He had a solid S-7 signal at my QTH around 0230Z last night Ben, and solar conditions look to be fairly similar so you should have a pretty good chance. Hope you work him!

John K7KB

Congrats on the ATNO Jon I try to convince a few of the local DX'ers who won't work RTTY that sometimes getting them on that mode is sometimes easier because there is not nearly as much competition. Good thing they don't listen to me 

John K7KB

For those looking to work 3B9 from the West Coast, they were on 17M last night at around 0130Z with a decent S3-S5 signal. Not real loud, but certainly copyable. It only took a couple of calls to get them in the log.

John K7KB

Just to let everyone know, 5U5U finally uploaded his log to Clublog so now you can check your Q's.

https://secure.clublog.org/charts/?c=5U5U

John K7KB

If don't seem to have any issue using Green Stamps with Kyrgyzstan but it's best to check their QRZ.com page to see if they have any special instructions. The only time I've had to use IRC's with that part of the world is for a few hams in Azerbaijan.

John K7KB

The only time I've worked Clipperton was FO0XX on 40M phone, so yes, I need them for a bunch of band fills.

John K7KB

Yes, they would have their DX'pedition right in the middle of a solar wipeout. The SFI down in the 90's, A-Index in the 30's, K-Index around 6. When conditions are like that here in the Northern latitudes, you might as well turn off the radio and work on the stack of QSL cards to send out

John K7KB

That's what I was thinking as well It reminds me of when I asked my wife if I could buy a US Tower TX-472 and 3-element SteppIR. She told me "Whatever makes you happy sweetie." She is very understanding when it comes to our expensive hobby

John K7KB

Bob: I've worked them on 17M SSB (0044Z) and 30M CW (0138Z), which I consider extremely lucky. However, I also worked TR8CA in Gabon on 30M at almost the exact same time the day before.

John K7KB

"You are on the East Coast... Just work them already. "

You would think that would be the case, but it seems every location has a certain area that's a royal pain to work even though it shouldn't be. For me, it seems to be the upper region of the East Coast around Sable & St. Paul Islands. When CY9M was on, I had to really work to get those QSO's and they were just usually above the noise levels. In the past when Sable Island was on, I could barely hear them at all.

The question I have for you Ben is how you managed to get permission to put up a Tri-bander up on the roof of your apartment complex? Do you own the complex, or just good pals with the manager?   Nice station BTW.

John K7KB

At first I thought to myself, "So, what's the problem?". Then I thought: "So lets do a Google of 'Yagis not a good beach antenna'" When this blog popped up from W8TN, a member of the NH8S Swains Island DX'pedition:

"Have you ever wondered why current DX'peditions that are set up on a beach do not use yagi antennas?  A 2-L vertical next to salt-water, produces a stronger signal up to an elevation angle of about 3° than a 4-L yagi at 100-feet on 20-M!  There is no way for a DX'pedition to put up a 4-L yagi at 100-feet so the dipole is clearly superior.  If you lower that yagi to 70-feet the elevation angle moves up another 4° so the SVDA is KING.  You can look HERE on the Force 12 web site for a full description of what this type of antenna can do.  However, the key to the SVDA working this well is the salt-water so it won't benefit you to put one up here in WV!"

Although I don't see too much disparity in the total number of QSO's. Swains had 105404 in 10 days while Conway had 71693 in 6 days. But it would be interesting to see a breakdown of geographic QSO's to see if there was a major disparity in areas worked between the two.

I'm sure the choice in what antennas they use is not only by their own choosing, but also what kind of corporate, club, and other organization donations they receive. But as it is, they still provided a lot of ATNO's including mine so I'm happy

John K7KB

By the way, the link for the Force 12 SVDA is:

http://www.texasantennas.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=240&Itemid=249

For those who are interested, there are some photo's of the DX'pedition here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/117668077218135394042/3D2C

John K7KB

And for those of us here on the West Coast, we could say the same about Africa However, I did work TT8 on 17 and 30 meters so I'm happy with snagging that one.

John K7KB

One of the DX'peditions I've been looking forward to work in the near future is Sable Island for a ATNO. I just got a note from Ron, one of the team members letting me know of a slight delay:

"Hi John,
 
We just made an update on the website. We have delayed the departure for Sable Island by two weeks. Operation will be from Oct. 22-31 and will include the CQWW Phone Contest weekend. Since we had not finalized and announced the change, I needed to wait to respond to your e-mal.
 
Thanks for your interest. We will look for you from Sable Island.
 
More details to follow on our website.
 
Thanks
 
Ron, AA4VK"

It's nice that they can be active during the contest and hope they rack up a good score. Although I think I would rather try to work them out of the contest, split, rather than during a contest madhouse simplex

John K7KB

Whoohoo! I was just parked on 20 around 14.016 when I hear this weak signal calling CQ. Weak, but certainly copyable, T6JC. I can finally cross this "Stan" off my list for a ATNO 

John K7KB