OY1OF Ólavur Frederiksen this week reports that the strong Aurora made some quite specacular views on Faroe Islands. Thanks for sharing these beautiful images. Photographs courtesy of Ólavur Frederiksen.
Are you a DXpeditoner in the United Kingdom? If you are a DXpeditioner planning an overseas expedition this year or a QSL manager sending International mailings and you are in the United Kingdom then you may be interested to read that i can add you as a "poster" on my International mailing contract.
You do not need to be posting huge amounts of mail to benefit from international posting at discount prices. At a time when every penny counts and budgets are tightly squeezed this could help your DXpedition financially.
Once registered you will be expected to separate the mail into two Zones, European Union countries and Rest of the World, all in alphabetical order. You will need a set of letter scales and a calculator.
All billing is done on line, once you have filled in the posting docket and taken the mail to the nearest mail centre you transfer the money to my bank on line.
If you you are interested to know more please contact me off line or call me on 07976 292980.
QSL Managers Available for Worldwide Teams If you are looking for experienced QSL Manager services for your DXpedition? Then both Charles Wilmott M0OXO http://www.m0oxo.com and Tim Beaumont M0URX http://www.m0urx.com both have capacity for QSL manager work for DXpeditions and IOTA's for 2012 and 2013.
Features: OQRS and Pay Pal facilities incorporated on both websites. Fully supported for Bureau in, and outbound QSLing direct to World Bureaus. Fast LoTW uploads. All QSL printing taken care of. Fast and efficient outgoing direct QSL mailings assured. and much more...
If you need further information please contact us direct.
I have a number of IRC's for sale at £1 GBP each plus postage costs. If you would like to buy some please use "Contact M0URX" page. More info Click Here: IRC's For Sale! If paying by Paypal it will cost a little more due to PayPal charges.
The rest is made up with packages to: Alaska, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Some may think that using the Bureau system is free, well I am sorry to say it is not free.This lot weighing 29.5 kgs just cost GBP £196.41 to post.
Wow, i have just calculated that during 2011, I have posted 27,316 QSL cards to World Bureaus. Aprox' 200 letters ready to post on Wednesday, just waiting for New Year holidays to pass before posting.
I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2012. As I have just had 4,800 Bureau cards arrive it is time to get some work done, but first I want to thank all at U.R QSL Bureau & DX Team for a great year! Thank you and Merry Christmas. As we say goodbye to 2011 and look forward to what 2012 might bring us, it is time to reflect on the past 12 months, the good times and the bad and learn from our experiences and take this forward to the challenges ahead.
January - I said farewell to MW0JRX Oliver Bross, as he started a new life in Darwin Australia, Oliver had been the IT Guru that helped me bring the United Radio QSL Bureau to what it is today. With Oliver moving on it was time to search for someone to take the IT parts of the work here to provide the seemless continuation of the service that you, the DXer experience.
We welcomed “Association de Radio Amateur Sept-Iles Inc” to the UR Bureau with Steve VE2TKH the main operator at the club and throughout 2011 provided many stations with CQ Zone 2 on many new bands. Of course with so few operators in CQ Zone 2 Steve has been very busy and kept me working hard on the QSL requests.
February Bob 5B4AGN flew to the Pacific Ocean QRV as T88ZM & KH0/G3ZEM, while Olavur OY1OF was experiencing some spectaular Aurora Borealis over the Faroe Islands, sharing with us some of the beautiful photographs as the Aurora fluttered over the club house of the Faroe Islands Amateur Radio Club house.
Also in February VK8NSB Stuie Birkin was continuing to make headway on the plans for a major DXpedition to Timor-Leste later in the year. The DXpedition involved a lot of negotaiting with various people, from several countries and would provide us all with significant challenges in the months ahead.
February saw the 10,000th OQRS request in at the QSL office! Oliver MW0JRX had now settled in Darwin and had received his new call sign VK8DX and made several thousand QSOs in the coming months. John 9M6XRO and Steve 9M6DXX operated from Palau Satang Besar, OC-165 in East Malaysia preceeded with a trip to Brunei where Murphy just lurked at every corner.
