OY3JE QSL Preview

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Created on Sunday, 25 November 2012 21:09

QSL-OY3JEThe Faroe Islands offer a stunning backdrop that make beautiful photography that look just gorgeous on any QSL card, sunsets and Aurora Borealis are my favourite subject for a design. This new design for OY3JE Jan will be printed and available very soon. QSL Via M0URX. 

QSL-OY3JE-BACK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have received a parcel from Jan containing 115 letters. All letters have been processed through the log. QSL cards will be posted once the cards arrive from the printer.

PJ4NX - Bonaire - QSL Via M0URX

Details
Created on Sunday, 25 November 2012 07:15


QSL-PJ4NXWelcome Peter, PJ4NX in Bonaire, to the United Radio QSL Bureau. QSL now Via M0URX. OQRS is now open.

Peter has sent me the full log so I can now process QSL requests. A NEW QSL card is currently being designed and will be printed soon. I expect to be able to post QSL requests by Christmas. Please be patient while I wait for the cards to be printed.

Peter will upload to LoTW regularly. Please use my OQRS for QSL requests where possible please, both for Direct and Bureau. I ask you please do not send any cards to PJ4NX through the Bureau system, if you can use OQRS please use it. Save costs!

Any stations that I am QSL manager for will always be glad to work you, however I ask you to follow the DX Code. If the DX station is asking for a specific area STAND BY and DO NOT call. Some of the behaviour from Europe now is unacceptable and the DX will just close down if you carry on like this. Thank you for your attention.

3A/ON5UR & 3A/ON8AK

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Created on Thursday, 08 November 2012 10:15

Monaco-banner

 

 

 

 

 

 

After more than 6 months work and hundreds international phone calls, we finally find a "base location" for a DX trip to Monaco.

Callsigns: 3A/ON5UR - 3A/ON8AK - Operators Max and Marc.

Date: 9 - 17 November 2012.

SSB operation only.

QSL via M0URX Tim.

 

So far we have permission for one base station, but we hope to find a solution to get two stations on the air.

We will operate from 10 to 80 Mtr.

 

Website Now Live - Monaco Gallery

3A/ON5UR Log search

3A/ON8AK Log search

JX5O

Details
Created on Wednesday, 07 November 2012 17:33

I am pleased to announce that good progress is being made with discussion with Stan SQ8X for the transfer of QSL manager for JX5O.
I have now received the log. OQRS is open for NEW requests ONLY

Old Requets: Very Important: Please read carefully.
For those who have paid by OQRS to Stan, please email me direct at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Stan has agreed to transfer me the money for the postage of your direct OQRS. Please email me a copy of the PayPal invoice for my reference. I will then bill Stan, and the letters will be posted once the money has been trasferred from Stan.

Stan has a further 80 - 100 direct letters and these will be replied to by Stan.

We will consult with a courier to arrange shipment of the boxes from Poland. I will make a further announcement as and when I have more news. I have no time frame just yet but you will get the QSL.
Please if you are emailing me, be polite, any nasty emails will be deleted or moved to the back of the pile! Please do not use cluster for discussion on this matter. Email me please.

Stan informs me "I have sent a big number of bureau cards already. Some are pending but this is something I can manage here" 

Please DO NOT under any circumstances make a double request for Direct or Bureau cards already requested, as this will delay and cost money.

All previously requested QSL's will be honoured. My OQRS is only for NEW requests.

I repeat. DO NOT... that is DO NOT use OQRS for QSL cards already REQUESTED.

Thank you for your understanding. Tim M0URX

10m Is On Fire As Signals Go Round The Globe.

Details
Created on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 13:50

QSL M0URX 2Wow what a morning on 10m! Although I have a day off work today I was up early and switched on the computer to check on emails and check band conditions, all very quiet but I noticed that a warning of an X1.8 flare had been issued at 0322z this morning. So I made a cup of tea and back into the shack to wait for the bands to open. 

