Clipperton Island Confirmed on 6-M

 

What a THRILL to get this entity confirmed on 6-M.  I spent a fair amount of my time on Clipperton (FOØXX) in 1985 trying to make even a single 6-M QSO.  We set schedules with California KW stations to no avail.  Not a single Magic Band QSO was made in our 8 day operation of 30,958 QSO's.  (Click on any image to see it larger.)

W8TN as FOØXX from Clipperton in 1985

 

This year's TX5S operation made a total of 226 QSO's on 6-M including EME.
 
In 2013 TX5K made 329 QSO's on 6-M including 56 on EME by W7GJ. 

In 2000 FOØAAA made 139 QSO's on 6-M.

In 1992 FOØCI made 279 QSO's on 6-M.

Those four Clipperton Island operations may have produced all the Magic Band contacts EVER made on 6-M with Clipperton Island - 973 QSO's!  A RARE QSL indeed.

This contact now gives me confirmations on 10-Bands and 3-Modes with Clipperton Island.  Maybe someone will operate 2-M EME from there in the near future?

And, to make this contact even more memorable, I worked ZL7DX, Chatham Island, less than one hour before I worked Clipperton Island.  WOOF!  Some days the Magic Band is truly MAGIC!

These LoTW confirmations bring me to 157 All-Time Entities confirmed on 6-M.  WOW!  I never dreamed of reaching such a level on 50 MHz.

ZC4RH - British Military Bases, Cyprus - 2-M EME

Today I received a QSL for my QSO with ZC4RH on 2-M EME!  This is my 63rd Country confirmed on 2-M EME with one more worked but not confirmed (VK.)  (Click on any image to see it larger.)

Chris, PA2CHR, Jos, PA3FYC, and Dave, ZC4RH, set up and operated an EME station on three VHF bands in November 2022 from an extremely rare location.  The British Bases on Cyprus occupy only about 98 square miles so it's quite small.  This operation took at least a year of planning, on-site visits, pre-shipment of all equipment by UPS/DHL, and loads of preparation.  Many difficulties had to be overcome but the final result was a huge success.

The ZC4RH operation ended with: 144 MHz:  213 QSO's    /     432 MHz:    54  QSO's   /    1296 MHz:   32  QSO's

For 2-M the ZC4RH station consisted of: FT857, SSPA, LNA and 2 x 10/10 ele x-pol yagis (16 dBd).  My own 800-watts and 2 x 14/14 XPOL InnovAntennas was sufficient to finally make the QSO - just moments before their MoonSet on the final day of 2-M operation.

 

I am just SO excited to have added this very, very rare entity to my list of countries worked and confirmed via 2-M EME!  Opportunities to work such stations come along seldom so to check this one off is a HUGE satisfaction to me. My sincere THANKS to Chris, Jos, and Dave for all their efforts in making this happen!

Previously I have worked Chris, PA2CHR, and Jos, PA3FYC, from TD9FYC (2018) and VP2EMB (2019) as both New Countries for me.  I'm anxiously waiting to see where they go next!

Ham Radio STILL Gives Me a Thrill!

Last night provided me with a thrill in Ham Radio that just never seems to get old.   Snagging that elusive DX on a New Band.  Working a New One is only surpassed by working an All-Time New One (ATNO) and it seems several in the West Virginia DX Association (WVDXA) scored one of those "rarest of the rare" contacts with this DX'pedition to A2, Botswana.  CONGRATULATIONS to all those folks!  Hopefully you got your piece of pie as a reward for scoring that QSO!!!

I am reminded of how it was "back in the day" when a New One was worked.  Back then there were no WARC bands (30-M, 17-M and 12-M) so the record keeping was a "little" easier.  Still, it meant having separate PAPER DXCC lists for each band AND for each mode!

Note: at the beginning of my DX'ing career, I had only ONE DXCC List because there were no 5-Band awards.  If I worked A2 on one band, that was all I needed in my mind.  And, if I worked them on SSB, I made no effort to work them on CW let alone RTTY (digital.)

