NAVASSA - FEEDBACK AND LESSONS

I am a member of GMDX, the scottish DX group. Recently they held their annual meeting, where several DXpeditions gave presentations. One of them was the K1N expedition to Navassa Island. A transcript of the presentation was then published last week in the GMDX digest and I thought it would be of interest to copy the last part of the presentation, FEEDBACK AND LESSONS, food for thought for all of us:

 

 

"Feedback and Lessons

I learn a lot from every DXpedition I’ve ever been on. I’ve put together a summary of my two weeks of operation from Navassa. I’m sure all of my team mates will concur with what I’ve observed and learned.

European stations complained a lot for the “short time” we worked Europe. QUITE THE CONTRARY!!!!

This is a MOST interesting point of discussion! If you look at the times in our logs, we spent MORE

time working Europe than working North America. Our ClubLog statistics, however, show that North

America had 58% of the contacts, Europe 32% and Asia 6%. WHY, then, if MORE time was spent

working Europe, was Europe about half the number of North American contacts???

Simple answer: RATE. Period.

When you listened to us working North America, we could cruise right along at 300-350 Q’s/hour or

more! I have seen the “rate meter” hanging around 500-600 Q’s/hour for some times. (I heard that

someone on the team was clocked at 1200 Q/hour…..on 160M!!!!) When working Europe, we would be extremely lucky to see rates of 100 Q’s/hour. European signals are as strong, if not stronger than North American signals, in the Caribbean. The west coast U.S. is much harder to work than Europe. South American signals were among the strongest!

Here is a note I received after I returned home. It is from a well-known DXer in Europe:

“I listened to XXX working US pile-up on 80m. Fantastic, at least 10 QSO's minute and when he

turned to listen for Europe, the rate was only 10 % of that. Same on the other bands and modes.”

The problem is THROUGHPUT. Rate. Efficiency. Cooperation. Whatever you want to call it.

For the time we spent working Europe, we should have MORE contacts than with North America, but that did not happen. It COULD have happened!

No one more than me would like to have seen the European Q’s outnumber North American Q’s. For

the “next one” I have some helpful suggestions to help DXers, including myself, and particularly DXers in Europe, to be more successful.

Here is what I see are the issues:

1. Not listening to the DX operator

2. LISTEN to and LEARN the rate and rhythm of the operator

3. LISTEN to WHERE the operator is listening and his PATTERN of moving his VFO. You

MUST KNOW where he will listen next if you expect him to hear you! How simple is that? It

is part of the hunt…and the fun of DXing….and getting rewarded!

4. Learn to use your radio (split/simplex, etc)

5. Do NOT jump to and call on the frequency of the last station worked. The DX station will

NOT hear you because the din is total unintelligible chaos. Move UP or DOWN from that
frequency, as we on our end were continuously tuning up or down after each Q, so if one jumps
onto the last-worked frequency, we will not hear you, even if you were the only one there, as we
have already tuned off that frequency.

6. TURN OFF ALL SPEECH PROCESSORS AND COMPRESSION! Do NOT overdrive

ALC. There is a night and day difference in listening to NA/AS and EU pileups. The horrible
distortion makes it impossible to copy many, if not most European callsigns. I don’t know what
it is, but I would bet that mike gain and compression controls are “firewall forward,” all the way
clockwise. There were MANY loud stations that we did not work, COULD NOT WORK, simply
because we could NOT understand their terribly distorted callsign. Have you ever listened to
yourself in a pileup? We gave many stations a “19” signal report. Very loud, but extremely
unintelligible! You want to have INTELLIGABILITY, not distortion!

7. Give your callsign ONCE and ONLY ONCE! DO NOT KEEP CALLING! Call. Listen.

Call again if needed. Listen. Listen. We would tune on by those who did not stop calling.

We are looking for RATE and getting stations into the log. You should be, too!!!

