Archive - September 2017

This event is the first of its kind in EI. Please check out the Programme schedule and maybe you can make the trip to EI.

It will be a great weekend with top class speakers from around the World. Cezar VE3LYC, Kenneth LA7GIA and Nigel G3TXF are just a few of the ones attending and who will give you an amazing insight into their solo Dxpeditions and stories.

Come along, you won’t be disappointed!!

https://www.dxfeile.ie/programme

The EIDX Group was formed in early 2016 with an aim of bringing Ireland’s DXers together to form an Irish DXpedition team and to promote DX activity in Ireland.

Earlier this year, we brought you 9N7EI, operating from high above in the Himalayas and netting over 30,000 QSOs! Plans are already in place for our next adventure in 2018 and will be announced soon.
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‘Féile’, is a word taken from the Irish language (Gaelic) and translates into English as ‘Festival’. So basically, we are holding a ‘DX Festival’ this coming October.

The chosen venue for this ‘festival’ is quite exciting as it is actually on Inis Mór, Aran Islands (EU-006). To mark this occasion, 2 x stations will be QRV for the weekend where attendees will be able to operate the EJ1D callsign for as much or as little as they like.
 
We have chosen an amazing line up of DX Related talks presented by some of the World’s finest DXpeditioners. (see the ‘Programme’ page for full line-up). Add this with the friendly Irish atmosphere and Céad Míle Fáilte (One hundred million welcomes) will make for a great DX filled weekend for sure.
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Accommodation is scarce on the island and therefore numbers are limited. We expect this to sell out real fast. See bookings page for full info.

Read more here…… https://www.dxfeile.ie/

Amateurs from India have today started their operating from St. Mary islands IOTA AS-096.

Operators were working good pile-ups today on 20, 17 and 15m and were audible here in the UK.

Their short operation is scheduled to finish on the 1st October.

The RI1F Team say they are well underway and around 500 miles from Viktoriya Island. If conditions continue to be favorable, they expect to arrive in 2 – 3 days.

Viktoriya Ialand (Ostrov Viktoriya in Russian) is a small Arctic island of the Russian Federation. It is located at 80°9’N 36°46’E, halfway between the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard and the Russian archipelago of Franz Josef Land.

EU-190NEW is one of the remaining ‘new’ IOTA’s announced at the 50th anniversary IOTA Convention in 2014. Roger Ballister G3KMA announced 11 new reference numbers that would be added to the programme with immediate effect. As of today, only AF-118 and EU-190 are the final two still to be activated.

1) AF-118 CN Los Farallones and Jaegerschmidt, Morocco
2) NA-247 PJ7 St Maarten’s Coastal Islands
3) AF-119 S7 Coetivy Island, Seychelles
4) EU-190 RI1 Viktoriya isl, Franz Josef Land
5) OC-296 Tobi and Helen, T8 Palau
6) AS-200 JA5 Shikoku Coastal Islands
7) AS-201 Sea of Marmara isl, TA Turkey
8) AS-202 A9 Hawar isl, Bahrain
9) AS-203 UA0X Sea of Okhotsk Coast Group
10) EU-191 YO Fericirii island, Romania/Ukraine
11) NA-248 VY0 Nunavut (Devon) Island

The Island Radio Expedition Foundation, Inc. (IREF) is pleased to announce that Charles Wilmott, M0OXO, is now a member of the IREF Board of Directors. Charles fills the vacancy left by the resignation of Neville Cheadle, G3NUG, who has been on the IREF Board since it’s inception. IREF would like to thank Neville for his work on the Board and wise counsel over the years.

The IREF Board ultimately decides on IREF sponsorship of an IOTA Expedition and is an Internationally diverse group. In addition to Charles, M0OXO, the Board consists of Jim (JA9IFF), Buzz (N5UR), Don (W9DC), Jose (CT1EEB), Mike (K9AJ) and Buzz (NI5DX).

IREF is funded solely through donations and is a 501(c)(3) organization which allows for contributions by US hams to be tax deductible. The website is www.islandradio.org and contributions can me made by clicking on the “Join” tab.

* I am humbled to be nominated and indeed accepted to the Board of IREF. I hope i can be a valued Member of their team and look forward to working with the esteemed current Board Members in the furure. Thanks also to those of you that bothered and took the time to congratulate me as the news was announced. Thank you!

Each bureau is listed as package weight.

