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 Looking Northeast Down the Penisula from the DXpedition Operating Site in Tula, Tutuila, American Samoa 
INTRODUCTION
You may very well ask, why in the world would anybody go to the opposite side of the world on a 6m DXpedition at a time of year and during a solar cycle with little to no chance of F2 propagation? The answer, of course, is to take advantage of the superb EME conditions afforded at this point in the low solar cycle! If you are thinking about a trip, you might as well go someplace VERY rare so you can hand out a new DXCC to virtually every half million mile contact. And who knows - there just may still be some chance of Es links on both sides of the equator in July. In order to provide sufficient advance planning for stations wishing to contact me while I am in American Samoa, I am providing plenty of advance notice of this DXpedition. I urge you to gain experience with JT65A and especially review the QSO PROCEDURE that I use most effectively on these DXpeditions I look forward to contacting you on 6m!
The 6m
station is essentially be the same as that used at
E51SIX, 3D2LR, 5W0GJ, E6M and TX5K.
The 6M-1000 has been modified by M2 for overseas use,
and provides a solid KW output on JT65A mode with 3
watts of drive. The transceiver will still be
the reliable K3 and PR6 preamp. The K3's flat, wide
bandwidth is ideally suited to copying multiple JT65A
mode callers spread out every 200 Hz from about -800
Hz to +800 Hz. Please coordinate amongst
yourselves using the ON4KST
EME CHAT page and SPREAD OUT!
The antenna again is my 6M8GJ yagi fed with LMR600 low loss cable and home-made manual elevation mount. As you can see from reviewing the results from previous 6m EME DXpeditions, many contacts were made with single yagi horizon-only stations. The smallest station contacted from all those places was N3CXV with his single 6M5X yagi. If you have a good yagi, good ground gain, good power and lots of patience, we should be able to complete! This is especially true with European stations, since there are many cases in which we should both have ground gain at the same time! I expect we will be busy looking for terrestrial 6m openings when not aimed up at the moon.
If you copy
us, please spot us on the DX Cluster so people will
know the correct grid locator, as well as the
frequency and our status. I
will diligently try to be QRV during all EU and NA
moonsets and EU moonrises. I should have a
negative horizon from east around through north to
west, with the antenna 200' above ocean. The
photo above is looking out toward the northeast
(toward North America). Please watch the
ON4KST EME page and MMM on VHF page for updates.
I will also try to post results and updates at the
bottom of this page. We are also hoping that
there may still be some Es links that time of year, so
please keep an ear toward the South Pacific!
Please keep calling me even if you copy me working someone else. As long as you are not on the same frequency as the other station, you will not be interfering with them. Please coordinate your calling frequency with others on the ON4KST EME chat page to prevent interfering with each other - ideally, stations should be spread out every 200 Hz. I try to decode all callers every receive sequence, and I make a note of each caller and their and frequency so I can reply to you as soon as I am able. Therefore, NEVER change your transmit frequency after you start calling - pick a clear frequency nobody else is using and stay on it! I will try to contact any callers I can copy, but first priority will be given to people who are copying at that particular time, contributors and stations with shorter common moon windows. If you are in EU, I will be looking for you on both my moonrise and moonset. The fact that we will both have ground gain at the same time means that even smaller stations in EU should be capable of a contact, even if the Degradation is not the lowest. Here is the EXCEL spreadsheet of the currently proposed KH8 6M Operating Schedule. For those who prefer PDF files, here is the same KH8 6M Operating Schedule in that format. I will try to keep this updated if there are changes. Again, please try to contact me earlier in the DXpedition rather than later, as