Dear fellow Topbander's,
let me first thank everybody who called us and possibly made a contact
with either CN8WW or 5C8M on Topband. We have apprechiated every
minute of being on the band and were working hard to give a fair chance
to everybody.
Let's just put it this way:
It was an unbelievable experience - something out of the 'once in a lifetime'
category.
During the 10 day's stay in the CW-part we've made (without dupes) 1720 QSO's
during the contest as CN8WW and furthermore 1057 QSO's as 5C8M outside the
contest. In the contest I've worked 23 zones and 99 countries, further 5 zones
(18, 19, 28, 38, 39) and 10 countries were heard and called - unfortunately
without
success.
The 1720 contest-QSO's include:
- 1059x Europe,
- 588x North America ( 36x zone 3 ),
- 53x Asia ( 22 x JA ),
- 10x Africa,
- 7x South America - and last but not least
- 3x Oceania - thank's to VK9NS, VK2OI and VK6HD,
giving me a 10 minute sunset experience never to forget ....
I've finished the first night (8 hours) with 745 QSO's,
it have been 1161 after the first 24 hours and 1499 at 8:00Z
on Sunday morning.
We've had some very interesting openings:
- First Stateside station was worked at 20:09Z, the last after sunrise at
07:09Z (!).
Best hours were 22..23Z, 00..01Z, 0230..0330Z and 0430..0530Z.
- Best skip into JA was at 18:30Z, just 45 minutes past our
sunset and 3 hours prior sunrise in JA.
- Incredible sunset on sunday evening - 3 pacific zones and 2 countries
within 10 minutes (17:45 .. 17:56Z), thank's again to VK9NS, VK2IO and
VK6HD for calling in.
- Heard V8A louder than the Europeans during his sunrise - unfortunately
Hajime didn't hear me.
- Heard VQ9IO for hours - but no reply to my calls.
- Dito (not for hours, but loud) for ZS6UT, JY9QJ, A45XR and HK6KKK
as well as several other Carribean stations....
We've used a TS-850S + ACOM 2000A amplifier with
an Inv-L (20m/66ft vertical part+ 50 radials) on the beach.
Our 'big' ears were 5 Beverages (30, 80, 130, 230, 320 degree),
each abt. 170m(560ft) long and 2.4m(8ft) high. It took nearly
900m(3000ft) of coaxcable to run the Beverage-output from the
hilltop behind the beach down into the Lowband-shack and 3 days
of hard work for Manfred (DK1BT), Dietmar (DL3DXX) and me
to put them up again (We had to take them down after the SSB-part).
So, our bus with the equipment is still on tour and hopefully everything
we didn't leave in Morocco will arrive savely during the weekend.
We promise - we'll back next year, with a lot of things to improve
already in our mind. We still do not have the feeling this was the
'impossible' final border, there is a lot of potential for even more...
For now best 73 to everybody - enjoy the fun and the condx on
Topband. I myself will be on the road again already by next week,
first to Italy and finally over Christmas back home in YB.
Joerg, DL8WPX / YB1AQS, 160m op 5C8M/CN8WW
--
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