Blog – Page 166

WFF – Herne Island Team injured in crash….

31st January 2011

News received from Fred IK7JWX of an car accident the team had on their way to the Dxpedition over the weekend:

”Inform our dear friends, colleagues radio amateurs, sponsors, supporters, individual contributors that 27 february at 15:30 the team heading for 5C2 was traveling in Morocco to reach Dakhla and Herne Island. On the way we broke a wheel of the Jeep and were turned upside down. The impact has been only hurt our good friend Leo I8LWL (5C2L), the rest of the team is good with minor injuries from the impact.

Leo suffered a fractured shoulder and a slight head injury is now recovering in the hospital of Marrakech which has received the first treatment mediche. Non just improve his condition will return to Italy.
Congratulations to Leo lends a healing and a return home soon. The new dxpedition to AF068 will be in september 2011.”

Lets hope Leo and the team have a speedy recovery…..

VP8ORK – All going well, ready to be Qrv in hours!

27th January 2011

The ‘Microlite Penguins’ posted this press release yesterday, giving us hope that some good activity will be heard from Antarctica in the coming days – yippee!! ”VP8ORK” team promise us some good conditions in the UK (we’ll see!).

25 January 2011

The 2001 ‘South Orkney‘ DXpedition is anchored at Signy Island and has begun assembling the camp. We estimate two days will be required to secure our safety and set up stations. Our announced data of 27 January for operations remains intact at this point

73,
The Microlite Penguin Team
The 2011 Microlite Penguins’ South Orkney DXpedition

The South Orkney Islands are a group of islands in the Southern Ocean, about 604 kilometres (375 mi) north-east of the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.They have a total area of about 620 square kilometres (240 sq mi).The islands have been part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962 (previously they were a Falkland Islands Dependency), and the British Antarctic Survey operates a base on Signy Island. The islands are also claimed by Argentina as part of the province of Tierra del Fuego, and the Argentine Navy has maintained a permanent base on Laurie Island since 1904. Apart from base personnel, there are no inhabitants.

WFF – Do we comply with the DX Code of Conduct?

20th January 2011

Last week one of our most active activators found it necessary to cut short his activation in the UK due poor operating by some chasers. Here you will read his account of events and please feel free to add your comments to the discussion at the end of the article:

” Hi all,

Last weekend I was in England to activate 2 nature reserves. Stodmarsh was on the programme for Saturday morning. Very nice nature reserve, well looked after and worth a visit. So far for the good news.

I was very disappointed by the behaviour of the chasers today. It was so bad the I decided to close down after just under 1 hour in which I managed to complete almost 100 contacts. But the patience of some chasers was non existant. Having to work by numbers because of the big pile-up and even then some people did not agree that they had to wait.

When I asked stations with “5” in the callsign and a 9A5 came back someone told him that his call was not valid. Another station worked me from a clubstation with”0” in the call when I called that number. He then asked me for a contact with his home call. Again heavy protest. The protest lasted 30 sec. the QSO 5 sec. So, the moaner prevented me from making 5 further QSO with other stations. It is this kind of behaviour that puts activators off going to WFF’s.

It went from bad to worse with people wanting their number to be called. Then I decided to stop the activation. I still have not sent in the log from this activation and don’t know if I will. This not fun anymore. Therefore I did not do the Sunday activation either.

The chasers should realise that a lot of preparing and money goes into an activation abroad. In my case: ferry crossing, hotel, fuel expenses, mails in which you have to ask permission to activate a WFF. Personally I don’t know if I will continue with WFF, I’ll have to sleep on it. I have now done 50 WFF’s and have seen it deteriorate to very bad behaviour. It is still a hobby and meant to be fun.

In the last year I was fortunate to visit some beautiful reserves and combine this with ham radio; ideal combination, but at the moment I am not completely convinced anymore.

73, Peter ”

Click here to see the DX Code of Conduct

…….See and add your own comments below……

Qsl cards to Bureau (or Direct)…….

15th January 2011

Qsl cards to the Bureau this week include:

GB0ANT – 360
GB4IPY – 330
GB1TAN – 130
GB1HI – 160
MW0JZE – 75
MØOXO/p (Green Day) – 70

260 Cards processing for various calls, will be mailed 18/01/2011

Nobody loves us :-(

11th January 2011

Well I have been wondering for the last 10 days or so why no-one wants to come back to my CQ calls? Yes, it may be my poor cw but now i think I have found the real reason!

According to the ARRL out of 338 DXCC entities, England is the 5th from the bottom of the most needed. It just makes me want to cry

(ARRL Least/Most Wanted click Flag to the above to see England basking in 334th place of the most-wanted!)

‘GreenDay’ Cards issued….

7th January 2011

Qsl Cards for the WFF ‘GreenDay’ event 2010 have now been issued.

There has been a big delay with printing these cards since the event that Keith 2E0KYI and I operated from back in June 2010.

We were active as part of the WFF ‘GreenDay’ Contest/event that occurs each Year from Spurn Point, East Yorkshire (GFF-111).

