Archive - August 2017

It’s still in beta testing, but FT8 — the latest digital bauble to capture the imagination of the Amateur Radio community — has been luring away many of those already using the popular JT65 “weak-signal” mode. FT8 is included in a beta release of WSJT-X, version 1.8.0-rc1. Among its biggest advantages is a shorter transmit-receive cycle, meaning quicker contacts. The notes for the “candidate” release say that FT8 offers “sensitivity down to –20 dB on the AWGN channel,” as opposed to –30 dB for JT65. Contacts are four times faster than with JT65 or JT9, however. An entire FT8 contact can take place in about 1 minute.

The new mode is named after its developers, Steven Franke, K9AN, and Joe Taylor, K1JT. The numeral designates the mode’s 8-frequency shift keying format. Tones are spaced at 6.25 Hz, and an FT8 signal occupies just 50 Hz. Unlike JT65 or JT9, transmit and receive cycles in FT8 each last about 15 seconds. Like JT65, FT8 requires accurate time synchronization. An auto-sequencing feature offers the option to respond automatically to the first decoded reply to your CQ.

“FT8 is an excellent mode for HF DXing and for situations like multi-hop Es on 6 meters, where deep QSB may make fast and reliable completion of QSOs desirable,” Taylor’s release notes assert.

The beta release came out just days before the July CQ VHF Contest and proved to be a boon to many operators who took advantage of FT8 on 6 meters. In a limited outing for the CQ VHF, Frank Donovan, W3LPL, made 22 FT8 contacts on 6 meters, “during which the FT8 software reported SNRs from my receiver below –10 dB (measured in a 2,500-Hz bandwidth). Some of the 22 QSOs may have been difficult to complete on 

Operational documentation for FT8 has not yet been finalized. “We know that the advent of new mode FT8 means that new material is needed for the User Guide,” Taylor told the Yahoo Meteor Scatter and Weak Signal Group this week. “We will be working on that in the near future.”

A new Facebook group has been established for FT8 experimenters. Source QRZ.Com.

Why is Saturn partly blue? The picture of Saturn approximates what a human would see if hovering close to the giant ringed world. The image was taken in 2006 March by the robot Cassini spacecraft.

Here Saturn’s majestic rings appear directly only as a thin vertical line. The rings show their complex structure in the dark shadows they create on the image left. Saturn’s fountain moon Enceladus, only about 500 kilometers across, is seen as the bump in the plane of the rings.

The northern hemisphere of Saturn can appear partly blue for the same reason that Earth’s skies can appear blue — molecules in the cloudless portions of both planet’s atmospheres are better at scattering blue light than red. When looking deep into Saturn’s clouds, however, the natural gold hue of Saturn’s clouds becomes dominant.

So, the final packing is now underway. One final case to obtain this week and we will be set. There were some niggling questions remaining about how much coax to take etc that still needed answers. So while Googling the net I happened to stumble across Lance W7GJ’s website detailing his EME exploits on 2012 from Kaliki Lodge! Fantastic I thought, I can finally see photos of the back yard and confirm how everything could fit together. Now I am truly excited. The house looks to give me 100ft elevation overlooking the Pacific to the west north west so paths to EU and Japan should be excellent.

Saturday 26th August saw us test fire the 40m folded monopole antenna with the SGC-230 ATU on 80m. Local contacts out to 300km were made about an hour before sunset so it appears to radiate at least. Modelling in 4NEC2 shows that the pattern will be fairly low angle as well, although the efficiency will be down. At least it gives me something to try (considering 80m wasnt a band I was going to rely upon as this is only a one man show). So, 80m will be something to watch for from E6AG – at least on JT65

I am still planning some tests at night (possibly this coming weekend) to see how reports come in domestically across Australia to see if it has any hope of something more from Niue.

Harald DF2WO will operate at XT2AW September 29-October 30.

Returning again to XT2, he plans to be on 60 meters almost every night, and with
conditions what they are may be on JT65 and FT8 more than CW or SSB.

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Ant, MW0JZE will be QRV from Bonaire, IOTA SA-006 in September.

He will be QRV on HF bands between 15th & 30th September using FT8, SSB & RTTY. Participation in CQWW RTTY contest as PJ4/MW0JZE.

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Qsl Card received from Japan re the recent activity from Mokil Atoll, (Mwoakilloa), IOTA OC – 226

Tosy JA3FGJ, Sanny JJ3SIG and Mami JP3AYQ were qrv 24 – 29 June 2017 as V6J.

Thanks Qsl Card Mami 73/88

The Dateline DX Association is very pleased to announce significant progress in our planning to operate in 2018 from KH1, Baker Island National Wildlife Refuge, the 4th most wanted entity in the DXCC program.

We have executed a charter agreement with a ship, the Nai’a out of Fiji with an anticipated arrival at the refuge during the 3rd week of June, 2018.   We intend to be at the refuge a total of 12 days with 10 days of operations.   This ship and dates were chosen in consultation with the US Fish and Wildlife service based on availability of their resource monitor, avoidance of the cyclone season, and Nai’a availability.  

Propagation forecasts look favorable for HF to Western Europe (a large target audience for us) during this time as well.As with any DXpedition to the really rare ones, this will be another financially demanding operation.   The 11 operator team will contribute over 50% of the expected budget of $400,000.  You can help make this DXpedition happen by visiting our new website, http://www.baker2018.net/ and contributing today

We wish to thank the US Fish and Wildlife Service for their trust in our group to safely and responsibly activate this rare location.Don Greenbaum, N1DG, Tom Harrell, N4XP, and Kevin Rowett, K6TD co leaders

****UPDATE – Due to a series of unexpected complications, the 2017 ZS9V Robben Island expedition has been moved to International Lighthouse weekend over 19/20 August. We will be running two SSB stations.*****

The team are ready in South Africa for their second activation of Robben Island, IOTA AF-064.

ZS9V will be qrv from 9 – 13 August 2017 as ZS9V operating on 80, 40, 20, 15, 10m SSB, CW & Digital Modes.

”We have a bigger team this year consisting of Jan ZS1VDV, Paul ZS1V, Andre ZS1AN, Johan ZS1A, Pierre ZS6A and Oleg ZS1ANF so the operation will be longer and allows us to use CW for the first time. We hope to see you in our logs!”

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The website is now live for the upcoming Christmas/Cocos Islands Dxpedition.

http://christmascocos2017.vkdxg.com/index.php/category/news/

Thanks to the AREG guys for their help and support.
Over the next couple of weeks we will fine tune it.

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