March John 9M6XRO managed to leave Murphy behind while John visited family in New Zealand QRV as ZL/GD3OOK from Waiheke Island OC-201.
March brings CQ-WPX Contest, always a busy time for all the United Radio Team, Steve 9M6DXX travelled once again to Sarawak and was QRV as 9M8Z, while the Strumble Head DX & Contest crew were operating as MW9W and MC0SHL from the clubhouse on the farm in Pembrokeshire.
As M0URX operating from home I made a long path contact on 10m SSB with 2 stations in Hawaii logging NH7O and AH6RR a distance of 28,476 km, was this a sign that the sun was beginning to wake up from several years of the quietest sunspot activity for 100 years? 9M6XRO John made another trip to Brunei adding a further 2,000 Qs to his log.
April was a bumper month for QSL work from the recent DXpedition activities from the United Radio Team.
April also was the date for 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. GR1VDP Chris was QRV on air during the time period 29th April 2011 and 9th May 2011 for the special callsign authorised by OFCOM.
May 9M6XRO John made yet another trip to Brunei, while Steve 9M6DXX had been working as editor for the RSGB IOTA Directory on the new edition that hit the shelves this month.
The DXpedition to Timor-Leste issued Press release number 3, the website went live as the team requested club sponsors and announced that the team had sourced generators and a charter boat to the destination of Atauro Island.
Announced this month by Max ON5UR (our QSL design and printer) was a DXpedition to Market Reef, the plans set the DXpedition sailing to the reef in August.
June was a massive month for the UK based operators with Col MM0NDX and his team sailing to the Monach Isles EU-111 and St Kilda EU-059 this trip had seen some exhaustive communications with several bodies so that the team could operate from the top of St Kilda's high cliffs. This was achieved with great success and a log containing over 11,000 Qs from the two IOTA's.
Dudley & District Amateur Radio Society joined the United Radio DX Team with a trip to Isle of Skye EU-008, while the Strumble Head DX and Contest Group made their annual trip to Ramsey Island EU-124. All the activities this month were threatened by severe winds battering Great Britain for what seemed weeks, but just in time the seas calmed and the sun came out, in between some very squally storms. Sporadic E was great in June with MC0SHL working 400 Qs in a couple of hours on 6m.
M0URX Tim received news that the CQ DX Marathon had placed Tim in 2nd Place on the SSB Mode wth 283 points. A great achievment as Tim has a samll station from home with a G3TXQ Broadband Hexbeam antenna made by Anthony MW0JZE, no other antennas, just patience working every DXCC he could as and when time allowed.
2nd M0URX243 + 40 = 283 (73rd overall) Then later in June at the Fredrichshaven show it was announced that M0URX had been placed joint third in a vote by DARC members for Outstanding QSL Service in the preceeding year. I was very honoured by this and appreciate the DARC members showing their appreciation for my work, thank you!
July P29CS Andy traveled to Vanuatu for a family holiday and found time to be QRV as YJ8A.
August OJ0UR was On Air from Market Reef EU-053 making 18,000 QSOs with excellent conditions to North America and Japan. August also was the month that I introtuced the NEW OQRS service on the website, Software written and installed by Bernd DF3CB. Some 4,000 OQRS requests already received since the installation.
I welcomed James Thresher M0YOM to the U.R. Team as IT Manager in charge of keeping everything that you see here alive and 24/7, 365 days a year. A big responsibilty James! I appreciate your expertise.
