Walt Davidson said :

If you think the Pacific is tough from the East Coast, you should try
working that part of the world from Western Europe with wire antennas!
It's actually easier on 3.5 MHz than on the higher bands.

I can imagine it must be very tough, and especially with a 400W power
limit. I'd wager even a modest tower with a 4 or 6 element yagi would
be rough for the South Pacific.

On the other hand, the Middle East (e.g. YI, YK, etc) is a snap from
here.

....Which are extremely difficult to work from the east coast of NA.
Propagation seems to die anywhere east of 4X. I've Israel and Jordan
easily a couple of years ago (only a couple of 4X's this past 12
months), but never a YK or beyond. When I se YIs spotted, they're but
a faint whisper here, if anything.

On the other hand, I'm less than 3 miles from one of the rarest
entities on the bands...4U1UN. A couple of weeks ago it was activated
for one day -- a day I happened to be home with nothing better to do
than follow them all over the bands. Unfortunately for them, nothing
was open above 15 meters so they were only working locals on 10 and
12, and little more than locals on 15 and 17 that day, but I managed
to snag them on all bands I operate on within a couple of hours.

I look to entities like 4U1UN, FP, CY0 and CY9 (any maybe YV0 if they
ever get on the air) as a consolation for missing the P5 and never
hearing any of the rare southeast Asians. I can hit these with my eyes
closed, although FP, CY9 and CY0 are too close to get on 10 and 12
when those bands are open.


73 de Peter, W2IRT
(ex-AB2NZ, VE3THX)

Please reply to Double-you Two Eye Are Tee at Arrl.net

Walt Davidson wrote:

Oh really? I worked a whole bunch of W6, W7 and VE7 on 15m in the
ARRL DX Contest - both the CW and the SSB sections.

How many have you worked outside of contests?


Why should a contest make a difference to the propagation conditions?

It shouldn't. However, being able to work a bunch of contest stations
1.5kW+ into 3-4 antenna stacks 200+ ft high over the 48 hour period of
high contest activity does not translate into being able to work the
other 99% of the ham population that typically runs a tribander or wires
no more than 70 ft high.

73 .... WA7AA



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Anti-spam measu look me up on qrz.com if you need to reply directly

Walt Davidson wrote:

Oh really? I worked a whole bunch of W6, W7 and VE7 on 15m in the
ARRL DX Contest - both the CW and the SSB sections.

How many have you worked outside of contests?


Why should a contest make a difference to the propagation conditions?

It shouldn't. However, being able to work a bunch of contest stations
1.5kW+ into 3-4 antenna stacks 200+ ft high over the 48 hour period of
high contest activity does not translate into being able to work the
other 99% of the ham population that typically runs a tribander or wires
no more than 70 ft high.

73 .... WA7AA



--

Anti-spam measu look me up on qrz.com if you need to reply directly

To follow up on this thread, let me state for the record how fantastic
it is to listen to 3B9C's operation. *THAT* is one of the best
organized and professional-sounding DXPeditions I've ever heard.

There's nothing second-rate about any aspect of what they're doing.
The online logs and daily updates are a great touch as well, but
nevertheless, even if they didn't have a Web site as good as that, and
even if they weren't THAT loud on all bands, their style of operation
and professionalism on the air is a magnificent fresh breeze on the
musty ol' HF bands of late. Good propagation research, fantastic
pileup control, good split range, great ears, works the pileup fast,
and they keep an even temper even when it got hot'n'heavy last
weekend. Perfect 10's all the way 'round from me.

Thanks, guys, for setting an example for all to follow.

I do wish I could hear them on 80M, but I guess you can't have it all,
eh? The sweetest part was how luck had it, and I worked them for
entity number 100 on 40 meters! Now, if only I could hear (and work)
R1FJ, I'd be a happy man -- at least till T33C goes QRV grin or if
YV0 can ever adorn the ether...


73 de Peter, W2IRT
(ex-AB2NZ, VE3THX)

Please reply to Double-you Two Eye Are Tee at Arrl.net

To follow up on this thread, let me state for the record how fantastic
it is to listen to 3B9C's operation. *THAT* is one of the best
organized and professional-sounding DXPeditions I've ever heard.

There's nothing second-rate about any aspect of what they're doing.
The online logs and daily updates are a great touch as well, but
nevertheless, even if they didn't have a Web site as good as that, and
even if they weren't THAT loud on all bands, their style of operation
and professionalism on the air is a magnificent fresh breeze on the
musty ol' HF bands of late. Good propagation research, fantastic
pileup control, good split range, great ears, works the pileup fast,
and they keep an even temper even when it got hot'n'heavy last
weekend. Perfect 10's all the way 'round from me.

Thanks, guys, for setting an example for all to follow.

I do wish I could hear them on 80M, but I guess you can't have it all,
eh? The sweetest part was how luck had it, and I worked them for
entity number 100 on 40 meters! Now, if only I could hear (and work)
R1FJ, I'd be a happy man -- at least till T33C goes QRV grin or if
YV0 can ever adorn the ether...


73 de Peter, W2IRT
(ex-AB2NZ, VE3THX)

Please reply to Double-you Two Eye Are Tee at Arrl.net

No question about it. They have great organization and operations. I
have not copied them on 80 meters, either. I have have copied them
with great signals on all the other bands, 40 thru 10. Worked them on
10 MHz last night while they were not too busy.

