The up's and downs of working DXpeditions.

 

Now you see them now, you don't.... the fun of active solar conditions

Earlier this week and last week the solar conditions have been great, and I have been able to make some nice CW DXpedition contacts. The whole DXpedition thing is new to me, as in the past I have seen the pileups and just passed them by. With the increasing flux number and with the blog reading I have been doing, it occurred to me that the times are a changin!  I did some reading up on my Icom 7610 and operating split with it. Low and behold, I have been able to make contact with some nice DXpeditions. 

Being new to this expedition thing, I have in the past read of those who indulge in this slice of our hobby. I have now come to see firsthand the mayhem of a pileup situation. I don't want to make this post about grinding my axe.....BUT......and you know what they say about a sentence that begins with a "BUT". In my very very short time of hunting out a DXpedition contacts I have come across some odd....... Let's say behaviour. 

1. As you are listening on the DXpeditions transmit frequency they vary between S4 to S8 at my end, and I am trying to get the flow of their operating........... When someone for some reason is tuning up their amp on top of the DXpedition?  To be honest I have never owned an amplifier and am not sure how the whole tune-up thing works........BUT....... I assume it does not have to be done on the DX transmit frequency. Please correct me if I am wrong? 

2. Ahh, then those who I guess who do not do their research with understand the idea of split frequency operation or don't care.......BUT..... they transmit on the DXpeditions frequency. So what happens here is stations like me can't hear who the DXpedition is coming back to as this station just keeps dropping their call on the WRONG frequency. Ok, I get it, and we all screw up thinking our rig is in split when it's not.....BUT..... with my limited time trying to work split this happens a lot. With polite op's from a DXpedition they send "up up up up" hoping the offending station will get the idea. Oh, but wait then there are the clusters such as DX summit and in the comment section, other ops are not so polite about things. 

3. Often I have heard the DXpedition station sending "VE3?" meaning he wants the VE3 to come back to him as he needs the rest of the call.  As they listen for the VE3 there are also a few op's sending their call that is not even close to "VE3". It really messes things up for both the VE3 station the DXpedition. 

Now, there is some other behaviour that I come across that make DXpeditions a pleasure.

1. While the op is calling on the DXpeditions calling frequency they politely answer them with a 599 and TU. 

2.  Operators who, while sending out their call, can hear the DXpedition station answering someone other than them, and they stop calling right away. They can achieve this as they have their radio set to full break-in mode. This will allow you to hear  between your own dits and dahs, I will admit it takes some getting used to, but it's a great operating skill. 

3. Operators who politely post on the cluster the operators call sign and leave a message that they have to transmit up and not on the calling frequency.  Having said that, I have also seen some messages that are not polite at all. I understand folks get frustrated, but there is no reason to be rude, after all it is a hobby. 

Well, we are going away on vacation this week, so the DXpeditions will have to wait for another week. But I sure have been having fun working them. 

Zeroed in on another DXpedition........

 

Yesterday I had a nice relaxing afternoon sitting at the 7610 checking out the bands. Solar conditions have been great the past while and that is a nice change to see.  I was able to work 7P8RU again, and I did see the DXpedition HD8R from Galápagos spotted on DX summit . I was not able to hear them on 20m and barely on 40m, but then I saw them spotted on 17m. I found 17m to be very quiet, and I definitely saw HD8R on the waterfall but no pile up was being shown.  I placed the Icom 7610 in Dual watch and split mode and found HD8R was working many stations, but most if not all I could not hear. The DX stations they were answering were mainly U.S. stations, so I realized the band was open in my direction.  As I listened and I emphasize "listening".  Now and then some U.S. stations were heard at my end working HD8R and this allowed me to get the team's strategy for working DX. 

I blindly threw my call-out a few times, and very soon after I heard VE9KE 599....I came back with VE9KK KK KK and low and behold the call was corrected, and I was in their log. Once again 100 watts and my Endfed antenna came through for me. 

This weekend is the CQWW SSB contest and for the SSB folks this is a big one. There is going to be lots of rare DX to be had for sure. For me I am a CW guy and not because I snub SSB but because in the past when operating SSB I have caused issues with neighbours. I am going to see if the rare CW stations have less of a pileup this weekend because of the SSB contest and many will be operating in that. 

The art of working split to contact a DXpedition.

