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Re: Topband: KH1/KH7Z TopBand Ops Brief

To: GEORGE WALLNER <aa7jv@atlanticbb.net>
Subject: Re: Topband: KH1/KH7Z TopBand Ops Brief
From: uy0zg <uy0zg@mksat.net>
Date: Fri, 13 Jul 2018 23:38:01 +0300
List-post: <mailto:topband@contesting.com>

OK,

I believe in your RX, George

73

Nick, UY0ZG

Details UY0ZG C6AGU 2008-02-20 03:36:00 160M CW 1.80000 BAHAMAS Selected 160M; Challenge Details UY0ZG C6AGU 2011-01-28 04:54:00 160M CW 1.80000 BAHAMAS 160M; Challenge Details UY0ZG C6AGU 2011-01-28 05:27:00 160M CW 1.80000 BAHAMAS 160M; Challenge Details UY0ZG C6AGU 2011-01-29 05:03:00 160M CW 1.80000 BAHAMAS 160M; Challenge
Details         UY0ZG   C6AGU   2016-01-31 01:03:00     160M    CW      1.80000
Details         UY0ZG   C6AGU   2017-01-26 04:21:00     160M    CW      1.80000
Details         UY0ZG   C6AGU   2017-01-28 01:57:00     160M    CW
Details         UY0ZG   C6AGU   2017-11-23 04:58:00     160M    CW      1.80000
Details         UY0ZG   C6AGU   2018-01-25 03:18:00     160M    CW      1.80000
Details         UY0ZG   C6AGU   2018-01-28 02:14:00     160M    CW      1.80000




GEORGE WALLNER писал 2018-07-13 22:33:
Dear OM,

The ones I have worked, I heard their signals, and they are in the
log. That's real.

George,

AA7JV

On Fri, 13 Jul 2018 10:23:19 +0300

 uy0zg <uy0zg@mksat.net> wrote:

"> and Ukrainian stations also logged. (Remember, this was in
July!)"

Hi George !

UY5VA and US4EX - tven in winter and summer they listen only on the
Internet !

They do not have receiving antennas.

QSO with Ukraine are not real.

73 !UY0ZG

andUkrainian stations also logged. (Remember, this was in July!)

GEORGE WALLNER писал 2018-07-13 05:19:

Dear Top Banders,

Here is a brief descriptionof the recent Baker Island (KH1/HK7Z)

160-meter operation.

Among the numerouslimitations the USFWS placed on us, being only

allowed on the island in June was the most onerous. A long way
from

ideal from a low-band point of view, but we were determined to
make

itwork. The result was over 1500 QSO-s on Top Band.

Transmit Antenna and Gear:

The location of the 160 m TXantenna was close to the north-west
corner

of the island, but not as far north and clear of the land as we
would

have liked it. Also, we were not able to place our TX antenna
fully

inthe water, due to the pounding surf. (Which did destroy our 80
m

antennathe first night.) Instead, the 160 m TX antenna stood just
at

the high tidewater-line, with the metal base buried in wet sand.
At

low tide the antennabase was 30 feet from the water’s edge, but

fortunately the sand below theantenna was always saturated with

salt-water. Luckily, the tide was mostly uparound the times we
were

working NA on TB. We were only allowed a maximum antennaheight of
43

feet. To meet this requirement, we designed a “fat” 160
mvertical,

which had three vertical wires, two of them on spreaders to make

theapparent diameter of the vertical conductor larger. The
antenna

also had two12.5 m top-loading wires, which sloped down at
45-degrees.

The antenna had 8 radialsof various lengths, with three of them
going

directly into the salt-water. Takeoff to the west and north-west
was

clear over open water, but to thenorth-east (towards NA) it was
over

land, with a 20’ high sand berm directly inthe way. The antenna
was

fed via a remote-controlled coupler. I want to pointout that even
this

simple, and far less than ideal, arrangement took atremendous
effort

to build, as we had to haul the all the gear for the CW tentabout
¼

mile from the boat landing, working in 100 degree heat under

theEquatorial sun. Transmitter power was around 800 W (but

occasionally reduced400 W to leave more generator power for the
other

bands). The radio was a K3S.