8. If the DX station comes back with your callsign, DO NOT REPEAT YOUR CALLSIGN, AS

WE ALREADY KNOW IT or we would not have answered you. Many stations (in all modes)
would repeat their callsign two, three and even four times or more! This was so frustrating at
times that we would just move on to the next station. We ONLY want to hear “5NN” or “59”
from you. Anything else is a total waste of time. Let me repeat, if we come back with YOUR
callsign, DO NOT REPEAT it back to us! (Did I repeat myself?.....forgive me!) It CHEATS
others out of a chance to get into the log. Only repeat your callsign if it needs correction, and
then let us know it is a correction. Anything else is cheating others out of a contact. Others are
cheating YOU out of a contact! Our propagation windows and time on the island are limited
and we need to maximize the opportunity for everyone. SPEED and EFFICIENCY ARE OF
UTMOST IMPORTANCE!

9. LISTEN to the DX station come back to someone. IF THERE IS NOTHING CLOSE TO OR

RESEMBLING YOUR CALLSIGN……SHUT UP! SHUT UP!!!!! This needless interference
slows things up and lessens YOUR chance of getting into the log! We are focused on the
callsign we heard and do not hear you, only your QRM’

10. Take some time to listen to the next DXpedition working North America and listen to the rate

and rhythm of the operator. It is fast, quick and efficient, and more people get into the log!
Then listen to him work Europe. The wise operator will catch on quickly to what it takes to get
into the log!

11. SPREAD OUT! Our highest rates (for any continent) were working the center and far edges

of the pileup where there was less QRM. Weak stations were much easier to work than loud
stations in the middle of the pileup. If we say, “Listening 200 – 210,” 70% of the pileup sits
exactly on 200 in an unintelligible din, 25% of the pileup sits on 210 and is almost as bad. 5% of
the pileup will be spread out somewhere between 201 and 209, making them very quickly put
into the log. S P R E A D O U T ! ! ! ! Dare to be different! Dare to be heard!

12. LOUD is NOT better! MORE AUDIO/COMPRESSION is NOT better! Finding the spot to

be HEARD is the MOST important thing you can do to get into the log. My biggest thrill (and
I’m sure on both ends) is finding the lone weak station and getting him into the log quickly.

13. LISTEN to the DX operator INSTRUCTIONS! As we would constantly tune our VFO, if
we find a clear spot, we would often say, “33” (meaning for YOU to transmit on 14033, 28433,
etc). A few would listen and get into the log very quickly. You cannot hear these hints if you
keep calling calling calling calling……… Many times I would say, “listening 200-210” and
after a while would say, “listening 240-250”. Often 30-45 minutes, even and HOUR later, I
would find MANY still calling on the original “200-210”…..of course, they would never show up
in our log, as I was not listening there. LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN and LISTEN SOME MORE.
The less you transmit, the better chance you have of getting into the log. You must know where
I am listening if you really want to get into the log.

14. LISTEN to the “good” guys to make it into the log. Study how they do it! It is not easy to

find the “good” guys, as they are quick and efficient and are in the log and gone, long before
anyone can find them. They don’t transmit much. They are listening.

15. LISTEN to the “bad” guys. It won’t take you long to find them. They keep calling and

calling. They aren’t listening to find out where to transmit or they wouldn’t be calling. How
simple is that? Being LOUD helps, but not if the DX is not hearing you!

16. If you don’t want to get into the DX log, just ignore the above suggestions, and keep calling,

calling, calling….. I wish you the best of luck. You’ll need it."

PLEASE RESPECT MY CQ DX CALL

I never thought I'd need to post this but in view of what I'm hearing on the air these days, perhaps it's not a bad idea.

What is DX?
As far anyone can tell, the terms means "distance X", and in modern day English has the equivalent of "LONG DISTANCE". Now, its clear that this term is subjective and not the same for everybody. Long distance on uhf is not the same as on HF, for example, nor is it the same for someone running qrp and simple antennas as someone using a more sophisticated setup.

In order to qualify what DX means, it was established in times well before I was licenced that DX on HF is a station on another continent. This was, and is, the definition I and millions of other hams understand and accept.

