6M TEP link with Es: ZS - Scandinavia

Magic band delivers

I was starting to think we would not see any action on 6m TEP this season.

This afternoon we had a 30 minute opening into northern Europe, which is very rare.   

Looking at the map below it seems we had a link between South Africa and southern Europe via TEP and a further link via Sporadic-E further north into Sweden, Denmark, Germany and Poland.

It sure is exciting experiencing these fast and furious openings.

Managed to work 2 new DXCC entities.

6M TEP with Es link

6M DX Map (History)

NH8S - Swains Island - Cracked

Can there be a better way to start the day than......

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwxhBtZxalIfZ1lKaU9YRzFEdTQ

Leading on from my posting yesterday, regarding “cracking the system”, I thought it prudent to give some feedback.

NH8S Swains Island was weak on 20m and only peaked at S4. Signals were over the long path. Some stations in North America were reporting “real 59” so my chances were very slim at best.

I used Plan A, found the sweet spot and dropped my call once, followed by a pregnant pause.  Nothing heard.  Dropped my call the second time and Bingo! Logged them at 05:10 UTC.

There is nothing nicer than seeing a plan come together. Weeks of scheming, planning and the eventual success of hearing “ZS6A 599 TU”

What we do for fun……

Once again, I must state my respect to the skilled CW operators on these DX expeditions.

Good Job !

Short path

Long path

Cracking the system….

Cracking the system….

I suppose the facts that I have time to commit these thoughts are a clear indication that the bands are not open.

I am no expert, but it seems to me as if the 6m TEP season is late. One thing is for sure it takes lots of patience to work new ones on the magic band. The openings thus far have been very few and very weak at best.

Due to the short openings I have always resisted using the WSJT modes during TEP due to the time it takes to complete a QSO. However, I must say that the old JT6M and the newer ISCAT modes work extremely well even during ETEP with the multipath distortion and rapid fading.

Getting back to my title line.

The chase is on to get NH8S Swains Island worked. I ran the online VOACAP predictions for both short and long path and the results were not very promising. The prediction showed that I had a fair opportunity to work them on 15m and possibly as high as 10m. 20m and below was not an option.

Well, wrong again! On both days 1 and 2 of the expedition the signals on 20m was fair and workable, but the pile-up is still way too big. Hopefully when the QRM diminishes I will get my much needed contact.

I am still puzzled as to the best system to use to increase the chances of success. 

Plan A:

I understand that many top DX’ers feel that it is most effective to find the frequency of the last station worked and to call exactly (zerobeat) on that frequency. Such a system will ensure that your call will be where the DX expedition operator was listening last. The only problem with this system is that many of the other clever chasers will be doing the same, resulting in a pile-up of note.

Plan B:

The alternative is to use the system above, but call say 200 Hz higher or lower?

Plan C:

Find a clear spot close to the pile-up, but within the working split?

I suspect for a big gun station Plan A is the way to go, but for the little pistols maybe Plan B or plan C might be more effective?

I welcome your thoughts…..

Good Luck and have Fun !

 

Added after writing the original text:

I see John AE5X has written about this very same topic in his blog:

http://www.ae5x.com/blog/2012/09/07/from-sardine-sender-to-dxcc-honor-roll-in-10-years-qrp/

Pierre ZS6A

Reflections from D64K Part 2

I was in the shack at 03:30 AM local for another attempt this morning. The band noise was exceptionally low in the direction of Comoros. After 1 hour of FSK441 I gave up. Nothing was heard or seen from D64K. To be honest I have a feeling there was no one on the other side. I guess they needed sleep more than I needed the MS QSO.

Since my first posting we have had several further attempts at completing a QSO via meteor scatter without much success. The accumulated time most likely exceeds 6 hours of WSJT FSK441 of rapid “machine gun fire”

To succeed with stretching the distance requires the following:

Heightened meteor activity such as provided by Perseids MS, well equipped stations with high ERP and lots of patience. A shower with a radiant south of the equator would also be most beneficial.

