Here's the story of the recent HS1AZ operation on 160 meters.
N6AA, N6ZZ, W6MKB, W6XD, AB6BH, OH2KI and KL7Y went to Thailand to operate
the CQ WW SSB contest. We had requested the call HS1AZ for the contest. In
addition we had requested 80 and 160 meter privileges; while those bands are
not normally allowed in HS, the Post & Telegraph Dept has allowed operation
there in past contests so we expected no problems. The local Thais said we
would get permission for the contest and the day before.
We were to operate from the HS0AC club station located at the Asian
Institute of Technology. There was a lot of station work to be done prior
to the contest and this included antennas. On Wednesday, I went to work on
a 160 meter antenna. Since this was the end of the monsoon season, the
ground was saturated with moisture, so an inverted L was a logical choice.
Unfortunately, there was a lot of foot traffic around the ham shack building
so an antenna hot with RF at ground level was deemed not a wise choice. The
second choice was a quarter-wave sloper. We had just installed an A3
tribander on a 25 meter tower and I tied the half sloper right underneath
the A3 with the help of some locals. The last few feet feet of the sloper
had to run close to horizontal to keep the RF above the heads of passers-by.
I tied the sloper off into an immense bush with razor sharp thorns which
assured that nobody would fool with the antenna. The half sloper ran out
from the well-grounded tower over a drainage ditch filled with water. I had
to stand in mud to tie the far end off in the razor bush, so the ground
seemed good.
Took a listen on 160 - the S meter pegged on the TS-950. Garbage all over
the band. Threw in 10 db attenuation, not much help. At 20 db of
attenaution the garbage dropped way down, but who wants to work 160 with 20
db in the front end? Tried the AIP with no attenuation, still lots of
garbage. So much for the front end of the TS-950. Tried an ICE 160 m
bandpass filter, the garbage disappeared and the noise level dropped to S3
at some spots with the RF gain wide open. Had some carriers or birdies
between 1830 and 1850, but there were holes at 1831, 1833, etc. Below 1830
was not too good, and there was a huge signal at 1908 - 40 over 2nd harmonic
of BCB station. Good luck JAs. Didn't get to listen in the evening either
Wednesday or Thursday as we had dinners and get-togethers planned with local
HS hams.
Friday AM arrived, still no HS1AZ permission. Apparently the guy at PTD who
was working our license request had been in the hospital and so nothing got
done. N6AA and N6ZZ visit the PTD and Thai hams go out of their way to
help. Friday afternoon, we get the call - HS1AZ licensed to operate the
days of the contest plus the day before the contest. And 160 and 80 meter
permission granted. Whew!
So Friday evening I hit 160 meters with HS1AZ. No signals, although the
band is quiet. 80 is almost as bad. Later on 80 starts to perk a little and
around midnight 160 opens. I believe the first station I worked was RA3AUU.
I go on to work over a dozen stations, mostly EU, but the band dies in less
than an hour. I get up early , about an hour before sunrise and proceed to
run about 25 stations, mostly EU before the band dies. The signals are very
strange. Rapid QSB, unlike the slow fades we get up north. Typically I
hear part of a call well out of the noise and can't hear the rest. Nobody
is very loud and I can tell some are having a tough time copying me. I
expected loud signals on 160 with big static crashes, but everybody is weak
and the occasional static crash isn't nearly as much of a problem as the QSB
is. The QSB continues like this all weekend.
The contest is on Saturday. First signal out of the murk is IG9. I easily
work him as his signal builds. He runs a solid S9 thereafter with peaks to
20 over. SM6DOI gets up to S9 plus 5, but he can't hear me. I also hear
him most of the night. YU1ZZ hits S9 on peaks, but he doesn't hear me
either. HA8BE doesn't hear me. I call Europeans all night, but none hear
me. Spend most of my time on 80 with a little better luck, but not much. I
wind up with 3 topband QSOs the first contest night, pretty sad.
The second night is about the same as the first, although stations are even
weaker. The IG9 is in most of the night, but rarely climbs above S9. I do
manage to get SM6DOI to hear me, but things are pretty poor. Wind up with 7
QSOs for the whole contest. I listen on some of the other antennas,
thinking maybe the sloper is hurting, but it hears things no other antenna
hears. In fact, I use the same sloper on 80 a lot (with a tuner) as it
hears and works some 80 meter stations better than the 80 m inverted vee.
I get back on Monday evening, the last night permitted. Plan to try 160 at
1430Z in hopes of hearing some West Coast. 80 meters opens that way and
NI6T convinces me to go to 160 a little earlier. Drop down there and
immediately hear NI6T about 2 S units out of the noise. Work him - he even
peaks S7 for a bit - that's about 4 S units out of the noise. Don't hear
any other signal. Absolutely none. A few minutes later a signal starts
building and it's N7UA. He gets to about S5 and stays there long enough for
a QSO. Then nothing again. Finally I hear one more signal come up out of
the noise - it's K7IDX, and I work him. Nothing after that, despite
repeated CQs. Over an hour later I work some more EU's, including a 3rd QSO
with HA8BE. After the band fades I go back to 80. JA3MHV tries to get me
to go to 160 for JA. I explain I have tried, but the JA window is really
clobbered. Finally decide to try 1912, it's on the downslope of the nasty
QRM on 1908. We make the QSO - he's surprisingly loud and just squeaks over
the QRM. I call for JAs for a while after that, but no luck. Finally it's
time to shut things down.
All in all I made about 65 QSOs on topband, which wasn't anywhere close to
what I had hoped for. While I know I didn't hear as well as I could have,
an S3 noise level is not that bad, I think a lot of topbanders would be
happy with that low of a noise level. I know I sure called a lot of huys
who could not hear me. I don't understand the rapid QSB problem, it wasn't
the radio - I used a TS-940 during the contest and a TS-950 outside of the
contest and they both showed the rapid QSB. Interestingly enough, the QSB
on the West Coast guys was much slower than the QSB on EU. It's also hard
to fathom that I heard NI6T peak 4 S units above the noise and nobody else
within probably 25 or 30 dB for a couple of minutes. Similar thing with the
EU stations - one would peak head and shoulders above the rest for a short
period. It was certainly strange. One other thing I noticed was that as
long as 15 and 20 were open in the contest, 80 and 160 were pretty poor. I
know once 15 completely died then reopened later and 160 enjoyed a brief
opening when 15 was out. Maybe sporadic E at 21 mHz is blanketing E at 1.8 mHz.
All QSLs for HS1AZ on any band go to K6VNX, not via HS bureau or any HS
station. I do not have logs, I do not have QSLs.
Finally, there should be a multi-op CW operation from the same QTH in CQ WW
CW contest. Maybe they will have more luck on 160.
Dan KL7Y
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