Direct: Please
include SASE, or a self addressed envelope and $2 **No IRC Accepted***
ZD8F
ZD8ZZ
Al
Danis
Tom Meier
PO Box
220164
13271 Woodland Lane SE
Chantilly, VA
20153-0164
Turner, OR 97392
USA
USA
Or via Home call
ZD8F = W6HGF
ZD8ZZ = K7ZZ
Or for ZD8F, you can use OQRS from Clublog, and use paypal for the postage funds, and not need to send me a card,
Our operation was conducted from November 8 through November 21 .
We had no internet access on site, and limited access at the Obsidian
Hotel in Georgetown.
This was a team effort with Tom Meier as ZD8ZZ specializing in CW,
and
Al Danis as ZD8F will focus on RTTY. We both operated SSB
when
the opportunity arose. We had multiple antennas for 160
thru 6 meters, and operated two stations.
UPDATES:
21 Nov 2011 Now
QRT
We closed down this morning, packed up the antennas, and came down off
the mountain top qth. Final tally was over 20K QSO's between the
two stations. The logs will be uploaded to ClubLog about the same time
this page is updated. LOTW will come a little later. Anyone
that thinks they should be in the log, but can not find a contact in
ClubLog, can write us a note, and we will research the contact once
back at home. I made the trip up to the top of the mountain
yesterday and saw the famous Dew Pond, as well as our tour of the
country side and a visit to the "Worlds Worst Golf Course" with
browns instead of greens laid out on the rocky moonscape of Ascension
Island. We handed the site off to the next team that will operate
over the CQWWDX contest weekend, so there should be lots of opportunity
to work Ascension during the contest. We both had a great time,
and enjoyed all the QSO's, it was very exciting to be on the other side
of the pile-ups, sometimes overwhelming, most of the time very
pleasureable. Our transportation home will leave tomorrow night,
and we hope to be all the way home by Thanksgiving.
13 Nov 2011 Well my plan to
stay away from the contest did not work, there was no one to talk with
on RTTY except in the contest, so I reluctantly joined, just so I could
make some QSO's over the weekend. I made over 1000 qso's in
the contest today, so it was one of my best days so far. We did
go into town yesterday, and I was able to upload my logs to LOTW, and
both of our logs to ClubLog, so there will be something to look at
there. It may be later next week before we get another
opportunity. I tried to upload this webpage, but the internet
connection would not let me FTP things for some reason. I will
eventually get it updated and loaded to the website, but I am not sure
when right now. 6 meter operations have not been very good, no
one heard on 6 yet.
12 Nov 2011 WAE
RTTY contest this weekend, so I will try to stay to the WARC bands to
avoid disruption, although I did get a few 40 meter Q's just as the sun
came up here with the US. This may be the right day to go down to
town and send the logs and get some supplies. All the equipment
is working great. I had a very good run yesterday evening with
the JA opening on 17, at midnight it was still going, but I was
exhausted and had to call it quits before the band died. This is
a great location, and the conditions have been very good, we are having
a great time with the pile-ups, and have another week still to go, what
could be better than this! I think we are up to a combined qso
count of over 8K when we looked last night.
Here are a couple of pictures we took during radio breaks.
And here is the view from our back porch, looking to the north.
From the picture you can see how fast it slopes down, and just imagine
driving it.
11 Nov 2011 We are
all set up and running, everything is going fine. We are thinking
about some antenna improvments, but since the high bands are working so
well it may be later before we get to work on the low bands. We
are not getting much sleep, just cat naps from time to time. All
our equipment arrived and in good working order, much to our
relief. Tom has been working CW on WARC bands, and I have stayed
on RTTY with the standard 10-15-20-40 so far, we may swap it out
later, but it is working fine now. Rtty is in demand on all
bands from Ascension, but CW has been contested pretty strong over the
years on the non-warc bands, so warc is where the CW demand is.
The nights have been cooler than expected, and the days up here in the
clouds has been on and off rain as expected. The Garden Cottage
is a perfect place, the view down the mountain is very impressive, and
must be good take-off for the antennas. The road washed out
earlier this year, and is in process of being repaired, it is now
passable, but not completed with dirt and muddy portions on the
way. I think the QSO count for both of us is about 5000 as of
this eveing, and we are sorry the logs can not be uploaded, but
sometime in the next few days, I will upload this page to the website
along with the logs.
6 Nov 2011 Tom
and I are in Florida now, and prepared for tomorrows departure to
Ascension. Everything is looking good so far. Look for us
on the air as soon as possible Tuesday, thanks to Marko ZD8O for
leaving his antennas up for us, see picture below, we should be active
almost as soon as we arrive and unpack.
1 Nov 2011 Preparations
for departure are continuing on track. Travel will start Friday
on the way down. And on Monday morning (Nov 7) we should board
the
airplane for the final leg down to Ascension Is. Our plan is to
be on the air as soon as possible after arriving and getting organized
for the drive up the mountain, look for us probably sometime
Tuesday (Nov 8) if all goes well.
Equipment: ZD8F
Icom IC-7000
Tokyo Hy-Power HL-1.1Kfx
Marko's picture of his antennas, note the mountain is in the clouds
much of the time.
We support the DX code of
conduct, Please read it, and use the principals so we all can have lots
of fun DXing.
QTH: The Garden Cottage is near the top of Green Mountain, and
has a
difficult
winding road to get to the cottage that takes at least 20 minutes each
way. So coming down off the mounatin for meals and internet
access would cut deeply into operating time. The
Garden Cottage has a long history gonig back to 1820's, and has a great
view to both US and Europe from 2300 ft elevation, but locations to the
south like VK/ZL are obstructed by a higher peak to our south, and
difficult to
work. We will still listen for the VK/ZL and maybe will get some
long path openings. Here is a picture showing the steep blockage
to the south next to the cottage.
We have decided to
take some of the Mountain House freeze dried packets, to supplement the
food we purchase on the way up, and just stay up on this beautiful
mountain and operate as much as possible.
Many thanks to QSL.NET for hosting
this webpage, and also to Michael
G7VJR and his team for the great work with ClubLog.
Please make sure you are in the log before sending
QSL's.
Many thanks to Force12 for the multiple vertical
dipole array
antennas we
will be using.
Many thanks to Mountain House for the
great
meals we will consume up on the mountain.
We support the DX code of
conduct, Please read it, and use the principals so we all can have lots
of fun DXing.
Many thanks to Force12 for the multiple vertical
dipole array
antennas we
will be using.
Many thanks to Mountain House for the
great
meals we will consume up on the mountain.