Would you like to work KP70?
If so check out VUSHF DX-peditions to know when and where etc.
Still want to work KP70? Or other squares or DXCCs? Then make sure you are on the KP70 144 MHz list or/and KP70 432 MHz list too otherwise how should we know? So send your input. No input = No interest! Input/update own need squares is 100% easier to do than make DX-expeditions to Most Wanted Squares. I know, I have made both.
When the DX-pedition goes on check out Shouts.
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| Alex, RV1AC | Alexander, RU1AS | Anton, RX1AX | Bo, OZ2M | Janne, OH5LID | Sergey, RV1AA | Victor, RV2FW |
| HF | VHF | VHF | VHF | VHF | VHF | HF |
| Persona non grata | Persona non grata |
Spider trip made to KP70, really 27 hours, 1200 km and not any QSO... Light setup was too light, pc didn't keyed radio and linear, so TX not at all ..., without soldering iron and multimeter better not go even small expedition, so we had nothing to do after setup, just set down... But we found good QTH to central Europe direction, just UA side is back hill.
LID, Persona Non Grata
Sasha, RU1AS, and antenna.
9 elements 144 MHz antenna.
Friday morning - rise and shine, we are going on another DXpedition - what more could you ask for? Janne, OH5LID, was just as excited as when he was 5 years old the night before Christmas, so he could not sleep and instead he decided to leave home at 1 UTC and take a nap in the car before arriving in Saint Petersburg to pick up Sasha, RV1AC, the generators, HF stuff for the IARU Region 1 Field Day and to go shopping. At 0530 UTC in another part of Saint Petersburg Anton, RX1AX, Bo, OZ2M, and Sergey, RV1AA, met with Sasha, RU1AS, who had already been waiting 30 min with the van of Valery, RN1AP.
When Sasha, RU1AS, drove the van through the gates to Anton's, RX1AX, work there was a small spot of fresh oil spill where the van had been parked. Hmm, is this from the van we all thought? Better check the oil level before we go. Geeee! The oil level was way below the minimum indicator, in fact it was just visible at the tip of the oil gauge. Oh no! Leaking engine and we are going into the middle of nowhere. This is not going to work. Besides it is an almost new van only 6000 km. What to do now? Fortunately one of Anton's, RX1AX, employees arrived who happened to know how to repair cars. So the van was cranked up and the engine was investigated. Nothing abnormal except a generic fault for the make and model. Oil hose not tightened enough at both ends. So after some tightening and refilling oil the engine was back in operation and without leaking oil. Until then it was a Go/No go for the van and we could not start to load it.
In hindsight it was a fortune that Sasha, RU1AS, had been waiting for 30 min so the oil spot could build. Otherwise we would have left Saint Petersburg with an engine that would have run out of oil most likely in the Russian country side with a catastrophic result - engine crash.
At 0730 UTC we could start to load the van. Hmm, ex. army crank up tower is to long to stay inside the was and to heavy, 2,8 m and 95 kg, to be loaded on the roof rack. So it had to stick out of he backdoor. But how much of the other stuff would fall out? Well it will have to do despite the bumpy Russian roads. Finally, ready to mount and go. 9 UTC and before the Saint Petersburg Friday rush hour starts. We had only been driving for 15 min before we got stopped by the police due to "that thing sticking out of the back door" they told Sasha, RU1AS. So Anton, RX1AX, had to step out of the van and tell them who he is. "OK, you can go" the police said. It is nice to have a good network.
Wow - these roads are bumpier than expected, and this the high way to Murmansk. Wonder how the country roads will be? They are even worse it would show later. After almost six hours of driving with two highly needed breaks we finally arrived at the site. The last 8 km were on an official road but with a rubble surface. Last petrol station along the way was 30 km ago but only for 92 octane. We were by all means far out!
What to do first? Grab a beer! Cheers mates!
Antenna mounting. Top Sasha, RU1AS, From left: Bo, OZ2M, Janne, OH5LID, Anton, RX1AX, and Sergey, RV1AA.
