VK9XW and VK9CD DXpedition to Christmas and Cocos-Keeling

D X p e d i t i o n N e w s

During the DXpedition we will provide DXpedition news here on this page. The news are updated by Bernd, DF3CB.

DJ5IW - DL2RMC - DL8LAS - DM5TI

Nov 9, 2003

If you want to see our VK9XW and VK9CD QSO statistics, please click here.

DL2RMC, the QSL manager of VK9XW, maintains a QSL-received list on his website at www.qsl.net/dl2rmc.

Oct 27, 2003

The team arrived well back in Germany as well as all luggage! Far more than 30,000 QSOs were logged. Please stay tuned for a wrap-up of the DXpedition. The last VK9XW QSOs are in the VK9XW Online Log now.

Oct 22, 2003

VK9CD is QRT! Thanks to everyone who called us!

Everything is packed. Andree and Tom will once again be active as VK9XW from Christmas with a 2 ele wire yagi and the big amplifier during the next two nights.

Oct 21, 2003

Our DXpedition is slowly coming to an end! We come closer to 30,000 QSOs.

Some 15,700 QSOs are in our Cocos logs now. Some 50% Europe, 33% with JA, 56% on CW. All in all we worked 131 different countries. Propagation could be better.

Our last night's AO40 Satellite effort was a flop. We produced good signals however there was hardly and activity from the US.

Weather is excellent. It hasn't been raining for days. The waves are excellent at the reef. We also discovered an excellent beach. We've seen all palms, beaches and crabs.

Oct 20, 2003

Just a short note today. The Online Logs are up-to-date and all things are going well. More tomorrow...

Oct 17, 2003

I got no Log Update today. After a quick talk to the team a few minutes ago on SSB they told me that everything is running well. Next news and log update tomorrow, Oct 18 at abt 17z. Please note that the PSK31 QSOs are in the online log but only of October 13. Please QRX for the rest. Also CW and SSB were partially mixed up when transferring the AO-40 Satellite QSOs from paper into the softare. We'll fix it.

Oct 16, 2003

Despite the broken amplifier we see no difference in the pileups from 10m to 40m. However conditions are not very favourable. There are just five to six hours each day where everything is going very well. Around noon local time the bands wake up. At 1900 the high bands are closing again. Then we have only 30m and 40m.

We tried the WARC bands. However we have no WARC bandpass filters and the other station is then blocked with QRM.

We got so many requests from the US to try to continue AO-40 Satellite operation. OK guys, you won! We assembled everything again despite heated discussions within our team. Now, we will be QRV for North America on October 20, from 1500 till 1800 UTC. We can work at 4 degrees elevation. The forecast is pretty good. We hope it will be worth the efforts. We need dry and calm waether otherwise there is hardly any chance.

Yesterday we were suddenly shocked again. The power supply didn't deliver 12 volts but only 5 volts, then 10 volts and so on. We were afraid of losing the second station. But Tom luckily found out that it was not the power supply but a bad fuse in the power supply cable to the transceiver. Back on the air!

The weather gets worse - rain and strong wind. It's warm however but there is a humidity of almost 100%. People say some 36000 coconuts fall from the palms each day. We have nowhere seen so many palms. The entire island seems to be an impenetrable jungle.

Everything else is fine. We go swimming - accompanied by little sharks! They all wait for us - crabs, thousands of whatever annoying flying animals, sea serpants, sea cucumbers, sharks.

The VK9CD Online Log is up-to-date again!

The word of today is and please keep it in mind: DX is a hobby and not a battle. People seem to forget this at times.

Oct 16, 2003

After 157 QSOs as VK9CD we decided to stop working AO-40 satellite. It takes too much time away from the other bands and we have only two stations. We worked five continents but no South America.

North America - antenna direction 85 degrees and 5 to 10 degrees elevation, MA > 60, the beacon can be heard very well. The forecast says we can make it to the Rocky Mountains. No signals heard not even our own. Finally at least one W - W6VPN. There is obviously a problem we are not aware of.

What's the matter with the conditions - on HF and locally? Very suddenly nothing is going. Storms and rain. We get wet, have a tremendous sleep deficit and are annoyed by crabs and insects. But it's worth the efforts!

Sorry, no VK9CD Online Log update today!

Oct 15, 2003

VK9CD Online Log Search again updated. Last QSO Oct 15, 0637 UTC. All AO-40 Satellite, PSK31 and SSTV QSOs are now in the online log! Will post more new pictures here tonight.

Bad news - the transformer of our big amplifier broke due too overheat. No way to fix it. This means also no more lowbands! Sorry! Hartmut is frustrated.

Oscar 40... didn't run well last night. Heavy tropical rain. Need to dry everything. Even in the satellite dish 10cm of water.

Oct 14, 2003

VK9CD Online Log Search updated. Last QSO Oct 14, 0305 UTC.

Oct 13, 2003

All antennas are up and working. We think that we have much better propagation on Cocos compared to Christmas. The pileups are tremendous. On RTTY it's very difficult to work effectively. There is no discipline. Everybody is just pushing the buttons... We tried to call by numbers but that didn't help either. Bad conditions on 160m but 130 QSOs on 80m.