Since there was no PacketCluster spotting system back then, you found the DX by simply tuning your radio and checking out EVERY signal you heard until you could identify that station.  If you happened to run across a pileup on the band, you had to then physically check your list(s) to see if that was a New One.  But I can tell you that if it was an ATNO, that list was kept in your brain and you knew instantly you had never worked that country before!

There were check-boxes in your paper logbook to let you record if a QSL had been sent or received.  But you still needed to keep paper records to record when you sent for a QSL, where you sent for it (bureau, manager, direct, etc.), and what you enclosed ($$$, SAE, etc.)  All this paper-shuffling made you feel more like an accountant than a ham radio operator.  That data can now be easily recorded in your logging program and instantly available to you.  It is simply amazing what an improvement that is.

Plus, today with the PacketCluster, computer logging, Club Log and LoTW - that record-keeping "burden" has been removed.  Today you don't need to tune the bands looking for DX, your logging program will take the incoming PacketCluster spots, check them against your log, then color-code them for you to tell you not only what stations have been spotted but whether or not it is a New One or an ATNO for YOU personally!

On the image at the upper-right, you can see that there are three spots from the PacketCluster that are color-coded Blue.  (Click on any image to see a larger version.) These spots are displayed in my logging program's BandMap.  Those are New Ones for ME.  If they were Red, those would be ATNO's.  If I hover my mouse over any of those (like I did with AP2HA in the above screenshot) I get a pop-up (shown in Yellow) with tons of detail.  BOY, that's so much of an improvement over the "old days" that you just can't believe it unless you were there.

The Green square shown just to the left of most of those calls indicate that station is an LoTW user, as does the "+" sign in the Yellow pop-up.  LoTW has improved the DX'ing hobby beyond measure.  At one time I waited 13 YEARS to get a QSL from an ATNO!  And, when that card came, it was still an ATNO as I had never worked that country again in all those years.  Today, you can sometimes get an LoTW confirmation while the DX'pedition is STILL UNDERWAY!  WOW!

All one needs to do is to click on any spot in the above BandMap and your radio jumps to the exact frequency and mode for the spotted station plus the callsign gets placed in the Call field of the logging program and is ready to be logged once the station is worked.

Your logging program can also tell you where you have and have not worked that particular entity (band/mode/QSL Rcvd or not.)  In the screenshot on the left, I have A2, Botswana, Confirmed (shown in Red text) on 10-M and 20-M SSB plus 30-M and 40-M CW.  The two Yellow "DIG" fields show that I have "Worked" (Blue not Red text) A25RU on 17-M and 30-M Digital Modes.  They are Yellow since I typed A25RU into the Call field to see these Worked/Confirmed records and the Yellow says I have worked "A25RU" (not some other A2 station) on those Bands/Modes.  If I had just typed "A2" in the box, there would have been no Yellow boxes, just the Mode shown in Blue text since it was not confirmed on those QSO's.  Plus the Yellow box for 80-M CW indicates my QSO from last night (as recorded in my log.)  It is SO easy to check what bands/modes you need an entity on now, just enter the prefix for the entity and your Worked/Confirmed window will display all that data!  No need to shuffle through all those PAPER DXCC lists!

From this data I can easily see that from this A25RU DX'pedition I have added two New Bands to my A2 list of stations worked as well as one New Mode.  And, it also shows a gaping hole for 12-M which is one I still need.

If I want to check when I worked those stations, I can just click on any of the above boxes and get a pop-up with my log data.  For instance, if I click on the Red SSB for 20-M, what I see is shown above.

Are you kidding me?  1973 for that A2 QSO?  WOW!  Some of you reading this may still have been in diapers or not even born then!