However, in view of the fact that it seems a large number of hams might never have had this fact clarified, I think it's time to set the record straight, even if it is only on a little-read and uninfluential blog.

IF YOU HEAR ME CALLING CQ DX, I AM LOOKING FOR CONTACTS ON ANOTHER CONTINENT. PLEASE RESPECT ME.

Now, it may well be that you are in Europe and want to give me a call for some reason. You might want a qsl from my province, you might want a rig check, or you might be a friend wanting to say hello. Does this mean you shouldn't call me? No. What it means is the following:

Please listen.

If you hear me working another station, please don't call.

If you hear me call DX but don't hear anyone come back to me, please don't call. There may be a weak DX station calling me that you can't hear. If you call at the same time, I will need to ask the other guy for a repeat.

If you hear me call more than once with no apparent reply, give me your call. If I don't reply, please don't insist.

If when giving your call you say something like "not dx but would like a short qso/antenna check /etc" there's a good chance I will reply.

If I do reply to your call, please keep it short.

I'm sure that at this point a number of readers will be indignant at my attitude. Please take into consideration the following:

My operating times are usually short. I am a busy man with a demanding job and with family commitments. I do not have all day to chat on the radio (I wish I did).

I live in a country that is the fifth least wanted on the dxcc list. In the event that you do need Spain confirmed let me know and I'll be happy to send you a card.

I do not always call dx. There are times when I am looking for a chat with anyone anywhere.

I don't always operate from a dx capable station and know what its like to be qrp or antenna limited and the only guy you can hear on the band is looking for dx. As you can read above, respect my call, if no one comes back after a couple of times then go ahead. I am sensitive to things like qrp, portable, and novice licence holders.

To recap:
For those who are unaware of what dx is, on HF it's contacts on another continent.
For those who think their need for a qso is more important than what I want, time to revise your operating. I am not a bad operator for not answering you. You are a bad operator for calling when you shouldn't.

Please feel free to comment if you I'm wrong!

MFJ 1979 telescopic whip

This entry is an update to the info already published about MFJ telescopic whips at this link

Basically, the MFJ 1979 is the logical extension of the MFJ 1977: the same improved quality and design of the 1977, but in a 5 metre (17ft) long version. This way, in one simple whip which you can put in the back of your car, you have an antenna that will work all bands from 20m to 6m, when telescoped out to the appropriate length.

Any comments to make regarding this new version? Well, I've had mine for about 18 months, average use several times a week so you can calculate its been telescoped up and down some 300 to 400 times. A couple of weeks ago on 20m I noticed that SWR had jumped up slightly, and after a bit of head scratching, I noticed that one of the sections had loosened up a bit and had slipped down into the one below. After a note on the "REAL HF MOBILE" yahoo group, it seems like many users of this antenna have had the same problem. The quick fix is a bit of insulating tape on the offending joint, the more permanent fix is apply some pressure with pipe tools or similar to make the joint stiffer again. Like the 1954 and 1956 models, life expectancy is not great, but at around 70 euros, I think its probably still worth it.

Performance wise this is like the other whips, it works very well and I have been able to net lots of good DX worldwide, including a couple of New Ones.

I bought mine at WIMO but they are also available now in Spain at ASTRO RADIO.

Happy mobiling!

A couple of strays

A wee rhyme I read on LA1BNA's QSL card (tnx Svein):

"The QSL, the holy grail,
The DX'ers joy that comes in the mail,
And though we prize these souvenirs,
It sure takes long - it seems like years!"


And now, check out the reason for KH6CB selling his radio!:

RADIOHF - FOR SALE; Kenwood TS-590S

Purchased from AES on 2-20-2013. Factory upgrades already done. Serial #B3100061. Bought this rig as back-up to my IC-7600. My amp blew-up when without knowing a 4 inch lizard got inside my amp and was laying on a RF coil. when I turned power ON, sparks, flame and smoke erupted from amp. Not only was lizard cooked but his intestines was splattered around the coil. Therefore - - I need cash to buy a new amp. $1300 + shipping (from Hawaii). Postal Money Order only. Thanks for looking SONNY KH6CB P.S. Absolutly NO issues with this rig. Still new condition. Approximate air time 20 hours.

