CQ Zone:
27 ITU Zone: 64
IOTA:
OC-086 Grid
QK25uf
21
September - 30 September 2011
NOW QRT - 1743 - 29 Sept 2011
I departed Virginia on 19 September 2011, and arrived on Saipan
at
0300 on 21 September 2011. I plan to focus my operation on
RTTY. The CQ WW RTTY
contest is held the next weekend, and if all is going well, I will
participate. If RTTY is finished, I may try to go to other
modes
like PSK63, SSB, or CW. As with my DXPedition to FP in
March, this will
be steady
operating as much as possible for a single operator, I want to
work as many stations as
possible, but I do have to sleep at some point. If you hear
me please spot me on the cluster.
My strategy is to work on the WARC bands during the
week when possible, and then operate in the CQ WW RTTY contest over
the
weekend as much as I can. I will try to work on the highest band
that
is open, and follow them down in frequency as the day fades. I
will try to work the longer range stations when prop allows,
especially
the US east coast for the short periods it will be possible, and
will
try to work all during the rest of the time. I
plan to be watching the cluster, I use FLDIGI
software for RTTY, and have a 3KHz wide browser window kind of like
the
cw skimmer where I can see all the stations decode within the
passband
at once. So you do not need to call me right on the last
station
worked, better to find a clear frequency within the range I am
working,
and call there. As soon as I get a good call sign decoded, I
can
call you. I will always operate split, and will indicate up or
down. This means at least 1KHz or more offset from my transmit
frequency is needed to call me, but listen to where I am working
stations, and find a nearby clear frequency to call me on.
Once
you hear me call you with a report, please wait to make sure I have
sent a qsl on your report and move on to the next station. If
I
call you again and again, it is because I do not hear you sending a
report. The log is automated, and you do not get logged until
I
hear your report and send my qsl back, before I go on to the next
qrz. If after calling you many times, without hearing your
report, I will have to move on and you will not be in the log.
This is often caused by stations that keep calling even when I am
clearly calling you. It makes for slower qso's, and unhappy
hams. I will try to call, but I need all to listen to me and
if I
am not calling you, please do not call me. There will be
plenty
of opportunity, but for those that disregard this simple courtesy,
there is a special list for you, and most likely will be found NIL
(not
in log).
To find me:
I will be spotting Fldigi on PSK reporter so you
should be able to see my activity, and current frequency from there.
Watch for me on the DX cluster
RTTY frequencies planned are 3.590 7.040
10.139 14.090 18.103 21.075 24.910
28.090 plus or minus any other activity
When you call me on RTTY, send your callsign more tha two
times.
I have to first find you, then select you for decoding, then read
the
decoded callsign. Most of the time, you are finished with two
callsigns before I get to that point, so either I stay there and
wait
for you to send again, or move on to someone else who might stay
longer. If I was just sitting on your frequency two times
would
be fine, but since I have to search through the pileup for you, it
takes a little longer, 3 to 5 callsign repeats at least during a
pileup. Also please do not move fruquency after calling me, it
sometimes takes a few seconds for me to type in your call, and when
I
do, and you have moved it makes all the effort wasted. If you
need to move do it when I am in a qso with someone elso, not while
you
are still calling, Thanks.
My computer runs Ubuntu the
free open source software, and FLDIGI for all my data modes.
Thanks to Dave, W1HKJ and the FLDIGI team for making this great
cross platform program possible.
UPDATES
29 Sep 2011 NOW QRT.
I
finished with a good run to Europe on 20 meters. It was great
at times, and frustrating at times, but overall a fantastic trip,
and a
great location. Many thanks to the Saipan Rental Shack
for a great setup, with very reasonable prices. I have some
pictures that I will post here once I get home and can get them off
the
camera. Also many thanks to ClubLog,
they have been a great asset with the statistics and propagation
page, check it out if you have not looked, it is at the bottom
of
my page, Final QSO count is around 3300, with most being RTTY,
but some SSB, PSK31, and one CW with my friend up in Kobe.
