Topband: KH1/KH7Z TopBand Ops Brief

[uy0zg]

"> and Ukrainian stations also logged. (Remember, this was in July!)"

Hi George !


UY5VA and US4EX - tven in winter and summer they listen only on the 
Internet !

They do not have receiving antennas.

QSO with Ukraine are not real.

73 !UY0ZG








> andUkrainian stations also logged. (Remember, this was in July!)

GEORGE WALLNER писал 2018-07-13 05:19:
> Dear Top Banders,
> Here is a brief descriptionof the recent Baker Island (KH1/HK7Z)
> 160-meter operation.
> Among the numerouslimitations the USFWS placed on us, being only
> allowed on the island in June was the most onerous. A long way from
> ideal from a low-band point of view, but we were determined to make
> itwork. The result was over 1500 QSO-s on Top Band.
> Transmit Antenna and Gear:
> The location of the 160 m TXantenna was close to the north-west corner
> of the island, but not as far north and clear of the land as we would
> have liked it. Also, we were not able to place our TX antenna fully
> inthe water, due to the pounding surf. (Which did destroy our 80 m
> antennathe first night.) Instead, the 160 m TX antenna stood just at
> the high tidewater-line, with the metal base buried in wet sand. At
> low tide the antennabase was 30 feet from the water’s edge, but
> fortunately the sand below theantenna was always saturated with
> salt-water. Luckily, the tide was mostly uparound the times we were
> working NA on TB. We were only allowed a maximum antennaheight of 43
> feet. To meet this requirement, we designed a “fat” 160 mvertical,
> which had three vertical wires, two of them on spreaders to make
> theapparent diameter of the vertical conductor larger. The antenna
> also had two12.5 m top-loading wires, which sloped down at 45-degrees.
> The antenna had 8 radialsof various lengths, with three of them going
> directly into the salt-water. Takeoff to the west and north-west was
> clear over open water, but to thenorth-east (towards NA) it was over
> land, with a 20’ high sand berm directly inthe way. The antenna was
> fed via a remote-controlled coupler. I want to pointout that even this
> simple, and far less than ideal, arrangement took atremendous effort
> to build, as we had to haul the all the gear for the CW tentabout ¼
> mile from the boat landing, working in 100 degree heat under
> theEquatorial sun. Transmitter power was around 800 W (but
> occasionally reduced400 W to leave more generator power for the other
> bands). The radio was a K3S.
> Receive Antenna: After thesecond night of operation we built a 60 foot
> long DHDL facing north-east. Theantenna had a high-performance
> filter/pre-amplifier. After the fourth night weadded a second DHDL
> that faced towards Europe.
> We were expecting easyconditions for JA (who were closer) and
> difficult for NA. We got the opposite.The band would open to NA soon
> after our sun-set (around 18:00 local time) withvery little noise. NA
> callers were initially weak but easy copy. Noise wouldstart rising
> about two hours after sun-set. Fortunately, that was about thetime the
> gray-line was reaching the East Coast, which brought up the
> signalswell above the noise. Some East Coast signals were quite loud.
> As the eveningprogressed, noise continued rising as more of the
> equatorial thunderstorms toour west came under darkness. By the time
> the JA-s would show up (about 5 hoursafter our sun-set) noise was way
> up, and receiving conditions were becomingdifficult. Still, some West
> Coast stations kept coming in strong, well over thenoise, and quite
> able to work among the numerous JA callers. Occasionally, wehad to
> listen up for NA above 1825.00 to avoid the JA QRM, but on the long
> runthat proved to be unnecessary. Overall, working NA was a pleasure,
> whileworking JA (and SE Asia) was a pain due to the noise. By midnight
> local timethe lightning crashes on the TX antenna were becoming
> painful. Later, the DHDLRX antennas would help, but even then, many
> signals were a better copy on theTX antenna. Almost every call was
> different, some would be strong and clear onthe TX antenna, while
> others could only be copied on the RX antenna. There wasalso a large
> variation in RX conditions from night to night. On our secondnight the
> noise was much higher than on the first night. Also, as we wereworking
> progressively weaker stations, things were getting harder.
> Although we knew that thechances for working western EU were basically
> nil, we made a big effort to workas far west possible. On most
> mornings the noise was just too much to copyanything below S7. A few
> nights, however, conditions were favorable, and we gotas far as
> European Russia. Conditions were the best on our last night, whenjust
> at sunrise we got as far west as Serbia, with numerous Russian
> andUkrainian stations also logged. (Remember, this was in July!)
> After operating 7 straightnights on 160, my ears were ready for a
> break. We switched to FT8 for about 5hours, using the regular QSO mode
> (not hound-and-fox). With N1DG operating, wemade about 120 NA QSO-s in
> about 5 hours! Just before midnight, we switched backto CW for the
> JA-s, who are not allowed to operate FT8 in the lower part of theband.
> The FT8 operation revealed three things: There is serious demand for
> FT8on TB, the mode gets through the noise very well and gives modest
> stations achance to work serious DX on TB, but it is easily dominated
> by the strongsignals.
> An interesting lesson fromwhat happened to our 80 meter antenna.
> Initially, it stood on a sturdy metalbase in the water. During the
> first night we had a storm and the surf broke upthe base (snapping ¼”
> bolts like they were matchsticks). The surf knocked theantenna down
> and soaked the tuner with salt-water. The next morning, we rebuiltthe
> antenna further up the beach, but without the metal base which
> originally connected it to the salt-water ground. Although we added a
> good number ofradials, performance was poor, especially when compared
> to the 160 m antenna,whose metal base was in contact with the
> salt-water below.
> The key lessons learned:
> 1.  160 m DX is morethan possible in June and July.
> 2. For good results, you mustbe on the band every night, otherwise you
> may miss that special night when theconditions line up just perfectly.
> 3. A salt-water ground helps,and where possible, vertical antennas
> should stand in the water. Being up thebeach is not the same.
> 4. RX antennas are needed towork the weaker stations.
> 5. DXpeditions should have astation dedicated to 160 m (at night) with
> operators who want to work 160.
> 6. FT8 is now part of AmateurRadio, even on TB.
> Happy DX-ing and 73,
> George,
> KH1/KH7Z (AA7JV)
> 
> _________________
> Topband Reflector Archives - http://www.contesting.com/_topband

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