CQWW SSB 2014 EA5ON

CQ Worldwide DX Contest, SSB

Call: EA5ON
Operator(s): EA5ON
Station: EA5ON

Class: SOSB/10 QRP
QTH: Vilamarxant
Operating Time (hrs):

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:
   80:
   40:
   20:
   15:
   10: 1352    34      116
------------------------------
Total: 1352    34      116  Total Score = 484,950

Club: EA Contest Club

Comments:

For the last 6 years I have operated CQWW SSB as part of the ED5T multi single
team. We love this and have a great time putting on the show.
This year however we had a serious problem right after ARRL phone. One of our 3
towers came down in a storm, bring down our 2 element yagi for 40, our 2 x 4
element stack for 15, and the base of our 160m inverted L. Our team, including
myself, are very busy doing other things right now and the tower is still not
back up yet. So, no antennas for multi single.

In the meantime, my good friend Paul GM0OPK, who has a house near Valencia,
asked if I would be interested in using his newly installed 6 element ultrabeam
in a contest. He is not a contester but wanted to see how his station would
play. I thought about it and since I have been thinking about doing a Single Op
entry for a while, decided to accept his kind offer.

Paul's station is not designed for contesting. It has one single yagi, a TS990,
and an OM2500 amp. Its principally used for DX and ragchewing when he's here in
Spain while taking time off work. I decided that the best way to use this
station for a contest would be in QRP, where I could use the high gain beam to
make up for my very low power, plus use the dual receiver to enable me to call
CQ while doing search and pounce on the second receiver.

Paul was here a month before the contest and I went up one afternoon to discuss
what I would need. I took up a new Yahama CM500 boom headset, which we set up on
the Kenwood, and decided that all I needed other than that was my laptop with
the N1MM logger installed.

A week before the contest Paul texted me to say he hadnt been able to find any
flights but was still looking. I started thinking of Plan Bs but thankfully on
the Tuesday he managed to book tickets and on the eve of the contest I drove up
after a long day at work, set up the PC, moved the furniture a bit, and went off
home for dinner and bed.

A 6am start on saturday, only to be greeted by Paul with bad news: the
Prosistel rotator was acting up and there was no way to get the controller to
tell you where the beam was heading. He had tried in vain to control it with
the PC program but to no avail. So, I turned the antenna while Paul was outside
watching it and when it was pointed on EU, he called me to stop and we left it
there.

A very slow start as usual. Worked a few east med stations and then after a
long and frustrating time of having a VK6 call CQ in my face, finally managed
to make the contact. Then the band started opening and I was able to work UA
and JA stations for a couple of hours, all on S+P. I found out after trying to
call a few double mults in vain that the antenna wasnt where I thought it was,
after that every time I used the rotator I went outside to check the beam
heading visually. Only a few degrees can make a fair difference on a 6 element
antenna so even the visual method wasnt great. Then, an hour later as I was
trying to use the quick reverse feature, the stepper motors got into a fuddle
and started an interminable cycle of changing back and forward. I couldnt get
the controller to respond so ended up pulling the plug and then doing a reset
of the whole thing. It worked fine after that but no idea what had caused it.

At midday I had a couple of hundred QSOs in the log and a number of zones and
countries but missed out on a lot of mults just not able to get through the
pileup with 5w. However when the band opened to the states it was quite a
different story. I was able to work everyone I heard, many on the first call. I
tried running, no real luck until around 7pm when all of a sudden I managed a
run to the US for about an hour and a half. Not the rates I'm used to at ED5T
but I still managed to leave when the band died with 678 qsos in the log and
188.000 points.

At night, I checked the spanish record and saw it was at 852 qsos and 319000
points. Its also the EU record. In spite of my good qso total, the record
holder had managed 34 zones and 137 countries back in 2002 and I was a long way
away from those totals.