Septmeber This month just blew me away! En route to Timor-Leste John 9M6XRO and Steve stayed in Bali OC-022 but due to bad local high noise floor only managed 52 Qs. While Ant MW0JZE & Tim M0URX boarded the Airbus A380 heading to Darwin Australia to meet up with the team members of 4W6A. Little did we know that while we were on board that aeroplane, the sun was erupting with the biggest sun spot activity seen in some years. I will never forget switching on the transceiver on 4W6A and making those first CQ calls "CQ CQ 4W6A listening 5 up" some of the team were outside still erecting antennas when i heard Steve say "Tim is working a massive pile up on 20m to North America" I shouted "MAKE THAT 10m!!!" At which point I heard a bundle of spanners falling to the floor as the team rushed in to the shack to see if i was really on 10m, I was, and for the next 10 days and nights the team worked relentlessly in the heat on shifts of 4 hours on 4 hours off. We expected conditons to be quiet during daylight hours but to our surpise the sun spots had reached record highs for Cycle 24 and day in, day out we were flat out, so much so that by day 9 and 10 we were all feeling the effects of just taking 3 or 4 hours sleep a day, or night, whenever you could grab a break in between shifts or antenna maintenance and generator refueling.
John and Bernd were heroes on CW, with the Titanex 160m vertical and 80m dipole, the Hexbeam gave us the extra band choices for a quick band change as we followed the sun from rise to fall. At one point I recall on 10m I had not noticed that after a generator refueling the Electraft KPA-500 was still OFF and I was working a pile up to Europe, North America and Japan on 10m with just 30 Watts. Conditions were awesome, just how lucky were we to time this expedition at a time when sun spot Cycle 24 really took off to conincide with the Equinox. We were working Long Path to Europe on 12m, and the same for much of the day on 20m, while 10m was mainly Short Path with huge signals. For me this was a huge experience working with a great team that had bonded well as a DXpedition. Thanks guys, I will never forget this trip. 41,362 Qs, just awesome!
October This was a month of intense data processing as QSL requests were hitting me from every source, OQRS direct and bureau, and letters hitting the PO Box daily. 13,000 QSOs were processed on the 4W6A log this month for QSL.Thanks to Kev M0TNX as he tackled the incoming email enquiries and kept me sane as it would have been so easy to buckle under this workload. Coming home from an 8 hour shift at work to sit at the PC and do 6 - 8 hours every day hitting the log books and processing all the requests.
Band conditons were sizzling hot, 9M6XRO John was working pile ups daily on 10m and 12m, OY1OF Olavur & OY4TN Trygvi, hit the airwaves keeping the Faroe Islands active while VE2CSI was QRV too from CQ Zone 2 in Canada working the World. I have never seen QSL requests coming in so fast. I was also working much DX myself working T32C on 10m and E51 South Cook Island, Marqueases Island and French Polynesia just brilliant! M0OXO Charles has also been very important in helping me keep on top of things, travelling down from Barnsley to help with the OJ0UR QSL mailing. Charles and I are both QSL managers, working together to bring you guys the service that you demand.
November & December 4W6A QSL cards arrived from the printer and soon after 2,800 letters were in the post.
So what will 2012 bring? Many of the United Radio Team are already working on a number of projects for the year ahead. Drop by the website and keep yourself up to date with our activities.
During 2011 United Radio QSL Bureau has paid the printing costs of 57,600 QSL cards for the stations managed.
Since I returned home from the 4W6A Timor-Leste DXpedition work has continued, to process 14,000 QSO's through the log for QSL both Direct and through the Bureau. I am pleased to say that 2,810 direct letters will be posted on Monday 28th November also packages of QSL cards to our sponsors for members of GDXF, SDXF and DDXG.
Please remember that there are some QSO's lost between 17- 19 September. this was due to logging software bug. We are sorry if you have been affected. PLEASE check the log before you send or request the 4W6A QSL.
1,804 Bureau QSL cards have been posted also, including: Germany 175 QSL cards. Italy 140 QSL cards. Japan 536 QSL cards. Russia 350 QSL cards. Spain 157 QSL cards. Ukraine 200 QSL cards. USA 200 QSL cards.
Here at the United Radio QSL Bureau we are proud to send out the highest quality QSL cards we can find. This doesn't just happen, it takes years of working together with QSL card designers and printers that are dedicated in providing me with the card quality I need to do my job as QSL manager for my clients, and for you the DX'er.
Some high volume QSL card runs for DXpeditions and Contests Stations can be extremely expensive when you are talking about tens of thousands of cards. So i am proud to present a QSL card for the DXpedition and Contest Teams.
