Z66X, Rep. of Kosovo, Confirmed on 6-M

Between June 28 and July 4, 2022, Adrian, KO8SCA, Martti, OH2BH, Ville, OH2MM, Driton, Z61DX Enver, Z61EK, and Naim, Z62NS, carried out an activity from the Republic of Kosovo.  Their plan was to concentrate on 6-M to hand out the most recent DXCC entity, Z6, to as many as possible.  Their plan was also to concentrate on stations in the USA and Japan.  They took an Elecraft K3S, an SPE amplifier and a 7-element InnovAntenna (LFA-2) with an 8.9m boom.

Of course, I was primed and ready to try and work them as this would be a New Country for me on the Magic Band.  Day after day I was sitting at the radio with my antenna headed toward Kosovo but no signals were received.  In fact, from what I could see on PSK Reporter, there was no one in the U.S. copying Z66X.  Then on June 30th I saw PSK Reporter spots showing that Z66X was being copied in the USA.  (Click on any image below to see it in a larger size.)

However, the opening seemed to favor the South East part of the country and not me. Note there was 1-1/2 hours between that first spot (on the left) and the ones on the right.  This was good information.  It told me not to give up if an opening seemed to be short lived.

As the days wore on, it seemed that almost no one in the U.S. was working Z66X.  I was there, in the chair, every morning - just in case.  That patience was rewarded on July 3rd when I had my first decode of Z66X:

The bad news is that was a "one and done" decode.  Nothing else was copied from Kosovo for some 2-1/2 hours.  Still, I remembered what had happened three days earlier so I stuck with it.  That effort was rewarded almost 3 hours after my first decode when I again began decoding Z66X.  I began to call and call and after many transmissions, made a good QSO:

 

 

There was a lot of jumping up and down and many "YA HOOO"s taking place in my shack after that!  A VERY RARE New One had been added to my 6-M Entities Worked.  Just 16 days later I was rewarded with an LoTW Confirmation and today, a beautiful QSL arrived in the mail:

 

When I found the following recap on Twitter, it really put into perspective the magnitude of my QSO:

KOSOVO Z66X 6M DX-PEDITION RECAP

Many have wondered about the delay on publishing the Z66X QSO statistics and log updates for the variety of databases such as ClubLog and LoTW.

The truth is that Martti, OH2BH was diagnosed with COVID following the Z6 trip and he is still suffering of it. The other Z66X team members, Adrian, KO8SCA and Ville, OH2MM have shown no symptoms yet and they are assisting with the log process. In total some 3572 QSOs were made, out of which 44 QSOs on 6M FT8 were made with North America. Please QRX for a few more days for the log update.

Meanwhile, Champ, E21EIC had the entire Siam DX Group present in the temple to talk to Buddha about Martti’s case. The message was loud and clear: “Buddha says that the DX-ers never die!”

You can also delight Martti, OH2BH with your “get well” wishes by email.

73 Al 4L5A

 6-M is always the "Magic Band" but sometimes you have to "make your own magic" with planning, patience, and perseverance!

Another Cable Order from Messi & Paoloni

As I am getting close to completing my new antenna array (a pair of 14-element InnovAntenna XPOL yagis) I wanted to make sure I had the best possible cable to connect my antennas to my station.  Of course, in my opinion, there is ONLY ONE choice for that - Messi & Paoloni from Italy.  If you visit their website you will see a pop-up showing that you can now purchase their products from GIGAPARTS and BUY TWO WAY RADIOS.  However, since I have made several purchases of custom cables direct from M&P, I chose to do that again.

Instead of buying a standard length of a particular cable, I ordered cables to fit the place where I needed them and, I had their best quality "N-Male" connectors SOLDERED on to the ends of the cable.  Since my station is already using the ULTRAFLEX 10/.400" cables to run from the LNA's to the LinkRF IQ+ dual channel receiver, I chose that same cable for my jumpers from the Power Dividers to the T/R relay.  I also purchased a couple of 3-foot jumpers for use in the shack.

I placed the order on August 31 and received all the cables on September 6, 2022 - less than a week from Italy!  It would have been even sooner but the Labor Day weekend intervened.  Below you can see 2 of the cables I ordered (a 1m and a 4m) complete with the "Test Results" for each cable!  AWESOME!

Custom-Made Driven Element Measuring Tool

In tuning my InnovAntenna LFA 2-M yagis (and later my XPOL antennas) I needed a simple way to measure the Driven Element (DE) dimensions.  The manual for my 2-M antennas says:

Hose clips are ready to place on the driven element sections and need to be loosened to allow the insertion of the end-loop element sections. The loop end sections are easy to identify and once inserted should be tightened to around 0.890m from the inside of the loop section one side, to the inside of the loop section on the other side. This loop will need adjusting once the antenna is complete with the above measurement being the starting point.

According to the manual for my 2-M antennas above, the DE loop sections should initially be set to around 0.890m from the inside of the loop section on one side, to the inside of the loop section on the other side.  I found it really difficult to measure this distance across the square boom while I was trying to adjust them.  So, I measured the width of the boom at 38mm and deducted that from the 890mm total distance (890 - 38 = 852mm).  Dividing that by two gives 426mm from the inside of the DE to the closest side of the square boom.  

The solution thus became obvious.  Since the antenna boom is square, a tool could be built to measure from the closest side of the boom to the inside of the DE loop.  So I took a short length of 1/2" X 1/2" wooden molding and taped a printout of a millimeter scale to it.  The printout of the mm scale was not 100% accurate but I decided it would serve perfectly as a "relative" measuring tool.  That is, if I measure one Driven Element at 426mm according to this tool, I could measure another to 426mm and they would be the same.  It would not matter if the distance was actually 427mm.  Just being able to adjust the corners of each DE loop to be the same distance and then adjust the DE loop on the other side of the boom to be the same was my goal.  I positioned the printout on the wooden stick so that the "Ø" on the printout was exactly 300mm from the far end.  That made it easy to adjust the DE's to the initial setting of 426mm (just add 300mm to the scale reading) and then move the DE's in easily repeatable amounts.  (Click on any image to view a larger size.)

Custon-Made Driven Element Measuring Tool

All I had to do was to place the end of the wooden stick on the side of the square boom and then measure to the inside of the DE using the scale on the measuring tool.

DE Measuring Tool in Use

Once I tightened the hose clamp (Jubilee Clip in the U.K.) on one end of a DE, it was extremely easy to move the measuring tool to the other end, adjust it to the same measurement and then tighten that hose clamp.  This made the adjustable portion of that DE square to the boom.  Then I just used the same measurement on the tool to set the DE on the other side of the boom.  Simple!  I sure wish I had thought of this back in 2017 when I was trying to adjust my 13-L antennas!

And, after I posted the above, Carlos, WD6Y made a similar tool for 70cm: