I was a little bummed to not have a chance to work them on 160/80 this week as I was out on business travel until Thursday night and I didn't see them on the cluster in those bands friday or yesterday morning pacific time. I did get to work them on five bands in about 35 minutes over two days.
The K3 did a nice job of picking them up on my inverted V on 40m and lower than optimal height mounted three element SteppIR on a couple higher bands. Keith AK6ZZ Sent from my iPhone please excuse typos On Mar 9, 2013, at 5:16 AM, "Dyarnes" <w7...@cox.net> wrote: > Yep, I worked them on 160 SSB on the 8th, which was apparently about the last > day for that band. I worked them on 160 CW a few days earlier. Not sure why > the antenna for 160 and 80 came down so early--maybe it blew down??? It > seems like after they crossed the 100K QSO mark, their activity started to > fall off. Perhaps that was their goal, and after that they wanted to enjoy a > little R & R? Or, maybe the sand crabs got to them! Hi. > > Like you, I wasn't sure 160 SSB was on their agenda. I don't think VP6DX > brought up anything on 160 SSB, so maybe that's not considered to be a > particularly productive band/mode combination. In any event, the TX5K > website had a neat feature that showed, at any point in time, just what bands > and modes were active. At this moment they are still only operating on 40 > SSB. It's odd to only see one position light on. Usually there were at > least 4 or 5, and as many as 7 or 8. > > As I mentioned previously, my working them on 80 and 160 is still sort of > amazing--to me anyway. I say that because I've tried various "goofy" > antennas on 160 before with almost no luck whatsoever. An R8 vertical isn't > supposed to work on 80, let alone 160. I had tried it, mainly as a lark, on > the VP6DX DXpedition. Surprise! Surprise! They heard me! You know my ERP > had to be just one step up from a dummy load. It's proof positive that just > about anything will radiate something, and further provided whoever is at the > other end has a decent antenna to hear you with! The R8 actually shows a > half-way decent SWR even without the tuner. 160 is more problematic, but the > KAT500 (or just the K3 internal ATU when running barefoot) will bring it down > to close to 1:1 on both bands. That certainly substantiates some of the > performance claims by Elecraft. If you just don't get greedy, and run very > much power, everything behaves nicely. > > By the way, it was interesting to see them often on the same band with more > than one mode. Not all DXpeditions do that--at least not as much. I think > at least part of the credit for being able to do that is the Elecraft > equipment. > > Dave, AA7EE posted a link to a very interesting historical summary of > Clipperton Island on the QRP-L reflector. I've added the link below for > those who may be interested. I found it fascinating! > > The other historical thing I am reminded of is that, back around the time I > first got my license, there was a DXpedition to Clipperton Island by the > YASME group--mainly Lloyd Colvin (W6KG?). It was all over the cover of CQ > Magazine. Maybe that was the first DXpedition to Clipperton??? Do I also > remember that later there was some sort of "flap" about YASME? > > Here's the link on Clipperton's history. > > http://www.damninteresting.com/the-tyrant-clipperton-island/ > > Dave W7AQK > > -----Original Message----- From: Fred Smith > Sent: Saturday, March 09, 2013 3:13 AM > To: 'Dyarnes' ; elecraft@mailman.qth.net > Subject: RE: [Elecraft] TX5K > > Did you work them on 160m phone (they weren't going to work 160 phone > according to them) I missed them on that and 12m SSB. Most all the early > info shows them shutting down today, haven't looked at their web site. > > Good job to you! I hope we can work them as well on their next big > DXpedition (deep breath) I think a lot of people need it. These guys did a > great job and I liked the log as well as any I have ever seen. > > BTW I tried for 20 mins the other morning after I had worked them QRO on 80m > SSB (1st call lucky) with my KX3 I was never heard. The noise floor was > rather high but I thought with their superior equipment 8>) that they might > hear me but no joy it was a poor band/mode choice, but I tried you never > know. > > Fred/N0AZZ > > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