I discovered a very interesting web site that shows real time data of radio reflections from meteors. Using this info it clearly shows that the prediction for the peak activity for Perseids was spot on.

The best decode I received from D64K and the record breaking (South African) QSO that took place between Braam ZS6AYE and Comoros took place at the peak of Perseids MS on 12 August at 11:30 UTC. If only we tried 10 hours earlier........

http://217.169.242.217/rmob/pages/liveradiometeorpage.php

With regards to the best mode to used, that is pretty much a contentious issue. I am a bit old school I think FSK441 still is the best IMHO. Better still if we were not so dogmatic that a QSO must consist of the exchange of calls and a report (or other bit of information) it would be much easier. Anyone that has ever played with WSJT software will know just how effective the ST- Single tones are. If the only requirement was to positively ensure that a two way radio path existed then using the single tone or the dual tones “railway tracks” would be most effective. It is uncanny to see how well that works compared to all the other high speed modes.

Some you win some you lose……

Josep EA3AKY the 6m operator on the D64K DX expedition has excelled at his task.

Thanks for the opportunity of trying to do the impossible and your patience and willingness to try.

NEW SARL 50 MHz DIGITAL RECORD

 Congratulations to Braam, ZS6AYE, and D64K on Comoros Island for establishing a new 50 MHz digital record in the early morning of 14 August 2012.  The new record of 2011 km was accomplished on FSK441 during the current Perseids meteor shower, and broke the old record of 1929 km set up in 2003 by ZS2BWB and TO4E.

MS activity Perseids peak 12 Aug 2012

 

Reflections from D64K

A while back, I saw a posting on the D64K - DX expedition to Comoros Islands web site. It was obvious that they were very well equipped for 6m. They had a serious antenna; low loss feed lines and some power to boot. The plan was to operate EME at their moon rise and moon set, some TEP/F2 work and possibly MS work into Africa.

I determined that the distance was 2,247 km from my QTH. After speaking to some of the local VHF doyens my initial excitement was a bit dampened. They thought that it was just a bit too far and my expectations were unrealistic.

Yesterday I saw on the reflector that they were beaming towards Africa using FSK441. Due to some confusion it turned out we were all transmitting in the same period. After 30 minutes, I stopped transmission and decoded a ping from them. Only after the sked did I realize that the 140 ms long ping contained the full call and grid locator. See screen shot below. I immediately arranged for a further sked.

We have just completed another marathon session of 1 hour and 20 minutes. I received absolutely nothing from them this morning. After we quit, I received a message from them stating that they decoded 4 pings from me, the longest being 2 seconds long. This was incredibly good news!

I believe we have a real chance at completing a MS QSO, we just need patience and a few rocks from the Perseids meteor shower……

After looking at the South African VHF records, I now understand why the doyens were skeptical. The record distance via meteor scatter is only 1,929 km

Good thing I did not see this before……

ZS6A - D64K 6m MS 2,247 km

“CQ DX4U EU up”

The DX stations often in an attempt to control the size of a pileup by using directional call e.g. “NA up” for example. The problem is the ‘wall’ created by Europe or the Americas or Asia can be substantial, so it is quite understandable that the DX operator will make use of the directional call system.

There is however a problem with this system. The operators very seldom if ever will call “AF”. That means we here in Africa have no option, but to ignore the directional call and each and every time we stand the chance of a rebuttal or worse a NIL log entry.

I managed to work 9M4SLL Spratley Island a few moments ago on 20m CW, the operator was extremely slick and was working and using the directional call system. He did respond to me during “NA”, but I distinctly got the feeling I was on thin ice……

I would like to know from others what we are to do. Do we disobey the directional call or do we call regardless?

 

I see CY9M Saint Paul Island has uploaded their logs to LoTW. That is a shining example of how it should be done. Because of this I have already made a small financial donation. I do not believe the QSL system should be used to extort funds.

73, Pierre ZS6A