Jeff,
Thank you so much for the fascinating
recap! You explained so much and so very
well that it was easy to visualize, just
like when reading a good book.
Glad you had such an interesting time and
were with such fine people throughout.
73,
Gary
KA1J
Hi All
While it is still fresh in my mind and
while I have a few moments this
morning, I thought I might pass along a
few OPERATING OBSERVATIONS
that I made while over at JT5DX this past
week. I will organize these
into GENERAL OBSERVATIONS, TOPBAND
THOUGHTS and HF THOUGHTS.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS - & What it was like
getting there.......
First let me note that this was NOT a
Topband Dx'pedition. From a
timing perspective, with no overlapping
darkness to NA on either
coast, the timing could not have been
worse for NA. What it WAS was
an invitation to join a talented
International team of old friends to
operate the CQ WPX CW contest and to visit
Hong Kong, China and
Mongolia and JT1CO. Despite the downside
of SPRING conditions, there
was still enough of an attraction there to
say - "HELL YES - I want
to go!!!!!" Plus it was a chance to visit
CHAK and see his station up
close and personal. And, even more
important, it was a chance to help
build some updated capability into the
JT1CO lowband station for the
upcoming Winter months. While I was out
at the farm, my wife and
daughter accompanied K1LZ's wife on a
wonderful tour of the Southern
GOBI desert so they were totally cool with
my going off on my own
thing with the boys.... In some respects
their experiences and what
they got to see and do was as equally
exciting to THEM as was my experience
out on the farming steppes to
the NW of Ulan Bator.
Getting there...
The farm is around 220 miles to the NW of
the capital city. That is
about the the distance from New York to
Boston - but there are few
paved roads in JT land. And what exists
could HARDLY equate to the
I-95 corridor along the East coast of the
US. There are two PRINCIPAL
roads in Mongolia - one North South and
one East west.
Our route was on one of them for the first
part of the trip - perhaps
the first 4 hours of what was about a 6.5
hour drive in total. At
about the 4 hour point, Chak headed LEFT
out into the mountainous
steppes along a dirt road and, from that
point onwards, it was total
dead-reckoning using "this hill" and "that
hill over there" - plus
many rock outcroppings which served as
guideposts along the way.
THERE ARE NO ROAD SIGNS!!!!!!!!! There
were MANY dirt roads and Chak
knew exactly which one was the road that
would lead the last 45 miles
or so out to the farm. (Honestly - if you
did not know where this
place was located, you nor I would NEVER
find it. There was no GPS
system I was told - I did not understand
that - but I did understand
that only Chak's expertise got us
there!!!)
There are also few treed regions in JT.
We did pass through a few
clusters of BIRCH - some evergreens now
and then along the hillsides -
but mainly sheep, goats, cows and the
occasional hairy YAK.
I kept looking out for the station and
finally, we dropped down out of
the hills into a valley below and there in
the distance I could see 6
tall towers way off in the distance.
There were wheat fields
everywhere - many of which Chak owns as
that is what he does for a
living. There are 3 million people in JT
and Chak likes to say "I
feed 300,000 of them every year!"
The farm is enormous with quite a few
LARGE buildings about the size
of aircraft hangers. He employs a large
number of staff - most of
whom work the farm. He works his tail off
on the farm, and remember -
he does NOT live there - and, with no home
station back in UB any
more, operating timeframes are hardly a
top priority for him - he gets
on when he has time. He is hardly
retired.....
Some years ago, he bought the land and
then built a compound on it -
the MAIN structure has 4 main connected
components:
The family residence
The business side of the operation where
his accountants and office
are located
The station component which has 4 rooms
(one which is a HUGE
workshop), two operating rooms, a full
bathroom and a lounge at the
rear.
The last connected component is what he
calls the HOTEL - which has 4
upstairs guest bedrooms, a kitchen and a
dining room where we took our
meals. Three ladies looked after us - and
if you came into the dining
room, within 30 seconds you were handed a
cup of coffee or tea and two
minutes later a plate of food. So we were
well taken care of - that's
for sure.
A fridge was stocked with BEER, COKE, COLD
WATER and the coffee mess
was ALWAYS there with a full pot of
coffee. I do not care if you came
in at 0200AM local - someone had made a
full pot of coffee - which I
personally took full advantage of as I was
up each night from about
0300 local until grayline sunrise.
So much for the PROLOGUE....
TOPBAND HIGHLIGHTS
All of us dedicated topband afficiandos
know what 160M is like -
usually there is a well-defined peak in
signals as SR approaches -
sometimes it is not there - but it USUALLY
works that way.
I would get on at about 0300 local - which
was 1900z - and start
listening on 160M. It was an interesting
time to be on the air as JA
SR was occurring at about the same time as
SS was moving from RW2F
westward towards Central EU and towards
the UK.
Of course UA9/UA0 and the JA's were pretty
loud. Then came the UA4
and UA6 boys. You had to work the 8
circle array all the time because
after each CQ, JA's might be calling
and/or EU stations and depending
on where your RX antenna was aimed, you
would not hear both. The JA's
would ultimately disappear and then it
would be all EU as one reached
2000z. and beyond
Here's what it was like:
Scandinavia was pee-weak. I did work a
few OH and SM stations. OH1RX
was one. I do not remember working an LA.
