WQ5W's Blog

I Graduate August 14, 2010!

2010-06-05T17:04:00.006-05:00

I will graduate Tarleton State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree on August 14, 2010!

I have been taking an increased class load the last 2 semesters allowing me to graduate ahead of schedule.

I plan to take the fall semester off from school (other than taking the GMAT), and begin my pursuit of a MBA in January, 2011.

All QSL's Received Through May, 2010 Processed

2010-06-05T16:57:00.002-05:00

For WQ5W, ZF2TG (1992), V31RR (2004 only), C6AQW, and J75W. Direct QSL's mailed out today; buro QSL's will be sent when I get to at least 1/2 pound. I will process QSL's again when school is finished (September 2010).

I am the QSL Manager for 2004 V31RR Operation ONLY!

2010-06-05T16:54:00.003-05:00

It looks like this call has been re-issued. I only used this call in 2004, so I can only QSL for contacts made then. Details for the re-issued call's manager (AA4NC) are on QRZ.com

All QSL's Received Through August, 2009 Processed

2009-08-29T09:21:00.002-05:00

All direct and buro QSL's received through August 2009 for J75W, C6AQW, V31RR, ZF2TG and WQ5W have been processed and mailed (including a shipment to the outgoing buro).

School has started again (more than half-way finished now!) so I do not anticipate answering QSLs again until at least mid-December, 2009.

All about ME!

2008-12-13T20:15:00.004-06:00

What a humble headline ; )

If you want to learn more about the author of this blog, please click the link on the right side of the page under "Blog Posts By Topic" called "All About Me (biography)".

After a brief break, I'm heading back to school now. I will probably post very infrequently (if at all) until the spring semester is over in May, 2009.

Any suggestions for a 6M DXpedition in the summer of 2011?
73,
Alan, WQ5W

C6AQW/J75W QSL'S Processed

2008-12-13T16:52:00.012-06:00

As promised, I have completed processing and mailing ALL QSL's received to date for C6AQW and J75W (+ WQ5W, V31RR and ZF2TG). I mailed all direct QSL's this morning (December 13, 2008). All bureau cards (including those just received in my December shipment) have also been processed and shipped to the ARRL Outgoing QSL Bureau.

If you do not receive your direct QSL by the end of January, 2009, please contact me. Please do not contact me about bureau cards. My experience is that bureau cards take many months (or even over a year) after mailing for you to receive.

I apologize again for the delay. Because of the demands of work and school, I have not had any time to work on these until now.

After a brief break, I am now entering the winter semester in school. The winter semester will be followed immediately by the spring semester. This means I will likely not have any free time to process QSL's again until May, 2009. I appreciate your patience.

As a reminder, all of my logs for C6AQW, J75W, V31RR and WQ5W have been uploaded to Logbook Of The World (LOTW). I encourage you to join LOTW if you haven't already at:

http://www.arrl.org/lotw/

LOTW is a wonderful way to quickly (and cheaply) get DXCC confirmations.

73,
Alan, WQ5W/C6AQW/J75W/V31RR/ZF2TG/VP2M/WQ5W

C6AQW Set A Record!

2008-12-13T16:30:00.000-06:00

I just looked at the results from the 2007 CQWW SSB contest. My modest effort as C6AQW set a Bahamas record for the 20M low power category!

This is a pretty dubious record as I'm not sure anyone had ever entered that category before from C6. Still, it's nice to see the call in the record book!
http://www.cqww.com/records_ph_na.htm

Like Woody Allen said, 90% of life is just showing up!

