Message-ID: <3B3EA4F1.6BF648CF@intuitive.com>
To: <topband@contesting.com>
Date: Sun, 01 Jul 2001 04:20:01 +0000
From: Garry Shapiro <ni6t@intuitive.com>
To: Topband Reflector <topband@contesting.com>
CC: "Gucewicz, Steve, K0CS" <lance@diac.com>
Subject: K5K to Europe---the response
A week or two ago, I asked European topbanders on this Reflector to
share whether they had heard K5K, Kingman Reef, at all, during our
DXpedition of last October. I received replies from Dietmar, DL3DXX,
Klaus, DJ6RX, and Rag, LA5HE, ex-OZ8RO.
Rag said he had heard us for about 15 minutes one evening, but not even
well enough to call. That is the only report I have received that we
were heard.
Klaus and Dietmar reported not hearing us at all on 160, but having
little trouble working us on 80. Rag did not mention 80. Dietmar
mentioned that he hears the Central Pacific only a few days in a
season--usually in the dead of winter.
All three of these operators are prominent topbanders; Dietmar is
well-known as the topband operator of the amazing German DXpeditions to
Asia and the Pacific in recent years.
While three responses do not justify sweeping generatlizations, these
responses, and the lack of additional responses from this Reflector's
Euro contributors, indicate pretty strongly that we had no propagation
over the Pole to Europe during the K5K operation.
Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that topband contacts between
Kingman and Europe will ever be made, for both physical and political
reasons. Physical reality makes operation from a tenuous Pacific
location in the December-February time frame dangerous and therefore
unlikely. And Kingman is likely to be attached to Palmyra and expunged
in the near future.
On the bright side, the development of Palmyra, KH5 for eco-tourism, and
the existence of radio facilities there, make that counter a
possibility, although organized flights to Palmyra in the winter may
also be unlikely.
All we can say is: were it easier, topband DXing would not be the
challenge it is.
73,
Garry, NI6T
--
160 meters-not a band but an obsession
--
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