Max ON5UR Print Services has now developed the perfect High Quality Full Colour front and back QSL using 300gr card with UV-varnish front. Free design with no hidden costs
I am proud to be able to present to you the design of the four sided QSL card of the recent 4W6A DXpedition of Timor-Leste OC-232.
4W6A DXpedition maybe over, but work continues to ensure that the QSL requests are processed. Currently over 33% of the log has now been processed for QSL either direct or bureau. Max ON5UR has now designed the QSL card that will be sent to all direct requests. Bureau requests will receive a two sided QSL card.
The QSL card shows the team in front of the 4W6A shack. On the back of the QSL card, team member Oliver stands on the beach front with the antennas behind him. Inside is the photo of the G3TXQ Broadband Hexbeam by MW0JZE at sunrise on Atauro Island. QSL cards are expected to be posted out towards the end of November.
Logging Failure: There are some QSO's lost between 17- 19 September. this was due to logging software bug. We are sorry if you have been affected. PLEASE check the log on Club Log before you send or request the QSL. Missing QSOs will not be confirmed on QSL.
Log Book Control: Please make sure that when you request ANY QSL card that you mark your log as QSL SENT either Bureau Direct or OQRS. This is very important, i am receiving many QSL requests for direct using OQRS and PayPal, then a Bureau request and then 3 weeks later I receive for the same QSOs a letter with $2. This is not only a waste of your money but also delays my work in getting QSL cards out. Please control your logs. Thanks.
787 letters containing QSL cards from the August DXpedition OJ0UR Market Reef, and QSL cards from recent VE2CSI & 9M6XRO activity will be posted on Monday morning.
Bureau QSL cards have also been sent to the following Bureaus.
375 QSL cards to Japan 200 QSL cards to Germany 137 QSL cards to Italy
I am getting enquiries about the 4W6A QSL card. The QSL card is now being designed and will be delivered here late in November for posting. Currently 12,700 log entries have been processed for QSL which is 30% of the log. IRC's (International Reply Coupons) For Sale.
The 4W6A DXpedition is now history. The team of Stuie, VK8NSB (team leader); Oliver, VK8DX; Bernd, VK2IA; Ant, MW0JZE; Tim, M0URX (also QSL manager); John, 9M6XRO; and Steve, 9M6DXX; plus pilot Col, MM0NDX, and assistant QSL manager Kev, M0TNX, would like to take this opportunity to thank all the DXers who made a QSO with 4W6A for their patience during the big pile-ups.
Copies of the licence and other validation material have been sent to both the DXCC desk and the RSGB IOTA Manager and 4W6A has been accepted for DXCC and as OC-232 for IOTA. Logs were uploaded to Logbook of The World a few days after the end of the DXpedition. QSL cards have been ordered and we are awaiting the final proof of the QSL design from the printer. As of 23 October, QSLs for over 11,000 QSOs – 27% of the total log – have already been requested either direct or by OQRS. And this less than a month after the end of the DXpedition! These requests have already been processed and the direct QSLs will be sent as soon as the cards are received from the printers. Bureau cards requested by OQRS will be sent out soon afterwards, with direct mailings to the major QSL bureaus of the world.
A report on the DXpedition with a few photos and videos can be found at 4W6A Storywhile 150 more photographs have been uploaded to www.4w6a.com/about-timor-leste/gallery.html More videos taken by VK8DX and MW0JZE can be found on YouTube - search “4W6A” and look for the videos uploaded by “mw0jze”.
Finally, we would once again like to publicly thank all the DX groups, companies and individuals that so generously sponsored this DXpedition. All are listed on the 4W6A website at www.4w6a.com/sponsors We look forward to seeing you from the next location – wherever that may be.
The QSL for OJ0UR Market Reef has now arrived at the QSL office. 28th October 2011 - QSL cards will be posted within a few days. All incoming OQRS Requests have now been processed.
