at night. The night shift went to bed in the
morning. A “big bag” of stations was in the log on 160m including about 40
stations from USA. The propagation on 80m and 40m was also very good. The rest
of the team started to dismantle the antennas according to the carefully
prepared plan. We began with 40m 4SQ. We packed 3 verticals and all phasing
lines, but we left one vertical in place to have a 40m antenna for the last
night. We completely took down the 160m and 80m verticals then as it did not
make any sense to run on these bands without RX antennas. We packed the
beverage and DHDL in the afternoon. We “enjoyed” the work outside as it was 35
degrees in the shade. As the higher bands closed toward evening we also packed
12m VDA and two Spiderbeams. We worked on the 20m, 30m and 40m in the night
until midnight when our license had expired. It was over. We sent final QRT to
all media and definitively switched off the station. There were a total of
47.619 QSOs in the log.
Saturday
October 6th
Part of the
team went to bed after midnight, the rest was packing up all the stuff in the
cases and trunks. We dismantled the last antennas at dawn; the 40m vertical,
Spiderbeam and 17m VDA from the beach and finally the 30m dipole from the palm
tree. We also rolled up a couple of hundred meters of coaxial cables, guy-ropes
and control cables into two big trunks. The stackmatches and other accessories
ended up in another one. We were done at 10am, all packed and wrapped. We had
one hour to our cab arrival, but it was late by about 45 minutes. We started to
get a little nervous, but all went smoothly then and there were no further
delays on the way. We were at the airport 3 hours before the departure.
Although we spent over an hour with check-in, there were no serious problems with
our baggage and after 4 pm we took off in the direction of Nairobi.
Sunday
October 7th
Although
the night in the armchairs at the familiar Turkish Airlines lounge was not very
comfortable, most of us still got some sleep. After breakfast we went to the gate
and boarded the flight to Paris. It took off and arrived on time. We had an
hour and a half to get to the flight to Vienna, but an unexpected problem
cropped up. The boarding machine refused to give us boarding passes and sent us
to the transfer desk. That was a bad sign. The clerk at the desk said that
although he could see our tickets properly booked and paid in the global
reservation system they were not in the Air France local system. They were
searching for a solution, but it took them so long that the flight to Vienna
was gone. We agreed on a plan B. We split in two groups. The first party would
take a flight to Prague now and the rest would fly to Vienna in the morning.
But before we managed to rebook the flight to Prague the airplane was gone, too.
Fortunately there was another flight to Prague at 9 pm and so OK1BOA, OK1GK a
OK6DJ could depart eventually. OK1FCJ, OK2ZA, OK2ZC and OK2ZI had to spend the
night in Paris, though.
Monday
October 8th
This log
entry wouldn't be here if the things went as they should have, but Air France
decided otherwise. The foursome departed from Paris in the morning. All our
baggage were supposed to be on this flight, but only six pieces arrived to
Vienna. The same situation as when we arrived from the previous DXpedion in 5T.
All they could do was to write a complaint. They all traveled from Vienna by a
van to the QTH of Ruda OK2ZA and then further home by their cars. The
DXpedition was over. BTW the lost baggage had been found in Hamburg (where it
was sent by Air France) and didn't arrive until Thursday.
What to say
at the end? It was a really good expedition. Although we didn't reach our
secret dream 50000 QSOs we got close to it. It was partly due to our QTH closed
to NA direction, partly bad propagation in the context with the current phase
of the solar cycle and also the limitations caused by the “garden party” at our
QTH and problems with the local authorities. We might have chosen the wrong
strategy when we ran the CQ WW RTTY Contest in the multi-two category. Of
course we won the contest in FH, but it was counterproductive from the number
of QSOs point of view. On the other hand we can be satisfied with our rig and
antennas. Everything worked perfect. No need to take out the spare TRX. All
antennas worked also very well, although we spent more time with moving and
rebuilding than we expected. There was no industrial QRM at all (very
positive!), the 230V mains was strong and stable. We had only one little 15
minutes blackout which was very good for Africa.
We'd like
to thank all stations for the QSOs, all sponsors (we wouldn't be able to
realize such DXpedion at all without them) and the last but not least we thank
Wil F4ESV for his help in the critical moment of dealing with the local
authorities. We're looking forward to our next Dxpedion. There will be one for
sure….but where?
Summar
Total
number of QSOs: 47619
Modes: CW,
SSB, RTTY, FT8, PSK (detail statistics at https://clublog.org/charts/?c=TO6OK#r)
Rig:
4x Elecraft
K3, 1x TS480, 1x TS590SG
Antennas:
160m – vertical
with capacitance hat, mast 18m based on Spiderbeam rod, two elevated tuned
radials
80m –
vertical 18m based on Spiderbeam rod, 10 ground radials
40m – 4SQ
12m based on Spiderbeam rods, 16 ground radials at each vertical + multiband
vertical
30m – 4SQ based
on 10m DX-wire rods, 10 ground radials at each vertical, later dipole @15m +
multibandvertical