Andorra
Algeria 8g
Argentina 65g
Aruba 
Australia 80g
Austria 770g
Belarus 130g
Belgium 1080g
Barbados
Bosnia Herzegovina 165g
Brazil 380g
Bulgaria 315g
Canada 95g
Chile 20g
China 5g
Colombia 10g
Costa Rica
Croatia 510g
Cuba 25g
Cyprus 
Czech Republic 1,230g
Denmark 100g
Dominican Republic 
Ecuador 7g
Estonia 45g
Faroe Islands 
Falkland Islands 
Finland 430g
France 1,600g
Germany 9,250g
Georgia 5g
Greece 520g
Hong Kong 10g
Hungary 570g
Iceland 
India 
Indonesia 
Italy 4,150g
Ireland 
Israel 65g
Japan 6,510g
Jordan 
Kazakhstan 45g
Kyrgyzstan 
Kuwait 
Latvia 165g
Lebanon 
Liechtenstein 
Lithuania 
Luxembourg 35g
Macau 
Macedonia 90g
Malta 15g
Malaysia 10g
Mexico 10g
Moldova 30g
Monaco 15g
Namibia 34g
Netherlands 1030g
New Caledonia 
New Zealand 45g
Norway 360g
Oman 
Panama 
Paraguay 10g
Peru 
Philippines 
Poland 2,220g
Portugal 145g
Qatar 
Romania 190g
Russian Fed 3,750g
Saudi Arabia 
Serbia 365g
Singapore 7g
Slovenia 795g
Slovakia 375g
South Africa 5g
South Korea 200g
Spain 2,440
Sri Lanka 
Sweden 395g
Switzerland 320g
Taiwan 5g
Tajikistan 
Thailand 55g
Tunisia 
Turkey 25g
United Arab Emirates 
Ukraine 1,530
United Kingdom 570g
Uruguay 
Venezuela Suspended no safe delivery

USA 
W0 –  110g
W1  – 230g
W2 –  215g
W3 – 245g
W4 –  145g
WW4 – 135g
W5 –   100g
W6 – 100g
W7 – 100g
W8 –  120g
W9 – 115g
WP3 – 8g
WL7- 5g
WH6 – 5g

September 21, 2017

Our team meeting in Atlanta, GA from Sept. 7th through the 10th was a great success.  Eighteen of our 20 operators were present, coming from as far away as Japan and representing 7 of the 8 home countries of our team members.

Our meetings began with a review of our goals, the challenges we have met, and those we have yet to encounter.  We had a Skype conference with the CEO of our transportation company in Punta Arenas, Chile, and then discussed safety, our shelter deployment plans, antennas, transceivers and amplifiers, propagation, medical and emergency issues, operating practices, scheduling, and propagation.

We spent many hours unpacking and then staging our equipment. We inventoried everything and then began moving it from temporary storage to our 40-foot sea container. We also prepared our customs documentation which included the 6,000 items on our inventory.  We ran a tank of gas through each of our eight 6.5 KW generators, drained the oil from them, and readied them for shipment.  There were many of trips to local stores for more shipping cases, duct tape, nuts and bolts, electrical supplies, fuel cans, etc.

Our EME team needed to be certain there were no problems with their complex station and antenna system.  They worked until 4:30 AMassembling their 2-meter station and antenna array and were rewarded by completing a QSO off the moon with PA2CHR, our EME pilot station. The station works!

Our sea container leaves Atlanta the first few days of October.  It will be placed aboard a ship bound for Punta Arenas, Chile.  We are hopeful that it will there no later than December 1st. Our team members have all purchased their airline tickets to Punta Arenas for a couple days of meetings and orientation.  Then we will fly across the Drake Passage on the morning of January 13th to board our ship at King George Island in the South Shetland Islands.  We plan to sail for Bouvet that same afternoon. We will arrive at Bouvet sometime between January 23rd and 25th.  Our actual landing date is weather dependent.  We will be lucky to be on the air within a few days.

Every detail of our landing sequence, shelter construction, antenna layout, equipment setup and radio operations is well thought out.   Also, our emergency evacuation routes and plans have been identified.

We are humbled by the support of the DX community.  Over 100 clubs and foundations and over 1550 individuals have supported us financially.   If you have already supported us, we thank you. But, please ask your fellow DXers to join you.  If you have yet to contribute, we ask for your consideration.  While our operators are prepared to dig deeper into their pockets to make this DXpedition happen, your continued support would make our faces, as well as our antennas…beam.

Counting the days,

73,
Bob-K4UEE
Ralph-KØIR
Erling-LA6VM

Chris ZL2DX/ZL7DX is now living the Chatham Islands (IOTA OC-038).

ZL7DX, Chris, says he and ZL2QT, Catherine, do not yet have their longer term accommodations and are still in a studio apartment size place with no room for radio yet.  He is working on it and hopes the wait for a better QTH will not be too much longer.  The space limitation also has unpacking the shipping containers with the gear in them on hold. 

Chris and Catherine had hoped to be on the air back in May.  They plan to be there for three years and operate on HF and 6 EME.

Chris has had several Callsigns and is a veteran of several DXpeditions namely ZL4TAK & ZL4OY New Zealand, ZL4OY/A Campbell Island, ZL4OY/C & ZL7OY Chatham Island, ZM8OY and ZL8OY Raoul Island in the Kermadecs. Also operated at ZM2K and ZL8RI.