A well-known DXer recently told me that he rarely reads DXpedition reports in radio magazines or DX clubs’ journals. He said they were all the same: “we travelled to an unusual place, we made lots of QSOs, we came back”. To some extent this is true, but what does interest me in a report about a DXpedition are the details that are particular to that particular location: the sort of information that might help me if I wanted to organise a DXpedition to the same place. This may include licensing, why the location was chosen, what went wrong, what went right. And so that is what I will concentrate on in this report. The bare facts and figures can be found in separate tables.
LICENSING
Licensing in Timor-Leste (East Timor) is now very straightforward indeed. It is still not widely known, but in 2008 Timor-Leste adopted the ‘Class Licence’ system, based on the Australian model. The “Instruction manual for filling AT applicant notice form”, available on the ARCOM (Timor-Leste licensing authority) website, states: “In accordance with the Class License Overseas Amateurs Visiting East Timor, 2008 Overseas Amateurs could operate an amateur station up to 90 days from their arrival to Timor-Leste without applying for Amateur License.”
What this means in practice is that any amateur can operate as 4W/own call (or own call/4W - it is not clear which standard ARCOM favours) without even having to apply for a reciprocal licence at all.
However, for this DXpedition we wanted to use a ‘proper’ 4W callsign and so three of the team members put in applications for full Timor-Leste licences, each with a choice of three requested callsigns. Here, we must thank Geoff Williams, 4W6AAD, an Australian amateur working in Dili, who took time out of his busy schedule to take our applications personally to the ARCOM office, chase up progress and, eventually, collect the completed licences for us. This whole procedure took several weeks but eventually we received our individual callsigns. We were particularly pleased that a single-letter suffix was issued for us to use on the DXpedition.
The licences were issued free of charge and are valid for one year.
LOCATION
Two main factors influenced our choice of location. Firstly, we had heard from several amateurs that downtown Dili had high levels of electrical noise, so we wanted to be well away from the town centre. Secondly, since we planned to use mainly vertical antennas, we wished to have access to a beach so the antennas could be located within a few metres of the ocean, thus providing us with extra low-angle gain. Although Dili is located on the north coast of the island of Timor, the main east-west road runs right along the coast, and all accommodation is on the ‘wrong’ (landward) side of this road. It would be impossible to put antennas on the beach if we were located in Dili.
We therefore looked at the island of Atauro and quickly found that it ticked all the boxes. Firstly, there was no mains electricity at all on the island, so we figured it should be electrically quiet. Secondly, the only accommodation available to visitors on Atauro, a small ‘eco lodge’ known simply as ‘Barry’s Place’, offered 150 metres of ocean frontage, allowing us to line up all our antennas along the beach at the high-tide mark.
From an amateur radio point of view, Atauro Island also had the advantage of having a separate IOTA reference from the main island of Timor. OC-232 had only been activated once before, by 4W6GH/P way back in July 2000, and had been claimed by only 17.9% of IOTA chasers prior to our operation.
Barry, the owner of the lodge, is an Australian married to a Timorese lady, and they could not have been more helpful. We were accommodated in two two-storey wooden chalets. All four stations were on the ground floor of one chalet, with one bedroom above. Four of the operators slept in the other chalet, while two operators opted to sleep in tents (also supplied by Barry).
The accommodation at Barry’s Place is basic but quite comfortable. There is a shared ‘eco-friendly’ composting toilet and an adjacent shower room. Known as a mandi, this consists of a tub filled by a natural spring, from which you scoop water over yourself. Later in the day the temperature of the stored water had risen somewhat, but at 6.30am the mandi might best be described as “invigorating”.
With no mains electricity, illumination in the shack and elsewhere is by solar lighting. This is not designed to operate continuously throughout the 12 hours of darkness though, and the lights would simply switch off at around 3.00am when they ran out of stored energy. From then until sunrise, all operating was done entirely with the light from laptop screens.
POWER SOURCE & TRANSPORTATION
The disadvantage of operating from Atauro Island was that since there was no mains electricity we had to hire generators. We hired two Honda 3kVA petrol (US: “gas”) generators in Dili at a cost of $1200 (the US dollar is also the currency of Timor-Leste).
