Hello friends on topband,
2 days after our return home from Libya I will give a short statement
about our operation on topband. Guess the rest of the
story is going announced later in some magazines or our homepage.
Do not have the daily logs put together so don't know the exact numbers
of qsos to the different parts of the world. This job including some
statistics is done in the moment by Felix, DL8OBC. He is going to post
all non EU 160M calls worked by us also.
160M aspects from my point of view:
Our team: Andy,DJ7IK; Thomas, DL1GGT; Michael DL2EBX; Felix, DL8OBC; me,
DL3KDV
We were a fantastic team I guess and I would go with all of
you to
the end of the world.
Station used:
TS 690 / IC 736 / IC 706
Heathkit SB 1000 (about 800W out)
Semiconductor PA 4x2SC2879 (600W out)
Ant: Inv.Vee Double Dipole for 80/160 M, feetpoint 27m over ground
GAP Voyager (80/160 the Dipole worked better)
PC: 3 Notebooks with optical Network and CT
QTH of 5A2A:
The Assaker Club is located 3 km east of the center of Tripoli on a
small
hill about 700m away from the Mediterranean Sea but still in the city.
We were able to use the flat roof of a not ready building for some of
our
antennas.
the people of Tripoly:
very friendly and helpful. Cause there are very few tourists in this
country
everybody is interested in you and helps when he can.
special thanks:
Dr. Abdel Kadir (clubchief)
5A1A OPs: Ali and Abubaker
Operation:
We started with the call 5A1A on the 23rd of November cause 5A7A was
somehow
reserved and 5A2A had to be issued by the ministry. So 5A2A started one
day
later after lunch (12z). In case of strong winds we were not able to
settle
up my 160M Vertical on top of the building. So I decided to try a double
Inv.Vee using the 80/160M Radials and the lower aluminium section of the
vertical to put it high on the roof. It performed so well the first
night
that we never decided to change into the vertical later. This first
night
I was lucky to be the OP on 160M and enjoyed the fine W opening.
>From the first minute on we worked no EU when another part of the world
was
open. We were able to work EU on nearly all bands at anytime so they
would
come in our log automatically.
A paper was made how to run on topband:
- always use split
- if you have the call answer "Call Call 599 599 Call bk"
- after you get your rst " Call cfm tu 5A2A up 5 k"
- don't give up when you have parts of the call until several tries.
- Put the call in the log, after you receive your rst
(maybe thats the reason why you didn't find yourself in our log)
you were not in, if we didn't get our rst from you.
The next nights we rotated doing the nightshifts with 2 OPs so that
everyone
was able to get a feeling on the lowbands. JA was a big surprise. They
were
louder than expected and openings were there every evening from 20z
until
21z and sometimes until their sunrise. North America was not working
well the
next nights on topband so for my second night in the club I worked 80M
and
got a nice opening to the west-coast.
Right before the contest I got Bills, W4ZV, topband-msg about our
operation
via PACTOR from my XYL Maike, DL4XS. Many many thanks Bill.. but you see
I was not the only OP on the band and guess the others worked the same
way
I did.
The contest-weekend we had a lot of thunderstorm noice and poor topband
condx.
Sunday evening I tried some JAs, they were loud but the QRN put down the
rate so I gave up until 6 qsos. Sorry dear JAs ..but in the contest the
running station has to make a high qso-rate when everyone counts 3
points.
This evening I was called by JT1T .. Yes JT1T ..my last Zone for WAZ ..
JT1T .. why he never calls me, when I am in DL .. This was the one and
only
moment wishing to be in old DL and being called by him.
The nights after the contest I was always in the shack, but not the only
topband operator. We had another wonderful North America opening and
Michael,
DL2EBX, worked the most western contact with K7LFY. This was the night
when
a lot of W0s find the way in our log.
Other highlights were to work Paul, VK3AJJ by DL8OBC/DL1GGT as OPs,
to give ZS4EX his 40th Zone for WAZ ..congrats Bernie (also for the
JT1T)
to work Steve VK6VZ (sorry I missed VK6 the first nights in case of the
JA
openings and working split)
and working hundreds of EUs with poor antennas and low power.
I know one OP in the log who uses 10M of wire 3M over ground and 100W!
All logs and informations were uploaded by PACTOR to Patrick, Dl4VBP,
who did
a great job informing all of you and us. Many thanks Dr. Pat !!!
the future:
We made daily training with Abubaker in CW. He is now fit to go on the
bands
and becoming some practice. He asked a lot about topband so that
I guess he would become a fine topband-operator. The antennas are still
there
and up so you may hear him in the future. For giving him the needed
backround
ON4UNs Book "Low-Band-DXing" (thanks for the gift John!) and K1ZMs brand
new book "DXing on the edge" (which I enjoyed reading very much..well
done
Jeff!!) is still in his hands.
QSL-Cards:
Well, we have to select some pictures for printing and try to give
the order as fast as we can. Don't know how long printing takes. Please
be
patient and don't send twice. You get the cards 100% ..the way I always
do.
Thank you all for creating great pile-ups!
If you hear a lonely DL3KDV calling CQ on topband give a call cause it
is
hard to switch on the radio after such a trip. If you are from Idaho,
South
Dacota or Louisiana .. fantastic .. I need you for my WAS.
73s Dieter, DL3KDV
--
* Dieter Voss,DL3KDV, DX-Editor CQ-DL, German Amateur Radio Magazine*
* E-Mail : DVoss@T-Online.de *
* Member of RRDXA : http://www.qsl.net/rrdxa/ *
* Libya 5A2A : http://www.afthd.tu-darmstadt.de/5a1a/ *
--
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