Category - Blog

Well done once again to Bob Locher, W9KNI overall winner of the 2010 CQ DX Marathon. Bob worked 285 of the 291 countries available in the 2010 Challenge and with 40 CQ Zones was top with a score of 325. I have to say that I read his book “A Year of DX” last year and was myself inspired to take part in the 2010 Marathon. It was tough, very tough and to my surprise I came 2^nd in the World in the SSB Mode category.

SSB Mode
        Call Sign  Countries Zones Score

1st     N3CDA   246          40      286 Certificate Winner
2nd    M0URX  243          40      283  (73rd overall)
3rd     PY2ADR 234          40      274 

For me this is a massive achievement, as I only have a 2up, 2 down terraced plot of land. The only antenna I have is a G3TXQ-Broadband Hexbeam (built by MW0JZE) which is mounted on a 12m Tennamast type mast at the back of the house. Only 6m through to 20m and no LF antennas here. (Waiting till I retire hahah to venture down there) 

So it goes to show that you do not need to have an array of towers with Yagi’s at varying heights to compete with some of the top DX’ers in the World. Being a postman I am quite often told I am lucky to have the afternoons to myself which last year enabled me to be on air and work some pretty nice DX while many where probably still at the office watching the cluster from work… (Yes I mean you Neil hehe sorry) 

However this may sound very familiar to some of you. I did notice that the Challenge becomes extremely addictive, so much so that you end up towards the end of the week planning your weekend NOT by the social events, or the family but “what is on the bands, who, what and where” Just how sad is that?

Deciding you can’t go to the wedding of your colleague from work because T32AJ is on air and the long path opening at tea time when the wedding reception starts is your only chance of picking that DXCC up this year! Yes, I can see you sniggering over there, because you know it’s true! 

This year I will be out of the running, the QSL work has kept me busy and has reduced my band tuning down to being a cluster tart. Take part in the CQ Marathon Challenge, it really is great fun.
2010 Results.

MS0INT St Kilda EU-059

June 17-20: St Kilda Archipelago, EU-059 activity until latest 0800UTC on June 20th. Callsign: MS0INT.
Three HF stations CW/SSB + 50Mhz. Sponsored by ICOM UK. 

St Kilda Is an isolated archipelago 64 kilometres (40 mi) west-northwest of North Uist in the North Atlantic Ocean. It contains the westernmost islands of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The largest island is Hirta, whose sea cliffs are the highest in the United Kingdom. St Kilda was awarded Dual World Heritage Status in 2005 making it one of only a few places in the world in recognition of its natural and cultural significance. Getting to St Kilda is not easy.

Col MM0NDX confirmed to me that the exact QTH is Mullach Sgar the 2nd lowest radar station and is WAB area NF09

Please be aware that MS0INT EU-059 & MS0INT/P EU-111 will be TWO separate QSL cards check QSL INFO before posting. Insufficient postal costs will be sent Via Bureau.
LoTW & online log search will be uploaded when the logs arrive here.
The team report at 1800z on the 19th that 8,500 QSO’s logged so far.

MS0INT/P Monach Isles EU-111

Again led by MM0NDX Col, the 2011 IOTA team includes EA3NT Christian, EA3OR Ramon, EA5KA Raul, EI6DX Stan, F4BKV Vincent and IZ7ATN Simon.

June 16: Depart Grimsay for Monach Isles, EU-111. Spend approx 24 hours on Monachs. Callsign: MS0INT/P.

Monach Isles are a small group of five low-lying Scottish islands lying about 4miles (6km) to the west of North Uist. They lie wild and exposed to the full force of the North Atlantic and experience gale-force winds on around 160 days of the year. The highest point of the islands is only 19 metres above sea level. This beautiful and remote location is home to a very special nature spectacle – 9000 Atlantic grey seal pups are born here every year. Completed and now on St Kilda.

The WAB area for the Monach Isles activation is corrected to NF66

Written by Charles Wilmott M0OXO.
The Strumble Head team met at the Club House on Tuesday giving us time to test, prepare and pack the items needed for this year. As before, we always try to be more efficient and to take only the essential items to the island but also with consideration that we may have to stay longer than anticipated should the weather turn poor.

Sea and weather conditions were forecast to be very poor for the crossing on the Thursday morning but what a surprise to awake at 04:45 to see a beautiful morning on the Pembrokeshire Coast. The vehicles were loaded and we arrived at the Lifeboat Slipway around 07:30 where shortly afterwards the ‘Thousand Island Boat Charters’ arrived and we were on the Island by 08:00, amazing.