10m opened at 0700z with a QSO to Paul VK5PAS in Adelaide Australia, closely followed by a spot on the cluster for VR2XMT Charlie in Hong Kong, always a good operator to work and with a very strong 59 signal. I decided to call CQ on 28.528 MHz and soon had many European and Asiatic Russians calling me, "what was that a ZL? The ZL again please?" "Zulu Lima Two Bravo Charlie Golf" Just brilliant, my first ZL on 10m, I love that buzz you get from working DX, conditions just excellent.

Then many Japanese stations calling in. After about an hour it seemed to go quiet so i tuned around, I found Glenn G8NOF further down the band working a VK2, I joined them for a few minutes as Glenn wanted to go QRT so he said take the frequency so again I called CQ DX beaming towards VK, and VU3KPL from Bangalore India called in, another CQ and a reply I struggled to work out where to beam all I was getting was L7 or NL, i tried again, and got the call "NL7V beaming long bath" rotator turned to about 150 degrees and there he was, NL7V in Alaska, some 20,720 miles on long path. we also tried the short path which was slightly stronger, Glenn called back in to work the NL7 I noticed a loud echo with G8NOF it sounded like our signal was going around the globe, great to hear, and something I don't hear very often on 10m. 
Phewww, I need a cup of tea! 

MX0LDG Lundy Island EU-120.

Details
Created on Saturday, 20 October 2012 14:59

How it all started - Written by Anthony David MW0JZE.

141020121352A few months ago I was asked to supply 1 x Hexbeam to John M5JON for his solo Lundy trip accompanied by his XYL Sarah, attached to that was an invite if I was interested. Was I interested, was I!!!! Always up for an injection of RF and the more remote location the better. As the weeks progressed we were joined by Pete M0ILT and Chris G1VDP. John booked the Stony Croft cottage which to my knowledge is the highest point of the island all apart from the old Lighthouse which was right next to us. A date was set and plans were being made, Mid Oct was decided as the date and we all planned our leave from work. 
 
 
 
 
Three stations were agreed on with two main and one spare: 121020121325
Station one : TS-590 Expert Amp Hexbeam. 
Station two: K3 KPA-500 Amp Hexbeam. 
Station three: IC-706 100w ¼ vertical 40m.
 

Unfortunately Chris G1VDP had to pull out with only 6 weeks left before the trip, we made the decision not to replace him confident that we could still manage with 3 ops. We changed the TS 590 to the TS 570, still a great radio.

111020121286
 
Wed 10th Oct 2012
John M5JON drove up to Wales to pick myself up (MW0JZE) as I just had two much stuff to carry on the train, almost 60KG, and that was without the Hexbeams!!  Arrived at Johns around 8pm, few glasses of wine and an early night.

Thursday 11th Oct 
A 5pm start was needed as the MS Oldenburg sails from Ilfracombe North Devon which is approx. 2.5 hour drive from John M5JON QTH and we also had to pick Pete M0ILT up from Taunton en route. We arrived with 1.5 hours to spare so we found a nice little café were a very welcomed breakfast and coffee awaited us.  

The crossing was around 2 hours and we arrived at 12 midday after a few beers on the ship!

 As all the baggage is taken to the accommodation we took advantage of a lift in a Landover as the walk up to the small village is quite steep and we wanted to save our energy for setting up the 3 stations.  Due to the workload that the staff had at that particular time we had to wait almost 2.5 hours for it to be delivered, this was cutting it a bit fine to get the 2 hexbeams up before it started to get dark. As the kit arrived we were quickly unpacking all the antennas, none of us had ever worked together as a team before , 

121020121323I was impressed how well we all got on and managed to erect the 2 hexbeams, 1x 40m vertical and 3 stations in around 3.5 hours with very strong winds. Each hexbeam was at 6.5m with a 4 way guy system and manual rotation from the base of the mast with rotatable guy rings. The 40m vertical had only 4 radials, we were going to cut more on site but we never did. It worked very well with only 4.
 

 I was the first to call MX0LDG at 20:33 GMT on 40m and was soon running quite a pile-up into EU, IC8AJU was first in the log. 117 stations were logged during the first hour. I was surprised by this as I along with John and Pete thought that Lundy had been done many many times in the past. Station was closed at 22:45 as the power goes off at 23:00 GMT or midnight local time with 182 in the log.