Clearly, the LOUDEST EU signals were from
SOUTHERN EU - mostly IK7JTF,
I2TAO and the well-known SV stations which
had the front door into JT
for sure.
Eastern EU was copiable - usually 559/569
or so but with alot of QSB.
I did work some SP's, OM/OK stations, some
S5 and 9A and one loud EA6.
I recall, working a handful of DL - but
probably less than 10 total.
I did not work a single FRENCH station. I
worked ONE G station on
sked - G3XHZ I think who called me on
ON4KST chat and had I not sent
him to 1829 outside the pile, I never
would have worked him - he was
in the noise but we did manage a difficult
QSO.
It is clear to me that the UK on 160M
suffers greatly into JT land - &
unless it gets better in DEC/JAN/FEB -
(maybe it does) - hard for me
to tell in late May - these guys seem to
struggle on this path.
Signals were really weak and more than a
few were trying.
Via CHAT I learned that ZL3IX was hearing
me both nights and VK4MA
asked for a try - and I made it with Paul
who had a 579 signal - I
worked nothing else down into the Pacific.
At 0500 (one hour before local SR) the
band peaked into Eu and then it
dropped like a rock for the last hour as
SR occurred. There was no
traditional SR bump. The I and SV
stations did hang in there to the
end but the rest of EU was totally just
not there - I did manage a qso
with 4X4DK five minutes into daylight -
the last night I was on before
the contest.
HF THOUGHTS and OBSERVATIONS
One of the things I wanted to check was
what NA signals sounded like
over in JT and 20M was really the only
place that I knew would likely
be open. I also knew 1130-1230z might be
a good time for over the
pole prop into W1.
On Wed evening before the contest I had
made a sked with VY2GF, George
Dewar, who has a modest station and low
power on PEI and we had
planned to work at 1230z.
But around 1115z I found W1MK CQ'ing with
a LOUD signal around 14015
and worked Rob. He was pretty surprised
when I told who I was. A few
minutes later I found Nate N4YDU who was
just playing around with the
remote EASTPORT, ME RHR stacks - using his
laptop in his kitchen. He
was so loud I could not believe it - and I
do not remember anyone
louder either - but I did not have too
much time to check either. I
also worked K1RM a few mins later with a
good signal. KP2M with KT3Y
operating was a good signal as well a few
mins earlier. I did work
VY2GF on sked which was a new one for
George - so I am sure he was
delighted.
On 20M I tried to see who had the front
door - K3LR was in there the
longest - but not that much louder than
the best E Coast stations.
VY2TT held up for quite a long time as
well - he has some SUPERB 20M
stacks and it showed. These guys, again,
were not what I would call
DOMINANT - they just held up longer as the
prop waned into the East
Coast during the contest.
THE CONTEST and JT5DX's configuration
As primarily a 160M specialist and a
SINGLE OP/ALL BAND guy most of
my life - the state of Multi Single that
exists today is truly
mind-boggling.
K3JO and 9A5K had configured the station
for either a M2 or a M/S
entry. We all decided that WHATEVEVER
P33W did ***not do** would
determine what WE WOULD DO. Easy
choice....really - a no brainer.
P33W had overlapping prop in NA on all
bands and we had only 20M to
shoot for towards NA - also they were at
EUROPE's back door - & we
were a whole hemisphere away to the East.
They wernt M2 - so we went M/S. Again -
this was an EASY DECISION and
the right one - they made 40Meg or so - we
managed 15MEG or so -
being in Asia on our side is clearly not
the place to make a TOP WORLD
SCORE with P33W in the game!!
Again, the scope of the state of the art
in M/S today is mind-boggling
to an old fart 160m op like me. After
reading this you will better
understand the INCREDIBLE results of P33W,
CN2AA, EF8R and ED8X (and
others).
Chris 9A5K and Velimir K3JO (who works for
K1LZ in MASS) - designed a
switching/interlock system that can
accommodate up to 12 stations and
36 antennas - with the whole system is
totally interlocked and running
like a fine SWISS timepiece.
In the most competitive M/S stations like
P33W, and now JT5DX, here is
how one approaches a M/S operation:
1) Two stations handle the RUN on the RUN
BAND - with a power divider
splitting the power into stacked yagis
aimed in different directions
at the same time. Each CQ goes out in two
directions at the same time
and each operator listens in his direction
for callers. In our case
we had 7/7 OWA long boom 20M yagis at
something like 150/75 feet
aimed at EU. The second RUN operator at
his station had another pair
of 20M stacks aimed at JA. Good operators
like K1LZ and 9A5K work
together to maintain huge RUN rates - as
they know how to do this.
Whichever operator grabs the INTELOCK
first answers what he hears -
then the SECOND station can call what he
has heard calling from the
other direction.
2) In a M/S operation like this - there
are usually two OTHER stations
on the same band - using DIFFERENT
antennas and DIFFERENT amps etc.