EME cndx the last week are not optimum, and I plan to be off the island for four nights, and returning on schedule may not be possible. If you think that you will not be able to be QRV for any of the times shown on the operating schedule, or are concerned that you think I may not be QRV during your only window, please send me an email and I will make a special effort to watch for you. NOTE TO NA STATIONS: The days of lowest Degradation are July 14-18 and July 27-28. I will probably try to stay on from moonrise until moonset in NA during those days, except on July 28, when I will have to go QRT after EU moonset. However, be aware that the moon in KH8 during those days becomes higher than I can aim during the moonset for stations in the central USA. If you are in NA, I STRONGLY encourage you to try to elevate your antenna so you can contact me when my moon is lower in elevation (or when I have ground gain when my moon is near the horizon). For those of you in central NA who may be new to EME, that means MY ELEVATION will become VERY HIGH during your moonset. Remember that I am using a single yagi, and it can be elevated only to a maximum elevation of 65 degrees (with great difficulty, trying to interlace the elements between the guy ropes), and if the guy ropes are wet, the elements are shorted out causing high SWR, making operation impossible. I have a lot better success when my elevation is below 45 degrees. So....even if you are in NA and figure we have plenty of windows, PLEASE don't wait until my elevation is too high to work you - if you are horizon-only, I encourage you to try to contact me early in the trip when my moon is lower than 50 degrees elevation if at all possible! On the above proposed operating schedule spreadsheet, I have indicated times when the elevation is over 50 degrees by marking the time period with an asterisk. If possible, I will try to remain QRV when the moon is high and elevate as high as I can, especially during the days of lowest Degradation. However, I spent many hours in Niue calling CQ when the moon was high, and nobody seemed to be around, so I may choose to revise the operating schedule if nobody shows up during those periods. Our operating site is on the windward end of the island, so it is less rainy than further inland. However, heavy rains can create a 1.5:1 SWR on the antenna, which is high enough to shut down the amplifier. I will try to get out word if there are any other situations such as heavy rain storms that make it impossible to be QRV, although I do not expect to have access to the internet within an hour's drive of the operating site. CONTACT
INFORMATION
There MAY be a
possibility of some limited internet access
nearby, in which case I will try to get on the ON4KST EME
chat page or the ON4KST
REGION 2 50 MHz chat page from time to
time. If not, I will try to get to an
internet cafe periodically to update this web page
and/or send out an email to the Magic Band EME
group with a status report and list of stations
worked. Once you have confirmed a contact
with me, please do not call for a second contact -
the common moon windows (especially with EU) are
very limited, and many stations are expected to be
calling.
6M QSL INFORMATION FOR KH8/W7GJ Please QSL
direct with SASE (foreign stations include a current
IRC or $USD for postage) direct to:
Lance Collister, W7GJ P.O.Box 73 Frenchtown, MT 59834-0073 USA FREQUENCY AND SEQUENCE For EME, I plan to
operate on 50.190 and will always transmit in the
first sequence JT65A mode. Please check this
page because I may have to change this frequency due
to receiver birdies at my end (although I anticipate
that this will be an extremely quiet QTH)! If
you copy me on some ionospheric mode while I am
pointed at the moon and calling CQ on JT65A mode,
please answer me on JT65A mode and let's make a
contact! When not aiming at the moon, I may also
beacon on 50.190 or some other frequency, possibly
using JT65A or ISCAT so people can detect me under
marginal propagation. I also plan to have the
ability to operate SSB and/or CW if there is any
strong enough ionospheric propagation for those modes.
For non-EME work, I plan to use 50.118 MHz when
the band is open.
CONTRIBUTIONS It is very expensive to
haul a 6m EME station halfway around the world!