Sunday morning was pretty much a repeat of saturday but having the beam under
control meant I was able to work double mults such as VU2, AH2R, and 9M4DX,
plus a few other countries. The band was so crowded that I'm sure many
potential countries were buried in the noise. Running assisted would probably
be a good thing under conditions like that, maybe next year? But S+P was
slower, I had already worked most of the big guns, and had to dig deeper into
the QRM for contacts which then took longer to complete. By lunchtime my score
had crept up a fair bit but was still not close to the record. However once
again in the late afternoon conditions picked up to the states and I was able
to end the run well over the previous record. After a short rest and some food
(I hadn't eaten in 10 hours) I took a tour up and down the band to work all the
south american stations I could hear, adding another few mults to the total.

This contest was a complete and absolute contrast to the last time I tried 10m
qrp in a contest, 2 years ago in ARRL 10m. In that contest, I couldnt make any
contacts at all with 5w, changed to LP, and abandoned after only working 50
stations during the saturday. The conditions this weekend were simply fabulous,
I'm sure the best I've ever seen 10m and probably will take a long time in
seeing again.

Thanks as usual to all that made it happen. For all of those who took the time
to pick my signal out of the noise. To the family for not missing me too much.
And most of all, to Paul and Tracy for coming down and hosting me in such a
great way, it is really and truly appreciated.

Update

Last entry in February, uff. Does that mean I've not been playing radio? No, but means I've not had much time to do any updating. And actually, less time to play radio as well.

The first event after my last entry was my participation in ARRL SSB. I entered 15m HP and had an absolutely amazing time, working over 2000 stations and only missing 3 multipliers (the usual Canadian ones). I had a good head to head race with EA7KW down near Seville and while he pipped me to the post in the end, we had a great time.

However the sad news is that 3 days after the contest, the 80' crank up tower holding the 15m stack and the 2 ele yagi for 40m came crashing down in a storm. No damage to persons or property, and the tower will be salvageable, but the antennas are complete scrap. Juan has done a good job on repairing the tower and we can get around 70' of it to be serviceable again, but for the time being we have no antennas and the tower is not installed back on its base. It has come at a time when all of the TCC members are very busy with other things in our lives and we just haven't had the time, energy, or inclination to do anything about it. Such is life.

As far as the IARU contest goes, we have decided that since we can't take part on 15m, we will take part in 10m SSB instead, since the 10m stack and the optibeam are still working perfectly. We look forward to operating as part of EF4HQ on 10/11 July. Propagation of late has not been good on 10m but we are holding our breath and crossing our fingers just in case :). No other hints as to what EF4HQ has in store, but we are going all out this year to win the HQ category after two years of second place.

In the car, no news ones worked but I did get Myanmar confirmed. My new working hours mean that I cannot come on the radio at lunchtime any more, however I do finish work a bit earlier and in theory will get radio time after work. In practice I am never managing to finish work on time and getting a bit fed up of the situation. Lets see what happens. Today I did manage to get 3 hours of morning grey line operating done, conditions were pretty good considering today is our summer solstice and that the SFI is not particularly high.

As for new antennas, I started a project of comparing different types of vertical antenna and radial systems. However I am finding inexplicable problems to get some of the quarter waves to work and also the GTU is functioning very erratically. More news on that front if I ever get there.

On 20M I have a new antenna which arrived 6 months ago and still haven't had a chance to test. This is a high power end fed vertical for 20m made by the dutch firm http://www.hyendcompany.nl/ . The idea is to hold it up using a 12m spiderpole from Spiderbeam with a base made by a couple of local guys in EA5 which fits under the car wheels, specially adapted for the spiderpole. Lets see if I get a chance to test it out one of these days.

I also received another "new toy" the other day, a four square controller by Comtek, now run by DX engineering. This will need four new 15m verticals, plus I need to cut all the control lines, so it won't be on the air for a while yet I reckon. But looks very promising for 15m contesting from the port!