A word about paper QSL's

2008-08-06T16:10:00.005-05:00

A lot has happened in my life since my DXpeditions! I have moved back home to Fort Worth, Texas due to a job promotion and I have returned to college with the ultimate goal of completing a post-graduate degree. Due to increased commitments at work and my return to school I have not been able to process any paper QSL's for either C6AQW or J75W to date. I apologize to everyone who has sent me a card. I promise that I will process all cards starting this fall and will complete by the end of the year (2008). Please do not send me another card. I have all cards received stored in a safe place. The good news is that all logs for both DXpeditons were uploaded to Logbook of The World (LOTW) shortly after their completion. I would encourage everyone who has not already joined LOTW to join at http://www.arrl.org/lotw/. It is a wonderful way to quickly (and cheaply) get DXCC confirmations. Apologies again for the delay, but I promise to complete and mail all paper QSL's by the end of 2008. 73, Alan, WQ5W/C6AQW/J75W

About Me

2008-08-05T20:18:00.010-05:00

This blog will share my thoughts and experiences in my life both personal and as they relate to my hobby of Amateur Radio. I have been a licensed Amateur (ham) Radio operator since 1985 when I was 15 years old. I have travelled all over the world to operate my radio. I enjoy going on these trips, called DXpeditions, and operating radio contests on them. I am a life-member of the U.S. national Amateur Radio organization called the American Radio Relay League (ARRL). If you want to find out more about this fascinating hobby, please visit their website @ http://www.arrl.org/. For the next few years, however, I will have little or no time for my hobby. I am currently spending almost all of my time outside of work in college. I am currently working on finishing up my Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA). My return to school has been extremely difficult, but extremely rewarding so far. My heavy course load combined with working full-time leaves almost no “free” time to do anything else. I do work hard to make time to spend with my family. Other than that, I only allow myself two other guilty pleasures every week: watching The Office on Thursday nights and watching that week’s Dallas Cowboy and/or Manchester United football games! I must say, though, that school has been extremely rewarding so far. At this point in my life, I really enjoy learning. I’m not sure I would have had the same thirst for knowledge if I had done this earlier in life. I look forward to every course and to trying to achieve the best possible grade I’m capable of. I plan to graduate with my MBA by December 2012. Thanks for reading-hope you enjoy my ramblings in the blog!

ZF2TG Story

2008-08-05T19:08:00.000-05:00

Here's a link to all the info on my 1992 Dxpedition and CQWW CW effort from Little Cayman Island as ZF2TG:

http://www.qsl.net/wq5w/zftrip.htm

Amazingly enough, the North American 40M record I set in the contest still stands to this day!
http://www.cqww.com/records_cw_na.htm

Please note that the QSL address listed on the page is no longer correct. My current address is on QRZ.com if you still need a card.

VP2M/WQ5W Story

2008-08-05T19:00:00.001-05:00

Here's a link to all the details on my first ever Dxpediton as VP2M/WQ5W and the 1988 World #1 M/S operation in CQWW I was a part of:

http://www.qsl.net/wq5w/montserr.htm

It includes the story I wrote that was published in the National Contest Journal (NCJ) and many photos.

It sure doesn't seem like over 20 years have passed since this operation. I have lost track of Ron, AA5DX over the years and Bill Carter, KM5R, passed away many years ago (R.I.P. Bill).

V31RR Website

2008-08-05T18:55:00.002-05:00

Here's my attempt at a website for my V31RR DXpedition in 2004:

www.qsl.net/v31rr

I haven't updated this since 2004 and don't plan to again. However, some detailed info on this DXpedition and Belize is contained there.

WQ5W Website

2008-08-05T18:45:00.005-05:00

I haven't updated my web page in years, and don't plan to do so anymore.

Blogging lets me publish everything I want to the web, and the format is so much quicker and easier to use than html.

However, if you want to find out about my old station/towers in Azle, Texas from 2000-2007 , my previous DXpeditions (VP2M/WQ5W, ZF2TG, Thailand etc.) and some cool recordings I made on 6M please see:

www.qsl.net/wq5w

Just be aware that the information is outdated (address, logbooks etc.), and will not be updated.

It's over and time for a Kubuli!

2007-11-25T19:16:00.002-06:00

Final results:

2108 QSO's (5133 points) X 142 multipliers (114 countries + 28 zones) = 728,886 points

All logs have been uploaded to LOTW.

For now, it's time to celebrate with a Kubuli (Dominica's beer) and explore the island the next couple of days.