Interesting
to note that over 1033 of those have already confirmed Saipan via
LOTW
or 30 percent so far, and will probably go higher as time goes on,
and
folk get around to uploading their logs. Paper QSL's will be
designed and printed in the next couple weeks, so it should not be
to
long for them to arrive back to you. Now for the long flight
home. Because of the Intl Date Line, I actually arrive home
before I leave here. I look forward to the next trip to
Ascension
Island in November if all goes well. QSL information is below,
and all the LOTW and Clublog have been uploaded just nowwith the
final
versions. If you do not find your call listed, please write me
a
note and I will look into it, I have made many mistakes over
the
last two weeks. Thanks to all who made QSO's with me, you made
this trip very enjoyable. DX IS
28 Sep 2011 Great opening to Europe last night that
lasted
for hours on all bands. Many new contacts made, and the
geo-magnetic storm has finally subsided and let prop work
again.
Only one day left, and I return home in 24 hours, so I am still
hoping
for some good prop this morning into NA. All the equipment is
holding up well and although I am exhausted from the long hours and
the
big pile-ups, I am smiling all the way through it. If you need
Saipan today is the day to make the contact with me.
27 Sep 2011 Well the timing was perfect for 10 meters over
the
contest weekend, I only wish I could have operated split to give
everyone more chances for contacts during this rare opening.
The
big CME hit yesterday and the bands were all dead here. I made
a
couple PSK31 contacts, but basically a radio blackout all day from
this
location. I worked a few Pacific stations that are short
distances from me, but almost no Europe or NA was heard. Very
unusual, and since I leave in two days, took a lot of qso out of the
log for this trip. The Kenpro rotator controller here in the
shack broke the indicator belt, and I replaced it with a new one, to
keep busy during the dead periods. The prop should improve
today
as the storm passes, so please look for me. If you see me
sending
CQ, please spot me so others can find me for these last days
here. A little indication of the storm - it is normally just
green and the size of the last one on the right. There were
several bars the size of the first red one on the left, indicating a
very big magnetic storm, with radio blackouts, and very poor HF
conditions.
25 Sep 2011 The CQWW RTTY contest was this weekend,
and I
am exhausted. It lasted two days, but seemed like a
week.
The pile-ups were unbelievable, and since the bands were pretty
crowed
with the contesters, there was no room to spread out with split, so
both myself and the dxers were all on the same frequency at the same
time. It is very challanging to pick out callsigns from so
many
stations on top of each other. And then to top it off every
once
in a while someone would spot me, and just like a lightswitch was
turned on, the pile tripled in size. All the logs are uploaded
to
LOTW and ClubLog below, and I will work on the Cabrillo log for
submission on the airplane ride home. I am not sure how many
qso's, but I think over 1000. It was good to see some of my
contest friends show up in the last hour to give me a few more
points
on 10 meters. Many thanks to all that had the patience to work
me. Now to get some sleep.
23 Sept 2011 The conditions have been pretty good,
although I have not had much luck with the lower bands, 40 and 80
seem
to have a lot of local noise, and since I am a long way from any
populated area, there are less to talk with except during short
intervals. I found the
RTTY WARC bands croweded over here with all the DXpeditions going on
at
once. The 4W East Timour expediton was very active on 17M
RTTY,
and since if you take into account the first three KHz of the
allocation is for PSK, thre was only 7KHz left, clearly not enough
for
the 4W folk, and impossible to fit another expedition in. So I
found Market reef expediton just below the PSK area, and directing
his
desired to go up into the 4W crowd. How anyone made
sense
of that is beyond me, but in anycase there was not room for me to
operate on 17 RTTY after 12 meters closed for the night. So
rather than go to bed that early, I decided to go up to SSB and try
my
luck there. That did not last very long. I was
immediately
swamped with European callers. I could sometimes pick up a
letter
of a callsign out of the cacaphony, but there must have been dozens
with that same letter that responded, which was no help.