Still, the way things used to be, you were never 100% sure your QSO made it into the DX Station's log until you got his QSL (or not) which would always take 6-months or more and sometimes YEARS!  Today, you just need to check out an online log to see if the DX has recorded your QSO.  Below on the right is a screenshot of Club Log for the log of the A25RU DX'pedition checked against my own call.

Bingo!  All my A25RU QSO's made the log!  That is SUCH a benefit that you can't imagine.  Years ago I was certain I had worked A5, Bhutan, for my very last country.  That would have put me on the Top of the Honor Roll.  Two of my friends heard the QSO and congratulated me on the contact.  BUT, almost a year later I got back a "Not in Log" to my QSL request.  I was CRUSHED!  If I had been able to check online at that time for my contact and seen it was not there, I would have tried for another.

Finally, my logging program, Logger32, even tracks my progress toward various awards.  Looking at my confirmations for Mixed DXCC I can see my totals in the screenshot at the bottom of this Post.

That 80-M QSO with A25RU last night gave me 240 entities worked on 80-M All-Time and 237 Current since I have 3 Deleted entities worked on 80-M.  You can see two Yellow boxes with a "W" in them.  That indicates that A2, Botswana, has been "Worked" on those Bands but not yet Confirmed.

The Green boxes with a "G" in them indicate those QSO's have been Confirmed AND Credit for them has been "Granted" by ARRL.  The Orange "C" box tells me that QSO is "Confirmed" but not yet Granted toward my DXCC.  

This table is a HUGE help in trying to confirm your contacts.  Just scroll through the list and see what contacts are "Worked" but not "Confirmed."  Click on the "W" box and a pop-up will give you the log information on that entity/band QSO.  Below is what I see if I click on the Yellow box for 80-M on the A2, Botswana line.  This gives me the information for ANY station marked as "W" (Worked and NOT Confirmed.)  That will allow me to track when (or if) I sent for a QSL and give me access to all the information regarding that QSO.  Using these tools you can stay up to date on your QSL'ing.  And, we all know, the QSL is supremely important.  Without a QSL or an LoTW Confirmation, you have NO Credit for working that entity.  Anyone can "claim" they worked anything but if you can PROVE it, that makes all the difference.

The Red boxed text in the image below simply shows I've been DX'ing for a LONG time.  I have Worked and Confirmed 18 entities which no longer count for DXCC!  Some of those countries I have worked on as many as 3 modes and NINE bands!  But, none of those QSO's count anymore because those entities have been DELETED from the ARRL DXCC List.  BUMMER!

 

 

Below is the list of countries/entities I have Worked and Confirmed in the past that no longer count for DXCC:

  1.  Abu Ail Is.
  2.  Yemen Arab Republic
  3.  Saudi Arabia/Iraq Neutral Zone
  4.  Germany
  5.  German Democratic Republic
  6.  Bajo Nuevo
  7.  Serrana Bank & Roncador Cay
  8.  Kingman Reef
  9.  Canal Zone
10.  Czechoslovakia
11.  Territory of New Guinea
12.  Bonaire, Curacao (Neth. Antilles)
13.  Sint Maarten, Saba, Saint Eustatius
14.  Malyj Vysotskij Island
15.  Southern Sudan
16.  Aldabra
17.  Penguin Islands
18.  Walvis Bay


So, even though I have been DX'ing for over 50 years, I probably enjoy it now more than I ever have.  That is because of all the new technology that makes the hobby easier to enjoy.  For me, this thrill of contacting some far-off country on a band where I have never worked them before, is STILL powerful!  It just does NOT get old!

Please remember this history when your QSO does not show up in an online log as fast as you expect.  Or when you think it is taking too long for LoTW to update after your upload.  Today things are so much better than before so please - have a little patience!  Remember, I waited 13 YEARS for one country to be confirmed!!!  Just enjoy what we have now and keep working the New Ones!

