ZL9HR-Campbell Is Dxped feedback forum

[KY6R]

It sure would help if information (like about overnight plans) could be posted to the main dxpedition webpage instead of having to dig around in various random threads on different dx forums...

Tor
N4OGW

There is another way to get real-time info w/o having to glue yourself to the rig or a computer - if you have a droid-based phone:
http://www.ae5x.com/blog/2012/12/02/dx-cluster-app-for-droid-updated-improved/

Set it up to alert specifically to ZL9HR on your band of choice by a W, VE, whatever. When he's spotted and the criteria fits the filter, your phone will chirp. Many chirps mean get outta bed and go work him!

This way, the info comes to you - you don't have to go looking for it.

John AE5X
http://www.ae5x.com/blog

John - thanks so much! This app is killer - better than using a browser or logbook window looking for spots.

I'll be waiting a long time for the alarm to go off for the one's I need:

3Y0/B, E3, FR/G, FR/T, FT5Z, KH5K, KP1, SV2ASP/A, VK0/H and VP8/S

Maybe SV2 . . . . with serious praying I guess . . .

[K4JK]

They were probably S7-8 here in VA this morning on 30m. Hope that holds up... Rich, please tell them that's an FB time and band to work little pistols in NA. (Say 0800z - 1100) I didn't get up early enough and had to QRT for work, so I couldn't call for very long. I'm pretty confident I could have worked them though. I'll be sure to set the alarm extra early for tomorrow.

Thanks for your work on this one!

[AE5X]

John - thanks so much! This app is killer - better than using a browser or logbook window looking for spots.

I'll be waiting a long time for the alarm to go off for the one's I need:

3Y0/B, E3, FR/G, FR/T, FT5Z, KH5K, KP1, SV2ASP/A, VK0/H and VP8/S

Maybe SV2 . . . . with serious praying I guess . . .

It's not just for bedtime! I got ZL9HR on 10m due to being notified via the app while I was in the garage changing the oil in my lawn mower. It's the firstDX I've ever worked with dirty 10W-30 on my hands. 

John AE5X

[KY6R]

They were probably S7-8 here in VA this morning on 30m. Hope that holds up... Rich, please tell them that's an FB time and band to work little pistols in NA. (Say 0800z - 1100) I didn't get up early enough and had to QRT for work, so I couldn't call for very long. I'm pretty confident I could have worked them though. I'll be sure to set the alarm extra early for tomorrow.

Thanks for your work on this one!

Will do!

[WB3BEL]

30m in early AM east coast NA also is primetime for the whole world.  So I would not think its the best band for little pistols.
I was there early this morning.  The ops were working EU, NA, Asia intermixed.

Yes the signal was good, but there are hundreds or thousands of callers...

On the other hand they were also S9 on 40m SSB before east coast NA sunrise.  But they seem relatively deaf.  Exceedingly slow Q rate and only working guys here with yagi and QRO.  I think there is a noise problem on 40m for them...

I think the little pistols will have better luck in the evening on 15 or 12 meters. 

[K3STX]

I actually got through on 20 CW this morning around 1300UTC. I was running 100 watts and my antenna was a dipole cut for 20 meters aiming right at Europe/ZL up 30 feet. They were quite weak, but they got the call just fine and the pile was not large.

paul

[AJ4RW]

On the other hand they were also S9 on 40m SSB before east coast NA sunrise.  But they seem relatively deaf

I'm glad you said that.  They had a great signal and I called them for about an hour on 40 mtrs CW with absolutely no results.
Randy

[KB3LIX]

This one is beginning to shape up like Conway Reef, and Christmas
Island did for me...never heard any of them.

Still not a peep, and the outlook doesn't look too good
with the solar flux below 100.

c'est la vie !

Such is not life, such is an antenna system!  If you had just stopped with XMAS Island I would not have paid attention, but 3D2C was very strong on many bands and ZL9HR was 59 on Saturday night on 20 meters until 2 AM when I changed bands and then shut off the rig.

What are you using for an antenna?  ZL9HR should be able to be heard on a simple dipole at the right time and band.  I did not say worked, but at least heard and you aren't hearing a peep.

73,

Chris/NU1O

Frankly,
I envy guys like you that have the resources to have a big fancy station
with limit amplifiers and the equivalent of a scrap yard full of aluminum in the air. As a retiree, I do NOT have the option to spend BIG BUX on equipment.

I am stuck with a measley Hustler 4BTV or a homemade doublet
made from zip cord at about 20'. My limit is 100 watts when I do hear someone.

I am also fighting geography here.
I live on the eastern slope of a ridge that runs north-south.
I am at approx 1000-1100 amsl. The ridge tops out at over 1400 feet amsl
and the peak of that ridge is no more than 1/2 mile WEST of me.
If you have ever been to southwestern Pennsylvania you have an idea
just how rough and difficult the terrain here is.
The takeoff or "look" angle kis difficult to determine because of the trees,
but it is at LEAST a 45 degree up angle, probably more.

That makes hearing something in the South Pacific, or Asia (China, VietNam,
Myanmar, Cambodia etc) VERY DIFFICULT.

