TopBand: 160 and 80 report from ZK1XXP

[Michael Mraz]

It was really a privilege to be able to work many of you from Penrhyn last week.
Working the piles on 160 was one of the highlights of my amateur radio career,
right up there with operating from VK0IR in January.

On 160m, the lack of background noise at Penrhyn was truly incredible. We had
only the thunderstorm static to deal with, and it's relatively easy to work around that.
The strongest 160m signal heard from ZK1XXP was VQ9SS (S9+ on the ICOM
756 with 18dB of front-end attenuation). Some of the NA signals on top band were 
incredibly loud.

Our first night on 80m CW, 21SEP (UTC), was very disappointing. We worked only two 
stations, VK3AJJ and VP8CTR. We discovered that there were two major problems with the
Battle Creek Special: the matching network switch box had a faulty switch, and the 
feedpoint SO-239 had shorted and arced, causing the phenolic insulator to burn very 
badly when running power (therefore, it was a dead short at the feed point!). We repaired 
the BCS the following morning, and had an excellent evening on 80m on 22SEP, working 
13 EUs and then 340 stations outside of EU. I must add that, after repairing the BCS and 
re-stringing the 160m loading wire to the top of a 50-foot-high coconut palm tree, the antenna 
worked beautifully. We really have to thank the BCS team for designing and providing a truly
outstanding DXpedition low-band antenna.

I worked a few hours of 80m CW over several days, looking for EU at the mutual grayline (sunset 
at ZK1 and sunrise in EU). We were disappointed in the lack of openings to EU on 80; we heard
no EUs on the 23rd and 24th (UTC), worked one EU on the 25th and a few EUs on the 26th.
I tried calling CQ EU on 160m at our sunset on the 23rd and 24th (UTC), with no results. After
then, we concentrated on 80m at our sunset. Even though I could hear many EUs Q5 on the
26th, they could not hear me, unfortunately. This may have been due to the total absence of 
man-made noise at ZK1XXP, compared with the higher noise floor in the large population centers.

On 160, we worked 659 QSOs over 5 nights (123 JA QSOs, several hundred NA QSOs, a score 
of VK/ZLs, and one AF, VQ9SS). During the UTC day of the 23rd, the airport's primary 12KVA diesel
generator failed. Not wanting to risk overloading the backup generator (if it failed, then we would 
have had to QRT all stations), we operated without amplifiers until the following day, when we were 
confident that the backup machine would stay up. Even on the night of the 23rd, when running 
barefoot, we managed to work 50 QSOs on 160, mainly western NA.

On behalf of all the ZK1XXP ops, I want to thank you for your cooperation and patience.
If you didn't work us, don't despair: I think we got Warwick (our host, ZK1WL) fired up to get
back on the air, leaving him an A3S and a Carolina windom. Keep an ear out for him.

Vy 73   Mike   N6MZ


 -
 ---
FAQ on WWW:               http://www.contesting.com/topband.html
Submissions:              topband@contesting.com
Administrative requests:  topband-REQUEST@contesting.com
Problems:                 owner-topband@contesting.com