M0OXO_GD_ob

Photograph on front shows the Cheetah. Cheetahs can be found primarily on the African Plains. They once roamed throughout Asia and Africa. Today only about 150 remain in Iran, and about 12,000 cheetahs live in sub-Saharan African grasslands. They are endangered because of decline in prey, loss of habitat, poaching, and being shot as a livestock predator.

Thanks – Gennady UX5UO,

MØOXO Operating Mode analysis – 2010

2nd January 2011

The tables below show my activity over the last twelve months (2010). The other two tables show the same information over 2009 and 2008. If there was ever any doubt as to my operating modes there certainly isn’t now! SSB is gradually getting less as CW increases (although big surprise to see CW has declined since last Year, didnt expect that).

Year	DXCCs	QSOs	QSOs as Percent
2010	205	6474	CW: 8.56% SSB: 18.78% Data: 72.66%
2009	203	5020	CW: 11.67% SSB: 28.82% Data: 59.50%
2008	162	4522	CW: 1.04% SSB: 70.85% Data: 28.11%

Wollaston (SA-031) & Diego Ramirez (SA-097)

31st December 2010

Weather and Sea Conditions Expected During the DXpedition.

The waters around the Cape are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs; these dangers have made it notorious as a sailors’ graveyard. The terrain is entirely treeless, although quite lush due to the frequent precipitation. Winds were reported to average 30 km/h (19 mph), with squalls of over 100 km/h (62 mph) occurring in all seasons. Diego Ramirez is 106 km south-west of it, in the Drake Passage. Temperature in January-February ranges from highs of 14°C (57°F) to lows of 5°C (42°F). Snowfall can occur in the summer anywhere south of the Beagle Channel. The cold and wet summers help preserve glaciers. In summer, the wind at Cape Horn is gale force up to 5% of the time, with generally good visibility. Greatest rainfall is in March, 137.4 mm, while the least is in October, 93.7 mm.

The Strait of Magellan, Beagle Channel, and all other passage between the islands that are part of the Wollaston and Hermite groups are notorious for treacherous williwaw winds, which can strike a vessel with little or no warning; given the narrowness of these routes, there is a significant risk of then being driven onto the rocks. Several factors combine to make the passage around Cape Horn one of the most hazardous shipping routes in the world: the fierce sailing conditions prevalent in the Southern Ocean generally; the geography of the passage south of the Horn; and the extreme southern latitude of the Horn, at 56°S.

The prevailing winds in latitudes below 40°S can blow from west to east around the world almost uninterrupted by land, giving rise to the “roaring forties” and the even more wild “furious fifties” and “screaming sixties”. These winds are hazardous enough in themselves that ships traveling east would tend to stay in the northern part of the forties; however, sailing to Cape Horn requires ships to press south to 56°S, well into the zone of fiercest winds. These winds are further exacerbated at the Horn by the funneling effect of the Andes and the Antarctic Peninsula, which channel the winds into the relatively narrow Drake Passage.

The strong winds of the Southern Ocean give rise to correspondingly large waves; these waves can attain enormous size as they roll around the Southern Ocean, free of any interruption from land. At the Horn, however, these waves encounter an area of shallow water to the south of the Horn, which has the effect of making the waves shorter and steeper, greatly increasing the hazard to ships. If the strong eastward current through the Drake Passage encounters an opposing east wind, this can have the effect of further building up the waves. In addition to these “normal” waves, the area west of the Horn is particularly notorious for rogue waves, which can attain heights of up to 30 m (100 ft).

Ice is a hazard to sailors venturing far below 40°S. Although the ice limit dips south around the Horn, icebergs are a significant hazard for vessels in the area. In the South Pacific, during the summer in Southern Hemisphere, icebergs are generally confined to below 50°S. However, the Horn remains below the latitude of the iceberg limit. These hazards have made the Horn notorious as perhaps the most dangerous ship passage in the world; many ships were wrecked, and many sailors died, attempting to round the Cape.

At the time it was discovered, on 25 January 1616, the Horn was believed to be the southernmost point of Tierra del Fuego; the unpredictable violence of weather and sea conditions in the Drake Passage made exploration difficult, and it was only in 1624 that the Horn was discovered to be an island. It is a telling testament to the difficulty of conditions there that Antarctica, only 650 km (400 mi) away across the Drake Passage, was discovered as recently as 1820, despite the passage having been used as a major shipping route for 200 years.

PW2D Cards dispatched…..

29th December 2010

I am pleased to report that the Qsl Cards for the PW2D Contest Station arrived from the printer a few days ago and the first 35 direct Qsl Card requests have been mailed this morning (29th December 2010).

The PW2D team are part of the Araucaria DX Club that promotes and encourages contest and dxing in Brazil. The Station is located near Mogi das Cruzes, half way between the city of Sao Paulo and the Port of Santos, Brazil.

Thanks to Gennady UX5UO for a speedy turnaround time for the printing, click here if you are in need of a Qsl service.

Happy Christmas…..

22nd December 2010

Happy Christmas to all my readers, hope you all have a prosperous New Year and a Peaceful 2011!

Category - Blog

Weather and Sea Conditions Expected During the DXpedition.