DXPeditions

Story

At the end of 2005 Frank (DH7FB) and I started planning for an expedition to the far South of Italy. And after some shifting back and forth of the dates, we eventually fixed 29 April to 3rd May, 2006. Frank travelled from Berlin (JO62) to my house the day before, we packed the car, had a barbecue and went to bed at 10pm local early because we had planned to start at 3am local on the 29th. After packing the last parts of equipment into the car (everything with redundancy: 2 transceivers, 2 amps, 2 p/s, 2 antennas, lots of cable, an 80 Ah and an 120 Ah battery, etc etc) we left JO30RN at 3.30am. As there was no traffic we needed only 2 ½ hours to the Swiss border. Via Lugano, Milano, La Spezia, Roma and Napoli we arrived in JM79VQ around 7.30pm, after some 1900 km and 14 hours net drive time.

Frank and DL9AN had already worked from JM79VR back in 2000 so we had decided to go to the same camping site again. However, when we arrived at the site we saw that some work had been done in the meantime and there was no access to the beach anymore. So we had to look for another QTH – now already in the dark. After 5 unsuccessful tries we were lucky and found a camping site with even holiday cottages in Cirella di Diamante (JM79VQ). The man at the reception of the Mare Blu Holiday Village was just about to leave for home when we arrived, so we were lucky again. Strange, he wasn’t even surprised when we asked for a ladder because we would need access to the roof of the house. We had prepared an explanation for that which had nothing to do with ham radio but he didn’t even ask. Anyway, he guided us to the house and Frank climbed to the roof with a torch. At the same moment that he shouted “o.k.” I booked the house…

Now we hurried to set up the station. Though being tired from the travel we wanted to become QRV as soon as possible. And within one hour we were on the air: I8/DF2ZC started calling “CQ 363 I8/DF2ZC" on 144,370 and soon after that Chris, PA2CHR was the first station worked. Between us and the Thyrrenian sea was just a train track (and the trains produced nice bursts when they passed by) but the antenna overlooked it perfectly. We had clear take-off from about 190 deg to 355 deg where the yagi then pointed into a tree and more easterly into the steep hills. Consequently all QSOs with stations at QTFs East of 360° needed to be worked via sidescatter.

JM87 cancelled
Because of the high demand for JM79 we decided to stay one day longer than planned, i.e. until May 1st. Then we had planned to transfer to JM87. We had the information that via Massimo, IK8IOI we would get access to a 70 cm relay site on a hill in JM87AX. Sadly we received the information via Alex, I4YNO, that Massimo was at work on May 1st so there was no chance to meet him and get to JM87AX. Frank and I discussed the alternatives and much to our regret we decided to stay in JM79. Only in the evening that day I received a SMS from Alex that Massimo had arranged to meet us at 3pm local but at that time we had already booked the house for yet another day. This is a great pity because we know how many hams waited for just this square to be activated. We fully understand some are not quite happy about this but we are sure most will realise that given the actual situation we had to decide this way. The alternative would have been taking down equipment and travelling 300 km to JM87 but still not meeting IK8IOI and consequently not getting to the site but also not having a chance to go back in time to JM79VQ and set up equipment there again. The good news is: Massimo is learning MS propagation and MS procedures with the assistance of Fausto, IW4EHZ. So he will sure produce some portable activity from JM87AX sooner or later. And since Frank and I enjoy Calabria very much it is almost certain we will go there again some time, only for JM87. Maybe even next year? Those who know us know we don’t make promises we don’t try hard to keep.

EME QSO with ES6RQ
In a sked with ES6RQ (the only sked the whole expedition but justified by the 2200 km distance) on May 1st there was zero copy from Ants. No surprise because 015 deg was nearly blocked. However, by looking at the low moon I thought it might be more successful to try a EME QSO as Ants is running 8 x 17 ele longyagis. So I asked Ants via SMS to do so. Within 15 minutes we succeeded, ES6RQ peaked at -24 dB here. From then until moonset I called CQ and copied F6FHP calling me at -24 but sadly Joel did not get decodes from me. We worked via MS shortly after. With hindsight we should have tried EME also the other moonsets. Some more QSOs sure would have been possible.

Equipment
The entire time we were running TS 2000, BeKo transistor amp 300 watts out, a GaAs-FET preamp and a 9 ele Tonna about 5 m AGL. It paid off to have two complete sets of equipment with us because nothing failed. If we would have taken just one set of equipment with us Murphy’s law says there would have been failures – as we all know.

A Comment on Working Procedures
Of course, there were no rules whom to answer when we copied many stations in a pile-up; our QSO list shows a good average of European callsigns. No rules but one exception: Stations who had already gone on expedition themselves were given “preferential treatment”. This sure is logic to all of us. However, we took a note of all callsigns that we copied calling us and hoped that they would stay on frequency though they were not yet chosen. We would come back with roger-report for them as soon as we finished the preceeding QSO. Sometimes we had prepared roger reports to three different stations in our tx boxes so that we could instantly switch from the station currently worked to the next one if we received the RRRs (which means the QSO is complete). This no doubt increased the number of QSOs per time. Furthermore when we replied to one station but didn’t get any more refls from him for 15 minutes or so we went on to the next one.