Therefore, any contributions toward the DXpedition are
greatly appreciated! If you would like to
contribute via PayPal, please send your contribution
by check or cash to my QRZ.com mailing address, or
directly via PayPal to my email
address, which is my current PayPal
account. I am only able to do these long
distance 6m EME DXpeditions every year because of the
continued support from the 6m community. I
have the time and equipment to go more often than once
a year to new rare DXCC, but I just don't have the
finances available. Many thanks to the following
hams who have already very generously contributed to
this DXpedition:
N3CXV, G8BCG, N3XX, KB7Q,
K7CW, W7FI, K5QE, K7BWH, K2ZD, W7EW. SP3RNZ,
KD3UY, K7RWT, S51DI, KB8RQ, K6EME, W9GA,
VE1JF, OH2BC, G3WOS, W8PAT, W9JN, G4IGO, K4RX,
IW5DHN, OZ4VV, G5WQ, W9RPM, YO9HP, ON4IQ,
VE3KH, ZL3NW, F6BKI, KD3UY, K8WW, GM4WJA,
EA8DBM, SM7AED, SM7FJE, N8JX, HA0DU, S57RR,
W3UUM, LA8AJA, OA4TT
Special thanks to Michael Homsany (AH8E) and Kendra Pinsker (AH8W) for generously providing us a place to stay during our operation! Without the help of all these wonderful people, it would not have been possible to activate American Samoa for the first time ever on EME! PHOTOS AND UPDATES |
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| February 27, 2014 - All airline tickets
were purchased last night. OUCH! Also,
lodging in American Samoa has been
finalized. We are very excited about the
rare opportunity to operate from this amazing site
;-) |
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| July 12, 2014 - Beautiful cloudless HOT day
in the sun. I spent all day up at the site building
the antenna and finally raising it just before dark and
then started unpacking the gear and setting up the
station inside. Very exhausting day! |
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July 13, 2014 - 1st moon pass, and the
first ever EME from KH8! Lots of fun having so many
ground gain lobes from being so high above the sea!
Photo shows view toward moonrise, 270' below the antenna
;-) Also was nice to have visual aiming until around 1000Z, when a front came in and totally socked us in :-( Degradation was -3.4 dB today, so it is nice to get so many in the log (including a number of single yagi stations) before cndx peak! Worked the following stations before heading home to take a shower and get some sleep: KG7H, K2ZD, N3XX, W6BBS, N6BBS, N7NW, K7CW, NN7J, VE1JF, N3CXV. Also copied but did not work: W7MEM, N6RMJ, K6EME, W4IMD , WA4NJP and W4CSW. Please spread the word for people to follow the QSO protocol listed on my website. I will first call people who are copying me. If you are copying me and only sending calls, don't be surprised if I answer someone else before I test the waters with you! Because the air conditioning failed here, the power supply overheated and ailed to work at all. |
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| July 14, 2014 - 2nd moon pass. After
a return trip to the site to further diagnose the problem,
it turned out that the power supply simply shutting down
due to excessive internal heating. We brought
back a portable house fan to mount directly in front of
the power supply, and opened up the room's windows and
door to increase air movement. Both operators
and the power supply performed much better ;-)
During the second moon pass, it started out totally
overcast and raining, but later the moon was visible,
providing the reassurance of visual aiming. I
exchanged call signs with G8BCG, but since the common moon
window was only minutes, we failed to
complete. Others heard but not worked were
K6EME, ZL2NW, KD7YZ, W8PAT, N8JX, VE3KH, W4CSW, OA4TT and
W7IUV. Stations worked were W7MEM, K4ZOT,
WA4NJP, and W7JW, bringing the total after two moon
passes to 14. At dawn we had a tremendous local
noise come up (just an hour before our moonset), that made
it impossible to work anyone. We were unable
to locate this noise, but suspect it may be something
built into the extensive solar array at the operating
site. We will continue to make efforts to
resolve this noise problem, but if you have any choice,
please try to work us earlier in the month, when we have
common moon before our local sunrise ( around 17300Z) ,
since we may not be able to be successful during our
moonset. Again, I ask that anyone interested in
completing with me here, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE READ MY QSO
PROCEDURES on my KH8 DXpedition page: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/AmericanSamoa2014.htm
! Please understand that I will first answer people
who are actually copying me, and the only way to do this
is if everyone understands the proper procedure I am using
here....do NOT just call me with calls if you are seeing
my trace at that time. REMINDER - I can only elevate my single yagi to 60 degrees! If you have elevation, or are in EU, please try to call me when my moon is much lower. When the moon is above 60 degrees, I try to give priority to horizon-only stations in Region 2, who only have that chance available to them. It is quite exhausting trying to operate all night and still drive the narrow winding road (1.5 to 2 hours each way) to and from the site every day, but we are trying to keep it up as long as we can. Thanks for your cooperation, and we hope to be able to provide a new DXCC to many of you! |
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| July 15, 2014 - 3rd moon pass. We are
truly very fortunate with the weather here!
