Author - Tim Beaumont

TIMOR-LESTE DXPEDITION PRESS RELEASE NUMBER 2:
CALLSIGN & WEBSITE ANNOUNCED

The September 2011 Timor-Leste DXpedition has now received its callsign – 4W6A – from ARCOM, the licensing authority in Dili. The team is very grateful to ARCOM for issuing this special one-letter callsign for use on the DXpedition.

The DXpedition has a website, at www.4w6a.com, which includes profilesof the team members,  propagation predictions and lots of information about Timor-Leste and Atauro Island, the location of the DXpedition.

Unfortunately, Franck, VK8FNCY, has had to withdraw from the DXpedition due to health reasons. His place has been taken by Tim, M0URX, and Ant, MW0JZE. Oliver, MW0JRX, is now resident in Darwin and has recently received his Australian callsign, VK8DX. The other team members remain Stuart, VK8NSB; Steve, 9M6DXX, and John, 9M6XRO. As the team now comprises six operators, we have increased the number of stations from three to four.

The group is requesting donations from DX clubs and individuals who wish to help, in order to cover the high cost of generator hire, fuel for the generators and the boat charter to and from the island. There is a “Donations” page on the 4W6A website. Payments may be made by credit or debit card (you do not need to have a PayPal account yourself in order to make a donation).

4W6A will be QRV from Atauro Island (IOTA OC-232), Timor-Leste (East Timor), from 16 to 26 September 2011. Activity will be on all bands 10 to 160 metres, using CW, SSB and RTTY.

The QSL manager is M0URX, direct (SAE plus 1 IRC / $2), via the bureau, or LoTW. The entire log will be uploaded to LoTW as soon as possible after the end of the operation or, if possible, even during the DXpedition. QSLs may also be requested using the QSL request form on the website.

73, Steve, 9M6DXX (4W6A Team Member)

The XYL and I got back to KK yesterday evening just before dark. The actual distance by road is not that great but we have to go through 8 immigration checkpoints plus one river ferry crossing in EACH direction! That’s 16 chops in your passport!

The band conditions were in and out but I was getting on for 2000 Q’s in total including over 1200 on RTTY which was the mode I had targeted, as CW and SSB are pretty well catered for in Brunei. I only found very brief openings on 10m but 12m produced a bit more and on one night 20m surprisingly stayed open until after 3am local time with mostly North America coming through. Operating that late curtailed my early morning sessions though. I did not operate on 80m this time but made one QSO on Top Band with my friend Go, 9M6YBG, who needed Brunei on 160m. I did a bit of unplanned SSB in the CQ WPX Contest (65 Q’s) but my call sign V85/9M6XRO did not exactly roll off the tongue and I took a long time getting it across on almost every contact, even when signals were S9! Still the stations I worked were glad of the multiplier once they did figure out where I was 🙂

My XYL really enjoyed the trip and says she will be happy to go back before my visitor’s license expires in May so “watch this space”…

I have attached a photo I took from atop the watertanks on the hotel roof so you can see that the HF6V had a great take-off in all directions. I was running my IC-7000 (I get to like this rig more and more each time I use it) into the IC-2KL Linear and a Daiwa CNW-419 ATU when required. 73 for now – John – 9M6XRO

I have to admit I am not a contester, but I love to trawl through the bands and pick off the juicy DX that you find on such a fantastic contest as CQ-WPX. Propagation at the start of the weekend wasn’t anything special but  improved as the weekend went on. On Saturday evening on 21.392 MHz, Saskia, ZL2GQ was calling CQ from Hastings New Zealand, I was beaming Short Path which for me is over the North Pole, the signal from Saskia was weak but she was doing well into North America. I spotted her on the cluster expecting the hoards from Europe to work her, but nothing, no one from Europe was working ZL2GQ, I called and she heard me just fine. I listened for almost two hours.  