2004 02070012


Band conditions were not fantastic but Lundy seemed to be quite wanted by many EU ops on the HF bands. On investigation it seems that many other expeditions to Lundy have been light weight in comparison to what we carried out or mainly on VHF. On times the pile-ups were quite intense logging over 150 per hour at times, this was short lived as the QSB was massive, 59 to 43 in a few seconds which slowed the rate down.  

On the Saturday and Sunday there was a Scandinavian contest which made 40, 20, 15 and 10m quite congested so we concentrated on the WARC bands. 17m was very busy but 12m did not come alive until later in the afternoon. 12m attracted quite a few American stations with K5DXX in NM being the best. Total of 16 states being logged along with quite a few South Africans stations around the same time off the side of the beam, not to mention lots of EU.

As the days went past we also tried to take a few breaks for some exploring, we found the Pub and the shop HI. The Pub or Tavern seems to be the centre of the islands activities and is the venue for flight briefings, ships departure updates and any other important information. While most of the cooking was to be done in our cottage it was decided we would spend an evening or two at the Tavern,  the food here is great with plenty of choice from Gammon Egg and Chips (Or was that Ham Pete) to some more rarer menu items such as Goat, I can recommend the Goat personally. John and Pete said I was behaving like a Kid after HI. The shop is where you can stock up on food, drink (beer) and Lundy merchandize ranging from stamps to clothing. 

121020121312Lundy is home to Three Light Houses Lundy Old Devon ENG 073 (Our cottage was next to Lundy Old) Lundy North ENG 074 Lundy South ENG 075 If you would like to climb up the Old Devon Light ENG 073 you will need to sign a disclaimer saying that you will not jump off the top, I am not kidding here! If you agree not to jump then you will be given the key to exit the light room and walk along the balcony, what a view. I live in South Wales in a town called Llanelli which is approx. 50 miles or 80 Kilometres due north from Lundy across the sea and with binocular’s I was able to see Burry port Light house Wal 035 only a few miles from my house quite clearly. This is a great place to take photos from on a clear day.
 

We were due to depart the island on the Tuesday afternoon so both Hexbeams, spare station and one main station were packed away. The 40m vertical and one main station were kept up for some last evening’s activity on 40m. With all the gear packed away we returned to the Tavern for the last meal of our stay only to be told that the ship would not be running the next day due to high 60mph winds and high sea swell. 

121Normally a Helicopter is on standby by to airlift visitors off but there were no spare pilots so an extra day’s stay was enforced upon us! So back to the shack for another day!! 40m opened up quite nicely with many EU stations late into Monday night. Tuesday was very windy as promised and the 40m vert had taken quite a beating by the wind and needed to be guyed more securely. With the built in tuner on the HF amp we tried tuning the vertical on other bands with some success but mainly on 20m as it was acting like a very crude ½ wave. We closed the log with 5078 in the log and last station logged was 9A6TKS.

Wednesday morning soon came around and we were ready to go by 9:30, off to the tavern for a flight briefing. There was a small flight supplement of £27 to pay for the helicopter, this is a cheap opportunity to fly in a helicopter and a first for me! By 18:00 we had dropped Pete off at home and had arrived back in Bristol awaiting my XYL Laura MW6INK to pick me up for my last leg trip home to Llanelli. One small point, Lundy is ONLY 41 miles from my home, it took me 7.5 hours traveling!!! May be I will charter a boat directly next time!

Final stats for MX0LDG are as follows: 

5078 QSOQSL-MX0LDG
109 DXCC
37 on 10
23 on 12
56 on 15
61 on 17
91 on 20
60 on 40 
We had a massive 10k hits on our qrz page in a week, amazing!!! Many thanks for working us and making our trip as successful as it was.
 
John M5JON Team leader
Pete M0ILT Team Elder
Ant MW0JZE Team antenna man and head chief

MS0OXE QSL Cards Posted

Details
Created on Wednesday, 17 October 2012 19:02

QSL-MS0OXEMS0OXE QSL Cards - 141 direct letters posted 18/10/2012.