2nd Night

2007-11-25T12:23:00.002-06:00

After a pretty productive 2nd night I'm up to 1900 QSO's X 130 multipliers (102 countries/28 zones) for 595K points. I ran more EU last night as my points/QSO went up from 2.32 after the first night to 2.41 total now. It's still nowhere near the 2.72 I had from ZF2TG. Here's the breakdown by hour last night:

Hour/QSOs:
19/3
20/18
21/45
22/82
23/95
0/66
1/80
2/66
3/77
4/56
5/62
6/86
7/58
8/20
9/20
10/12
11/19
12/4

No JA's in the log. I heard a few on this morning but they didn't hear me.

When the band opens back up I should have about 5 hours of operating time left. I hope to break 2000 QSO's and get that multiplier total up.

I received a few nice comments on the blog last night from folks that answered my CQ's-good to know it's being enjoyed!

First 11 Hours

2007-11-24T11:06:00.001-06:00

Here are the results so far:

1031 QSOs (2397 points) X 99 mults (76 countries + 23 zones) = 237,303 points

I'm already way ahead of my CQWW SSB score but I'm way behind the pace I had from ZF2TG in 1992 when I had 2985 Qso's X 31 zones + 111 countries=1,087,862. Of course, I had an amplifier there vs. 100W here.

Here's the breakdown by hour:

Hour/QSO's
0/121
1/124
2/124
3/178
4/150
5/95
6/83
7/75
8/32
9/12
10/36
11/1

I had a rough start as I couldn't find any place to CQ without QRM and 100W wasn't enough to clear any frequency. I realy didn't get into a groove until the 3rd hour (178 QSO's) when I established a good run frequency around 7.050. The last 3 hours were painful as I was really fighting back the urge to go to sleep. The rate slowed to a point in the 11Z hour where I could not resist sleep any more. I really need to work on my sleep schedule (and my fitness) going forward as I was not very productive those last few hours.

I need to pick it up this evening if I'm going to have a chance to come anywhere close to my ZF2TG score. I'm also not working enough EU as my avearge points/QSO are only 2.32 vs. the 2.72 I had at ZF2TG.

I'm going back to taking a nap now and will be back on the air around 20Z.

500 QSO's in the log, now it's contest time

2007-11-23T15:17:00.001-06:00

I put 500 QSO's in the log today and they have been uploaded to LOTW. My LDG Autotuner is not functioning so it looks like I will be limited to 40, 20, 15 and 12/10M with the loops. The QSO's so far have been evenly split between 40, 20 and 15M with a nice EU opening this morning on 15M. I tried 12M and even 10M a couple of times but nothing heard.

Today was rainy until afternoon then it cleared off. The rain kept the temperature down to a very comfortable level today. I purchased contest supplies today (Diet Coke, snacks, bottled water etc). EU started opening on 40M today about 20:15Z this afternoon and it was open this morning until at least 12:30Z to the states so looks like in between there will be my breaks.

Now it's about 2.5 hours before the contest starts. I'm going to eat dinner and try to take a quick nap (or at least lay down) until about 23:30Z.

I'll try to blog tomorrow afternoon with 1st day results, but no promises. See you in the contest!