Although it rains during the day, it has been
clearing off each night for visual moon tracking during
most of the operating hours ;-) This is
especially fortunate for operation on 6m EME, because I am
having to elevate my antenna to its maximum (60 degrees)
and interlace the elements in between the dacron guy
ropes. When the ropes become wet, there can be
lots of problems when the elements hit the mast's guy
ropes. However, if they are dry, it is
possible to elevate without having the amplifier shut down
as the elements hit the wet guy ropes during extreme
elevations. Tonight the maximum elevation was
only around 81 degrees, which means the moon was 21
degrees off my beam heading. I can only
imagine what kind of lobe there must be at that
point! However, the ground gain of some Region
2 horizon-only stations certainly made up for the aiming
limitations on my end! Tonight was filled with a number of surprises. One troubling one is that I seem to have an infected toe...I will try to seek some medical attention tomorrow. On a more positive note, we arrived at the site tonight with an extra 30 minutes to spare before moonrise, and I had a chance to check for terrestrial activity. There were two KH6 beacons coming in, and I finally raised some activity o on 50.125, working WH6XM and KH6/KB6EGA and WH7FC. I also later worked KH7Y on CW off the side of my antenna while I was answering EME callers on JT65A mode. Another surprise was a number of calls on 6m EME from new stations I didn't even know had EME capability! Many MANY thanks to all who turned out give a call! Yesterday we had displays by low flying "Flying Foxes", Samoa's huge fruit bats. And Sunday night I found a number of large brown toads when I went out to aim the antenna - very similar to our experience a few year ago in 3D2. Tonight I was introduced to the huge coconut land crab! Bob bravely inserted his foot in the photo for scale ;-) Tonight I copied (but did not work) K8WW, EI4DQ, K7RWT, W9GA, K6EME, W3UUM, W6XU, KF8MY, W7UT and OH6MIK. I completed with the following stations, bringing the total up to 21 6m EME stations worked so far: G8BCG, KB8RQ, VE3KH, VE3MMQ, JG2BRI, OA4TT and ES6RQ. |
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| Wednesday July 16, 2014 - 4th moon
pass. The windows with EU are starting to open up a
little more ;-) Stations worked were ON4IQ, N8JX,
VE5UF, W8PAT, N8GTI and S59A. Stations copied but NOT
worked were: ON4GG, K7RWT, EI4DQ, W9GA, K6EME, ZL3NW,
KF8MY, K5RK, N6RMJ, W7IUV, N0KE, OH6MIK, HA0DU and
SV1DH. I had an 8 dB intermittent noise during
moonset that often made decoding difficult. One
peculiar thing that I noticed was that the whole band
would disappear and reappear at the same time on both 6m
and 2m. I am not sure what type of geomagnetic
anomaly might be responsible for that. Next time we
notice it, we will have to make note of the azimuth,
elevation and time. |
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| Thursday July 17, 2014 - 5th moon
pass. I was on from moonrise to moonset.