 

Contacting 7P8RU

Yesterday afternoon while on 20m I noticed a large gathering around 14.040.  After a little investigating, I found it to be the 7P8RU DXpedition from Lesotho located in South Africa. The team were excellent CW operators and this made for a very organized pileup. As I listened to find out how they were working the pileup I found that as always operators trying to contact 7P8RU on their calling frequency.  With most if not all DXpeditions they operate split, meaning they call CQ on one frequency and listen on another. Their listening frequency can vary from 1kHz to 5kHz span. 

I find it best to listen to the DX station and also those trying to contact the DX station. This is done to learn how the DX station is working "the pileup"..... those who are trying to make contact. Most if not always the DX station has a pattern on how they contact calling stations. Other times they indicate specific regions they only want to contact.  It's best to listen first and find out the DX's rhythm, and also if they are working a region of the world that you are not in. This avoids you calling not getting answered and the DX station wondering why you're not listening to instructions.  This just brings about frustrations at both ends. 

Now down to the nitty-gritty of making contact! Once you have listened and found out the DX rhythm and that he is working stations in your part of the world, it's time to jump in the fray. But wait, how does one listen to both the DXpedition and perspective contact stations, who are 1-4 kHz away? This is where rigs with 2 independent receivers come in very handy. The 2 independent receivers allows you to hear VFO A and VFO B at the same time or the DX and those who are trying to contact them.  In my case I use headphones with VFO A in my left ear and VFO B in my right ear. 

They do say that a picture is worth a thousand words....and with DXpeditions this is also very true.  It's great to hear both sides but adding a visual representation is fantastic!  This is done with a radio that has a spectrum scope. Now you are able to hear and see each station the DX is working. As the DX either moves up or down the band, you can fit your signal in the pathway and toss out your call and see if you are heard. 

The Icom 7610 has all the above-mentioned bells and whistles, as do many other HF and SDR rigs. The picture above is a screenshot of my 7610 setup to work 7P8RU. I have turned on "Dual watch" this allows me to hear both VFO A (main) and B (sub) Split has been turned on, so I transmit on VFO B and not on top of 7P8RU on VFO A. 

On the spectrum scope, the red M is the main VFO A, and it is set on 7P8RU's calling frequency. The crowd of signals to the right (between M and S) are those calling the DXpedition station. The green "S" is my sub VFO marker and tells me where my transmit signal will be. 

One nice thing about the scope, once 7P8RU has contacted a station, most times you can see this station visually answering the DX station. By watching this interaction you get an idea of how the DX station is working the pileup.  The above picture shows the scope giving a band slice of 100 kHz and you can see t FT8 to the far right and toward the bottom of the band other CW signals. When working the DXpedition I have the scope set to a narrow slice of the band, so I can get a better picture of the pileup and who is being worked by the DX. 

It's great fun to work these stations when you can hear them, and it gives you a good workout on learning your radio and what it can do. In my case 7P8RU was contacted and is in the log! 

CT8/PA4N

I finally had a chance to fire up the K3 on Monday afternoon, it has been a very busy weekend besides I have been reading on most blogs how poor the conditions were....even for the digi folks. It was very windy and cold up this way on Monday with the surprise of snow in the morning. We have some 230KV lines at the back of the house and when they start to blowing around some (I guessing) loose insulator cause me some QRN. The blogs were spot on and the bands were not in real good shape at all besides the power line QRN was not helping either. Later in the afternoon the winds settled and the bands had some CW spikes showing on the P3 here and there.

230KV lines out back

I was on 20m and heard CT8/PA4N who was operating from Sao Miguel island (EU-003) on the Azores.  Frank was only going to be on the island until April 3rd so I wanted to give him a shot. The band was not busy at all, they were not running split and since conditions were not that great I pumped the K3 up to 5 watts. With only one repeat of my call I made the contact. As I was entering the logging info into DxLabs there was a pileup developing so it would seem I got in at the right time.  I also noticed that fellow blogger John N8ZYA has also made contact with the team as well.

Anonymous is getting very smart!

Happy to be back from the vet's

First off  I took a vacation day from work as I  had to take Oliver (our cat) to the vet for a followup after dental surgery and by the way looking back on my career decisions I should had been a veterinary dental surgeon! They do say hind sight is 20/20. Oh and for those wondering Oliver had a great checkup, he was ecstatic  to get out of the veterinary clinic and home. Some of the other time today was spent on the radio TRYING to make contact with TX5K. On all the bands I had absolutely no problem hearing the pileup trying their luck at making contact but I could not even hear TX5K!! On Saturday my wife has a hair appointment and a trip to the dentist.....no surgery just a checkup....BUT  in ham radio lingo what does XYL at the salon and dentist spell........RADIO TIME!!! So I am going to give TX5K another go before the DXexpedition is over. So why did I entitle this post "Anonymous is getting very smart!" In the past I had

A new antenna coming soon.........