Attention:

The QSL route for VK9XW is DL2RMC.

The QSL route for VK9CD is DJ5IW.

The VK9CD Online Log Search is available now.

Oct 12, 2003

We worked like crazy to build at least our wire beam after arriving on Cocos and before total darkness. We also assembled the AO-40 equipment and antenna. All the rest of the antennas comes up today.

The first pileup on 20m exceeded our expectations. A good run of 900 QSOs but everybody is just calling and calling and calling but not listening anymore.

Amazingly 110 QSOs via AO-40!!! But where were the US guys? We worked just one W6.

Sunday: everything is closed, nothing to eat, nothing to drink. We need some orientation where to get what.

Anyway, the local police helped us very well to find masts or tubings. The LP5 will temporarily be put at a height of 5m. We try to get 8m masts from Cocos Water on Monday. They didn't like the idea of borrowing us the airport's 8m flag pole, hi...

Oct 11, 2003

VK9CD came on the air today and was first spotted on 20m at 1342 UTC.

One hour before sunset we arrived on Cocos-Keeling. A Dream!!! We probably will stay here for ever...

Due to weight limitations of the Cocos flight (a total of 145kg) we had to leave one station on Christmas including the Ameritron 80b amplifier. We brought all antennas but only two stations. Even (some of...) our underwear and things like sun tan lotion had to be left back...

The VK9XW activity was finished with some 12250 QSOs. This probably doesn't sound much but please keep in mind that we've spent much time for special modes and bands, like 160m, Satellite and SSTV. The last night did run well on 20m towards USA. However our transmit frequency was distorted deliberately in EU.

Hartmut DM5TI

We had to discontinue RTTY for USA because we were suffering from extreme RTTY phasing problems. The multi-path signals are loud enough however they cannot be decoded anymore. We are sorry that we couldn't make everybody happy!

We had 150 PSK31 QSOs working split and were exchanging only reports. Amazingly we managed to log one QSO per minute. Never thought this would be possible.

We met a K6 ham here who is travelling with his boat. But he deosn't seem to be active.

We see a few people complaining. Please keep in mind that the situation here is totally different to your own area. 40m for example: we operate CW where the Japanese operate SSB. On 10m there are loud CB intruders from South East Asia which gives us a hard time in the pileups.

Anyhow, everyone of us is fine. Sleep deficit is tremedous - we close our eyes only for a few hours. Night time is prime activity time.

The bands are quiet here from AM local time until about 3 PM local time. But me need the time to go shopping, eating and fixing things. It's no relaxing vacation...

Oct 10, 2003

We are already taking down the antennas and will move to Cocos-Keeling. We'll close the logs with some 12000+ QSOs. Seven days is not enough for a DXpedition. You loose one and a half days with preparation and then we are almost about to take down the antennas again...

Yesterday we got the bad news that the maximum weight of our luggage is limited to 20kg per person (approx. 40lbs) and 5kg hand luggage (10lbs). This is strictly enforced by National Jet. We then talked with our travel agent and he called the manager of National Jet. More weight will probably be allowed now... Let's see! If we had to travel with the official weight we had to down-size everything to just one station. This made our hair stand on end.

DM5TI - DL2RMC - DJ5IW - DL8LAS

We are not sure if we will have Internet access on Cocos or not. Anyhow, will see you in the pileups as VK9CD!

We'll publish more pictures here on Saturday.

We are a little disappointed about comments from US hams on our AO-40 operation. AO-40 ties a complete station and operator during best HF hours. We need to make compromises. Especially for the US we have moved our station to a location that is suitable for the US. This has cost time and efforts that is lost for the HF pileups. Especially on Oct 7 we called USA and VE on AO-40 starting at 1400 UTC. We heard ourselves! However noone was there. We called CQ over and over. Only few VKs und JAs called us.

Oct 9, 2003

We have more than 9300 QSOs in the log now. Everything is very fine here. In two days we move to Cocos-Keeling.

The owner of the hotel is playing with the idea to set up a permanent ham radio station! He wants to build towers, buy antennas and a transceiver. We try to sell him our LP5...

We are on six meters but there is no propagation and activity. We'll call today on 50.107 at 0800 UTC towards west. So far we worked A41, A61, HZ and JA. Again, we are able to work WSJT (JT6M). Send your requests to the pilot Bernd, DF3CB.

Weather is fine. We've seen the first crabs. You just need to know where they are...

We discovered the QTH of VK9XX after hours of looking for it. In fact, it turned out that it's just 50m away from our place... There we found our 6m Yagi. The OM is currently in Jakarta.

We would be glad if you take a minute time and sign our Guestbook! We are reading it!

Oct 8, 2003

We all have a strong sleep deficit. 6500 QSOs are in the log (Oct 7). USA only 800 Qs so far, some 1500 JA, some 1400 Qs on SSB. The 150 AO-40 satellite QSOs and the twelve SSTV QSOs are not yet in the Online Log because they were logged on paper.