Again, the night time skies were clear enough for visual
aiming practically all the time. Having no serious
rain storms while I am at high elevations REALLY helps,
since I have to shut down if the lower elements are in
contact with the wet dacron guy ropes. The
band simply EXPLODED with EU stations at my
moonrise. Stations worked this moon pass were:
ON4GG, F6BKI, G4IGO, CT1HZE, ZL3NW, N6RMJ, W6XU, K7RWT,
K8WW, W7IUV, E51SL (Es), YT1AR, SM7FJE, IW5DHN (who still
decoded me when my moon was down to -2 degrees
elevation!), and SM7AED. That brought the
total 6m EME stations in the log to 41. Copied
but NOT worked were: G8VR, W4IMD, W4CSW, N9FTC, K5RK,
K5AM, W7EW, OH6MIK, HA0DU, and YU7EF. |
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| Friday, July 18, 2015 - 6th moon
pass. I confess that I finally crashed
:-( I slept 14 hours and missed the EU moonset
and NA moonsets :-( However, during the EU
moonrise, I worked OH6MIK, HA7TM, YU7EF and HA0DU,
bringing the total 6m EME worked to 45 so far.
Stations copied but NOT worked were: S51DI, YO9HP,
LZ2WO, 9A8A, OZ1DJJ, S57RR, SV8CS and UZ5DZ. Just a reminder - PSE PSE only send me MSG #2 (calls and OOO reports) if you are seeing my trace in the previous period. I use that to determine who I can work most quickly. I will usually try 3 times to reply to such stations with calls and OOO reports to them, but if they don't reply by then with RO, I will move on to someone else and they are at the bottom of the list (because I just assume they are sending the wrong message all the time anyway). We are working quickly through the list of active 6m EME stations, and the windows with EU are increasing, so there are still some good chances even though the Degradation is on the increase. Remember, I have a negative horizon of 2 degrees on both moonrise and moonset - with ground gain lobes there! - so PSE do not wait until my moon is over zero degrees to look for me! Tomorrow I will take some photos of my moonrise and moonset out over the ocean with NOTHING in the way ;-) MANY of the stations I have worked have been single yagi stations. The smallest was again N3CXV using his 6M5X yagi aimed at the horizon during his moonset. If you are a serious 6m DXer, please give me a call on 50.190 JT65A mode during your moonset. As long as you coordinate your calling frequency with others on the ON4KST EME CHAT page, you will not be QRMing anyone else. Just do NOT change your frequency once you have started calling, because the DF of the callers is what I record and that is how I track what stations are sending what ;-) It is very unlikely that we will copy each other best at exactly the same time, so it is nice if I can at least get a jump on a contact with you by decoding you first - PSE do NOT wait until you decode me to start warming up your XMTR! A final HUGE THANK YOU to everyone for using the ON4KST EME CHAT page so well to coordinate your calling frequencies! I have not missed any contacts due to QRM caused by stations on top of each other. You have done an OUTSTANDING JOB of spreading out! I am sure that is one of the reasons so many stations have made it into the log so far, despite the VERY short window with EU! I have been able to access that page from time to time while I am operating, but I only rarely look at it, because I am busy enough decoding all the callers each sequence, making notes, completing contacts and aiming the antenna. If you have any questions about how to work me, please see the KH8 DXpedition page at my website, or ask some of the helpful 6m EME stations on the ON4KST EME CHAT page. And also, thanks for the many well wishers. My infected toe is getting much better now that I have been on antibiotics for a few days. I still have having trouble following the instructions of the Russian doctor at the hospital Emergency Room, though. He said I needed to stay in bed for 5 days with my foot elevated. I thanked him for the appointment and prescription, but explained that bedrest just was not in the published operating schedule on my website ;-) |
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| Saturday, July 19, 2015 - 7th moon
pass. On again from moonrise to moonset.
Weather was again good, but the most windy period so far.