After heaving all the gear to the top of the ‘harbour’ we then had the massive climb to the top of the Island where we bunk in a Barn (complete with broody Chickens!). Carrying 2 x Acom 1000 Amplifiers, 2 x FT1000MPs and worst of all the Kenwood TL922 to the accommodation is always a huge challenge. Fortunately the RSPB Warden and his wife (Greg & Lisa) are very accommodating and helped us up the hill with the Quad and trailer for which we are always very grateful.

We got off to a good start and as always, no one sets their stations up until all antennas are fully up and we work together to achieve this. The 2 x G3TXQ Hexbeams (built by Ant MW0JZE) were the first up and then we worked on the Windom for 40 and 80M. Everything ran as a well oiled machine and shortly after lunch, all three antennas were up and we moved inside to set up the stations.

Around 15:30 local we had all three stations on air and were qrv from ‘IOTA EU-124 Ramsey Island’. Chris G1VDP started the Digi station on the Windom working 30M, Ant MW0JZE started up on 20 SSB and Tim M0URX worked 15m SSB. Pile ups were pretty fast, the World Flora Fauna reference helping to boost them as well 😉 .
Almost immediately the station used by Chris suffered a major problem when lights on the FT1000MP flashed and the dedicated PSU and TL922 also shutting down. Then worse to come was that dreaded smell – something was on fire. A subsequent check showed a hole on a transistor within the PSU and sadly totally  unrepairable for now at least. We were now down to two stations.

We worked very well and most stations had solid pile ups until late in the evening. Conditions weren’t brilliant and most of the traffic was from EU with Yuri A65CA from Asia and a few stations from North America. Tim had a good run into NA and also the Caribbean but again, conditions definitely down. We had over  1000 in the log and with the two stations we were happy at that.

The next morning we all woke early after a terrible storm kept most of us awake during the night and we got started. We worked early on 40M SSB and then 20M SSB using both Acoms and running 300/400 watts. Rob MW0RLJ and Charles M0OXO decided to take a boat to the mainland to take the faulty equipment back and to collect a spare rig to replace it. The guys continued to work well and on their return the qso count was 2500.

It became very obvious that conditions were giving us some Sporadic E propagation so they started pushing the higher bands (17, 12, 10 & 6) to give the Island IOTA to as many that required it. We had an amazing time, many stations commenting on how pleased they were to get EU-124 onto the new bands and in particular many ‘G’s that needed it as a new DXCC Band slot. Ant had been slogging away on 6M for a long time with a huge pile up and handed the Mic to Charles to continue. 6M continued to be very good and in total we finished with well over 396 qso’s & 29 Countries on one run on 6m, the better one maybe CN in Morrocco? Before we left we set ourselves  a target of 4000q’s for the whole trip and by midnight we closed on 4035 q’s, amazing and very pleased but that was to be short lived.

Charles got up the following morning (Day3) to find a problem. We had Voltage issues and it seemed the current was poor and not enough Amperage to run even the radio. We traced the problem to not just one but both our generators had gone down, who would believe that? The black cloud descended over us and we spiralled into depression. We worked several theories for several hours and eventually decided to run the spare ‘Robin’ generator only and to run 100w only. We never gave up the fight and tried many theories were explored over a pot of Porridge (thanks Jane!) and we came up with a plan! Greg (RSPB Warden) kindly offered to allow us yet another Generator which could give us 6Kva so the mood lightened and again, we weighed up our options over a chat until 0930………

Time moved on and by 1130 we were on air again. Conditions were ok and by 1.00pm we were running well as we approached 1300 and the beginning of the World Flora Fauna’ GreenDay’ event, We used all bands from 40m thro 10m and as we were using 12 & 17m, we were not in a ‘contest’ but just an ‘event’! All continued OK with runs predominantly into EU but with the odd DX station thrown in the mix. When 1500 came the bands just died with barely a trace of anyone on 20 thro 10m. In a few hours this eased and we pushed on on 20m, 17 and 40M. 40M was running very well with Chris on the Mic running 100w from the FT890 but only 20 and 17 really had any decent propagation to EU. As the evening moved along we had another good run with many JA stations on 20M and a few down into OC with VK. We closed at 0030, filled the generator and after a few hours stargazing we slept………but not well!

