Topband: V84SAA Final Report as of 2300z 16 Feb 2019

[k1zm at aol.com]

 GA All
Teardown has been achieved and we will have a group dinner to celebrate tonight at 7:30PM

First - thanks  to everyone for looking out for us and trying to work us on Topband.  We had a great time trying to hear and work you and I hope you had fun chasing us.
I know we did not work all who wanted a qso on Topband - but we were there at every opening and even made a few extra qso's in the ARRL DX CW contest today - quite a few of these were into NA on 160m..
This exercise was instructive to us in a number of ways:
1) V85 and this part of the world is damned difficult to work into from NA districts W1 and W2.  For example, here are some numbers:
W1 - 8 qso's in all - All via the LP around our SR - 
W2 - NONE (At least none that I can recall...)
W3 - 2 qso's - one via LP and one via SP as I recall
W4 - Quite a few - this part of NA is workable more easily - All qso's via SP
W5 - Good propagation via the SP - reliable every night
W6/W7 - These districts have what I call the "front door" to this part of the world on Topband
W8 - One as I recall - but maybe there were 1-2 more
W9 - Only a handful via SP
W0 - Around 10-15 qso's (if that)  - all via SP

Some observations:
1) Antennas work well when placed near salt water!  You all commented that we had a great XMIT signal.
2) Short path propagation is best right at our SS - and drops off rapidly after about 25-30 mins
3) Long path peaks start about 30 mins before our local SR and fade rapidly as we go into daylight
4) 80m is far easier into NA than 160m is - for sure.
5) We know we were out transmitting our ability to hear via the LP  into NA at our SR   (This may have been a case of shooting ourselves in the foot! )   We heard W1NA and N1DG very well early in the week at 2200z or so - but it was almost a total bust into W1 after that.  Some changes were made in the splitting of our RX antennas the next day - and for the life of me - I am beginning to think we lost something in that process.  I usually do not like making changes to an environment that works - and I think we hurt ourselves by trying to do too much - when simpler had proven itself to be working relatively well.   Sorry for that - especially to VO1HP who was heard and should have been in our 160m log.  Frank heard us almost every day on the LP - & I heard him the day we worked N1DG - but never thereafter - which is a real downer...  We never completed a qso that was relatively easy to achieve IMHO.  LP into VO1 is quite good from this part of the world - especially if attempted on a clear frequency.
Statistics
(Note that the FINAL CLUBLOG numbers are not yet posted as I write this!)
And the 160m numbers shown there include some OTHER BAND QSO's that happened to be made at the 160m equipment during the daytime.
It looks like 3,677 Total 160m QSo's were made on 160m CW - I do not know the FT8 total but it was contributory as well.  FT8 was worked mainly out of the SSB camp and one night with us in the CW camp.  Most qso's were in Asia and Europe.  NA was harder to crack - even on FT8.
More than 400 CW qso's were made into NA on Topband (with the addition of the ARRL CW Dx Test numbers).
Europe dominated our numbers - followed by JAPAN/ASIA.
Note that it was hard to work into VK - and I do not remember working a ZL.
Finally, I am aware that there are some band logging errors and surely there will be some busted calls in our log due to the ESP-like signal levels that we were dealing with much of the time.
Please be patient as these are sorted out and pls do this via our QSL manager.  And please do not ask me about other bands - I did not ever leave the 160m chair and never even visited the SSB camp - I do not even know where it was or how to get there - my singular focus was 160m for the past 10 days  and K1LZ was the MAN on 80 CW 99% of the time.  We sat next to each other and I thought we each helped each other as things progressed.
BUT
I do have a  personal copy of the 160m logs - just in case there are issues where the QSL manager asks me for an opinion regarding a specific qso.
73 to all and thanks for helping us make this a successful lowband-focused dx'pedition.
We had fun - the pleasure was all ours!  Thanks for being a part of it!
JEFF K1ZM/VY2ZM
 




Jeff BriggsDXing on the Edge: The Thrill of 160 Meters Available worldwide through BookBaby, Array Solutions, DX Engineering, Radio Society of Great Britain, & Amazon