Next thing was to put up the antennas for HF and 144 MHz. While Sasha, RV1AC, and Victor, RV2FW, prepared the HF with a 2 elements for 28 MHz, 21 MHz and 14 MHz plus dipoles for 7 MHz and 3,5 MHz, Anton, RX1AX, Sasha, RU1AS and Sergey, RV1AA, began the work with the 4 x 13 elements for 144 MHz. Assembling and aligning the antennas took longer than expected. Finally at around 2230 UTC everything was ready for 144 MHz operation and the show could begin. First station worked 2255 UTC and the MS pileup was tremendous despite the distances. Even RA2 is 1000 km away. When we arrived it was warm and sunny but now it was cold. Temperature was -1,5 °C and we were sitting in an open mosquito net like tent. After a handful of QSOs we were all so tired and cold that we decided to go to bed at 0142 UTC.
4 x 13 elements for 144 MHz.
Saturday morning back on the air and first station logged at 6 UTC. Conditions were excellent and many more stations were heard than during night hours even stations exceeding 2000 km were worked in a few minutes. Station after station now filled the log.
Wind kept increasing and even if the tent was supported by additional guy wires the poles collapsed. In stead we had to move the 144 MHz station into the back of the van which interrupted the operation for about one hour.
Even before the HF contest started the first incident happened. When connecting the electric kettle the PA went QRT for some odd reason. Sasha, RV1AC, who made the PA himself tried to find the fault but without success. Anyway Victor, RV2FW, joyfully engaged in the contest but found out quite fast that it was more fun to run high power. Perhaps that was why he managed to peel potatoes with his left hand while working contest with his right hand operating the PC and keyer. Cool style contesting.
4 x 13 elements for 144 MHz and HF antenna.
On 144 MHz many stations were worked with a rather big offset as key CQ direction was about 210° in order to scatter the signal over Russia and Central Europe at the same time which proved to be a successful strategy. Reflections are what matters not QTF. In the late evening the pace of MS QSOs dropped so it was time to work some tropo QSOs to ES, OH and RA. After that more MS CQing but very few responded so to kill time during the endless CQs we logged on to the ON4KST chat. Until then only Shouts had been used with great success. Even though we had already written that in the beginning of the DXpedition we would not take skeds people on the chat immediately started asking for skeds and "please beam to me." This in itself reduced the through put. It might actually be that in order to work as many stations as possible DXpeditions ought not be connected to the chat but should remain on Shouts only. But when no one answers your CQ for hours it is nice to kill time.
Janne, OH5LID, and Sergey, RV1AA, on 144 MHz MS.
In the evening the temperature dropped again and a bit past midnight the temperature was -3 °C. None of us were equipped for these kind of temperatures in June. If we would have gone in January everybody would have brought proper clothes for this but not now. We had expected to wear shorts at least during day time.
We had planned to be active on 432 MHz already Saturday but did not managed to get the antenna up before Sunday afternoon. However, as we did not managed to work any stations we could have saved the work and let the antenna stay at home.
Late Sunday afternoon we also decided to take skeds on MS - one at a time. By doing so we managed to log some more stations but the QSO rate was now at its lowest. It was also decided that we had to return to Saint Petersburg Monday and that we had to go QRT Monday morning. As the night arrived things became more hectic on the air and time was running out. On the other hand at 0 UTC Monday we had to ask people on the chat for skeds! OK - good indication that we have done a good job. At 1 UTC there were no more stations that could be worked or stirred up so time for operator change. From then on it took another four hours before the next station was worked despite endless CQs.
Monday morning the rain started a couple of hours before we had planned to take down the station. Great! Now we will be soaking wet too. Anyway at 0705 UTC we went QRT dismantled the station and left the site at around noon local time and drove back to Saint Peterburg after a nice extended week-end in the Russian country side and Red Square in one go.
After an extended week-end in the Russian countryside it is time for some Megapussi.
Bo, OZ2M, Persona Non Grata
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*: offline when writing the message.
In total we could have been "on air" for 57 hours and only had eight hours down time where we were not active. This proves that this DXpedition was more rugged and an over all successful one. Secondly logging 47 Most Wanted Contest points is the best achievement ever made in a single operation.