I have HEARD China exactly twice since I started in 2006.
Hong Kong maybe 5 times (never got thru to HK)

Sorry Chris, but all I can say is congrats on your decent station.
There are lots of us out here that don't have the luxury of having what
you and many others have available.

I will keep listening, maybe I'll get lucky !
And maybe I won't....either way...

c'est la vie

[N6PSE]

You don't have to spend big bucks in this hobby to have an effective station. You can get good used tri-band antennas for 10-15-20 meters for $50, sometimes even free!    You can do as Rich-KY6R has done and makes his own antennas at virtually no cost.

Your posting reminds me of the some of the many email messages I get following our DXpeditions to 7O, ST0R etc.

We generally run gain antennas and 800-1000 watts with good coax, yet we get email saying " I heard you on my dipole at 20 feet off the ground and I called you with 20 watts, but you never came back to me! What is wrong with you guys!"  Seriously!

[W4VKU]

Like Paul says, it does not have to be expensive. My first tower was a used 40ft Rohn25 picked up for 200 bucks.
I drove 300 miles each way to pick it up. My yagi was a Mosley that i picked up for 100 bucks. It could have worked as
is, but spent some more doe to refit with new hardware etc.

Even a light weight yagi with a Rohn pushup mast that is guyed very well will do the job. The hex beams will work too,
but u gotta spend the money to get those fiberglass tubes to make one.

Any directional antenna, even 2 elements will work well as compared to a static dipole at 45ft esp for 20-10m.
Past that point, increasing the Tx power to a few 100 watts will be money well spent. Even a SB200 goes for like
300-400 bucks these days.

73s
krish
w4vku

[KB2FCV]

My station is fairly modest with a simple dipole up 50 or 60 feet and I was able to hear them ok and work them. I try to do the best I can do with what I have. I picked a good tuner, good feedline and got it as high as I could. There have been some expeditions that I was never able to hear, but then again there have been some I never expected to hear, but I have the QSL here in the shack to say otherwise. A5A and S21YZ were two I never thought I would have worked but propagation was great and I'm in the log. It's just one of those things I don't give up on and keep trying and listening.

When I first really started getting back into DXing I was still living in an apartment. I had an indoor antenna at the time. When I wanted to try for a dxpedition, I would sometimes drive up to the top of the hill in town, toss up a dipole and work em! I think I did that for VP6DX and one other. I worked them with 5 watts on my K2 I had at the time.

Where there's a will, there's a way.

[K3STX]

I have HEARD China exactly twice since I started in 2006.

I live not far from you in MD. Until recently I had NEVER heard China since 1978. In looking at my antenna (a 100’ doublet) and trying to “guess” its lobes (I don’t computer programs) I thought that perhaps my problem was that China was in a NULL on 20 and 15. So I put up a dedicated 20 M dipole up 25’ oriented E/W (to hear well N/S) and I worked my first BY station EVER on the very first night the antenna was up!! I have worked many many more since then, all 100 watts.

Maybe your antenna orientation is off, and maybe some things can be changed CHEAP! 25’ is low for a DXers antenna; sure you can’t save up for surplus fiberglass military mast and use guy ropes AND the inverted vee itself to get it up HIGHER than 25’? Time for some creative thinking, how to get higher than 25’??!!

paul

[KY6R]

Look at my QRZ.COM page for a full description of my home made antennas. Look carefully at the 12M Moxon. 4 dBd and it cost $50 to build. I worked ZL9HR with one call with it. It is on a cheapie old TV mast, and can be turned with a cheap channel master TV rotator.

You can even nest two Moxon's as KG4JJH did - and I have actually built this antenna and worked 7O6T with it. For me - 7O6T was VERY, VERy hard - but I made it - using another $50 antenna. The biggest expense was 4 Cabella's "Crappie Poles":

http://www.kg4jjh.com/dbwb.html

I am one away from Honor Roll and worked the first 300 with 200 watts or less and wire antennas. Even the yagi's I built cost me nothing - because I purchased old antennas that were literally lying in someones "back 40" - so dirty they had leaves and dirt inside the tubing. I built 4 killer yagi's for $325

I am one away from Honor Roll - and yes, i did buy an Ameritron AL-811H amp - which isn't too expensive. But if you have even 4 dBd and 100 watts - its way better than a dipole and 100 watts.

[K3STX]

Even a SB200 goes for like 300-400 bucks these days.

Krish,

For a whole-lotta people $300 is a whole-lotta money. I bet to get even a "free" tower in the ground is gonna cost at LEAST $100 in cement (not to mention labor).

It is easy for some of us to forget how fortunate we really are.

paul

[W1VT]

I live not far from you in MD. Until recently I had NEVER heard China since 1978. In looking at my antenna (a 100’ doublet) and trying to “guess” its lobes (I don’t computer programs) I thought that perhaps my problem was that China was in a NULL on 20 and 15. So I put up a dedicated 20 M dipole up 25’ oriented E/W (to hear well N/S) and I worked my first BY station EVER on the very first night the antenna was up!! I have worked many many more since then, all 100 watts.

paul

This is very good advice--while the gain of a large wire antenna looks great on paper, in practice the well defined lobes of a half wave dipole are usually the better choice if you can point them in the right direction.  A bidirectional antenna is a great choice for over the pole path the Asia from the Eastern USA.

Zack W1VT