J75W On the Air

2007-11-22T19:29:00.002-06:00

It's been an interesting couple of days. I arrived in Dominica yesterday afternoon around 3:15. Everything seemed OK until I went through customs. When the customs officials saw my Icom 7000 I was asked to put up a $300 U.S. deposit on the radio. They said that the deposit was required in case I should try to sell my radio on the island during my stay. I tried to convince them otherwise but they would not budge. I did not have $300 U.S. in cash with me so I had to leave the radio with them overnight. They also wouldn't give me a hard copy of my license until I paid the deposit. Fortunately, this morning, Gwen the very friendly owner of Seacliff Cottages where I'm staying gave me a check to leave as the deposit. Customs will give me the check back when I leave (with the radio) and I'll simply tear the check up then. I went back this morning and collected the radio and my license. I woke up at 6:00 this morning with the sun so I had some time before I went to the airport to get the radio. I used this time to measure and build the antennas. I constructed 2 full-wave 40M loop antennas with 1/4 wave RG6 matching sections. George, K5KG told me about and Lambert, J73LC (who I met at the airport this morning) arranged the services of the amazing Donford. He is a local guy who is renowned for his climbing and antenna erecting abilities. He came by this afternoon and climbed coconut and palm trees on the property to put up the antennas. Here are a couple of pictures of his work today: We put up 2 antennas. A delta loop in the backyard behind the cottage broadside to North America and a square loop across the street broadside to Europe. Here is a view of the EU loop. It is hard to see, but the loop is betwen the fourth and sixth trees from the left: The early results of these antennas are amazing. I was working loud EU pileups on my CQ an hour before sunset. I had so many calling I had to go split and even that was unmanageable at times. When I switched to the NA antenna, NA signals came way up. This looks like a great combination so I can null out 2 point NA signals to concentrate on 3 point EUs. What I've seen of the island looks beautiful. This is a very mountainous, jungle-filled island and very green. I hope to do some exploring Monday-Wednesday after the contest. The location here at seacliff seems perfect for radio. It overlooks the northeast coast of the island and is at a pretty good height above the sea. I'm sure most of the outstanding antenna results are due to the location. I rented the one bedroom cottage. It has no air conditioning, but a ceiling fan is really all that is necessary to keep it cool as the temps are in the low 80's in the daytime and mid 70's at night. We have gotten a couple of rainshowers during the day and evening to cool things even more. It also has great WiFi internet access. Here's a picture of the cottage from the front: Here is the view across the street to the Northeast. This is the same view the EU loop has.... CQWW is less than 24 hours away. I feel this is going to be a lot better result than I put up in C6.

Heading to J7

2007-11-18T10:11:00.002-06:00

I'm in the airport in Orlando as I write this awaiting my flight to San Juan. Yesterday I tested the rig/computer setup for J7 and got packed. I purchased a MicroHam Microkeyer to key CW with N1MM. One thing I forgot was that I needed an external keyer to use with my paddles. This necessitated a trip to AES in Orlando to pick up an MFJ-401D keyer. Everything checked out OK with the rig setup, the Microkeyer keyed the rig perfectly with N1MM under Windows Vista and a 1/4" Y adapter allowed me to use the paddle/MFJ Keyer with it simultaneously.

I also went to Lowes and purchased 2 145' sections of #14 stranded wire for the loops. This will make it easier to set them up as I should only have to trim a couple of feet for resonance. I also bought some extra RG-6 for the matching sections. I have decided to go with 2 single element loops as constructing a 2 element system is too complicated to pull off given the time I had to get ready. I will try to aim one NE and one NW to cover EU and NA through an antenna switch. I am also bringing a G5RV for other bands, but I will only put that up if I have time after getting the 40M antennas ready. One thing I decided NOT to bring this time is my Buddipole as I will use the G5RV to cover the other bands. 40M is the priority so losing the Buddipole is OK on this trip.

I am travelling with 4 bags; a SKB hard sided golf case with the 2 40' fiberglass masts and lots of 100' coax sections, a large checked bag with the non-electronic equipment, a carry on with the electronic radio equipment and my laptop bag with the work laptop and the contest laptop. The SKB case comes in handy because the airline lets you check up to 70 lbs. in golf cases whereas you are allowed only 50 lbs. in suitcases.

I almost guessed perfectly on the weights. I had 73 lbs in the golf case and about 45 lbs. in the suitcase. I moved a couple of the 100' RG8X sections from the golf case to the suitcase and I ended up at regulation 70lbs. in the golf case and 50lbs in the suitcase avoiding any overweight luggage charges.

I will be in San Juan on business today-Wednesday and fly to Dominica Wednesday afternoon. My plan is to set up the station inside on Wednesday evening and put up the antennas on Thanksgiving and Friday(if necessary). I am hoping this will be a lot less hectic than what I experienced in C6.

V25W Cancelled

2007-11-18T10:02:00.001-06:00

Unfortunately, it is necessary that I cancel my trip to Antigua for ARRL 160M. There is not a rig or amplifier at the station I rented. I (mistakenly) thought there was. That means I would have needed to buy and lug an amplifier and something to be able to use receive antennas. I just don't have time to pull this off. Operating low power with no RX antennas on 160M would have been painful at best. This and the fact that it is better that I be home at the time for business reasons necessitated the cancellation. I hope to be able to visit there for another contest next year.