As our objective was to make as many QSOs as possible, we avoided all unnecessary things such us replying received RRRs with RRRs or 73s. This might have left the partner station a little unsure at times whether the QSO was complete (whether we had received their RRRs). But we were eager to put up with that.

Sometimes we copied stations calling us with both callsigns only. The reason is not quite clear to us because in MS it is permitted to call with callsigns and report, provided the station has copied us before. Calling with only both callsigns and no report delays the overall process and takes time away from others waiting. For our next activity some time in the future we will treat stations calling with both callsigns only as stations not copying us (because if they copied us they would send reports, shouldn't they?). And it makes no sense to reply to someone not copying us…so we won’t do that next time.

Different from the outward journey we made a stop-over at Modena (JN54) on our way back and had dinner with IK4PMB, IW4EHZ, I4YNO and IK4HLQ. The following day (May 3rd) we travelled the 980 km from there to JO30RN where we arrived at 530pm and at 6pm Frank left from there for another 650 km drive home to Berlin where he arrived after midnight, only to get up early again the next day for a flight to Bejing.

QSLs will be printed within the next 2 weeks so any direct QSL should be answered by the middle of June. Our addresses in www.qrz-com are o.k. Please don’t forget SASE.

All in all we completed with 87 QSOs with 85 stations including this one EME contact. Surprisingly there was only one G-station worked. It should have been many more with the fb take-off to the sea. For us it were stressful 5 days including 5000 km travel but it was big fun!!! CU again from another rare square!

Appraisals
S51AT, OM3WBC and YU7EW tried long and hard to work us. Sometimes it looked that they had less sleep than we...so we are very happy we finally made the QSO after many NCs! Congratulations to you!





Log Book

QSLs please preferably direct to DF2ZC or DH7FB with SASE or SAE with 1 US-$, address in http://www.qrz.com/df2zc or
http://www.qrz.com/dh7fb


29 April 2006
2035-2054 PA2CHR JO22 27/28 C ZC
2055- OK1TEH JO70 27/27 NC ZC
2100- SP2JYR JO92 27/27 NC ZC
2120-2136 DG6JF/P JO33 27/27 C ZC
2130-2132 SP6GWB JO80 27/26 C ZC
2138-2146 F5JNX JN37 27/26 C ZC
2148-2217 SP2JYR JO92 27/27 C ZC
2157-2202 IW4EHZ JN54 27/27 C ZC
2202-2208 PA5DD JO22 27/37 C ZC
2208-2210 F4CYZ JN38 27/27 C ZC
2345-2359 OZ1LPR JO44 27/R27 C ZC
2245-2257 S54O JN75 27/27 C ZC
2257-2320 DF1SO JN48 27/27 NC ZC

30 April 2006
0240-0305 S51AT JN75 R27/26 NC FB
0310-0319 PA3COB JO32 27/26 C FB
0320-0328 DH3YAK JO31 27/26 C FB
0340- S51AT JN75 R27/26 NC FB
0342-0454 PA4EME JO20 27/26 C FB
0348- F6FHP IN94 R27/26 NC FB
0415- DF1SO JN48 R27/27 NC FB
0424- DK6AS JO52 R27/26 NC FB
0542-0545 F6GRB JN25 27/26 C FB
0545-0547 IW4ARD JN64 27/27 C FB
0550-0600 OE3FVU JN78 27/27 C FB
0550-0606 DL4DWA JO61 27/26 C FB
0606-0616 HB9DFG JN37 27/26 C FB
0617-0622 ON4KHG JO10 27/27 C FB
0624-0633 OK1TEH JO70 R27/38 NC FB
0630-0636 I2RV JN45 27/26 C FB
0636- OZ1PIF JO65 R27/27 NC ZC
0648-0658 DJ5BV JO30 27/26 C ZC
0652-0658 DG2KBC JN58 R27/27 C ZC
0655-0708 DJ9CZ JO31 R27/27 C ZC
0707-0715 OZ1IEP JO55 26/26 C ZC
0715- DL1YMK JO31 R27/27 NC ZC
0725-0737 DL1RNW JO62 27/26 C ZC
0737-0739 DL5ROB JN68 R27/27 C ZC
0805-0810 IV3GTH JN65 27/27 C ZC
0810-0812 PA3FSA JO23 27/27 C ZC
0827-0832 EA6VQ JM19 27/26 C ZC
0840 IW0GPN JN61 529/529 ZC
0850-0905 OK1UAK JO70 27/26 C ZC
0900-0912 PA4PS JO33 27/26 C ZC
0912-0931 9A3JH JN75 27/26 C ZC
0931-0939 DG5CST JO60 27/27 C ZC
0936-0946 YU1EV KN04 27/27 C ZC
0946- YU7EW KN05 R27/26 NC ZC
1613-1630 PD0ORT JO23 27/27 C ZC
1633- OM3WBC JN98 R27/26 NC ZC
1713- PE1RLF JO32 R27/26 NC ZC
1916-1928 DJ9MG JO52 27/26 C FB
1938-2010 PE1AHX JO21 27/27 C FB
1955 PA3CMC JO21 R27/26 NC FB
2003-2017 HB9Q JN47 27/27 C FB
2015-2030 DK7DR JN37 27/26 C FB
2033- DL2NUD JO63 27/-- NC FB
2034- OM3WBC JN98 R27/26 NC FB
2040- DF6YL JO31 R27/27 NC FB
2050-2120 DK4TG JO31 27/26 C FB
2013- I4YNO JN54 R27/26 NC FB
2124- DK0TU JO62 R27/26 NC FB
2141- IW4EHZ JN54 R27/27 NC FB
2204-2210 S52LM JN65 27/27 C FB
2212- OM3WBC JN98 R27/27 NC FB
2213- S51AT JN75 R27/26 NC FB
2232- DF6YL JO31 R27/27 NC FB