There is a passenger ferry which runs between Dili and Atauro once or twice a week at very low cost. This is used mainly by local people to go to the weekly market on Atauro. There is also a ‘water taxi’ which runs when required but, with seven operators, around 600kg of equipment, plus the generators, it was too small for our use. We therefore had to charter a larger boat to take us to and from the island. We made arrangements for generator fuel to be sent on the water taxi when required. Petrol cost $1.90 per litre, three times the amount of petrol here in Malaysia.
NOISE!
One of the main reasons for choosing Atauro Island as the DXpedition location was that with no mains electricity we assumed there would be no electrical noise. Wrong! Imagine our surprise, not to say disappointment and even shock, when we first turned on the rigs and heard S9+30dB noise across the whole of 160, 80 and 40 metres!
Where could this noise possibly be coming from? It was too late to investigate on our first night, so we operated on the higher bands plus made a few QSOs with the strongest stations through the noise on 40m. Late in the night, the noise disappeared but the following day it was back again.
It took two days to track down the source of the noise. It turned out to be a Chinese-made mains inverter that Barry used from time to time to power a 220V fridge, freezer and satellite television from batteries. Grounding the inverter helped a little, but 160m was still completely unusable. Barry was as helpful as could be and agreed to switch off the inverter and use his generator instead. What a great host!
With 160 and 80m now quiet apart from the occasional static crash, we thought the local QRM problem had been solved but, the next evening, just as the East Coast of North America was being worked on 160m, a strong ‘buzzing’ noise came up on the band. This continued until after 11.00pm local time, and then went off. The next day we discovered this was the mains-powered television which was now running off Barry’s generator.
This, and an earth noise loop from our own equipment, continued to plague 160 and 80m operations for the whole DXpedition: the noise situation was what might be expected in a large city but not on a remote island with no permanent electricity supply!
PROPAGATION
Propagation conditions can only be described as “superb”, especially on the higher frequency bands. The experience of team members in VK8 and 9M6 led us to think that all the bands would be very quiet from an hour or so after sunrise until a couple of hours before sunset each day, but nothing could have been further from the truth. For the first time since the previous solar cycle, 10 and 12m really opened up, with superb signals from North America – even the east coast and Caribbean area – as well as South America, Europe and Africa.
On 15, 17 and 20m we had excellent long-path openings into Europe and all the high bands – even 10m - stayed open until well after midnight local time every night. Simply unbelievable! After sunset all nine bands from 10 to 160m were open simultaneously, but with only four stations available (and only seven operators) we had to make some difficult decisions on which bands to use. We figured that 4W was most wanted on 160, 80, 12 and 10m, so these were the bands we favoured when they were open.
Before the DXpedition we were told that no-one on the east coast of North America had ever worked 4W on 160m. John, 9M6XRO, was therefore on 160m every evening at sunset, during the very short opening to the east coast. Propagation did not play ball every night but, when there were good openings, QSOs were made with KV4FZ, N3XX, N4WW, NX4D and N4IS. Many more North American, Caribbean and South American stations were worked on 80m, both on CW and SSB, as well as Europeans and a number of stations in southern Africa.
We made over 41,000 QSOs in total: for the statistical break-down, please see the tables.
SPONSORS
We are very grateful - and were somewhat overwhelmed - by the superb response to our request for sponsorship. A few DX clubs and foundations even volunteered sponsorship without our requesting it from them. What wonderful ham spirit!
Sincere thanks, then, go to: CDXC (Chiltern DX Club), LA DX Group, Oceania DX Group, Northern Ohio DX Association, German DX Foundation, Northern California DX Foundation, RSGB DXpedition Fund, European DX Foundation, GM DX Group, IREF (Island Radio Expedition Fund), Clipperton DX Club, Nippon DX Association, Northern Illinois DX Association, Twin City DX Association (Minnesota), Western New York DX Association and Swiss DX Foundation.