Stations worked were S57RR, EA8DBM, G3WOS, ON4AOI,
G5WQ, KD3UY, W3UUM, UT7QF, 9A8A and OZ1DJJ, bringing the
total contacts so far on 6m EME to 55. Stations
copied but not worked were PA3HP, LA8AJA, EA3AKY, GM4WJA,
G8VR, K6EME, JR1LZK, K4PI, KF8MY, N5DG, W9GA,
K7MAC,UR5LAK, OH2BC, OH7TE, YO9HP, UZ5DZ, LA8AJA and
PA3HP. Conditions were were worse than yesterday due
to the increasing Degradation (now up over 4 dB) but that
still does not explain the difficulty we had with QSB and
other total blanking out of signals. I am
wondering if the KH8 moonset is being disrupted now by
tropo ducting effects, now that it is taking place during
heated daylight hours. We could see what looked like
fog over the distant ocean horizon today, which suggests
the possibility of signal entrapment when the antennas are
aimed at the horizon. I have experienced this
before when running with stations experiencing such
weather conditions; their EME signals basically
disappeared when the moon dropped below 10 degrees
elevation. We are hoping to make up for it by
contacting more new stations tomorrow and will be on again
from moonrise to moonset. |
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| Sunday, July 20, 2015 - 8th moon pass. On
again moonrise to moonset. Kp was 0.3, and the Degradation
was -4.4 dB. The moonrise seemed to be somewhat
impaired and I wonder if it might have been trapping due
to some sort of tropospheric inversions on this end.
There seemed to be fog or mist over the ocean, and I have
seen such trapping taking place on other stations when
they were aimed on the horizon. Also, in NA, there
was intense Es activity, which definitely hurt
horizon-only stations trying to launch a signal toward the
moon. In addition, the KH8 moonsets (now during the
day) suffered severely, probably due to the high TEC
levels toward the west at mid-day. During moonset,
no signals at all were heard for many sequences, and the
band seemed extremely erratic, with signals suddenly
appearing once and then completely
disappearing. As expected, much better results
were experienced during the beginning of the operation,
when both moonrise and moonset in KH8 were during night
time hours. However, despite these less than ideal conditions, there still seemed to be a number of stations anxious to try to work this rare DXCC. I completed with PA3HP, LA8AJA, G4FUF, W7GJ (special thanks to the "Home Team" of KB7Q, AJ7LL, K7VK and K7PX!), OH2BC, JR6EXN, and UZ5DZ. Stations copied but not worked were: OK1RD, HB9Q, EA7KW, GM4WJA, JR1LZK, VK5PO, K4RX, W4CSW, N8OC, W5UN, K7MAC, YO9HP, OZ7OX, S51DI, PE1L, UR7DWW, and LZ2WO. |
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| Monday, July 21, 2015 - 9th moon pass. As previously announced, I was only QRV from KH8 moonrise through JA moonrise. Degradation was -4.8 dB and Kp = 1.0. Again, extensive Es from western EU to the eastern half of NA severely interfered with stations beaming toward their moonset. The only stations worked were OZ4VV and GM4WJA, bringing the total worked so far up to 64, far surpassing the totals from previous 6m EME DXpeditions ;-) The number of stations capable of 6m EME is greatly increasing! Stations copied but not worked were IK5MEN, OK1RD, HB9Q, and JR1LZK. Thanks to everyone for your patience and attempts under adverse conditions! I hope that we can have better success during the final days of operation next weekend, Saturday July 26 and Sunday, July 27. Even though it is full moon next weekend, the Degradation will be considerably lower, and unless the sun is abnormally active and there is unusually intense Es in NA and EU, there should be some good chances for those who still are close to making a contact. Best of luck to you all, and rest assured that I will be QRV again moonrise to moonset on both Saturday and Sunday next weekend, looking hard for new stations! I will be starting to dismantle the station after KH8 moonset on July 27, and will take down the antenna and pack it up to leave American Samoa on Monday July 28. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday July 22, 2014 - Somebody over here
just died from an unknown mosquito born disease, so they
are trying to figure out what it is and issuing
announcements to keep people safe. The are urging
infected people to quarantine themselves and go to the
hospital immediately. The Health Department is
suggesting that it is one of three serious diseases, and
the victim apparently tested negative for Dengue Fever.
