Topband: Fwd: [The Daily DX] V84SAA Final Report

Mon Feb 25 07:52:27 EST 2019

This appeared today in the DAILY DX courtesy of Bernie W3UR.
73 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

-----Original Message-----
From: Bernie McClenny, W3UR <bernie at dailydx.com>
To: The Daily DX mailing list <dailydx at lists.kkn.net>
Sent: Mon, Feb 25, 2019 7:12 am
Subject: [The Daily DX] V84SAA Final Report

Hi Bernie

I am writing today to pass along some final comments about our recent activation from V84SAA and our final statistics as taken from ClubLog.
Our team, as you may know, operated from two separate camps.  The SSB camp was from a rented villa on a small hilltop inland a bit and the CW camp was in a tent right on the beach at Pantai Sera Kanangan in the Tutong district - with all our CW antennas right on the beach.  Most of the operators at the SSB villa stayed and ate their meals at that location.  Our beach site (which was 20 minutes away) had very different and "spartan" facilities - there we usually lunched on vanilla cookies and water.  Some of us stayed at the Empire Hotel and Country Club about 27 minutes drive to the North.  I personally made about 30 trips along the coastal interstate to and from the Empire to do my 160m shifts at our SR and local SS.  In so doing I burned up two tanks of gas in the process - but fortunately a LITER of gas in Brunei costs about 35 cents US.  I wish it was like that at home - NOT!
For the most part K1LZ operated on 80m next to the 160m position (where I operated on Topband a short distance away) and thus these two positions were co-located.  On 160m operations were shared at various times with JT1CO, VE7NY and S55M.  Krassy did some operating on 160m as well at various times.
Propagation was tough overall without good openings on 15/12 and 10 meters for the most part - so the bulk of our contact total came from the lowbands through 20m.  
We were a large International team and we were blessed with fantastic local support from Tamat Lampoh, V85TL and the local Brunei Darussalem Amateur Radio Association.  They were wonderful hosts and set up an opening and a closing ceremony for us - which was attended by the deputy minister of AITI - which is the local FCC equivalent in Brunei.  At both ceremonies the local club wives cooked up local delicacies for us and provided refreshments as well.
Some of our members could only provide a few days with us in Brunei but we welcomed the visits from YT5A/VK3FY/VK3FN and others who had work commitments and could not stay with us for a longer duration.
Our most challenging times were on 80m and 160m where it was really difficult to work into NA - either at SS or SR - but we never missed an opening and were there trying every day!  NA signals from east of the Mississippi River were about RST 219 on 160m but despite this hardship we did work as many as we were able to piece the callsigns together.
Our final statistics from CLUBLOG are these:
Total qso's 58,120
160m 4081 CW  Qso's (with 459 from North America)
80m  5807 CW  Qso's (with 1014 from North America)

LZ2HM was in charge of most of our FT8 operations as well as some exciting 6M EME contacts that were made right up to the final evening at the beach site.  W7GJ and others had asked us to do this mode and Andy was the MAN who made it happen.
Our support team on site was championed by Adi S55M and Roman RN5M - who handled most of the setup and takedown.  Both of these team members literally worked night and day travelling back and forth from the CW and SSB sites as needed to keep us on the air and working at maximum efficiency.
Adrian, KO8SCA handled our website, arranging for some loaned equipment and was responsible for overseeing our logging functions and uploads to CLUBLOG each day. Our QSL manager is LZ1JZ - Tony in Bulgaria.  Donors to our dx'pedition will get immediate uploads to LOTW - the overall log will most likely be uploaded to LOTW in early May.
We owe a huge vote of thanks to our wonderful sponsors - which included DXE and ICOM.  For those contributions, we are extremely grateful.
We also wish to recognize the local 9M6 guys who were with us last year at 9M0W - specifically 9M6KOM and 9M6ZAE for preceding us to both sites to do a rekkie and provide photos of our two sites in order that we could plan our antenna setups in advance.
Finally - I must recognize the hard work and financial backing provided by Krassy Petkov (K1LZ) - who provided several overseas shipments of antennas and other gear via Singapore - which made all of this happen efficiently.
Also - thanks to all of the Dx community for looking out for us - we only regret we could not work all of you who tried - but the pleasure was all ours.  We hope you had fun chasing us for 10 days - and we surely enjoyed trying to hear and work you!
73 and thanks again!
JEFF   K1ZM/VY2ZM on behalf of "The Team Sabah and Friends Royal Dx'pedition" 07 Feb - 17 Feb 2019
Jeff BriggsDXing on the Edge: The Thrill of 160 Meters Available worldwide through BookBaby, Array Solutions, DX Engineering, Radio Society of Great Britain, & Amazon
Bernie McClenny, W3UR
Editor of: The Daily DX (1997-2018)
    The Weekly DX (2001-2018)
    How's DX? (1999-2018)

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