TopBand: 3DA6Z

[Chris R. Burger]

I'm back.

>From a Topband perspective, the expedition was a major disaster.  I
listened often around midnight, but the static level was horrendous.  We
had virtually continuous rain for the whole period.  Even 10 MHz
produced very difficult copy due to the static.

I was calling CQ on 1827.5 kHz for at least an hour before sunrise for
eight of the nine mornings.  On four of the eight mornings, I heard no
DX at all.  On two mornings, I heard Europe.  On only one morning, I
heard North America.  That day, signals sounded workable, but an East
Coast DXer was CQing on my frequency and not hearing me.  I called CQ on
my advertised frequency and a few hundred Hz off frequency, with no
takers.

The following stations made it into the log (in addition to four ZS
stations):
  5B4ADA OM5XX SM5BHW SP5EWY

Spectacular it's not, considering the amount of time and effort spent.

I don't recall all the callsigns that I heard, but some that spring to
mind are:  OK1C?? W3UR ON4ACG etc.

In case you think it's a hardware problem, here's a station description:
Radios:  Two IC735s, each with a TL922 amplifier.  
Antennas:  One Battle Creek Special (inverted L with approx. 50'
vertical)
         One K9AY base-loaded vertical (around the same height).

Both antennas were sitting on soggy ground, on a radial field.  There
was little to choose between the two antennas, both on receive and on
transmit.

I haven't had comprehensive feedback from ZS5LB and ZS6UT, but neither
of them was working anything when I heard them.  ZS5K confirmed that
conditions had been lousy, although he worked two stations (a W8 and a
W5, as I recall) the morning we had conditions to the States.

Even 80 m produced little activity.  I worked Europe and the States most
mornings, with conditions extending into the Northwest and California on
several occasions.  However, there were no spectacular hordes of
callers.

I visited Jon Rudy 3DA0CA while in Mbabane.  His dipole is strung
between two trees, but the feedpoint is no higher than 10 m (about 30')
off the ground.  His takeoff to the northwest is pretty good, though.
Given the poor results everyone else has had around here with low
dipoles, his success continues to amaze me.

Jon will be back from Mozambique at the end of the week.  At least he's
there to continue to hand out QSOs, otherwise I'd have been devastated!

If you worked 3DA6Z for a useful counter on some other band, QSL via
ZS6EZ.

Chris R. Burger
ZS6EZ (and 3DA6Z)

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