QSL for ZL2DX & ZL7DX (no other callsigns) via M0OXO OQRS or Direct Post Mail

Radio Amateurs members of Cambridge University Wireless Society will be active from Saint Pierre and Miquelon Islands, IOTA NA – 032, 13 – 23 September 2017 as FP/M0WUT, FP/M0BLF, FP/DK2AB, FP/G3ZAY, FP/DH5FS, FP/G7VJR.

They will operate on HF Bands all modes.
QSL info:
FP/M0WUT via M0WUT.
FP/M0BLF via M0BLF.
FP/DK2AB via DK2AB.
FP/G3ZAY via G3ZAY.
FP/DH5FS via DH5FS.
FP/G7VJR via M0OXO.

DXCC Country – Saint Pierre and Miquelon FP.

Hi all just a quick update from the beautiful island of Bonaire SA006

The first few days have been mainly for familiarising ourselves with the area with a few hours of radio in the morning and evening. Our unofficial host Steve PJ4DX and wife Eva are living right next door to us and have been fantastic, picked us up from the airport, taken us out for food plus Steve has been most generous in lending me his antennas and Acom 1500 Amp. If it was not for his generosity I would not have been on air so soon.

Saturday the 16th

Started using my PJ4/MW0JZE for the first time on FT8. I admit this mode is very new to me plus I am not usually a big data op but FT8 has sparked an interest so I took the opportunity to be very first FT8 statin to operate from PJ4. With FT8 being such a new mode there seems to be many different opinions of how to end a QSO or even begin a QSO. There is no hard or fast rule I guess but RRR is fine for me, the station returns 73 and I continue with CQ PJ4/MW0JZE. What is the need to send another 73 from me???

20m is an absolute zoo, I have been getting 13 to 15 spots on my window and any one time, this is crazy and no matter how I try to work a station it sometimes takes me 5 or 6 attempts so I have set a limit of 4 replies, if in this time you fail (sorry) then I will scrub your call and continue to call CQ once more.

Sunday the 17th

Nice opening to EU our morning time, worked quite a lot of friends (always nice to work your friends when in another DXCC) Again 20m was a zoo, gave up after a few hours. Steve and I discussed where to place the Hexbeam, there is not a lot of room for antennas here as Steve has used up all the space with his antennas hi hi A site was agreed on and cleared with Steve’s landlord so we began to assemble the portable Hexbeam. Due to circumstances beyond our control I am not able to get the hex as high or in the clear as possible, while will not affect my operating it will effect an experiment I was hoping to carry out which was a A/B test between the Spider Beam Vs the Hexbeam unless both antennas are same height and both in the clear then it will not be a fair comparison.

Monday the 18th

Gave up on 20m so tried 15m, what a breeze, not so many stations so able to work stations with ease, most of them after one over so the Q rate has been a little higher. Best statins worked so far on this band VK9VKL 😉

I will be trying 17 tomorrow and maybe some of the higher bands, keep checking the cluster guys!!

 More updates later in the trip… 73 de Ant PJ4/MW0JZE  

Qsl via M0OXO OQRS or Direct Post Mail

Perseverance DX Group (PDXG.net)  September, 2017
PDXG QSL Management Platform Update

Earlier this year we released a report on the status of our PDXG QSL Management Platform that was developed to automate the QSL manager’s backend processes. Developed over the past 3 years it’s now at Version 4.3 and installed on servers in the United Kingdom and the USA. Exclusive users are Charles M0OXO, Tim M0URX, Pista HA5AO and Gene K5GS.

The development goal was to eliminate, or greatly reduce, the manager’s manual tasks. The first large implementation was the 2015 TX3X Chesterfield Island DX-pedition, we learned a lot about what QSL managers and users expect from an OQRS platform. We’re happy to report the following 2017 year to date metrics:
– QSOs loaded: 5,018,167

– Total number of DX logs: 800 (DX-pedition, contest, active DX stations handled by M0OXO, M0URX and HA5AO)

The application eliminated much of the manual drudgery of processing confirmations for a single DX operator to the largest DX-pedition.

A QSL manager with one helper can process OQRS requests for the largest DX-pedition in one day, an amazing 75% reduction in time. Compare this to the old process that took multiple people many days to handle a large DX-pedition.

Today the only time consuming OQRS confirmation tasks are stuffing envelopes and affixing labels, a bulk mail franking machine eliminated postage stamps. Other automated tasks include matching donors to the log for special attention and busted call handling, no more busted/missing call e-mails.

One recently added feature prevents sending duplicate QSL cards to the same DXer. Many DXers request a card through OQRS or Direct and then send a card via the buro, the software will not respond to the buro request if a card was previously sent.

With all this extra time on their hands M0OXO & M0URX are available to handle additional DX call signs and DX-peditions.