9A4EW DD0VF DD3SP DF2ZC DF5NK DF6NA DF6YL DF7KF DG1VL DG5CST DG9YIH DH8BQA DJ4TC DJ8MS DJ9MG DJ9YE DK0OG DK1KO DK3WG DK4TG DK5DQ DK7BY DL0UL DL1EAP DL1RNW DL1SUN DL1SUZ DL2ARD DL3YEE DL4DWA DL5GAC DL5WG DL6ZAU DL8BDU DL8GP DL9MCC DL9MS ES1RF ES3RF HA6NQ HA6NY LA0BY LA4XGA LA5KO OE3FVU OE3MWS OE6IWG OH4EA OH4LA OH5IY OH5LID OH6HFX OK1KT OK1MZM OK1UAK OK5TK ON4IMM ON4KHG ON7UC OZ1ANA OZ1DJJ OZ1FDH OZ1IEP OZ1LPR OZ2M OZ5AGJ OZ6ABA OZ8ZS PA0JMV PA0V PA1GYS PA2CHR PA3BIY PA3CEE PA3COB PA3ECU PA3FPQ PA4EME PA4PS PA5DD PE1AHX PE1GNP PE1OPK RA1QA RA3AQ RA3WDK RK3AF RU3ACE S51AT S54T S55AW S57TW SK6HD SM2CEW SM6CMU SP2IQW SP2JYR SP7OGP YU7KB YU7MS YU7PS
Did we miss the opportunity to go to R1MV? Yes! No doubt about that. A tremendous effort was carried out by the organisers Victor, RV2FW, and Sasha, RU1AS. Thanks for doing the job that unfortunately turned out to be unfruitful. But the trip to KP70 was an excellent substitute and good opportunity to experience some of the Russian country side.
Thanks to Valery, RN1AP, for lending us his van. Due to work load he could not participate. We missed you on the trip!
UTC Call Sent Recv. Locator km Prop. MWC Comments 2255 DK1KO 28 26 JO53CT 1628 MS X 2300 OZ1IEP 27 26 JO55XU 1412 MS X 2315 SM5CUI 26 26 JO89WW 933 MS 2324 DJ9YE 26 26 JO43HV 1708 MS X 2350 DK5OX 27 26 MS NC
UTC Call Sent Recv. Locator km Prop. MWC Comments 0034 DL2ARD 27 26 JO60AR 1752 MS X 0045 DG6JF 27 26 JO31MM 1952 MS 0142 PA5KM 27 26 MS NC said by PA5KM 0600 DD0VF 26 27 JO61WB 1635 MS X 0610 ES3RF 51 55 KO29IF 566 Tropo X 0615 DJ7OF 26 27 JO51HQ 1751 MS 0625 DJ8MS 26 37 JO53CT 1520 MS X 0634 SM7FMX 26 26 JO65KN 1378 MS 0640 OZ5AGJ 26 26 JO56DF 1485 MS X 0651 DF2ZC 26 26 JO30RN 2000 MS 0700 DL9MS 26 26 JO54WC 1519 MS X 0710 PA5DD 26 37 JO22IC 2046 MS X 0719 PE1AHX 27 27 JO21OS 2034 MS X 0730 DL1RNW 27 26 JO62GH 1607 MS X 0741 DL4DWA 27 27 JO61QH 1640 MS X 0751 PA4PS 27 26 JO33GH 1859 MS X 0754 DH3YAK 26 27 JO31RS 1913 MS 0802 PA3ECU 26 27 JO32CF 1948 MS X 0818 SP2IQW 26 26 MS NC 0819 ES6RQ 55 57 KO28WA 549 Tropo 0822 PA3FPQ 26 26 JO21UX 1992 MS 0829 DK6AS 38 26 JO52JJ 1692 MS 0836 PA0JMV 27 27 JO21PM 2047 MS X 0857 OH4LA 59 26 KP20LG 537 MS/Tropo X 0949 OH7PI 55 57 KP32MM 493 Tropo SSB 1038 PA3DOL 26 26 JO22MM 1992 MS 1125 UT6UG 28 26 KO50EI 1109 MS 1139 DF7KF 27 26 JO30GU 2027 MS X 1145 RA3WDK 28 26 KO81BR 928 MS X 1219 UT5ER 26 27 KN78ER 1257 MS 1310 SP2IQW 26 MS NC time out 1342 DK3WG 27 27 JO72GI 1502 MS X 1352 HA6NQ 26 27 JN98WA 1641 MS X 1506 SP6HED 26 26 JO80IL 1549 MS 1514 SP6GZZ 26 27 JO81HI 1479 MS 1526 SP2JYR 26 27 JO92GP 1245 MS 1540 RZ1AUM 26 27 MS NC 1617 DL7FF 27 27 MS NC time out 1626 OZ1FDH 26 26 JO65CE 1403 MS 1733 OH5ND 559 599 Tropo CW 1736 OH6MAZ 529 599 KP21IG 560 Tropo X CW 1740 MH3KLJ 559 579 Tropo CW 1806 DK3BU 28 26 JO33NO 1808 MS 1810 OH3KLJ 55 57 KP21PI 531 Tropo SSB 1849 RX1AS 55 59 KO59FX 233 Tropo SSB 1851 RU1AC 59 59 KP50EJ 239 Tropo SSB 