Win w0lz


On 23 Mar 2004 23:54:52 -0600, Peter Dougherty
wrote:

To follow up on this thread, let me state for the record how fantastic
it is to listen to 3B9C's operation. *THAT* is one of the best
organized and professional-sounding DXPeditions I've ever heard.

There's nothing second-rate about any aspect of what they're doing.
The online logs and daily updates are a great touch as well, but
nevertheless, even if they didn't have a Web site as good as that, and
even if they weren't THAT loud on all bands, their style of operation
and professionalism on the air is a magnificent fresh breeze on the
musty ol' HF bands of late. Good propagation research, fantastic
pileup control, good split range, great ears, works the pileup fast,
and they keep an even temper even when it got hot'n'heavy last
weekend. Perfect 10's all the way 'round from me.

Thanks, guys, for setting an example for all to follow.

I do wish I could hear them on 80M, but I guess you can't have it all,
eh? The sweetest part was how luck had it, and I worked them for
entity number 100 on 40 meters! Now, if only I could hear (and work)
R1FJ, I'd be a happy man -- at least till T33C goes QRV grin or if
YV0 can ever adorn the ether...


73 de Peter, W2IRT
(ex-AB2NZ, VE3THX)

Please reply to Double-you Two Eye Are Tee at Arrl.net

No question about it. They have great organization and operations. I
have not copied them on 80 meters, either. I have have copied them
with great signals on all the other bands, 40 thru 10. Worked them on
10 MHz last night while they were not too busy.

Win w0lz


On 23 Mar 2004 23:54:52 -0600, Peter Dougherty
wrote:

To follow up on this thread, let me state for the record how fantastic
it is to listen to 3B9C's operation. *THAT* is one of the best
organized and professional-sounding DXPeditions I've ever heard.

There's nothing second-rate about any aspect of what they're doing.
The online logs and daily updates are a great touch as well, but
nevertheless, even if they didn't have a Web site as good as that, and
even if they weren't THAT loud on all bands, their style of operation
and professionalism on the air is a magnificent fresh breeze on the
musty ol' HF bands of late. Good propagation research, fantastic
pileup control, good split range, great ears, works the pileup fast,
and they keep an even temper even when it got hot'n'heavy last
weekend. Perfect 10's all the way 'round from me.

Thanks, guys, for setting an example for all to follow.

I do wish I could hear them on 80M, but I guess you can't have it all,
eh? The sweetest part was how luck had it, and I worked them for
entity number 100 on 40 meters! Now, if only I could hear (and work)
R1FJ, I'd be a happy man -- at least till T33C goes QRV grin or if
YV0 can ever adorn the ether...


73 de Peter, W2IRT
(ex-AB2NZ, VE3THX)

Please reply to Double-you Two Eye Are Tee at Arrl.net

Winston said :

No question about it. They have great organization and operations. I
have not copied them on 80 meters, either. I have have copied them
with great signals on all the other bands, 40 thru 10. Worked them on
10 MHz last night while they were not too busy.

Still need them on 30m - too busy when I listened. That's OK--they've
got three very long weeks of begging ahead of them, so I'll get them
on 30 eventually. One thing I haven't seen them on is any of the
digital modes yet. I'm sure they'll be up on there soon. ALMOST had
them on 10FM this morning, but the band faded and they never came back
:-( That would have been a first-ever for me. Never worked FM on HF in
my life.

I did manage to get R1FJ twice, and I thought I had a third but I'm
not in their log for that QSO. I'll send for the card in any event
with all three and hope for the best! That was also another first-rate
operation and kudos to that intrepid team for risking -35 (or worse)
weather and blizzards on a frozen patch of tundra to bring a new one
to The Deserving. They did a top-notch job, especially in the latter
part of the trip. I hope they can do it again sometime!

As a final bonus, I even got an all-time new one yesterday when 5T0EU
went QRV - that one slipped below my radar of Things To Listen For.
Yup, it's been quite the week!



73 de Peter, W2IRT
(ex-AB2NZ, VE3THX)

Please reply to Double-you Two Eye Are Tee at Arrl.net

Winston said :

No question about it. They have great organization and operations. I
have not copied them on 80 meters, either. I have have copied them
with great signals on all the other bands, 40 thru 10. Worked them on
10 MHz last night while they were not too busy.

Still need them on 30m - too busy when I listened. That's OK--they've
got three very long weeks of begging ahead of them, so I'll get them
on 30 eventually. One thing I haven't seen them on is any of the
digital modes yet. I'm sure they'll be up on there soon. ALMOST had
them on 10FM this morning, but the band faded and they never came back
:-( That would have been a first-ever for me. Never worked FM on HF in
my life.

I did manage to get R1FJ twice, and I thought I had a third but I'm
not in their log for that QSO. I'll send for the card in any event
with all three and hope for the best! That was also another first-rate
operation and kudos to that intrepid team for risking -35 (or worse)
weather and blizzards on a frozen patch of tundra to bring a new one
to The Deserving. They did a top-notch job, especially in the latter
part of the trip. I hope they can do it again sometime!

As a final bonus, I even got an all-time new one yesterday when 5T0EU
went QRV - that one slipped below my radar of Things To Listen For.
Yup, it's been quite the week!



73 de Peter, W2IRT
(ex-AB2NZ, VE3THX)

Please reply to Double-you Two Eye Are Tee at Arrl.net