MX0LDG Lundy Island EU-120

Details
Created on Saturday, 06 October 2012 09:58

QSL-MX0LDG
A small group of 3 like minded DXer's have come together to form the Lundy DX Group and have obtained the Club call sign of MX0LDG.

The first activation of the group will be from Lundy Island EU-120 from the 11th - 16th October 2012.

They will be running 2 stations, 3 where possible, on all bands from 40m through 6m, on SSB with the possibility of some data modes from 06:00 hrs to 00:00 hrs each day. The islands electricity is turned off between 00:00 hrs and 06:00 hrs every night. This will be sleep time for the ops.

The equipment to be used will be a Elecraft K3 with a KPA500 amp, a Kenwood TS590s with a Expert 1K amp (400W) and a IC706 as a backup radio/3rd station.

141020121352
Antennas will be 2 x G3TXQ Hexbeams supplied and built by Ant, MW0JZE, the main sponsor of the activation and a 1/4 wave vertical for 40m.

Team Members: John, M5JON, Peter, M0ILT, Ant, MW0JZE.

QSL Information: QSL Via M0URX

The log will be uploaded to ClubLog and LoTW.

Please use the OQRS on Tim's website.
DO NOT SEND CARDS FOR THIS ACTIVATION VIA THE BUREAU PLEASE USE OQRS ONLY.

IOTA Reference: EU120
WAB SQUARE :SS14
LOTA: Lundy Island Old Devon Light ARLHS ENG - 073
LOCATOR : IO71pe
GRID REF : SS132 442

16/10/2012 - Update: Stuck on island for another day. WX is bad so no boats sailing. Helicopter does not have any pilots so we fly out tomorrow morning. We have one station still running with a 40m 1/4 wave with several radials. The Vertical tunes well on 15m and are transmitting on 21.255 for a few more hours. Just over 5k in the log and all will be uploaded to LoTW and clublog soon.

Many thanks for working us. MX0LDG (M5JON, M0ILT & MW0JZE)

 

Orange International Call Charges Shocking!

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Created on Friday, 05 October 2012 18:30
In our hobby of Amateur Radio and especially with my work in QSL management and areas of DXpeditioning I often find myself needing to make International telephone calls, and for convenience I use my mobile phone network "Orange" which has in the past 16 years that I have had a contract with this communications company their International phone charges were very reasonable, up until just recently! I was staggered to see a charge on my bill for £7 for 11 minutes of a call to Belgium. I immediately contacted the billing department to inform them of a mistake in the billing of this call, only to be told that the call charge was correct.
 
Orange
The chart on the left shows the new per minute International call charges for each zone.
 
On investigation it appears that the reason for this massive hike in International call charges is down to the regulators across Europe forcing down the cost of International Roaming charges, in an attempt to recoup revenue, Orange have stuck up two fingers to me and other loyal customers and raised Internatiional call charges from the UK to a these high charges.
 
Orange have refunded me the cost of my International charges for last month and apologised for not informing me of this price rise. However these International call charges are not going to change!
So beware! Check your network, you may be in for a shock like I was! 
 

IRC's To Be Phased Out In UK

Details
Created on Monday, 01 October 2012 17:17
Here in the UK for some time we have been trying to find out the long term security of International Reply Coupons. We now have an answer from Royal Mail about the rumoured phasing out of IRCs
 
"IRCDue to declining international mail volumes and electronic substitution, customer demand for International Reply Coupons has been falling dramatically over the last few years. Overall sales of International Reply Coupons have been very low indeed - on average just 4 per annum bought from each Post Office branch. Therefore, it was no longer commercially viable to maintain the sale of coupons and Royal Mail has taken the decision to withdraw them from sale.
 
International Reply Coupons have not been withdrawn globally from sale. Under UPU regulations Royal Mail through Post Office Counters is obliged to redeem International Reply Coupons presented having been purchased overseas, but we are not obliged to sell them. However, I can confirm that customer have up to December 2013 to redeem IRCs."   
 