I was going through my QST this week an had notice an add for a new antenna by SteppIR. In the past I would had just passed by the add but this antenna in the picture had an eye catching look to it. It's called the CrankIR vertical and can be used from 2m to 40m or another unit that goes from 2m to 20m (an 80m unit is in the works) The antenna is great for portable ops, field day, emergency and neighborhood restricted antenna areas...and the list goes on!! For me this antenna can easily fit into a nap-sack and carried out into

Mounted on bench

 the great outdoors, placed in the truck of my Scion IQ and hauled to a park and setup at a picnic bench were I have done many a mini contest from.
So lets look at the nitty gritty of the antenna first off it's made by SteppIR who has a GREAT reputation and has been the choice of many DXpeditions. The 20m version extends to 9 feet and when folded up is only 26 inches. The 40m version is 18 feet and reduces to 30 inches. As far as I am concerned both sizes are very manageable for transporting. I am not gong to high light evey detail as there is a link on this post to the SteppIR CrankIR page with limited info but more to come!!  This antenna is due to make its purchase date in the spring of this year. I did send an email to SteppIR with some questions about the antenna and Bart was very prompt to get back to me.

Band conditions were great....if I was an SWL!!!!!

For the first time in over a week I found time to wind up the Elecraft K3 and get on the air. In many blogs I have seen WSPR reports of great conditions on 10m, that would be great if I was retired and home during the day....but........I wanted to see how conditions were in the evening. I was very pleased I was able to hear no problem the DXpedition of 3B9SP on Rodriguez Island  This is a small island off the coast of Africa. They were armed with 3 Elecraft K3's and 2 Elecraft KPA 500 amp's. They had a very strong and clean signal here on 20m but the pileup was large. I was able with the help of my P3 to see the stations in the pileup 3B9SP was going back to but I still was not able to break the pileup for a contact.    I then turned it over to 30m which for me most evenings had been a very good band for contacts. I came across HK1MW in Columbia and again a very good signal here into VE3WDM. Columbia is not all that far from my QTH (ham radio speaking that is) and 30m has always been good to me. I gave him a go but there was nothing and the conditions were starting to change as well with lots of fading. Besides my goal for the last 1/3 of this year is to get the last 19 countries for my DXCC Jubilee award. I already have Columbia so it was time to move on. The cluster was showing A45XR out of Oman now I have not had to much luck at all with that region....no luck meaning never hearing them.
I would not advise this while driving but he did make the contact!!

  I gave it a go and there was Chris load and clear!! He was operating split and with my dual receivers in the K3 I was able to hear both sides of the adventure. It was great the band was not at all as busy as with 3B9SP so I gave him a go...and a go......and a go......until in the wink of an eye he was gone just replaced with static. Well that was my Thursday evening of ham radio. I will say I did have a blast and did miss getting  on the radio.

Soon there will be a new KX3 coming to town...

Elecraft KX3

But

To help raise the funds for the new Elecraft KX3 some items here at the shack have to go up for sale....including my beloved KX1!! I have a new page with all the "for sale" items on it have a look and see if anything there can find a home in your shack. Yes Yes there was a post on my blog regarding my Elecraft K2 and how it was just fine (and it still is) and I did not need a KX3........BUT the bug has bitten.........and it has gone from a need to a want!!!

Other goings on at VE3WDM

When I ordered my Elecraft K3 some years ago I had it outfitted with the 100 watt module....as most you know I am not a QRO op....not that there is any at all wrong with QRO but for me QRP and QRPp is the best option considering my stealth operation. So the 100 watt module (KPA3) was put up for sale and sold in 1 day to help fund my KX3. Now my Elecraft radio is what is called a K3/10 (10 for 10 watts max output). Removing the KPA3 meant taking out my Sub receiver from the rig, the NB board along with some jumper cables. When events like this come I just hate opening up a 5K rig and playing around with the "stuff" inside. All went well and  it's back together and working just fine. 

I tried and I tried and tried to contact CY9M but it just did not work out that DXpedition is not shut down and it just was not meant to be. This weekend is the NAQP CW contest it starts at 2pm local time and runs til late evening. I am going to give this popular contest a go considering the not so good propagation lately this local contest will be fun even with max 5 watts. 