J75W Approaching

2007-11-13T20:45:00.001-06:00

A little over 1 week to go before I'm in Dominica. I will do all packing on Saturday as I leave for Puerto Rico early Sunday afternoon.

I have decided to concentrate on my single-band 40M contest effort and not do much operating outside of the contest.

I will bring a G5RV and may put it up if I have time after I finish with my 40M antennas.

Above is a Google Earth shot of my approximate location on the island. It is hard for me to tell where my exact location is as I did in the Bahamas, but I think I have it within a mile or so. What's for sure is the location has a clear shot to EU and NA over the water.

Hurricane Noel

2007-11-01T19:46:00.002-05:00

Looks like Noel became a hurricane as it passed over Abaco this evening. Hope everyone fared well there. Good to be home.

C6AQW Final Statistics/Wrapup

2007-11-01T16:36:00.001-05:00

Total DXpedition statistics including the contest:

617 QSO's: 589 SSB, 28 CW

30M: 6
20M: 591
17M: 20

78 countries

After a few days of reflection, I'm not as disappointed in the overall results as I initially was.

Although it may not seem like much, I did successfully setup a portable DX operation with homebrew antennas by myself for the first time ever. This is significant to me because if you look up the word "appliance operator" in the dictionary, I believe there is a picture of me shown. My previous operations (VP2MW, ZF2TG, V31RR) all had antennas and stations already set up-I brought and set up everything myself this time.

Most importantly, to paraphrase Thomas Edison I discovered a 1000 ways NOT to do a DXpedition and have made several key learnings I will use on future operations such as:

1. Never arrive later than Wednesday for a contest that starts Friday evening. The day of arrival always seems to be taken getting aquainted with the surroundings and the real work doesn't begin until the second day. Arriving on Thursday puts too much pressure on getting things set up on Friday before the contest.

2. Have all antennas measured and tested before arrival, if possible. I spent way too much time getting the loops measured and tuned on Friday.

3. Doing everything by yourself is hard. Next time I'm going to try to get a helper, hopefully someone that can climb.

4. Know your location before going. Although I had done some research on Google Earth, it's hard to get a full impression without being there. If I had, I would have put the antennas much closer to the beach as there was easier access than I had thought. The flat location with no elevation was probably suited much better to verticals close to ocean than the loop and inverted vee I went with. Those extra dB's sure would have helped. Now I know why big DXpeditions do site surveys several months before they go.

5. Pick a location and a band suited to the contest you are operating. 20M from the Bahamas using low wire antennas was a competitive disadvantage. The Bahamas are too far west in low sunspot conditions to expect much from Europe with my low wire antennas. In general an island in the eastern Caribbean is a much better choice for CQWW. However, I think the Bahamas is an ideal QTH for the ARRL contests (ARRL DX, 160M etc) where you only work the U.S. For CQWW to have a chance from C6 you need either high directional antennas on 20M or more sunspots.

6. Directional antennas with gain are good, even on an island. Being on a Caribbean island with an exotic callsign doesn't automatically mean you are going to be loud. I took that for granted, not realizing the reason I felt loud on previous trips was due in large part to better antennas.

7. If you can't run BOTH U.S. and EU in CQWW you can't win. See above. I could run U.S. but couldn't run EU and therefore I had no chance.

All of the above said, I don't want to leave the impression I didn't have a great time because I did. CQWW is always fun and I'm one big step closer to getting this thing right.

Next stop Dominica as J75W in CQWW CW!!

The right decision

2007-11-01T11:23:00.001-05:00

Tropical Storm Noel is forecasted to pass very near or right over Abaco this evening with near hurricane force winds. Both yesterday's and today's flights were cancelled by AA. I think it's very likely tomorrow's flight will be cancelled as well which means if I wouldn't have left Tuesday I couldn't have gotten out until Saturday at the earliest.

While this news makes me feel good about my decision to leave, here's hoping all the friendly folks I met there fare well during the storm.

