Hello Top Banders
W0YG, WB9Z and W8UVZ gave Christmas and Cocos Islands their best shot
from Feb 7th till Feb 20th. We made over 11,000 Q's but the low band
totals were not above expectations.
Jerry, WB9Z really plugged away at the higher bands with a small amp
(most of the time), FT 706 MkII and Cushcraft R-7000. Certainly a very
modest setup for those of u who know Jerry's home station, hi. We can
thank him for the bulk of the 11K Q's .
On Christmas Island, we secured permission to use their Sports Ground
(Cricket Club) where we operated the lower bands. That facility was on
the highest part of that island. Pretty tough going from this on the
equator island as the noise was high and the propagation thin. 143
stations were worked on top band, with just 7 in North America. VE1ZZ
was the lone east coast stn to be heard, the other 6 west coast USA.
Some better success on 80M with 318 stations in the log and over half
(174) were in NA. One evening, Feb 9th, we ran over 60 US stns from PA
to the CA coast - Good sigs. But two long tries during that run on top
band produced no NA contacts. Later the 6 West Coast stns were worked
on 160.
On Cocos as VK9YY, we found condx better almost from the start and
finished with twice as many 160 M stations (280) in our logs. The North
American count zoomed to 63 and stations were worked both paths. Again
VE1ZZ was the first NA in the LP log but several other followed. We had
some good success with SP in the West Coast most evenings on Cocos.
Here the island was flat Coral Reef and just 10 feet above sea level
with the Indian Ocean crashing just outside our hotel rooms. On
limiting factor was the direction and length of our beverages for rx.
The air port runway is less than 800 ft from the hotel rooms and several
buildings prevented critical directions.
80 M totals were about the same as Christmas with 311 in the log.
Again, NA led the way with 129 contacts (we planned it that way).
We understand that many of u made have heard us on a low band during the
course of our two week QRV but we weren't hearing u. Understand that we
were there in mid summer with the cyclone season in full swing. Imagine
listening to low band conditions in NA in mid June or July for two weeks
and u get the idea of what were (and other groups) encountered.
So thanks for ur patience and Q if were were able to work. Charlie,
W0YG is handling the QSL cards (direct preferred).
73 George W8UVZ
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