IOTA contest and CY9M DXpedition

I was planning on spending some time this weekend participating in IOTA contest...but...I got called into work and by the time I got home and settled in I was only able to put in about an hour toward the contest. This is the first time I had taken part in the contest and was surprised at the turn out, this is a very busy contest for sure. I had hoped to add to my DXCC count by taking advantage of some of the rare islands. I did hear lots of rare DX but that was as far as it got to making any sort of contact. I found the bands to be so so there was an M6 flare along with an R2 radio black out that did not help out conditions. Despite the conditions I was able to make 8 contacts.
On all my contacts I tried with the lowest power possible and worked my way up until I made contact. If  I was at full output (5 watts) and still could not make contact it was time to move along.

Do two wrongs make a right.....

  Last night while on the radio searching out once again T32C my PowerSDR showed a pileup off the T32C frequency. Well over I went and sure enough it was a pile up but not for T32C it seemed to be for 3XY1D in Guinea. Hmm I thought never worked that part of the world so maybe I will give it a go. Then out of nowhere came (in CW) "phoney" very loud and over all the traffic. But not just once..... every 10 to 15 seconds!! Then in  CW came a response "NO" to which the reply was "yes phoney".  This ruined it for me as I would guess many others. Now the call did sound funny but I looked up the call and there is a DXpedition there for October and November. As I QSY'd along the band never finding T32C but possibly finding 3XY1D. I had not been given a chance to work him because of an operator who some how was given the "DXpedition gold enforcement badge". What is worse.....an operator pretending (maybe) to be someone they are not just for the joy of forming a pileup....or......an operator who deliberately (for sure) transmits over others knowing he is doing so....or both? Two wrongs don't make a right!

T32C DXpedition....

After reading  some blogs how QRP power has made it out to T32C I was game to give it a go myself. Well I went to T32C's website which by the way is fantastic. It is full of information regarding the DXpedition as well as live up to date spotting information. I checked the frequency's  the website said they would be on and it was only late last night I could just hear them over the noise level on 40m. That was a close as I got to a signal from the team. I tried today and nothing and will give it a go this evening as well. I am hopeful that I will be able to pull off a contact but at this point it is very hard to do so if I am unable to hear them at my QTH. I also went to the VOACAP website and punched in my info.....and well the results for me making a contact with my power, (QRP) location and antenna (attic dipole) gives me a slim to none chance!!!

Almost DX-disaster

My October QST arrived the other day and I noticed VY0 DXpedition had front page coverage. This was the first article I wanted to read.  Cezar Trifu VE3LCY went on a DXpedition to Pen Island in Hudson Bay it is considered an Arctic island. I have been involved in many northern Canadian hiking and camping trips both winter and summer. Most were  either one or two weeks trips at a time.  With my outdoor experience I had a great interest in reading the East Pen Island DXpedition. I will be honest I finished reading the article and I was in disbelief.   I'm not sure why Cezar got himself into the situation he did....a potentially deadly one for sure!! VE3LYC upon arriving in Fort Severn temperature being -29 C (pretty normal) he found his guide was not really as ready as he hoped he would be. That's ok this happens to all of us but as the adventure went on the wheels started to fall off and the warning bells were sounding loud and clear. Now Cezar began his 120km snow machine trip to the Arctic island it was a balmy -17C felling like -25C with the wind chill.  Five hours later they were only 22k into the trip....because the guides snow machine was having mechanical trouble. It was then his guide informed him this was a known problem......one wheel on the car just fell off. The person you are depending on is not dependable.  They now had to turn around and get another snow machine, when they made it to Pen Island the wind was blowing between 90-100km's antennas were setup and gear working and contacts being made. Pretty normal for any DXpedition one would say. Another BIG wheel on the car is about to fall off...His guide Tommy informed Cezar that he is LEAVING!!!! As an experienced outdoors person this is were Cezar should had shut down and gone back with Tommy and cut his losses. Number one rule in the wilderness never never ever be there alone. Mind you Tommy did tell him that another guide would be with him in a few hours. If someone is not with you your on your own (bad news) being told someone is coming is not a sure thing and for Cezar it turned to not be a sure thing. If Tommy was an exspiranced guide he should of waited until relief made it, he did not.  The other guides snow machine broke down (go figure) and he could not come. Now two wheels are off the car and the fast downhill slide begins to happen. Tommy did leave him a rifle and Cezar did find some anti bear spray. Anti bear spray does not work well in the cold and not at all when windy. Polar bears are smart if you are their next