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Re: Topband: A Bit of Zone 2 History Was Made Last Week

To: Topband <topband@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: Topband: A Bit of Zone 2 History Was Made Last Week
From: Victor Goncharsky via Topband <topband@contesting.com>
Reply-to: Victor Goncharsky <us5we@bk.ru>
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2019 19:54:31 +0300
List-post: <mailto:topband@contesting.com>
HI Jeff and Miriam,
Great effort and wonderful results making a lot of people happy by your family 
project.
You have made our family happy this Summer by giving us a new country on 6 
meters - Canada!
Keep up the good work.
We enjoyed reading your 160m book.
Best wishes from our ham radio family.
73/88 Vic US5WE, Helen UR5WA 



>Пятница,  8 ноября 2019, 10:51 UTC от k1zm--- via Topband < 
>topband@contesting.com >:
>
>08 Nov 2019
>
>
>Hi Gang
>Jeff and I just got back from a one week "mini dx'pedition" to ZONE 2.  Three 
>ferries and about a 2400km roundtrip drive to 50.112 North from PEI was made 
>with the express purpose of giving ZONE 2 to our JA 160m friends.
>Prior to our trip, only one single JA station had ever managed a qso with ZONE 
>2 on Topband and that was JA7HMZ about 35 years ago - so this zone was much 
>needed by most 160m JA dx'ers.  Quite of few of our 160m JA friends have been 
>stuck at 39 zones on 160m for many years - so this was our chance to help them 
>get ZONE 2 for #40.
>So without too much bandwidth - here is our report:
>QRV 31 October to 04 November 2019
>Roughly 350 stations worked on Topband - in 42 DXCC countries (we could have 
>worked more but we took lots of time off in order to sleep and then get up for 
>the JA window from about 0715z - 1110z.)
>We tried some CW but signals were very very weak and FT8 proved the only 
>possible way to complete contacts to JA.
>It was pretty exciting to work these (6) JA friends:
>JF8QNF
>JA8EAT
>JA7NI
>JA1BK
>JA8WKE
>JA3FYC
>We decoded no other JA signals on our side- but we know we were decoded by 
>these other JA stations:
>JH7PFD (two decodes)
>JE6KYA (one decode)
>JA1EOD (several decodes).
>Epilogue:
>We think that each JA qso that was made completed WAZ 40 on Topband for these 
>JA friends. (meaning ZONE 2 was most likely their last one needed).
>Steve VK6IR called us on ON4KST chat saying he had been chasing ZONE 2 on 80m 
>for 5BWAZ for 45 years and asked if we could work him on 80m.  We did not know 
>about 80m since the antenna had not been tested  for that band but, after 
>checking it with my analyst, I found it resonated at about 3778kHz.  Steve 
>said he could not do SSB there - so I asked him if he could do digital.  YES! 
>was his reply and we managed a qso on FT8 a few minutes later.
>After we uploaded our LOG FILE to LOTW (completed on 06 November) - within 
>minutes there were 37 DXCC entities instantly confirmed via LOTW - including 
>VK6IR and all (6) lucky JA friends we had worked.
>So we are happy we helped some of our JA friends with WAZ 40 - and, at the 
>same time, we are a bit  disappointed that we could not do more.  The A/K were 
>lousy on nights one and two - things got better on night 3 when we worked the 
>first 4 JA's - nights 5 and 6 produced one JA qso each - meaning JA8WKE and 
>JA3FYC.
>One amusing final fact - it was roughly a 2400km trip to there and back - so 
>this works out to about 400km per JA qso.
>KOWABUNGA!  but we had a great time trying this - and are pleased we had some 
>limited success in doing so.
>We wish to mention our special thanks to Don Toman (K2KQ) and to Frank Donovan 
>(W3LPL) for their kind assistance with our antenna planning.  Their input and 
>suggestions were invaluable in making this happen!
>73/88 de  Miriam (VY2NA) and Jeff VY2ZM
>Email:   K1ZM@aol.com
>_________________
>Searchable Archives:  http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector


-- 
73, Victor Goncharsky US5WE/K1WE (UW5W in VHF contests, ex UB5WE), P.E.
UARL Technical and VHF Committies
DXCC Honor Roll #1 (Mixed, Phone), 10BDXCC, 8BWAS
DXCC card checker (160 meters).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 
73, Victor Goncharsky US5WE/K1WE (UW5W in VHF contests, ex UB5WE), P.E.
UARL Technical and VHF Committies
DXCC Honor Roll #1 (Mixed, Phone), 10BDXCC, 8BWAS
DXCC card checker (160 meters).
_________________
Searchable Archives: http://www.contesting.com/_topband - Topband Reflector
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