TopBand: VK9LX Summary

[VK9LX]

Fellow Topbanders,

  Nick and I just arrived back in Sydney from our VK9LX operation.
We are both very tired right now and will post more info later but for
now:
We made 500 QSO's on 160. And 13000+ QSOs total.
 The first few nights were pretty good,and I managed to work 60-70 USA
stations each morning three days in a row,and Nick put quite a few EU
stations in the log as well,but the local WX didn't cooperate much as it
seemed to be raining every night starting around 1000 GMT which made the
QRN VERY VERY VERY bad, with worse condx as the week progressed.
 After a decent start the first three nights it was extremely
frustrating Thursday and Friday to hear many stations calling us with
what would have been excellent signal levels but the static crashes were
S9++ which made pulling callsigns out of the QRN almost impossible the
last couple of days.It literally made us have to pull calls out one
letter at a time it seemed.
 I cant tell you how much I wanted to work everyone that was calling but
the noise was terrible as the week progressed.Even 80 meters was very
noisey the last three days of the operation,which was unfortunate as
Nick and I hoped to concentrate on 80 more during the contest period
since we "wasted" so much valuable greyline time on 160 early in the
week.
 During the contest we only worked 5 or 6 stations on 160 as the QRN was
peaking at S9 plus 20 DB even with narrow 250 HZ Fox-Tango filters in my
TS930. 

 During the week before the contest we managed about 8800 QSOS total on
160-10.

 For the contest the totals were about 4500 QSOs with a score of 5.6
Million points as a Multi/Single entry.

So a total of abt 13,300 QSOs on all bands.

My biggest regret is not being able to work more stations on 160 toward
the end of the operation,but you can't change the WX! It was a shame the
propagation was good when the QRN was worst!

The good news is that Nick and I had such a good time that we are
already making plans to go back again next year probably as a
Multi-Multi operation for the CQ WW CW!

 As a matter of fact Nick has left antenna masting and other gear on the
Island with Tony VK9LA for any future operations we make there.
So if you didn't make it this time cross your fingers for next year at
the same time!

Please QSL via VK2ICV 

******  Please note that Nick's address is NOT correct in callbooks
before 1998 !!!!!!    ******
 
So PSE QSL Via:

VK2ICV
Nick Hacko
PO BOX 730
Parramatta 2124 NSW
Australia

Please Include enough to cover return postage, with any extra moneys
going toward recouping our costs of the operation and any extra will be
applied towards next years operation!

Thanks to
W9VNE,WW8J,W4PK,VE7BS,NM7M,NM7N,W2UE/7,N4XX,K3SX,VE7FPT,W1TO,W0RI the
RSGB and DEBCO electronics and others for ther kind support in advance
of this operation! Any conributions over $5 will be acknowledged later.

Nick will be setting up a WEB page detailing the operation soon and that
address will be posted later.

Thanks to everyone who worked us and for those who didn't QRX till next
year!

73
Dan K8RF/VK9LX


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