Last night we worked 150 EU and 15 US stations on 80m and 11 EU on 160m. We change our 160m transmit frequency to 1827.5.

	DL2RMC
	DL8LAS

Best times for US seem to be betwen 0000 and 0130 UTC. We will make special efforts to work North America on 10 and 14MHz in the next days.

Today we have (found and) built the 6m antenna. We are going to transmit on 50.110 at 1700 UTC towards Europe. We let a CW beacon run before 1700. We are able to work JT44, JT6M and WSJT. Send your requests to the pilot Bernd, DF3CB. We are running a 5 ele yagi and 100W.

All amplifiers run again as well as the second bandpass filter.

We were on AO-40 last night with 10 degrees elevation. We heard ourselves very well. We could have reached the W7/W6 area however obviously noone was active in North America!? We expect a better situation from Cocos-Keeling.

The first 12 SSTV QSOs with EU and SA went very well - all new ones! Good discipline and behaviour!

Special modes like AO-40, SSTV, low bands etc. slow down the QSO total. It's difficult to find the right compromise but that ain't easy. Anyhow, we will set our preference to CW instead of SSB.

The accusation deaf for USA on RTTY is wrong! RTTY signals from North America are extremely distorted due to the polar path and hardly decodeable. In addition NA signals are 30dB below average EU signals. Even selective calling only NA hasn't brought much better results. But we do our best!

Oct 7, 2003 - Message #2

The first night working via satellite AO-40 was superb. Hartmut has worked more than 100 stations. We continue again tonight. We changed our location for satellite operation so that we will be able to work towards USA.

A problem occured with one of the amplifiers - the TX/RX relay broke.

Hartmut will operate SSTV today in the afternoon local time.

About 50% of the QSOs are available now in the Online Log. Most RTTY QSOs are missing yet. Please QRX for the rest of the QSOs.

Oct 7, 2003 - Message #1

We have had rain today however very warm rain. Hartmut has built the AO40 Satellite equipment and is active now but only into west direction. There are a lot of rocks and obstacles in the way to North America.

10m, 30m and RTTY run very well from here. Some 30 QSOs on 160m with JA, VQ9 and YB.

One of the band pass filters broke. Therefore we can operate right now only with one station in the second QTH plus 30m in the first QTH. We were not yet active on 6m, the antenna is still at VK9XX.

Oct 6, 2003

It's national holiday in VK today. It's difficult to get an Internet connection. We could not yet upload the logs for the log search. Please QRX! After two days we have 4000 QSOs in the log. The weather is very friendly, not too hot and better than expected.

Today we move to another QTH, the one that was originally promised to us. The antennas have to move too, of course.

We have built at least a 15m high top-loaded vertical from the broken Titanex vertical and will try 160m, 80m and 40m tonight.

The bands are more or less dead from sunrise to noon...

AO40 Satellite operation will begin at 2100 UTC today (Oct 6) - in the middle of the night here. Unfortunately we have palms and rocks in the east and NNE direction. We are not able to run low elevations. 20 degrees and up is possible. We are pretty sure that we will not be able to work the US. Sorry! Europe is easier and can be worked with 0 degree elevation. We hope for better conditions on Cocos. We are QRV on AO40 only at little squints.

We will operate SSTV daily at noon UTC time on 20m and 15m starting tomorrow, October 7.

We haven't seen any crabs yet...

Left: DJ5IW and DL8LAS

Oct 5, 2003

A few problems had to be solved but two stations are running now.

Unfortunately the Titanex vertical broke when erecting it... They try to find a solution tomorrow at daylight local time. No 160/80 tonite but 40m.

Oct 4, 2003

VK9XW came on the air today at 1120z, taking part in the VK ZL contest.

The flight to Jakarta was without any problems. However we had to sleep at the airport on chairs (in the first-aid station). Our greatest concern was that our luggage will not make it to Christmas but it luckily did. We were actually very lucky because the weight of all our luggage was not seriously checked. However it will more seriously be checked on the flight to Cocos...

We arrived very well here. However our favorite QTH was occupied. It will be available on Monday and we change then. Weather is very pleasant and we have a pool.

The wire beam was up after an hour. The Titanex LP5 followed and our second station came on the air. This worked out very well.

We are still seeking for an Internet access here to be able to send the logs and pictures.

We have so much (too) much equipment and need to take care that we are doing what we are supposed to do be doing - working the pileups. The pileups are mostly huge but we'll manage them.

Oct 3, 2003

L.to r.: DM5TI, DL8LAS and DJ5IW at Jakarta airport waiting for the flight to Christmas Isl.

Oct 2, 2003

The team left from Munich airport today. Good luck and success!

L.to r.: DL2RMC - DM5TI - DL8LAS - DJ5IW

Sep 30, 2003

Everything is on schedule! We will leave from Munich airport on Thursday, Oct 2.

The equipment is complete and well tested on the "green lawn". However we have problems with the luggage weight limitation of 160kg and have to "optimize" everything. The costs for extra luggage are enormous plus the risk of not being taken along to the islands. And the enxt flight is another ten days later.

Last modified Oct 22, 2003 | Webmaster DF3CB