Logs Uploaded To LOTW

2007-11-01T10:55:00.001-05:00

I submitted documentation to the ARRL for C6AQW and J75W this morning and received LOTW certificates for both.

I uploaded all 600+ C6AQW QSO's to LOTW this morning. This generated 108 QSL's immediately. Good to see so many folks using the system now. My last DXpedition, V31RR in 2004 generated a much lower % of LOTW confirmations.

With the J75W certificate obtained I will be able to upload QSO's to LOTW during that operation.

Back Home

2007-10-30T20:35:00.001-05:00

Looks like I caught the last American flight out of Abaco until maybe Friday. Bahamas Air had already cancelled all of their flights out. The plane ended up being full since they waited to let as many people on as possible and therefore took off about 30 minutes late. The flight from Abaco to Miami was surprisingly smooth but I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the ocean below as there were whitecaps everywhere. The report I read this morning said the seas were 15-20 feet high in the passage to Florida (yikes!).

Due to the slow hell that is MIA I missed my connecting flight back to Orlando but I was able to get on the next one a couple of hours later.

Goodbye Abaco

2007-10-30T07:40:00.001-05:00

Sunny and not a cloud in the sky this morning. However, the forecast above now has the eye of Noel passsing directly over Abaco late Wednesday/early Thursday. Also it may strengthen into a hurricane. What was an inconvenience issue may become a safety issue so I'm getting out today. Airline reservation changed, bags packed and the cab will pick me up at 11 A.M. I should be back in Orlando this evening.

OK Noel, you win

2007-10-29T19:36:00.001-05:00

The latest forecast track puts Noel even closer to Abaco. Notice on the map that it will be tracking right between where I have to fly (Abaco to Miami, then connecting back home to Orlando) beginning Tuesday night and passing very near Abaco on Thursday. That means the one Abaco to Miami flight on AA is likely to be cancelled Wednesday and Thursday. I have to be back in the office on Friday so it appears that my only shot to get back home is to take the flight back tomorrow. So unless the forecast changes dramatically overnight, that's exactly what I'm going to do.

I took down the 20M loop this evening and pretty much everything is packed and ready to go.

I sure wish I would have had the chance to explore this place and do some snorkelling and fishing but I guess that will have to wait until I can return.

Today

2007-10-29T14:58:00.001-05:00

Today's been a productive day. I disassembled the 20M inverted vee near the beach and rolled up the 3 100' rolls of RG8X coax. I also got everything packed back in the golf case. The only thing I left standing of mine is the 20M delta loop on top of the Spiderbeam mast lashed to the coconut tree with a 100' RG8X section back to the rig. I left that up mainly to listen to the Hurricane net on 14.300.

I figure if Noel requires, I can disassemble the loop and mast, roll up the coax and have everything else packed and ready to leave within an hour.

I am now officially in vacation mode. I expect to do very little radio operating from this point forward.

For lunch today I decided to go to the beach bar shown in the guidebook for the villa. It was supposed to have great hamburgers and was a 10 minute walk to the west on the beach. After 15 minutes of walking west on the beach I found nothing. I suppose it was closed for the season (this place is dead by the way-I have the beach all to myself but the sea is pretty rough today) so I headed back to the villa. I stopped by the Marina and talked to a guy who can take me snorkelling or fishing tomorrow if the sea isn't too bad and I don't have to leave due to Noel. He told me about a beach bar right across the street that served lunch, about a 2 minute walk from the villa to the EAST. I proceeded to walk over there and enjoyed a great $8 cheeseburger and fries along with a Bahamas Mash that was composed heavily of Rum. All of this overlooking a beautiful beach with sand and water that I've never seen more beautiful.

All in all a great day so far.

Who is this guy Noel and why is he trying to ruin my vacation?

2007-10-29T14:46:00.003-05:00

This doesn't look good. Today's a beautiful day on the island but if this forecast holds it's about to get ugly. I'm supposed to leave Thursday afternoon but may have to get the heck out of Dodge tomorrow or Wednesday. I'll probably have to make a decision on that in the next 12 hours.