M0URX – NH7O 28,476 km QSO 10m SSB.
When I woke in the morning it was just getting light outside, made my first cup of coffee of the morning and took it into the shack, I looked at the cluster to see what was happening, conditions were still FB. AH6RR Roland was spotted from Hawaii on 28.441 MHz, I checked on the short path, not a whisper, I turned the Hexbeam to the long path, really not expecting anything at all, but wow there was Roland on the long path, time to “Fire Up the Acom” those 3 minutes while you wait for the Svetlana to warm up can be the longest 3 minutes of your life! Roland gave me my first KH6 on 10m, wow a great start to the day, just a little down on 28.435 MHz was NH7O again on the long path, but no problems to work this one, another Hawaii station in the log! A distance of 17,694 Miles or 28,476 kilometres on 10m! Wow, to me that is simply awesome! 

YL Contest op 11 Years old
On 15m KH0/KH7ERI had been calmly working in the contest all weekend, every time I tuned to 15m I could hear her signal. I checked the profile on QRZ.com and I see she is only 11 years old. This is great to see such a young person enjoying the competitive World of Radio contesting, and doing it so well too, not getting flustered by close in overload, just cracking away one after another in the log. Watch out guys Eri will be winning some major contests very soon! Well done Eri!
Photo – KH0/KH7ERI, Eri.By permission of Masa Shimizu, AH6KY, Eri’s father.
Masa says that they are scheduled to go to KH2 and will be QRV for one day.

At the annual board meeting for FRA (Faroese Radio Amateur) this year, OY1A Arne was elected as honorary member. This is for long service recognition, close to 35 years.

Arne was on the board of FRA, editor of the club magazine OY-arin, taking care of communication with IARU, NRAU, FSE (local Telecommunication Authority)

Arne is 89, and is looking for someone to replace him for the duty of IARU, NRAU and FSE which he still is taking care of.

Even though this is the 47th board meeting, this is honorary member #1 elected at FRA.

Thank you to OY4TN Trygvi Nysted for this report and photo.

The QSL designs for the recent DXpeditions are coming on well. Cards will be printed very soon.
9M6XRO/8 & 9M8Z/P Pulau Satang Besar IOTA OC-165 – KH0/G3ZEM Northern Mariana Is OC-086 – T88ZM Palau OC-009 – V85/9M6XRO & V85/9M8Z Brunei Darussalam & ZL/GD3OOK Waiheke Island OC-201.

QTH: Ostend, Waiheke Island. Loc: RF73MF

Delayed Start
I had a delayed start due to an oversight on my part. I didn’t know that ZL uses a different type mains plug from Malaysia and the U.K. so when I set up my rig I could not plug anything in! It was next day before I could find an adaptor on the island and get powered up, so I caught up on my rest the first night on OC-201. If anything, the bands in ZL are even quiter than in Borneo during daylight hours so once I had mains power I had to twiddle my thumbs waiting for the bands to open. Waiheke is a beautiful island and I thoroughly enjoyed walking and taking in the scenery when the bands were dead.

Solar Disturbances
All’s well that ends well they say and I ended up with 1275 Q’s which I am quite happy with especially after getting back to the mainland and discovering there were solar flares and disturbances during my brief operation. I decided to go for 20m SSB the last night but a flare had taken the band out completely! Still, particularly pleasing were comments like “big signal” from the U.S. East Coast and S9+ on the DX Cluster from Europe since my antenna was a simple W3EDP 84 ft long slung over a tree in an inverted vee configuration, with a maximum height of around 35 ft, and a single 17 ft long radial. The rig was a mixture of old and new – an IC-7000 driving a 30+ year old Loudenboomer linear (using four TV sweep tubes, remember them?) to about 300 watts. The antenna was made from very thin copper wire salvaged from old TV tube focus coils, and fed through a Daiwa ATU which matched it up on all bands from 80-10m although neither 10 or 12m showed any sign of life with precious little on 15m either come to that.

I have attached a photo of the “Bach” I stayed in – quite a contrast to the accommodation recently on Pulau Satang Besar OC-165. It was luxury by comparison!

Log is now on the online log search. LoTW will be uploaded on Monday. QSL card will be designed very soon.