EME is Not Always Easy

There is currently a DX'pediton to Mozambique, C8T, (http://dxpedition.c8t.cc/) and they have a 2-M EME station.  As that would be a New One for me on EME, I made plans to be at the radio to try and work them.  They are not a large station as they are running two 11-element yagis mounted horizontally and 1.2 kW of power.  Very similar to my two 13-element horizontal yagis with 1 kW.

However, Mr. Murphy did not just pay a visit to C8T, he actually moved in it seems!  On their first morning they found they did not have the electrical power they were promised.  They only had one 10-amp circuit instead of the three 80-amps they were supposed to have.  The owner of the lodge did fix that though and the electric company came the next day with the new circuits.  But, Internet access wasn't stable enough for them to use their pre-programmed software to upload their QSO's every minute.

However, the problems did not stop there.  When they connected all their systems to the power, ALL the laptop power supplies, one laptop and a K3 DIED because of the high voltage!

Problems continued for a bit with their RTTY software changing frequency unexpectedly.  And, they then decided to move the EME station down to the beach where they could see the moon from horizon to horizon.

The next day just after the grey-line they started well on HF but the entire city had a power failure!  The lodge owner brought them a rented generator but it was not big enough to run their amps.

Because of their location on the East coast of Africa, we only have about 3-1/2 hours a day of "common moon" between Mozambique and West Virginia.  The first day that was from 2:20 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. my time.  I did not really plan to be on for that moonpass because the Degradation was 4.3 dB and would get better on subsequent days.  However, I had a case of Montezuma's Revenge so I turned on the station and monitored for about 3 hours between trips to the Porcelain Facility.  Nothing was seen on my screen from C8T.

The red marker on the map shows their location in Praia Do Bilene, Mozambique.

Then after reviewing their logs they saw it was very difficult to work NA on HF even when conditions should have been favorable.  They felt this might be because they were on the south-side of a hill so they got permission from the property owner of the hill to move their 5-band Spiderbeam to the top of that hill.  This location was 120m further away and 50m higher.

 The next night (Monday) I could not be on because my wife and I were going to be Poll Workers for the primary election and had to be at the polling location by 5:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Thankfully ON4AOI was sometimes in telephone communication with the DX'pedition and could post on the EME Chat Page information like the following.  Each line is an individual post over a few days.

Correct Petter. Marc his radio jumps sometimes 30-40 hz up/down after every seq, must be heat
wind is playing with ant at C8T
looks wind is blowing them of moon now
C8T has power cut in all village. just got Marc on phone
Just got the news that they have qrm from HF stations so patience sometimes is needed
qrm from HF today is a problem
I cant reach them either now not even via cellphone
not cfg yet but think C8T again powercut
they are aware of the shift but no solution found yet
They will cool down the kx3 with ice now looks a thermal problem

As you can note above, C8T was having trouble keeping his TX on frequency.  Possibly due to the heat at his location he would jump 30 to 60 Hz up or down after each sequence and sometimes it could be 200-300 Hz different from his last transmission.  Many of the people who had copy on him were complaining of the difficulty of finding the "moving target."

After working a 16-hour day at the election polls on Tuesday, I hit the sack early and got up at 3:25 a.m. Wednesday to look for C8T.  By 6 a.m. I had not seen even a trace from C8T and this was due to the city-wide power failure.  It was beginning to look like a serious problem because I could see on the Chat page that C8T was indeed working stations - I just could not see him.

On Thursday, I set my alarm for 3:55 a.m. but did not actually "come to" until 4:30 a.m.  Rats!  Still I was on the moon in just a couple of minutes and was looking hard for C8T.  It was not until 2 hours later that I decoded the following:

JT65B 102600 2 -26 dB 2.8 s -840 Hz 4 W Freq 430 Hz > WO7R C8T KG64 OOO

WOW!  I had actually copied C8T on 2-M EME.  But, that was the ONLY decode that day.  I stayed on the radio until 8 a.m. with only that one decode.