And the last new toy, received about 10 days ago, is an Elecraft KX3, a great little software defined radio with almost everything incorporated inside, for easy low power operating while out and about. I bought it primarily for the bicycle, but it's first outing was last week for the anual DVGE trig point contest. I worked around 50 stations on 40m just running 5w and a vertical, not the best antenna for local 40m work but its what I had. It'll take a while for me to get used to all the possibilities this rig has to offer but my initial reaction is very favourable.

No photos of any of this stuff. My trusty old BlackBerry has been pensioned off and I now have a Windows phone, which I haven't even tried to plug into the computer yet to download pics. Maybe later.

And lastly, in reply to a petition from German ham Marcel DF1MP, here's a parts list for some of the pieces I use on the car:

Hustler ball mount for the roof: http://radioshop.hamradio.es/es/bases-de-movil/190-hustler-ssm-2-soporte-de-bola-reforzado.HTML

MFJ 1664 screwdriver: http://wsplc.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=1664

MFJ 1979 long telescopic whip:  http://www.wimo.com/mobile-antenna-hf-various_s.html

I guess there are more places too.

That's all for now folks....

Receive antenna experiments at ED5T

This weekend is the CQWW 160 phone contest. With one thing and another, we decided not to actively operate in the contest. However, Elías EB5KT and myself arranged to go up on Saturday night and take advantage of the fact that there was a contest on, in order to do some RX antenna tests.

ED5T is at a great location for the high bands. Our stacked yagis for 10 and 15 metres do great, as does the tribander for 20. We are at the top of a ridge with a nice drop off to most areas of ham population. However, on the low bands, we do not have enough height for good horizontal antennas, the ground is poor for vertical antennas (mostly bedrock), and it is extremely noisy on reception.

For transmitting, we now have an inverted L for 160m, which appears to work, but we don't really know since we have a very high noise level and can't really tell who is calling us. In the past, we have tried the K9AY design, long terminated beverages, and the flag. None of these antennas gave particularly good results. The K9AY was forcibly located near to a metal fence which we think probably degraded performance. The beverages perhaps didn't work too well since local terrain dictates they can't go perfectly straight, nor at a fixed height from ground all along the antenna. Also, these antennas need to be installed before each contest, and for the beverages in particular, hauling two 500m long antennas through the forest and then attaching them to trees is not a load of fun. Whilst both designs work, they do not provide a significant improvement over the transmitting antenna and therefore we continue on our quest for a design more suited to our needs.

One of the tests Elias wanted to do was to use a portable receive antenna to try to find out if there are any locations close by which are better than others, either in noise level, signal strength, or both. In order to do this, he made a monoband Shielded Loop antenna for 160 on a portable pole. We used an FT857 radio with a small battery in a backpack and started testing in different locations.

The results were very interesting:

- We stopped in around 15 different places and tested for noise reduction by turning the loop.

- In most places we stopped, by turning the loop we were able to obtain a null in the noise and except when close to buildings or right under power lines, we could usually reduce from between S7 and S9 peaks down to S0 noise

- We could not pointpoint a particular direction for the noise. In some cases, only moving 10 metres produced a 90º difference in the null location. We are unable to account for this.

- In the case when listening to a frequency occupied by a station calling CQ, in most cases the noise null did not coincide with a reduction in signal strength of the station calling (máximum signal to noise ratio).

- When listening to ED5M, we were able to hear about half the stations they were working. They were using a full size 2 element delta loop at 50m (150') high for TX, plus numerous 650m long beverages and a K9AY, in an electrically quiet natural park about 100km from us.

- We sat the antenna on the top of my car and plugged into my TS590. The absence of noise made the fatigue factor usually present, neglible. It was almost like working on 10 metres. We were able to hear a large number of contest stations without any problem.

The results are not conclusive since we did not use any know reference antenna for comparison (rule nº1 of basic science). However our experience dictates that this was a positive experiment and worth pursuing. For next weekends ARRL contest, Elías hopes to have a Pennant antenna built and install it at one of the locations we found to be good, and that is reasonably close to the shack.