[RTTY] VK0EK, no joy in Mudville.....

[Ed Muns]

+1 on this.

Although I've been fortunate enough to work VK0EK on 30m and 40m RTTY, it
was mainly because I happened to be there at the right times.  Most of those
same times on other days have been marginal to no copy here.  It's either
lucky timing or a lot of hours listening to catch the optimum time.

The other day, I happened to come in from work, checked the radio and found
VK0EK calling CQ on 30m RTTY with no answers.  I and two other stations were
the only ones worked for a full 5 minutes.  That's the ideal way to catch
them (no pile-up).

For example, I've never had good copy of them on 20m, but last night at
0530z VK0EK was calling CQ on 14034 with no answers, just endless CQs.  The
signal was as weak as it could have been and still readable.  Fortunately,
the band noise was exceptionally low and it was an easy QSO.  They called CQ
for the next 30 minutes, working one station about every 1-2 minutes, from
all over NA.

This morning, VK0EK was on 40m, 80m and 160m at the gray line between them
and the NA west coast.  Most other mornings they were readable on 40 and 80
but this morning there was no copy on any of those bands.  Then, well after
our sunrise, all of a sudden their 40m signal was the loudest I've ever
heard it, and they seemed to have a pipeline into primarily the west coast.
Most NA stations had already written off the low bands for the morning.

Heard Island is a difficult path into most of North America and with the
stream of solar storms since they've been on, coupled with the cycle
downturn, the propagation has been spotty.  It also seems to be very
focused, moving around geographically.

I agree that 30m in the NA evening time is a good bet and equally good for
the NA west coast is local sunrise on 30m and 40m.  (I don't have a 30m
antenna up right now and just use an antenna tuner on a 40m Inverted-V wire
to keep the radio happy.)  Still, it takes lucky timing or a lot of hours in
the operating chair listening to catch the optimum time for a given
location.

Ed W0YK
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Don AA5AU wrote:

If you are in North America and need to work VK0EK on RTTY, I think your
best shot is going to be 30 meters in our evening time if they show up. They
have worked several NA stations all over the place - East Coast, Central,
Midwest, Gulf Coast, Mountain West, West Coast and Canada (I saw at least
one VE3, one VE2 and maybe a VE5 get through), the past two evenings. In
other words, they've worked in just about every area of NA (I didn't see any
Caribbean stations calling).
The trick is to wait until you hear them. My antenna was broken the first
night, but last night after the antenna was repaired, I listened for over 3
hours and could not print them on 30 meters. The best I got was that I could
hear them and I could see their mark and space signals peak in the 2Tone
displays. That was for the first hour. After that, I could not tell they
were even there except for the packet spots.
After about 0400Z, Joe K0BX I believe it was, put a spot out that they had
moved to 10137 kHz and he worked them down one. I went there and I had good
copy on them. I split down one and got them barefoot with one call. It was
totally unexpected. I think that's what you are going to have to do to work
them. Just wait and be patient and hopefully good things will happen. It
helps if you have a 30 meter antenna. If not, try your 40 or 80 meter
antenna with a tuner. 20 meter yagis make for good receive antennas on 30
meters too.
There's a couple things I did to monitor their activity on 30 meters. I
monitored DXA to see that they showed they were on 30 digital, and I set up
DX Summit and filtered their call with 30 meters only to watch all the spots
for them on 30 to see where people were working them.