This seems to be much more in line with the Royal Mail's responsibilities under their UPU membership.  Looks like they're safe until 31st December 2013. It may be that the UPU will change their rules after that date!
 
United Radio will be phasing out IRCs as we will then not be able to redeem them for stamps or cash.

MS0OXE QSL Preview

Details
Created on Monday, 01 October 2012 14:37

Here is the QSL card preview for MS0OXE. QSL cards are now in the print room and will be posted out during October.

QSL-MS0OXE-BACKQSL-MS0OXE

Bureau Posting News Outgoing!

Details
Created on Friday, 28 September 2012 21:55

Saturday 29th September 2012 - 9,283 QSL cards dispatched to World Bureaus directly.

The biggest parcels are:Japan 1,827, Germany 1,305, Russian Fed 792.
This posting includes QSL cards from the recent activities of 5B/G4MKP, 9M4SLL & CY9M.

Total weight:40.1 kg, Total postage cost: £290.39, average 3p per Bureau card.
For a full list of Bureau packages click read more tab.

Read more: Bureau Posting News Outgoing!

UK Phasing Out IRC's

Details
Created on Tuesday, 25 September 2012 12:57
I was informed at the Post Office today that the next stage of the withdrawal of International Reply Coupons from the UK will soon take place. 
 
"QSL Via M0URX" will now be phasing out the use of IRC's for exchanging QSL cards. 
I will continue to sell IRC's for the time being while I have stock.
 
This is completely out of my control so I am sorry that as from the end of 2012 NO IRC's will be accepted.
I do not have a date that the Post Office will stop accepting IRC's it is likely that the service will just be withdrawn without notice.
QSL exchange will be $2 by post or OQRS €2.

IRC's For Sale

Details
Created on Sunday, 23 September 2012 07:27

IRCUnited Radio QSL Bureau have a number of IRC's For Sale worldwide.

Re-circulated IRC's (Correctly stamped & Valid until 31/12/2013) GBP £1.10 each + Postage + a small Paypal charge, 
I will post to anywhere in the World.  

If you want to buy IRC's please send me an email on "Contact M0URX" Page. I will quote you on the price for the amount of IRC's that you want to purchase. 

Letters to post 21/09/2012

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Created on Thursday, 20 September 2012 22:26

5B/G4MKP, 9M4SLL & CY9M Direct QSL cards were posted Friday 21st September.
All direct QSL requests up until last Sunday completed.

European Union Letters:   1,030
Rest of the World Letters: 1,489
18 packets including GDXG, MDXF, DDXF and DX Italia.

116 letters from last week posted out on 24th September 2012.
  73 letters posted 26th September 2012.
  81 letters posted 5th October 2012.

MS0OXE Isle of Tiree EU-008 13-20/09/2012

Details
Created on Monday, 10 September 2012 19:30

beach on isle of tiree“So where shall we go this year for the DXpedition?”
“What about Tiree?”
“Good idea, but where is Tiree?”

And so the team from the “Black Country DX and Contest Group” find themselves out and about setting up station this year on the Scottish Isle of Tiree.

From Thursday 13th September until Monday 17th September MS0OXE will be on air 24/7 and will continue on to Thursday 20th as bands dictate.

The team will be QRV on 160-10m, SSB, CW and RTTY. The team wants to give every operator the chance to work Tiree and additionally for their IOTA marathon scores.

QSL Via M0URX OQRS

More information can be found at: MS0OXE Website
IOTA: EU-008, SCOTIA: DI-10, Loc: IO66ml, WAB: NL94, IOSA: NH 04.

Operators: Simon M0VKY, Terry G4MKP, Brian G0JKY, Drew G7DMO.
The team will have the following equipment on the island and look forward to working you from the Isle of Tiree.