Contest Report

2007-10-29T13:37:00.001-05:00

The contest started off promising, I ran 91 stations the first hour and 84 the second hour almost all U.S./VE. When the band died at around 0500Z I had 269 QSO's in the log with 6 countries and 6 zones. All of this was on the delta loop as the inverted vee was a few S units down on most signals from the states.

I woke up around 1030Z Saturday morning and that was just about the right time as the band was just starting to open. I worked my first QSO @ 10:55Z, DR1A from Germany. It was soon after this that I discovered what was to be my achilles heal in this contest-Europe. Most European stations were S-9 or above on the loop but could not hear me. The inverted vee I put up on the porch was no better. I called and called many stations without even a hint of them hearing me. It was incredibly frustrating to the point I rechecked the SWR and resonant frequencies of both antennas with the SWR Analyzer thinking something must be wrong. Unfortunately nothing was wrong-the antennas were just not performing to EU. I did manage to work a lot of mults in the Caribbean and South America with the inverted vee and even a few loud stations in EU after many calls over the nest couple of hours. The frustration mounted to the point that I had to do something. I decided to scout out a new location closer to the beach for the inverted vee. About 300 feet away across the road near the tennis courts was a location that had a clear view to the water about 250 feet or so from the beach. I then proceeded to move the inverted vee with the Buddipole portable mast to this location and strung 3 of my 100' RG8X sections together back to the Villa. I oriented it broadside NE/SW and guyed it off to keep it standing in the face of the constant 20-25MPH sea breeze. Here is a picture of it with the sea in the far background:

This little project cost me about 1 1/2 hours and I was back on @ 1535Z working SP3HRN for a new country mult. The new antenna was a definite improvement but didn't solve the EU problem. I only had to call stations 4 or 5 times now instead of 10-15 to get their attention. It also seemed to work best for Caribbean and South American stations so it became my main antenna during the daylight hours.

Still I had no ability to run EU. I tried many times in the EU subband (14.100-14.150) to get something going but never could. I also couldn't run stateside during the day at any decent rate due to 2 factors:
1. Most of them were pointing at EU
2. 20M was a war zone during the day with no clear frequencies.
My 100W had no chance of holding a frequency for any length of time.

Having run out of options I decided to search and pounce and go for multipliers. This seemed to be fairly successful as my country and zone count improved considerably.
I did manage to run a few U.S. stations Saturday evening after EU died out but still, I ended the day with only 414 Q's in the log-145 more than I ended with the night before. The last QSO in the log Saturday was PS2T at 0108Z.

Sunday was no better for rate, maybe even a little worse as I ended the contest with 543 QSO's. It got so bad I took a 2 hour nap around noon on Sunday. I had to work hard for every multiplier and ended up with 100 of them (79 countries/21 zones). Almost all of these were in NA and EU. I managed to work a couple of African stations (c50C and 6W1RY) and both VK and ZL. Asia was a bust as I didn't work any JA's or anything else for that matter. I did manage to work KL7RA and a couple of KH6's. I even missed CE and zone 13. The one highlight of Sunday was stringing together about a 20 minute run late in the afternoon including having a couple of EU stations call me (the only time during the contest that happened).

Final result: 543 QSO's/1201 points, 79 countries, 21 zones = 120, 100 points.

All in all I turned in a great single band score....if that band were 160M, for 20M not that hot.

For what it's worth, I managed to beat the old C6 20M LP record (set by C6ALZ in 2003) by abut 60K points. The overall C6 record of 327K points, held by VP7NS since 1973 (wow!) is quite safe for at least another year.

Disappointed

2007-10-28T20:41:00.002-05:00

Overall a very disappointing result: 543 QSO's, 79 countries, 21 zones = 120,100 points I'll post a complete recap tomorrow.

Photos

2007-10-26T17:10:00.001-05:00

Here are some photos I took this afternoon. They show the villa, the antennas and the beach, which is about 100 yards from the villa.

Inverted Vee Up

2007-10-26T16:10:00.001-05:00

I managed to build and get an inverted vee up about 20' at the apex broadside NE/SW. I used the Buddipole center insulator and portable mast with wire for the inverted vee legs. All ready to go now; going to grab some dinner across the way and a quick shower before the contest.