We were kept awake most of the night with the predicted ‘bad weather’. Sadly it was worse than expected. Torrential rain was hammering at the windows of the barn and roof and the wind was tremendous. First light at 04:00 saw 2 x Hexbeams both leaning to the side and getting buffeted by the very strong wind. There was little we could do, they were unusable in that state so after a chat (again over a bowl of porridge) we decided they needed to be taken down to prevent damage. We all donned our wet weather gear and got stuck in. Taking them down took 15 minutes for each Hexbeam with us all working on the same antenna at the same time before moving on to the other. It initially appeared that the fault was either the rotators not being up to the strain of the wind or the strain on the stub mast and clamps were too weak. Another thought for another day but they were all down and we left the Windom in place.

We spent the remainder of the morning inside the barn, we dismantled all the equipment and packed it away just leaving the Elekraft K3 and the Windom to use later in the afternoon with a view to making the few required qso’s which would give us 6000 log entries.

The afternoon was poor, but we worked through trying our best but pretty soon we ran out of time. We had the (now traditional) ‘Party’ looming with invited guests joining us for supper and a few drinks. By the time 7pm came we had 11 people for supper including Greg & Lisa, Nia, Mike & Nicola. We must not forget the now famous Border Collie ‘Dewi’, now a celebrity after his debut on the BBC’s ‘Countryfile’! After a lovely meal provided by Jane, we all had a few drinks (some more than others!) and spirits 😉 were high. Some of us were in a bit of a tacking by 0030, and with an empty bottle of Famous Grouse, one of Romiel and several bottles of red wine, we turned in for the night. At that point it seemed extremely unlikely that we would wake in 6 hours feeling well but Charles did and fired up the generator for a quick blast. Another 60 stations were logged on 40m which brought us to a final total of 6024 q’s and the end of the 2011 trip. We got the gear down to the slip and from that point it took us 50 minutes to load the boat, do the crossing, unload at the Lifeboat Slip, carry the gear up to St. Justinians and to load the Van for the trip back to the farm.

It just leaves me with a few thoughts and thanks for the help we received this Year. Greg & Lisa Morgan (RSPB Wardens) were once again invaluable in help, planning, advice and in allowing us on the Island, two people who’s performance, committment and drive is outstanding and a major asset to the RSPB. ‘Thousand Island Expeditions’ once more gave their personal service to us and were extremely kind, a service recommended by us. Mike Chant and his crew aboard the ‘Gower Ranger’ also pulled out the stops with their prompt and personal service. Good luck to Nia Stephens (Assistant RSPB Warden) in her future career and not forgetting Mike and Nicola who give their time as RSPB volunteers.

Finally a big thanks to all of you that worked us whilst on Ramsey Island. We were very pleased to give so many of you the new Band Slots, IOTA and WFF areas. I guess almost all stations on 6 meters would have been very pleased to get IO71hu in their logs so a good job all round. Some stations worked us on 7 band slots and many more with 6 contacts which was remarkable. Of course we wouldn’t be without the odd negative comments either. Some made good points and others were well, just pathetic but all in all, a great trip to Ramsey in 2011.

Thanks to everyone from the Strumblehead DX Group; Rob MW0RLJ, Charles M0OXO, Tim M0URX, Chris G1VDP, Ant MW0JZE and of course Jane (our Support Staff 😉 ) who kept us fed with over 120 meals, doing this with 2 small gas rings on a Baby Belling stove and little facilities was a great & welcomed achievement!

73 de Charles Wilmott M0OXO

The United Radio DX Team will be QRV from Market Reef from 13th – 20th August 2011.
Team Leader, Max ON5UR will be joined by PA5R Jelmer, PD9DX Dervin & ON8AK Mark.
The team met together for the first meeting last week, the team discussed their travel plans, Max explains,

“Extra kilograms are often a big problem on airplanes. So we decide that Dervin and Jelmer will transport our equipment via land. A trip through Belgium (ON), The Netherlands (PA), Germany (DL), Denmark (OZ), Sweden (SM) and Aland Islands (OH0).

Mark and Max will fly from Brussels Belgium (ON) to Helsinki Finland (OH). Later that day we fly from Helsinki Finland (OH) to Mariehamn – Aland Islands (OH0).