In addition, we received sponsorship from seven commercial companies and donations from around 90 private individuals before the DXpedition took place. All are thanked most sincerely: their names and callsigns can be found on our website at www.4w6a.com/sponsors
All the operators paid their own air fares from the UK, Malaysia and Australia to Timor-Leste, plus their own accommodation and food and drink costs both en route and in Timor-Leste itself. Thanks to the sponsors, though, we did not have to worry too much about the cost of shipping the bulk of the heavy equipment, including linear amplifiers, antennas and coaxial cable, from Darwin, Australia, to Dili in advance of the operation. Without the sponsors we would also have thought twice about the high cost of hiring and fuelling generators, and of transporting everything in a specially chartered boat. Finally, sponsors are helping to pay the cost of providing high-quality four-sided colour QSLs for those who worked 4W6A.
TABLES:
4W6A DXPEDITION TEAM
In 4W:Stuie Birkin, VK8NSB (team leader) Oliver Bross, VK8DX Bernd Laenger, VK2IA Ant David, MW0JZE Tim Beaumont, M0URX (also QSL Manager) John Plenderleith, 9M6XRO Steve Telenius-Lowe, 9M6DXX Pilot:Col McGowan, MM0NDX Assistant QSL Manager:Kev Haworth, M0TNX
EQUIPMENT
3 x Elecraft K3 transceivers 1 x Elecraft K2 transceiver 2 x Elecraft KPA500 linear amplifiers 1 x Acom 1000 linear amplifier 1 x Yaesu FL-2100Z linear amplifier
ANTENNAS
160m Titanex V160E with 24 ground radials 80m Quarter-wave wire vertical on 18m Spiderbeam pole with 16 quarter-wave ground radials 40m Rippletech (Australian-made) quarter-wave ground plane with 4 elevated radials 30m Rippletech quarter-wave ground plane with 4 elevated radials 17m Rippletech quarter-wave ground plane with 4 elevated radials 15m Half-wave vertical wire dipole on 12m Spiderbeam pole 12m Half-wave vertical wire dipole on 10m Spiderbeam pole Butternut HF6V-X vertical for 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 & 80m with 18 ground radials G3TXQ Hexbeam (by MW0JZE) 2-eles on 10, 12, 15, 17 & 20m
STATISTICS (with thanks to Clublog www.clublog.org)
I am pleased to report that after a long journey home from Australia, I am now home and working through the thousands of QSL requests and emails. Please be patient, if your request requires an email reply then I, and my team will get back to you soon. Thank you for your understanding.
After 12 months of planning, team members of 4W6A are beginning their journeys today. One of those journeys is being taken be me, so as from today the United Radio QSL Bureau will be closed until my return on 30th September. Of course you can still request your QSL cards by all routes as normal. My post will be collected from the PO Box daily. Your OQRS requests will be stored electronically on the server and the Bureau cards are being held back at the RSGB until i return home. If you have any questions, please be patient! I will reply as and when i can while I am away.
I have scheduled the posting of the OJ0UR Market Reef QSL cards for the week after my return home. So please keep your QSL requests coming!
I continue to find ways to improve your experience of the QSL exchange, many of you tell me frequently how you find my QSL services, hopefully with the introduction of the new OQRS (Online QSL Request System) by Bernd DF3CB your experience of the website should be enhanced. If there is any aspect of the United Radio QSL Bureau that you think could be enhanced please let me know, I welcome your ideas.
So what route will I be taking to get to Timor-Leste? After a two hour coach trip to London, Heathrow Airport, there is a seventeen hour flight to Darwin, NT, Australia Via Singapore. I will be traveling with Ant, MW0JZE. In Darwin we will meet up with VK8NSB, Stuie, (Team leader) VK8DX, Oliver & VK2IA Bernd, The following day we fly to Dili, Timor-Leste where we have some work to do gathering supplies, generators need to be picked up and checked, fuel, food, water all needs to be bought and then the day after on Friday 16th September the rest of the team arrive, 9M6XRO, John and 9M6DXX, Steve, fly in from their pre DXpedition warm up in Bali, Indonesia.
You can find out more about 4W6A on our website: Click here!
This is the sixth and final press release before the 4W6A DXpedition. The bulk of the equipment, including the linear amplifiers, the Titanex V160E vertical, Hexbeam and other antennas, left Darwin, Australia, on 6 September. It has all arrived safely in Dili, Timor-Leste, and is now awaiting the arrival of the team next week.