Transceivers:Tiree MS0OXE
1 x Elecraft K3 (CW)
1 X Yaesu FT-1000MP (RTTY)
1 x Yaesu FT-897 (spare)
1 x Yaesu FT-1000MP (SSB)

Amplifiers:
2 X ACOM 1000 400W (1 spare)
1 X SPE 1K 400W

Antennas:
2 X HEX BEAMS 20m - 6m
1/4 wave vertical 30m
1/4 wave vertical 40m
1/4 wave vertical 80m
1/2 wave dipole 160m

Band pass filters, array solutions six pack and coax stub filters to allow multi op/multi band operation. 
LoTW uploaded daily.

5B/G4MKP QSL Preview

Details
Created on Tuesday, 04 September 2012 14:06

QSL-5B-G4MKPAnother QSL card in the printroom is 5B/G4MKP, Terry was QRV from Cyprus during August. The QSL card will be available from mid September. I always ask the operators that I am QSL manager for to make sure that they take high resolution images, the final finish has a much sharper QSL card and with some very skillful design work by Max, ON5UR the QSL looks excellent!

I have had several emails asking about the curent situation with QSL cards. All 5B/G4MKP, 9M4SLL & CY9M QSL cards will be out by the end of September. 

The Bureau dispatch to all World Bureaus is also still on schedule for end of September. 

 

CY9M QSL Preview

Details
Created on Sunday, 02 September 2012 07:40

Here is the CY9M direct QSL card preview. Cards will be posted out in the last weeks of September. 

QSL-CY9M

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

QSL-CY9M-BACK

Please note that the Bureau QSL will be a single 2 sided QSL. The OQRS is open for Direct and Bureau QSL requests. I have scheduled the Bureau cards to be posted direct to World Bureaus at the end of September.

9M4SLL QSL Card Preview

Details
Created on Tuesday, 28 August 2012 03:09

Thanks to the design work of Max, ON5UR, I am pleased to preview the 9M4SLL, Spratly Island direct 4 sided QSL card.

QSL-9M4SLL-DOUBLE-2

QSL-9M4SLL-DOUBLE-BACK

9M4SLL Spratly Layang Layang, 7 - 13 August 2012

Details
Created on Sunday, 19 August 2012 16:54
QSL-9M4SLL
9M4SLL Spratly Layang Layang, 7 - 13 August 2012 
by Steve Telenius-Lowe, 9M6DXX
 
Spratly DXpeditions are a bit like the Number 43 bus… you wait for hours then three come all together or, as in this case, you wait four years for a Spratly DXpedition then you get three within six months. Yes, before this year the last activity from Spratly had been in April 2008. Some may recall the January 2011 DX0DX operation that was scheduled to take place from the Philippine-occupied Thitu, or Pagasa, island which, unfortunately, never materialised. As a result, Spratly had gradually worked its way up The DX Magazine ‘100 Most Needed Countries’ survey to number 29 this year, up from 32 last year (world-wide, mixed modes).
 
SOME HISTORY
In 1998 I was a member of the 9M0C Spratly DXpedition that operated from Layang Layang Island (formerly known as Swallow Reef). This DXpedition netted 65,524 QSOs, the highest ever from Spratly and a record that still stands. After I moved to Kota Kinabalu (9M6) in 2005 I began to think about making a return trip to Layang Layang. The following year I teamed up with John, 9M6XRO (who had moved to Kota Kinabalu earlier in 2005), in an attempt to activate Spratly. In addition to having a licence from the Malaysian licensing authority, it is also necessary to obtain separate permission from the Malaysian government to operate amateur radio from Layang Layang. In 2006 that permission was granted by the Royal Malaysian Navy, which maintains a base on the island. For John and me this was easy: we visited the navy HQ in Kota Kinabalu, provided a photocopy of our passports and a passport-size photo, filled out an application form and a week later we had the necessary permission.
 
We were about to announce the DXpedition for April 2007 when a Japanese group announced its activity as 9M4SDX at precisely the time we had planned to go. Never mind, we thought, for us it is easy to go any time, so we would postpone our trip until the following year. In 2008 we applied and again received permission, only to have the same thing happen when an American couple announced their activity for early April 2008, followed later in the month by an operation by a group of three Norwegian amateurs.
 