By this point, I have invested 9 hours (over three nights) in front of the radio with only a single decode to show for my effort.  Plus, I'm getting a little punchy from lack of sleep.

During my EME operations on Thursday morning I noticed I was having problems with my Elevation rotor.  Turns out the crossboom had slipped in the rotor.  Tim, K8RRT, came by at 7 p.m. and we managed to re-position the system and tighten down the rotor clamps.  We did this once before so maybe I need to "pin" the rotor to the crossboom.  In any event, thanks to Tim's help, I was ready to get back in the hunt for C8T.

Thursday night I set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. to try again for C8T.  Again, I saw nothing until just over three hours later when I got my next decodes from C8T:

114600  1  -25  2.0  283  1 #      W8KEN C8T KG64      OOO   1   0
114700  0  -33 -0.3  261 28                                       
114800  3  -29       284  2   RRR                                 
115000  2  -30       321  3   RRR                                 

Since I was copying him, I started calling C8T at 1149 GMT just after he sent W8KEN the first "RRR" above. 

Seven minutes later when I copied my call and "OOO" report from C8T, I nearly wet myself!

115600  0  -28  2.0  277  3 #      W8TN C8T KG64       OOO   0  10
115800  1  -31       277  5   RRR                                 

WHEEE!  I really did manage to make a QSO with C8T for a New One! 

This QSO took a little more than 12 hours of my time in front of the radio to complete!  Part of the problem was knowing that C8T had such difficulties on his end that I never knew if my monitoring was useful or if he was off the air due to power failures.  Part was the size of his station and mine and that we were both horizontally polarized. 

I continued to stay on his frequency for a half hour after our QSO and decoded NOTHING more!  But, what I did decode was enough.

Also that morning LA8KV and WP4G were on the moon.  Both would be New Ones for me but I did not see them the times I looked.

Besides working a New One on EME, this QSO taught me something about my EME capabilities.  In looking at the fact that I only saw C8T Thursday when my Azimuth was 127° and not at all on prior days, I think the trees to my East are now blocking a good bit of my EME signals and the antennas now have to nearly clear them for me to copy weak signals.  At 132° Azimuth (where my antennas were pointed when I copied C8T calling W8KEN Friday), one antenna can see the moon clearly and the other is still partially blocked by limbs and leaves.

When I began EME operations on November 1 of 2017, the trees were bare and the sap was gone.  Now that summer has come and things have "greened up", the trees are severely limiting my ability to work EME toward my East.  Unfortunately, that is where most of the EME stations are located.

There are no new DX'peditions on my radar until August 31st when PQØF is scheduled to start up from Fernando de Noronha.  I will have plenty of moon past the trees to work them.  But, other DX'peditions might surface during the summer.

Still there are many entities in Europe that I have not worked.  Hopefully the tree blockage won't cause me to miss too many.

But, today is a HAPPY DAY with DXCC No. 53 in the log!

From the C8T Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/C8T-Mozambique-DXpedition-2260834114136813/), here is a photo C8T posted this morning with these comments:

Day 7: 13000+ qso's in the log now. C8T will not break records, we realise. However, big pile-ups on 15 and 12m to JA now, so catching up... Enjoying a beautiful sunrise in the mean time

 The day before they posted this:

Day 6: nearly 11000 qso's in the log. Propagation is not with us, some rare openings towards EU and JA this afternoon, NA and SA still difficult. FT8 expedition mode is helping us out😉. EME on 2m on the other hand is a big success , nearly 200 contacts so far, the vast majority ATNO! By tomorrow morning, the 300 mark will be made.
Another try on 160m tonight - watch the cluster.

Packing up EVERYTHING you will need for a DX'pedition and traveling thousands of miles to fight the weather, bugs, power outages, and all the other problems takes a HUGE amount of effort.  Please remember that when you are having trouble making a QSO with people who are doing so much to provide you with the opportunity of a New One.