01 May 2006
0319-0331 S51AT JN75 26/26 C ZC
0356-0403 DF1SO JN48 27/27 C ZC 6s
0400-0449 I4YNO JN54 26/26 C ZC
0404- OZ2M JO65 R37/26 NC ZC 3s
0415-0435 OZ1PIF JO65 37/26 C ZC 2s
0456-0458 PA3FPQ JO32 26/26 C ZC
0458-0502 DK6AS JO52 27/27 C ZC
0507-0516 PA3DOL JO22 26/27 C ZC
0516-0520 S54T JN75 27/27 C ZC
0526-0531 S53J JN75 27/27 C ZC
0535-0541 DJ9CZ JO31 28/28 C ZC
0542-0549 HA5LV JN97 26/26 C ZC
0549-0552 EA3DXU JN11 47/27 C ZC 20s
0552-0606 F6BEG JN25 47/27 C ZC 25s
0606-0656 S53VV JN65 26/37 C ZC
0615-0717 OZ8ZS JO55 27/26 C ZC
0633-0638 DC9YC JO31 27/27 C ZC
0623-0641 OM3WBC JN98 27/26 C ZC
0650-0659 DK1KO JO53 38/27 C ZC
0730-0740 DL2NUD JO63 27/27 C ZC
0730-0747 YU7EW KN05 27/26 C ZC
0747-0755 DL1YMK JO31 27/27 C ZC
0813- DL8DBU JO40 R27/26 NC FB
0824-0843 F1DUZ IN97 27/27 C FB
0833- DH6ICE JO61 R27/26 NC FB
0857-0903 OE5MPL JN78 27/27 C FB
0904- S54M JN86 R27/26 NC FB
0910-0917 DF8IK JO30 27/26 C FB
0929-0932 DL6ZAU JO40 27/26 C FB
0958- DL8DBU JO40 R27/26 NC FB
1032- S54M JN86 R27/26 NC FB
1019-1027 IV3DXW R27/26 NC FB
1028-1103 G4YTL IO92 26/27 C FB
1123-1145 IV3DXW JN65 27/26 C FB
1738-1758 DL8DBU JO40 27/27 C ZC
1816-1832 OK1FD 27/27 C ZC
1819-1846 DK0TU JO62 26/26 C ZC
1847- DG0FE JO62 R27/26 NC ZC
1903-1913 PA0V JO33 R27/27 C ZC
1948-2015 SP6IWQ JO80 R27/26 C ZC
2026-2041 HA5CRX JN97 27/26 C ZC
2120-2140 ES6RQ KO28 RO/O C ZC EME
2202-2216 F6FHP IN94 O/-- NC ZC EME
2217-2222 F6FHP IN94 26/R27 C ZC
2243- OE1SOW JN88 26/-- NC ZC
2255-2315 HA6NQ JN98 27/27 C ZC
2315-2343 OE1SOW JN88 27/27 C ZC
2345- IZ4AIK JN63 R26/26 NC ZC

02 May 2006
0322-0330 IK4PMB JN54 27/27 C FB
0340-0350 DF5NK JN59 27/26 C FB
0355-0400 DF1SO JN48 27/27 C FB
0509-0519 SP6HED JO80 7/R27 C FB
0521-0525 F6BEG JN25 27/26 C FB
0533-0537 SP2MKO JO93 27/27 C FB
0540-0620 OZ2M JO65 R27/26 NC FB
0657-0704 S59F JN65 27/26 C FB
0707-0714 F8DO JN26 27/26 C FB
0717-0726 ON4IMM JO11 27/26 C FB
0728- YU7AA KN04 27/-- NC FB
0755-0807 DL6BF JO32 27/27 C FB
QRT