1857 RU1AA 599 599 KP40XD 260 Tropo CW 1858 RX1AS 599 599 KO59FX 233 Tropo CW 1952 PA1GYS 26 26 JO22WW 1919 MS 1959 DJ4TC 26 27 JO63PN 1479 MS 2022 OK1UGA 26 26 JO80CF 1593 MS X 2034 PE1OPK 26 26 JO23UE 1912 MS X 2054 DL5WG 26 26 JO52VK 1636 MS X 2105 OK1KT 26 26 JO70WE 1612 MS X 2135 DL5ROB 38 26 MS NC time out 2201 DL6ZAU 57 26 JO40JF 1956 MS 2207 OH6UW 549 569 KP22WH 535 Tropo 2222 DD3SP 27 27 JO72EN 1495 MS X 2227 PA3COB 26 26 JO32MF 1903 MS X 2301 YU1IO 28 27 KN04IQ 1943 MS 2345 SP2MKO 26 26 JO93CB 1267 MS
UTC Call Sent Recv. Locator km Prop. MWC Comments 0321 RV6YY 26 26 LN04AO 1753 MS 0412 UA9SL 26 26 LO71NS 1567 MS 0512 PA3BIY 26 27 JO22EB 2059 MS X See note below 0519 OZ6ABA 26 26 JO57DJ 1432 MS X 0540 UA1ALD 26 26 KO59CU 248 MS 0555 OK1UGA 26 26 JO80CF 1593 MS Dupe! 0612 OK5TK 26 27 JO70MB 1661 MS 0615 OZ1LPR 26 27 JO44WX 1575 MS X See note below 0623 DJ9MG 26 26 JO52TC 1669 MS X 0639 YT3I 26 26 KN05HP 1849 MS 0645 SP2IQW 26 27 MS NC 0709 DL8BDU 26 27 JO43AA 1796 MS X 0824 RA1QA 51 55 KO99WF 309 Tropo X 0845 SM2CEW 29 29 KP15CR 894 MS X 0934 RU4HU 26 26 MS NC time out 1019 UX5UL 26 27 KO50FL 1094 MS 1057 DK1CO 26 26 JO63SX 1438 MS 1109 OK2VSO 26 26 MS NC not enough info exchanged 1144 OK2VSO 26 26 JN99AJ 1585 MS 1210 PE9DX 26 26 JO33MD 1842 MS 1214 OH1ND 539 559 KP00XL 702 Tropo 1250 OZ8ZS 26 27 MS NC time out 1304 PA3BGM 27 27 JO33CE 1885 MS 1402 PA3CEE 26 27 JO33JI 1842 MS X 1405 OH7HXH 59 59 KP53HG 420 Tropo 1442 OK2PMS 26 27 JN89WW 1544 MS 1520 PA2CHR 26 27 JO22XA 1976 MS X 1530 LA4XGA 26 26 JP33VC 1455 MS 1542 LA4YGA 26 26 JO48AE 1526 MS 1803 RW9FT 26 27 LO89TD 1297 MS 1934 OZ8ZS 27 27 JO55RT 1442 MS 2052 OZ1BNN 26 26 JO55PM 1467 MS 2140 OH6KTL 26 MS NC time out 2312 PE1GNP 26 26 PE1GNP 1938 MS X 2329 YU7AA 26 26 JN95KU 1889 MS
UTC Call Sent Recv. Locator km Prop. MWC Comments 0030 DF5NK 27 26 JN59PM 1886 MS X 0107 YU1IO 26 27 KN04IQ 1943 MS Dupe! 0609 PA2KW 26 26 JO22UD 1981 MS 0612 RV3IG 559 559 KO87OT 287 Tropo X 0620 SM7GVF 27 28 JO77GA 1212 MS 0635 UA4AQL 27 26 MS NC AQL problems 0644 OH6KTL 26 MS NC KTL stopped 0704 HA0HO 28 26 KN07SU 1597 MS
Strange about OZ1LPR and PA3BIY as DL8EBW wrote on 16/7/07: "So - thats my last Mail / Call to you for ever! You also will NOT get any call anymore in any case where ever you are. All your incomming stuff is directly going un-read into the TRASH here.... By the way - the same will happens at all MMM members, because they are also got blamed. So they all will NOT call you anymore in your trips where ever you go..." See email at http://www.elisanet.fi/oh5lid/mmm.htm
Therefore one of the below situations must have happened:
1) DL8EBW would have released the ban.
2) OZ1LPR and PA3BIY are no longer MMM members.
If 1) then the information would have to be given. If so DL8EBW would then have to break his own statement " thats my last Mail / Call to you for ever! ..." - This has not happened.