Saturday morning, I was able to copy a CQ from C8T at an Azimuth of 106° which is pointing fully through the trees!  I would need to move the Azimuth a good 20° to the right (West) to get at least one antenna clear of the trees.  However, I listened for another 2 hours and did not decode anything else.

104200  0  -28  2.1  401  3 *      CQ C8T KG64               0   9

This may have happened partly because C8T overnight changed the polarity of their antennas from Horizontal to Vertical.  Plus, the moon might have been in a bit of a "gap" through my trees at that particular time because I did not get another decode.

Still, it shows what difficulty you can have working small stations via EME from another small station.  I spent 12 hours looking for him when he was horizontally polarized and only managed to decode him 6 times!  Of course, most of that 12 hours was spent looking through the trees.

GOOD NEWS!  My call showed up in the online log as the last person C8T worked Friday!

IK4ADE,-23
GW3XYW,-24
W8KEN,-22
W8TN,-24

By changing the polarity of their antennas they are doing all they can to see that they work the most people.  As of my QSO Friday, they had logged 244 stations on 2-M EME. 

C8T UPDATE & NEWS
They are trying to solve the freq jump by adding an external blower on top
of the open Rig (: 
Marc told me that it seems to be better (tests were done after MS) but in
full sun at 35C it still is unpredictable.

35°C is 95°F.

Here is a photo that shows their 2-M EME operating position! Yes, that is a BOAT where they are operating the moonbounce station. 

We can only imagine what the operators at C8T are going through to put this entity on EME.  It is Africa after all, they are close to the coast so there have to be bugs, mosquitoes, lizards, spiders, oppressive heat and humidity, rain, storms, wind, etc.  This "operating position" for their EME station is interesting to say the least.  All I can say is WOW!  Since I have done a few DX'peditions myself I have some first-hand knowledge of their situation.  This makes my QSO with them worth so much more.

Click on any photo to see a larger image.

This QSO brings my 2-M EME totals to the following after less than 6-1/2 months on the moon:

203 EME QSO's
193 Initials (New Stations)
156 Grids
53 DXCC Countries Worked / 42 Confirmed
U.S. States on 2-M
41 Worked / 36 Confirmed
        (30 worked via EME)

VP6DX - A Clean Sweep

With the VP6DX DX'pedition to Ducie Island drawing to a close, it has now broken the record for the most QSO's worked by any previous DX'pedition. Many people have managed to work Ducie for a new one or for new Bands or Modes that they were not able to do in previous DX'peditions. Personally, I only had three Bands and two Modes confirmed from previous operations.

But, now that I have moved to the New QTH on the Top of the Hill, and have installed the Monster-L for 160-M, I decided to see if I could fill in some of those needed Bands and Modes. As you can see from the VP6DX "Leader Board" below, I managed to do that - in style!


I do not believe I have ever swept a DX'pedition on ALL Bands and Modes they were operating on before. And, this is especially pleasing since I only have two antennas - an 80-M Inverted-L and the Monster-L for 160-M. All other bands were worked by loading one or the other of those two antennas with a Drake MN-2000 tuner. Working 20 Band/Mode "slots" is the MOST that ANY operator has accomplished with this DX'pedition! But, I'd trade a lot of those "slots" for a single 6-M QSO - Hi!

The most difficult contact by far was the 30-M RTTY QSO - and it was the last one I made. I probably spent 5 hours on the air calling them on that Band/Mode. Being restricted to 200-watts on 30-M and not having a 30-M antenna was really a challenge. But, as the DX'pedition was drawing to a close, lots of folks had already made their QSO's and that left room for the "little pistols" to make it into the log.

Now that I have all the "Greenies" showing in the VP6DX log, I'll send for my QSL's using their on-line QSL request service. And, I'll include an extra contribution for the huge expenses incurred by this operation to take all their equipment to such a remote location and, at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, pull off one of (if not THE) best DX'peditions of all time! Thanks VP6DX!