Topband: K3J Operation

[Robert Brown]

Friends in Radio Land -
 
The K3J DXpedition to Johnston KIsland begins today.  Like the
recent K5K DXpedition to Kingman Reef, it is out in the Pacific
Ocean area and looks toward Europe across the auroral zone.  The
K5K operation failed to make any contact with Europe on 160 meters
and the K3J DXpedition faces the same challenge, especially as
auroral and magnetic activity are known to peak around this time
of year.
 
There are 12 hours of darkness at K3J, starting at about 0515 UTC,
and the opening to Europe at 12,000 km and beyond is only about an
hour, starting at sunset.  The openings to the Pacific Basin start
at K3J sunset - to South America at 0515 UTC, Oceania (VK and ZL)
at 0600 UTC and Japan at 0900 UTC.
 
North America paths open at 0515 UTC and run until local sunrise
but those stations would do well to standby for the first hour,
until 0615 UTC, to give K3J their best chance to work Europe, the
principal aim for the DXpedition.
 
73,
 
Bob, NM7M