Receive Antenna: After thesecond night of operation we built a 60
foot

long DHDL facing north-east. Theantenna had a high-performance

filter/pre-amplifier. After the fourth night weadded a second
DHDL

that faced towards Europe.

We were expecting easyconditions for JA (who were closer) and

difficult for NA. We got the opposite.The band would open to NA
soon

after our sun-set (around 18:00 local time) withvery little
noise. NA

callers were initially weak but easy copy. Noise wouldstart
rising

about two hours after sun-set. Fortunately, that was about
thetime the

gray-line was reaching the East Coast, which brought up the

signalswell abov e the noise. Some East Coast signals were quite
loud.

As the eveningprogressed, noise continued rising as more of the

equatorial thunderstorms toour west came under darkness. By the
time

the JA-s would show up (about 5 hoursafter our sun-set) noise was
way

up, and receiving conditions were becomingdifficult. Still, some
West

Coast stations kept coming in strong, well over thenoise, and
quite

able to work among the numerous JA callers. Occasionally, wehad
to

listen up for NA above 1825.00 to avoid the JA QRM, but on the
long

runthat proved to be unnecessary. Overall, working NA was a
pleasure,

whileworking JA (and SE Asia) was a pain due to the noise. By
midnight

local timethe lightning crashes on the TX antenna were becoming

painful. Later, the DHDLRX antennas would help, but even then,
many

signals were a better copy on theTX antenna. Almost every call
was

different, some would be strong and clear onthe TX antenna, while

others could only be copied on the RX antenna. There wasalso a
large

variation in RX conditions from night to night. On our
secondnight the

noise was much higher than on the first night. Also, as we
wereworking

progressively weaker stations, things were getting harder.

Although we knew that thechances for working western EU were
basically

nil, we made a big effort to workas far west possible. On most

mornings the noise was just too much to copyanything below S7. A
few

nights, however, conditions were favorable, and we gotas far as

European Russia. Conditions were the best on our last night,
whenjust

at sunrise we got as far west as Serbia, with numerous Russian

andUkrainian stations also logged. (Remember, this was in July!)

After operating 7 straightnights on 160, my ears were ready for a

break. We switched to FT8 for about 5hours, using the regular QSO
mode< p> (not hound-and-fox). With N1DG operating, wemade about
120 NA QSO-s in

about 5 hours! Just before midnight, we switched backto CW for
the

JA-s, who are not allowed to operate FT8 in the lower part of
theband.

The FT8 operation revealed three things: There is serious demand
for

FT8on TB, the mode gets through the noise very well and gives
modest

stations achance to work serious DX on TB, but it is easily
dominated

by the strongsignals.

An interesting lesson fromwhat happened to our 80 meter antenna.

Initially, it stood on a sturdy metalbase in the water. During
the

first night we had a storm and the surf broke upthe base
(snapping ¼”

bolts like they were matchsticks). The surf knocked theantenna
down

and soaked the tuner with salt-water. The next morning, we
rebuiltthe

antenna further up the beach, but without the metal base which

originally connected it to the salt-water ground. Although we
added a

good number ofradials, performance was poor, especially when
compared

to the 160 m antenna,whose metal base was in contact with the

salt-water below.

The key lessons learned:

1. 160 m DX is morethan possible in June and July.

2. For good results, you mustbe on the band every night,
otherwise you

may miss that special night when theconditions line up just
perfectly.

3. A salt-water ground helps,and where possible, vertical
antennas

should stand in the water. Being up thebeach is not the same.

4. RX antennas are needed towork the weaker stations.

5. DXpeditions should have astation dedicated to 160 m (at night)
with

operators who want to work 160.

6. FT8 is now part of AmateurRadio, even on TB.

Happy DX-ing and 73,

George,

KH1/KH7Z (AA7JV)

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