DSCN1929
John and I then applied for a third time, but this time permission was not forthcoming. Unbeknown to us, in May 2008 the authority responsible for the island had been transferred from the Royal Malaysian Navy to the government’s National Security Council. The responsible office was now outside Kuala Lumpur, a two and a half hour flight away for us. Letters sent to the office by us and the navy commander simply went unanswered.
Since then at least two groups had announced operations from Layang Layang that did not happen. It seemed it was no longer possible to obtain that all-important operating permission.
 
Then, to our surprise, Pekka Ahlqvist, OH2YY, made a short one-man DXpedition from Layang Layang in March this year, followed by the 9M0L operation the following month. Operating permission was once again being issued, we thought. John wrote to the office in May but heard nothing, despite several follow-up phone calls. By July we had all but given up hope of ever activating Layang Layang when, out of the blue, a short e-mail was received granting permission for the two of us for the following month!
 
Bookings were quickly made with the resort on the island and the flights booked. With the cooperation of the Borneo Amateur Radio Club, of which John and I are Life Members, we received a special event licence with the call 9M4SLL.
 
EQUIPMENT & ANTENNAS
There is a weight limit on flights to and from the island, so we wanted to keep things as lightweight as possible while still operating two 400W stations. I have a Yaesu FT-857D and Tokyo Hy-Power HL-1.2Kfx linear, so my choice was quite simple. John has an Icom IC-2KL linear but, together with its power supply, it weighs 21kg. He decided to take a 1960s-vintage KW-1000 linear, using a pair of 572B valves, instead. At only 15kg it saved an important 6kg, while providing approximately the same output.
Although John has an Icom IC-7000 transceiver, we have used it together with my FT-857D at various locations before and have suffered from phase noise causing interference in each direction. He decided instead to take his Ten-Tec Omni VI transceiver which, although larger and heavier than the IC-7000, has a very clean transmit output and superior receive performance.
For antennas, I have used a Butternut HF6V-X for many years and have always had good results with it. However, it does not cover 12 and 17m, so I ordered the Butternut A-17-12 add-on kit from Bencher which fortunately arrived in good time before the trip.
 
DSCN2038aUnfortunately, it took longer to get on the air than we had anticipated. The first problem was with the Butternut. The antenna was resonated easily on 80m, 40m, 30m and 20m, but the SWR was all over the place on the higher bands, and almost infinity on 15m. I assumed that the 15m problem was something to do with the 12m / 17m kit - after all, the last time I used it, it worked fine without the kit, put the kit on and suddenly it is impossible to get a good SWR on 15m. Hmm. So the antenna came down and we checked all the joins, making sure there was low resistance between each section of the HF6, but couldn't find any problems. Antenna back up; still the same. Down it came again and a lot more head scratching went on. I checked that the 15m wire decoupling stub was making a good electrical connection with the tubing of the Butternut. It was. But the 15m problem had to be something to do with the decoupling stub.
 
Eventually (and it took quite a while) I discovered that there was a completely open circuit between one end of the 15m decoupling wire and the other end of the same length of wire! How can a single length of plastic insulated wire be open circuit? I snipped off a couple of inches from both ends and checked again. Still definitely open circuit!
 
So I cut off one of the radials, replaced the 15m decoupling stub with the same length of radial wire, put up the antenna again and hey presto! - low SWR on 15m. 
It took a while to get good SWR on 17m, 12m and 10m, but eventually all was OK. I bought the HF6V-X in 1990, so I guess after 22 years of assembly and disassembly, and operation (usually) right next to the ocean, salt water had got into the wire, worked its way up through capillary action, and eventually corroded so much that the wire had crumbled or snapped somewhere along its length.
 