Looks like it is time to lay low and wear the mosquito
repellant clothing ;-) Other blood samples are being
tested for chikungunya, zika and ross river virus, but
those tests are done by the CDC in Atlanta, so results
will not be available for a couple of weeks. I also need to start making the time soak my toe and keep it elevated so I am ready to hit it hard starting Saturday morning ;-) Resting up for a few days at Turtle and Shark Lodge.  |
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Saturday July 26, 2014 - 10th moon pass
moonrise to moonset. Overcast skies with occasional light
rain. New moon weekend, but no appreciable sun noise.
No visual aiming possible, but that was not a
problem with the manual readouts. Only station
worked was K6MYC, bringing the total EME stations worked
to 65. Stations copied but not worked were
EA3AKY, JR`LZK, W7EW, LY2BAW, UR7DWW, SP3RNZ and S51V. I
had trouble with the PA kicking out during moonset, and
quit just as my ground gain was starting. I
was unable to determine what the problem was that was
causing the amp to kick out, but I suspect it was
something related to stray RF when I was aimed at
moonset. The amp and power supply were definitely
staying cool enough, as they had just installed air
conditioning in the room we were using at the operating
site, and I also had a large high volume house ventilation
fan circulating the cool air around the gear. |
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| Sunday July 27, 2014 - 11th and final moon pass and was QRV from moonset in NA to my moonset. No visual aiming possible, but that was not a problem with the manual readouts. Very difficult to see any traces, probably due to a combination of the strong NA Es, plus high TEC values over KH8. I did complete with K4RX, LY2BAW and S51V, bringing the final total worked on 6m EME up to 68. Other stations copied but not worked were VK7JG, W9JN, W5UN and W3XO/5. I had to hop back and forth between 50.190 and 50.200, due to wobbling birdies that encroached on my calling frequency. I also suffered from the PA kicking out during moonset, but was able to keep shutting down and resetting it in order to stay active until the moon was below zero degrees. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monday July 28, 2014 - Some of the best
weather we enjoyed since arrival. I finished
taking down the antenna and left the operating site at
1500 local time. We rushed to get everything
packed but were able to check our luggage, eat dinner,
return the rental car and make our flight to Honolulu at
2330 local time. Bob has fallen ill, and we hope
that he doesn't have one of the serious mosquito-borne
illnesses (they finally identified the illness that was
causing the outbreak in American Samoa was chikungunya). |
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| Tuesday July 29, 2014 - Made the connection
in Honolulu and arrived in Seattle with 4 hours to
spare. Arriving in Missoula airport at
midnight local time; hope to be home by 0100 local time on
Wednesday morning. Bob just reported that he has no
fever, and only has a head cold, so that is a
relief! |
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|
Wednesday July 30, 2014 - Arrived home
at 0200 local time, without any of our 4 pieces (200
pounds) of checked baggage :-( Fortunately, the
amplifier and power supply and K3 and KX3 backup were
all in our carry-on! Fortunately, everything
arrived by early afternoon the following day...just in
time for us to depart for New England for a week!
|
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SUMMARY OF RESULTS  |
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In the end, there were 73 contacts made
with 26 DXCC, with 38 other stations in 9 additional DXCC
copied but not worked on 6m EME. 68 of the contacts,
in 24 different DXCC were worked on 6m EME; the other 5
stations in 2 DXCC were contacted via ionospheric modes,
presumably involving the E layer. The summary is
shown below, with all stations listed in alphabetic
order. Signal strengths shown for stations worked
are the values during the contact. Often
Faraday rotation made the polarity quite different at both
ends of the contact, so larger stations may appear to have
been weaker when worked. Signal strengths
shown for stations copied but not worked are the best
values copied from them over the course of the
DXpedition. Some stations were copied many
different times during the operation, and a number of
those stations were called for extended periods of time
without success. May the tones be with you!
|
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This page last revised on 25 September, 2014