These are called IN BAND stations. I was
on one of these - K3JO, S52M
often were on the other in-band station.
This means that 4 stations are all on the
RUN band - with each station
SIMULTANEOUSLY putting points up on the
scoreboard.
At each position Chris 9A5K's DX Logger
logging program has 2 windows
on the computer - one window has choices
of XMIT antennas and the
other WINDOW has choices of RX antennas.
On every band we usually had as many as 5
to 6 antennas to choose
from. The RUN guys had the BEST antennas
- but what we had left to
choose from were not TOO SHABBY either -
just lesser stacks and/or two
125 foot high STEPPIR 40-10m yagis, for
example.
Available antennas not in use were GREEN
shaded - antennas in USE were
RED shaded - and could not be selected.
One merely needed to POINT
and CLICK on the screen to switch
antennas. Also there was a 3rd
window which indicated RED or GREEN which
indicated the status of the
interlock. If it was GREEN (and with the
RUN guys going at 200 per
hour) that meant that you as an IN BAND op
needed to be really CLEVER
AND FAST to be able to grab the interlock
to call what you were after.
It was usually RED so you had to wait for
your chance. If you
dallied too long calling a mult - you
might occasionally hear a STOP
STOP shouted out at you from the RUN guys
- especially if you were
taking down their rate - HI. So this
required TEAMWORK and the guys
at P33W and CN2AA are probably the best
teams in the world who attempt
this. We are still learning at ED8X - so
were are "TEAM AVIS" - but
we are getting better - HI.
It took some patience to learn how to
optimize this - but for each
hour, the IN BAND guys on these two other
stations would usually
manage to add from 60-80 additional qso's
to the RUN guys total -
elevating an hourly total to well over 200
per hour during optimal
hours. We would go after prefix mults
FIRST and then LATER anything
regardless of where it was for QSO points.
The second day as things
wound down there was NOT much left to
work. Certain stations were
really hard to work too - especially Z37M
and CN8KD whom I called for
hours on end over both days!
Some other notes:
As an East Coast op, I am not used to
hearing BY and YB stations all
over the band - for example, on 10M and
15M that is about all we could
hear - plus a smattering of JA stations.
I did work a ZL/KH6 and
5W1SA on 15 as I recall - & the RUN guys
did manage some decent RUN
openings into EU.
The first night we did almost no operating
on 80M and 160m - as the
rates were far higher on 20M and 40M all
night long.
We had planned to hit 80 HARD the second
night and an hour or so on
160M - but the FLARE - wiped 160M
completely and hurt our chances even
on 80m - but we did have a few decent
hours after midnight into EU on
80M. I spent some time operating with
JT1CO on the RUN and boy - Chak
is a great CW operator. He can hear a pin
crop, busted almost ZERO
callsigns that I heard and handled the
pile at 38-40 WPM CW rate for
hours. Every now and then he would
stretch and say - "I am getting
old...." I really enjoyed listening to
him as he ran the lowband
pileup. HE KNOWS HIS TOMATOES - as one
might say!!!!
One other comment to add is how CHAK ran
out his feedlines. He had
constructed elevated channels on 14" high
posts - think of them as
aqueducts - into which were placed up to
as many as 12 runs of 2"
diameter hardline. These ran all over the
farm out to the towers. At
the base of each tower was a LOCKED panel
- and from there LMR400
smaller coax would run up the tower to the
yagis.
Some towers were as LARGE as cell towers -
and on these towers 10m and
15m yagis just could not be placed -
unless they were mounted
vertically into stacks on masts spaced way
out away from the tower
face - the tower diameter was just too
fat for these small yagis -
which is something K3ZO once told me about
down at his station. The
vertical polarization did not seem to
matter though - EVERYTHING
worked. We only suffered one failure -
one of the STEPPIR's had some
kind of problem - but everything else
worked without fail.
As the contest ended, we on the IN BAND
stations really struggled to
find something to work - we did not miss
much we thought.
One other point - Chris and Velimir
finished the station wiring at
MIDNIGHT on Friday night. Lucky for us
the contest started and ended
at 0800 local time (0000z) - thus we all
managed about 6 hours of much
needed sleep - then a shower and breakfast
SATURDAY morning- and we
were all hunched over our radios promptly
at 0800 local as the contest
started.
For me - this was a thrilling experience -
I am grateful to K1LZ and
JT1CO for allowing me to be a part of it
all. I personally am
starting to enjoy 12 hour runs on the HF
bands at 200 per hour LESS
and LESS in favor of more relaxed rates on
80m and 160M - so the
BETTER OPS did most of the HEAVY LIFTING
on the HF bands - and asked
me to do some nighttime running on 40M and
80M - which suited me just
fine - HI HI.
Pity that 160M was a total washout the
second night - I only managed
to work HG8R in the noise and absorption
from the flare made and runs
there a total impossibility.
Guess that is all to say here - hope it
was fun reading - and thanks
for all the Qso's from the JT5DX team.
Cu down the road in the next one I hope.
73 JEFF K1ZM/VY2ZM
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