We then started work on John's antenna. He wanted to try a 43ft vertical for 20, 30 and 40m, and four separate 5/8-wave wires for 10, 12, 15 and 17m supported by a lightweight fibreglass cross-arm at the 37ft level. We made this up and started to push up the whole contraption. I was at the bottom holding it in place and John was walking it up, but I yelled at him to stop as the weight of the cross-arm plus the four wires was causing the pole to bend so much it seemed likely to break. Plan B was to remove the cross-arm but still to use the four 5/8-wave wires, tied at the 37ft level, and splayed out at different angles. This time the pole went up easily, but the five wires became badly tangled. By this time it was 5.00pm, we had been out in the sun since 9.00am in a temperature of around 35C in the shade (though there was no shade), we were both very tired, dehydrated, sunburned and needed a rest, a long drink of water and, in fact, three cold beers. After the beers it was already dark and too late to start thinking about radials.
So for the first night, we had one station on the air but we were so tired (having also been up since 3.00am to catch the flight) that we closed down early anyway. The following morning we were out in the sun again untangling the wires and laying out the radials on John's verticals. Each wire was matched through a wide-range (manual) ATU at the base of the vertical. It was easy to get a good match on all bands apart from 12m. Whatever we tried, 12m would not match.
 
QSL-9M4SLL-SINGLE-BACK9M4SLL ON THE AIR
We became fully active with both stations on 8 August and immediately found that the verticals by the water were doing their usual stuff. We were lucky with propagation and had some great long-path openings into VE1, W1, 2, 3 and 4 - even one night on 12m SSB. John tried 12m CW the next night but although he worked plenty of Europeans unfortunately there was no long-path North American opening the second night.
Most nights 12m and 15m stayed open till about 2.00am, 17m till 4.00am, and 20m just about throughout the whole night. This is unheard of from home in 9M6, only 300km from Layang Layang, even using beam antennas, though inland. On the other hand, on most days all bands were almost dead from shortly after dawn until about 4.00pm.
With only two stations (and operators) we obviously must have missed some openings. For example, when 12m was wide open to Europe perhaps 10m would have been as good?
The local noise on the island was absolutely zero and it was possible to work stations at ESP levels, providing another station did not call on top!
 
John’s Ten-Tec proved to be extremely clean and not once did I receive any interference from him. As suspected, the FT-857D, though a great little transceiver, was not as good in this regard and John had the occasional problem with phase noise on one or two particular combinations of bands. By and large, though, this was not an issue. We used monoband Dunestar band-pass filters on each station.
 
The 43ft vertical worked well; it was marginally better than the Butternut on 40, 30 and 20m, but both it and the 5/8-wave wires were down on the Butternut on the higher bands. On 15m in particular, the Butternut was way better than the 5/8-wave wire, even though there was a good match through the ATU.
 
STATISTICS
I have always reckoned that 1000 QSOs per station per day is a good target for a DXpedition. But on this trip thanks to a combination of an almost perfect location with good propagation – and putting in some long operating hours! – we exceeded that target by almost 50%. In 6 days and 7 hours of operating we made 18,227 QSOs, of which 9800 were on SSB, 7237 on CW and 1190 on RTTY.
 
The continental breakdown was as follows:
Africa              121       0.7%
Asia                5839     32.0%
Europe            9609     52.7%
North America  2281     12.5%
Oceania           302       1.7%
South America 75         0.4%
Totals             18,227 100%
 
Further statistics can be found on Club Log by going to https://secure.clublog.org/charts/?c=9M4SLL#r and clicking on “Statistics”.
John and I left the island in a Twin Otter at 9.00am local time on 14 August and I was back home having a cup of tea at 10.50am. It is weird to realise that there is a rare DXCC entity just a 60-minute flight from home! Thanks to QSL Manager Tim, M0URX, logs were uploaded to Club Log and Logbook of The World the following day, just two days after the end of the operation. For those of us who prefer traditional paper QSLing, a four-sided colour card is being printed for direct cards and a two-sided colour card for bureau requests.
 
Photographs have been provided with permission by Steve Telenius-Lowe, 9M6DXX.

9M4SLL Spratly Island LoTW upload.

Details
Created on Wednesday, 15 August 2012 13:44

9M4SLL log has been uploaded to LoTW, there is currently a LONG delay on the LoTW system please wait for LoTW to process the file. 

Log has now been uploaded to Club Log online log search. Expeditions page.

 

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