If 2) then OZ1LPR and PA3BIY would have not to be members of the MMM. - This has not happened.
So this means that OZ1LPR and PA3BIY violated DL8EBW decision. Wonder what consequences this will have?
ODX:
Average: 1612 km
ODX:
Average: 441 km
QSL via OZ2M.
If you send direct QSL make sure you include enough postage. 1 USD does not even cover Danish domestic postage! In case of inadequate postage the RZ1AWO/P QSL will be send to you via bureau.
Direct QSLs cards received before 2008-08-24 was sent 2008-09-02.
| Question | Will it help if I write in the chat or DX-cluster "please beam to me"? |
| Answer | No it will not. |
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| Question | Even if you only operate random is it possible for me only to have a sked? |
| Answer | No, unless you are a Russian station. |
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| Question | When I have called you for hours will you stop an ongoing QSO to work me instead? |
| Answer | No. |
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| Question | Do you have any priority for calling stations? |
| Answer | Yes stations that help in DXpedition location planning have first priority. They help us so we help them. |
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| Question | When you take skeds why do you do it randomly? |
| Answer | This is in order to give everybody a fair chance. It is impossible to tell who deserves to be first. |
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| Question | Is it OK to call you during a QSO with another station? |
| Answer | During a good shower it is better to call only when we send RRR because it is not easy to try find the correct burst when 5-10 station call and every period we receive several "nonsense" burst with information that doesn't add value to the ongoing QSO. Stations who start to call only during our RRR period tell that they hear our signal well and it is good information about the possibility to make a complete QSO. Stations who call hour after hour are maybe not QRV at all and if we answer we can't be sure that it is possible to make a complete QSO. |
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| Question | I see you operate with a time out (TO) period how long is this period? |
| Answer | Yes a time out period is used. Time out occurs if nothing is heard from the other station for a given period. It is hard to say how long this is but during good conditions and heavy traffic the period is short e.g. 20 min but it might also extend up to one hour in low traffic/reflection periods. The operator decides exclusively. |
Elevation chart 10 km. Courtesy Radio Mobile and Uffe, PA5DD.
Elevation chart 100 km. Courtesy Radio Mobile and Uffe, PA5DD.
Visual horizon elevation chart. Very important for long distance QSOs. Courtesy Radio Mobile and Uffe, PA5DD.
Want to make some similar charts? Then visit Radio Mobile and Uffe, PA5DD hompages.
OH5LID