Trying
to find a callsign to work was way to difficult for me on SSB, there
was no dicipline, everyone seemed to want to call at the same time,
no
matter who I was asking for. complete caios for as long as I
stayed there. If I had no other options, and was not concerned
in
qso rate or time, I could have suffered through it, but it is going
to
take some getting used to. Working SSB from this side of the
pile-up does not seem to be much fun to me. I even lowered my
output power down to 5 watts, and it did not slow the mess, as I had
hoped only the big guns would be left. For me SSB will always
be
a good backup, but I know CW is much faster and RTTY is much easier
for
me to operate a pileup with. This morning at 10 AM local time,
the CQ WorldWide RTTY contest, starts, and so I am getting ready for
two days of intense contesting environment. This should be
fun. See you there.
22 Sept 2011 I
had a good day setting up and getting familiar with the equipment,
and
antennas. Many things to learn in a short time.
Fortunately
I brought my IC-7000 as an exciter, so only the Amp and antenna
arrangement was unknown and needed some experience with to learn
what
it can do. Weather was rainy all day, so it was a good day for
finding DX. I had a good run on 12M and 17M, and then went up
to
20M for a late pile-up with Europe. Great to see all the
signals
in the waterfall, but Saipan is so far from anyone, or any large ham
populations that the action is not continuous, but only when the
bands
open to a spot. I am using the 4W6A activity to give me an
idea
of where the prop is. It is not quite the same from here, but
gets me into the ballpark. It is a beautiful island here, many
trees, and very green.
19 Sept 2011 Everything
is on schedule, and I am leaving for the airport in just a few
minutes. Flight is showing "on schedule", so I should be on
the
air early 21 Sep UTC.
18 Sept 2011 I
am watching the 4W6A
Dxpedition to Timor-Leste this morning, and they plan to be active
during my trip, so I will try to stay away from their operations as
much as possible, as I expect they will be very popular. They
have a pretty good propagation chart on the 4W6A website, that
should
be useful for hints on the path to Saipan as well, since we are not
all
that far apart. Do not think I will get to work them before I
leave. Ready to leave tomorrow for the long 24 plus hour
flights
to Saipan, and will plan to arrive very early in the morning of the
21st.
13 Sept 2011 Packing is continuing, as I remember
things
to put in. I plan to attend the TAPR DCC in Baltimore, this
weekend just before departure. Everything is still going as
planned for the trip. I plan to work all bands except
160
(no antennas), as the propagation allows, and will try to follow the
most active bands as the day progresses.
5 Sept 2011 Getting ready
to travel, with a packing list. Everything is still on track
for
an on time departure. As depatrure gets closer, it seems time
goes faster. I am looking forward to this adventure to a new
country for me.
I support the
DX Code of Conduct. Please click on the logo and read and
please
follow the good operating practices when in a pile-up.
When a pile-up is in progress please follow
my lead and if I am only sending signal reports, that is all I need
from you. If you are using macro's just make them small
please. If it is very slow and I send name and qth, then it is
ok to send the same back to me. This will allow a pleasurable
experience for all of us following the conditions.
QSL:
LOTW is prefered, and will be uploaded daily during
operations. Also Clublog is down at the bottom of this page
to check with before sending a QSL. Paper QSL's will be
printed and sent out once I
return to Virginia, to those that provide SAE and $2 for postage,
or
SASE for US hams. **NO IRC**
QSL Address:
W6HGF
Al Danis
Po Box 220164
Chantilly, VA 20153-0164
Many thanks to QSL.NET for hosting
this webpage, and also to Michael
G7VJR and his team for the great work with ClubLog. I plan to
upload to ClubLog at least daily during the trip, usually just
before
going to bed. Please make sure you are in the log before
sending
QSL's.
I support the
DX Code of Conduct. Please click on the logo and read and
please
follow the good operating practices when in a pile-up.
When a pile-up is in progress please follow
my lead and if I am only sending signal reports, that is all I need
from you. If you are using macro's just make them small
please. If it is very slow and I send name and qth, then it is
ok to send the same back to me. This will allow a pleasurable
experience for all of us following the conditions.