9M6DXX and 9M6XRO leave Malaysia on 12 September for a transit stop in Bali, from where they plan to be active 'holiday style' as YB9/G4JVG and YB9/GM3OOK respectively. Unfortunately, due to a late change of airline timetable, they will not now arrive in Dili before the afternoon of Friday 16 September. The chartered boat taking the team and the equipment to Atauro Island has therefore been rescheduled to later that afternoon.
It is likely that only one or two stations will be on the air that day as the team will run out of daylight before all the antennas can be erected. The remainder of the antenna work will commence at first light the following morning (approximately 2115UTC on 16 September) and 4W6A should be fully operational by the morning (UTC) of 17 September.
4W6A will be QRV on all bands 10 to 160 metres, using CW, SSB and RTTY with up to four stations simultaneously. It is hoped that log search will be available, thanks to the Clublog facility (go to www.4w6a.com/qsl-information/log-search), but this is dependent on a reliable Internet connection being available on the island. Col, MM0NDX, is the pilot for 4W6A and is responsible for providing feedback to the team. He may be contacted at
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This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it 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 quickly as possible after the end of the operation or, if possible, also during the DXpedition. Direct or bureau QSLs may also be requested using the M0URX Online QSL Request Service (OQRS) at http://m0urx.com/oqrs (there is also a link from the 4W6A website at www.4w6a.com/qsl-information).
We look forward to having fun in the pile-ups and we hope you have fun chasing 4W6A. 73, The 4W6A Team.
John, 9M6XRO, and Steve, 9M6DXX, will be operating 'holiday style' as YB9/GM3OOK and YB9/G4JVG from Bali (OC-022) from 12 to 15 September on a stopover while on their way to Timor-Leste for the 4W6A DXpedition.
Activity will be part time but on all bands 6 to 80m using CW and RTTY (YB9/GM3OOK) and SSB (YB9/G4JVG) using 100W to beam antennas.
QSL both YB9/GM3OOK and YB9/G4JVG via M0URX, direct, bureau, LoTW and OQRS.
4,872 QSL cards have been posted to the following world Bureaus: 20.5 kg
Germany 629 QSL cards Japan 550 QSL cards Poland 394 QSL cards France 342 QSL cards Other 40 QSL cards
The M0URX OQRS (Online QSL Request System) is the easiest and fastest way for you to request your DIRECT and your BUREAU QSL cards. I post to all Bureaus here at least every 3 months. Remember - You can log into the OQRS with your call sign and email address, you can check on when your request has been processed. Remember - It does not matter if you worked 1 or 20 bands slots with one station, that counts as one QSL card.
Tim Beaumont
I have a number of IRC's for sale at £1 GBP each plus postage costs.
We expected conditons to be quiet during daylight hours but to our surpise the sun spots had reached record highs for Cycle 24 and day in, day out we were flat out, so much so that by day 9 and 10 we were all feeling the effects of just taking 3 or 4 hours sleep a day, or night, whenever you could grab a break in between shifts or antenna maintenance and generator refueling.
Since I returned home from the 4W6A Timor-Leste DXpedition work has continued, to process 14,000 QSO's through the log for QSL both Direct and through the Bureau. I am pleased to say that 2,810 direct letters will be posted on Monday 28th November also packages of QSL cards to our sponsors for members of GDXF, SDXF and DDXG.
Max ON5UR Print Services has now developed the perfect High Quality Full Colour front and back QSL using 300gr card with UV-varnish front. Free design with no hidden costs 
A well-known DXer recently told me that he rarely reads DXpedition reports in radio magazines or DX clubs’ journals. He said they were all the same: “we travelled to an unusual place, we made lots of QSOs, we came back”. To some extent this is true, but what does interest me in a report about a DXpedition are the details that are particular to that particular location: the sort of information that might help me if I wanted to organise a DXpedition to the same place. This may include licensing, why the location was chosen, what went wrong, what went right. And so that is what I will concentrate on in this report. The bare facts and figures can be found in separate tables.
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