TopBand: T88II 160 Summary

[Bill Tippett]

The T88II expedition from Palau closed with the following results: 13,500
total QSOs all bands with our topband emphasis resulting in 455 topband QSO's
(almost all unique callsigns-very few duplicates).

As you know, I operated every darkness hour on 160 except for the one night
when the A index was 32 and after CQing fruitlessly on 160m for couple hours,
I decided it would be better to spend that night on 75m SSB with quick
occasional checks to 160m.   Those who commented that we were on 40m instead
possibly didn't realize we had two simultaneous stations QRV.  With the New
Koror Hotel station (one of our two stations), we were on 160/75/80 100% of
the darkness hours from Palau.

While we suffered from poor conditions a lot, we also experienced some
periods of very exciting activity because we were there all the time.
Just ask WA4TT and W4ZV both east coast USA who I worked one morning right
at their sunrise!   That is a long haul from Palau!  That same morning, I
worked many guys right at their sunrise.. but it was interesting that many
of the other nights/mornings even the W6s wondered if I was QRV (I was!),
but we had no propagation.   And yet another morning, I heard and worked
W8JI and W8LRL and was expecting a great sweep across the USA but none
followed.  Propagation was definitely spotty most of the time.  The best
time for Europe (as most EUs who worked us know!) was the last couple hours
prior to my local sunrise.  Some mornings we had a numerous hours of good 
opening to EU and other mornings the band only opened approx. one hour or
less prior to my sunrise.  As expected, conditions to JA were excellent and
I listened for JAs quite frequently.

We used: full-sized dipole/inverted vee up 35 meters with seawater all
around (due to unforeseen shipping problems, we were without our high-band
mast, high-band yagi, coax, and Battle Creek Special for the entire duration
of this expedition).. .  We placed the dipole antenna atop the New Koror
Hotel which looks down on all of the surrounding areas.  We elevated the
dipole above the rooftop approx. 5-7 meters using masts slipped over the
rebar sticking out of the flat rooftop of the building.  Then since the
antenna extended beyond the confines of the Hotel roof, we negotiated with
the neighbors (who were most accommodating) for the use of their palm trees
as elevated end supports.  The local Palauans even offered to climb the palm 
trees for us to place the antenna!   Because it would traverse so many
people's property and disturb the high density of foot-traffic, there is no
way to place a beverage in this terrain so we did the absolute best using
the given terrain.  Those who see my slide show will see an illustration of
this.  Considering it was 35 degrees C and very humid (their cool season!),
static was high but the dipole allowed us to hear fairly well where there was
any kind of band opening.  We went through the extra effort to have 234v 30A
outlets installed at the New Koror Hotel so we could run a full 1.5KW (first
time from T8!).  Compliments of Alpha Power, we used a loaner 91B which worked
flawlessly under full-time thermal stress through constant CQs day-after-day
and night-after-night!

One area of frustration in which I'd like to see us as low-band ops become
more efficient/better informed is the insistence on the use of signal reports.
After working thousands of stations on low bands, some of same stations
called me again (dupes) 5 minutes later.  When I advised they were already in
log, they said, "but I didn't get my signal report!"  I'd like to ask that we
please become aware:  Signal reports are NOT required by ARRL for QSO credit
for DXCC.  On low bands, they only impede/slow down progress.   A T88II actual
example: one short 160 opening I had allowed me to hear an incoming 449
perfectly three (3) times but then when this 449-giving station finally sent
me his callsign, he faded and I only copied one single letter of his callsign!
Consider which is more important: the 449 or your callsign?   (hint: most
DXpedition operators including myself discard all signal reports received.
I do not log them in CT)..And also, since our QSLs are being generated from 
computer, everyone is 599 or 59 so think about what value is there in this
signal report?  I would suggest there is no value in signal report for this
(low-band DXpedition) application.  If we want to send a signal report to
establish flow, that is fine, but I'd like to suggest that we not dwell on it
if we miss the signal report.  From the perspective of a DX operator under
difficult/time critical conditions, your callsign is much more important!

I was/we were very pleased to help many many people work a new one,
especially on top band.  Many of the QSOs I made from T8, I would love to
have in my home log like 9M2AX, A45XR, etc., etc.  However, I think that if
160m QSOs were easy, there would be no thrill in the completed QSO.

Congratulations to those who completed QSOs with us; we share in your pride!

I'd like to officially thank our financial sponsors: Greater Milwaukee DX
Assn, Northeast Wisconsin DX Assn, Watertown (WI) Amateur Radio Club,
Northern California DX Foundation, Chiltern DX Club, Radio Society of Great
Britain, German DX Foundation, and Alpha Power, and the Battle Creek Special
team of W0CD, W8UVZ, and K8GG as well as the countless others who supported
us; we hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did!

QSL timing:  I will happily confirm all QSOs in early February, 1999.  I
have ordered the QSLs and because they're going to include a photo, 
the printer cannot get them to me prior to end of January, 1999.  I think
you'll find they are worth the short (extra two weeks) wait.  I look 
forward to the next low-band adventure!

73 and Merry Christmas from Wisconsin.

David Schmocker  KJ9I / T88II
DSchmocker@cellular1to1.com





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