The day after (Saturday 13 August) a small private boat will take us and our equipment to Market Reef. We cross our fingers for good weather, so that the boat trip is possible and that we have a safe landing at Market Reef. If the weather permits, the boat will pick us up again Saturday 20 August.”

20.05.2011: Good news from Helsinki, Licence, Market Reef received. The postman made my day. We received our official licence from the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority. Our requested call sign OJ0UR is approved.
Special thanks to Saija Lehtonen, Technical Secretary, for the help with our application.
24.05.2011: LoTW certificate has now been received. The log will be uploaded to LoTW as soon as I receive the log from the team.

The website is now live, for more information go to OJ0UR
Image above: Market Reef in February by Pekka Väisänen.
QSL Via M0URX

GR1VDP QSL card is now at the print shop and will be ready to post soon.
This is a special prefix issued by the UK licensing authority OFCOM to celebrate the wedding of Prince William Windsor, second in line to the throne in the UK monarchy, to his long time girlfriend Catherine Middleton on the 29th April 2011. The call sign was only on the air during the time period 29th April 2011 and 9th May 2011.

QSL designed by Max ON5UR
QSL Via M0URX

4W6A TIMOR-LESTE (EAST TIMOR) DXPEDITION SEPTEMBER 16 – 26, 2011 www.4w6a.com

PRESS RELEASE NUMBER 3 – May 11, 2011

Everything is on schedule for the 4W6A DXpedition. All the team members have now booked and paid for their air tickets from the UK, Malaysia and Australia to Dili, East Timor. A boat has been chartered to take the team and their equipment from Dili to Atauro Island, the site of the DXpedition, and back again. The accommodation on the island has been booked and the team members are now also booking their overnight transit stops in Bali, Darwin and Dili.

The DXpedition will be operating from generators which will be hired and picked up in Dili the day before the start of the operation. The generators have been booked and arrangements have been put in place for sufficient fuel to be transported to the island for our use whenever necessary.

It is hoped to be able to use an Internet connection on the island and, if this proves to be reliable, logs will be uploaded to Club Log and  Logbook of The World on a daily basis.

The team is very grateful to the LA DX Group, CDXC (Chiltern DX Club)- The UK DX Foundation, the Oceania Amateur Radio DX Group, and the Northern Ohio DX Association, who are the first four DX associations to have offered sponsorship to the 4W6A DXpedition. Thanks too go to Tony Burt, VK3TZ, of Rippletech Electronics , who is kindly loaning three monoband vertical antennas for use on the DXpedition. We are also very grateful to a growing number of individuals who have also made donations towards the cost of shipping equipment to East Timor, the boat charter, the hire of the generators and the cost of fuel. All sponsors are listed, with thanks, on the 4W6A website at http://www.4w6a.com/sponsors.html. If you or your DX club also wish to help, there is a “Donations” page on the 4W6A website. Payments may be made by credit or debit card and 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.

Edited by Roger Balister, G3KMA and Steve Telenius-Lowe, 9M6DXX

Order your copy now!

The newly updated IOTA Directory is the essential guide to participating in the Islands on the Air (IOTA) award programme. This edition contains all the recent rule changes and island updates of this dynamic and exciting programme

The IOTA Directory is the complete, official listing of IOTA islands but is much more than just a simple list. A colour section contains fascinating reports of several IOTA operations from “Ulituqisalik Island” in the Arctic, through to the romantically named “Flint Island” in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Contesters will find the report and results of the 2010 IOTA Contest and details of the contest in 2011. There is much more besides with details of the latest IOTA Honour roll, Golden List, etc. The IOTA Directory provides everything you need to participate in IOTA, from lists of islands, grouped by continent, and indexed by prefix through to application forms and masses of information and advice for island hunters, award applicants and DXpeditioners alike.

If the simple act of collecting QSL cards from around the world hasn’t appealed before. The multitude of islands and the fascinating IOTA programme laid out in this book will change your mind. The IOTA Directory is a must have if you are already involved or simply just interested.

The new QSL card for VK8DX, Oliver Bross,  from the Northern Territory of Australia is now currently being designed. I am sorry for the delay in printing this QSL. Oliver has not long moved to NT, and Oliver is just settling into a new job, and managed to take some time out to do some photography recently for the new QSL card. I hope to have the QSL cards out in the post by mid May.
Oliver is one of the team members of the forthcoming 4W6A DXpedition to Atauro Island, East Timor in September 2011.