Success!

2007-10-26T14:34:00.001-05:00

The weather finally cleared and I was able to get the loop up. It's pretty close to an equilateral triangle fed 1/4 wave down from the top on one side as specified in ON4UN's Low Band Dxing for vertical polarization. I fed it with a 1/4 wave matching section of RG-6 75 ohm coax and after some simple pruning it tunes to 1.5:1 SWR or less across the entire 20M phone band. I made a few QSO's with it and it seems to play pretty well (at least to stateside). It's oriented E-W (the only direction I had room to put it. I may now try to put up an inverted Vee on another palm tree pointed NE. 4.5 hours to go and I still need to eat sometime too.

Some Sun, Now Rain Again

2007-10-26T12:08:00.001-05:00

We had a 1 hour period of no rain where I was able to measure the loop and get everything assembled...now it's back to rain. Hope it stops soon so I can get the antenna up.

Rain, Rain Go Away....

2007-10-26T10:07:00.001-05:00

The rain has only got heavier, it appears to be a repeat of yesterday's monsoon. It stops for a few minutes every 15 minutes or so then starts downpoaring again. So far my attempts to lash the fiberglass pole to the palm trees has been unsuccessful. Not looking good. Worst case I go with the vertical already installed here, but I hope it doesn't come to that.

3 views of QTH

2007-10-26T09:31:00.001-05:00

Here are 3 views of the QTH from Google Earth; a view very close showing the actual house, a view of where the QTH is located on Abaco and a view showing the view of the QTH relative to the Bahamas and the states:

Rain Again

2007-10-26T09:24:00.001-05:00

After waking up to a nice sunny morning, the skies have opened up again. Still measuring the 20M loops inside the house. One lesson learned: NEVER LEAVE WITHOUT HAVING ANTENNAS MEASURED. This is taking WAY too much time. Hope the rain stops soon so I can get these up.

Arrival on the island-BIG CHANGE

2007-10-25T18:14:00.001-05:00

I arrived on the island this afternoon about 1 PM. The airport in Marsh Harbor is about a 1 hour drive from the QTH. We drove in a blinding rainstorm. Looks like the weather will be bad all weekend. 40M is extremely noisy this evening and it doesn't look like it will get any better. As a result, I've decided to switch to SINGLE BAND 20M. 20M is much less noisy and should provide good rates. My goal is to beat the following records on 20M for C6:

Category Call Score QSO's Zones Countries Year record set
14 VP7NS 326,821 1199 28 93 65
L14 C6ALZ 60,819 627 18 39 03

The all time NA record is:
L14 XE1CQ 732,017 2564 34 109 06

I think that one will be tough to beat, but I can dream.

The station is all set up on a table in the villa and ready to go.

I am going to bed soon...been up since 4 A.M. this morning and need to get loops set up for 20M tomorrow before the contest.

1 Out of 2 not bad

2007-10-21T21:41:00.001-05:00

I'm writing this from my hotel room in San Juan. I did manage to get the last few items bought today (end supports for loops, adapters, RG-6 jumpers etc.) but I didn't get a chance to practice with the Icom IC-7000 before I had to leave for the airport. So I ended up bringing the rig, power supply, headset and dummy load with me to Puerto Rico as carry-on luggage. Hopefully over the next 2 nights I will get a chance to practice with it and load up the memories with contest messages.

The SKB case is loaded and in the trunk of my car and everything is laid out in the other checked suitcase. It looks like I will be able to fit everything in the checked suitcase including all of my clothes so I will only need to carry on a laptop bag with the computer and Icom 7000.

C6AQW Packing

2007-10-21T00:48:00.002-05:00

I’m writing this on a flight from DFW back to Orlando Saturday evening. It will be a quick turnaround for me-I’m flying to Puerto Rico Sunday evening for business and will not be back until Wednesday night. I fly to C6 on Thursday morning. On the plane with me is a SKB hard case designed for golf clubs, 6 100’ sections of RG-8X with connectors and a Spiderbeam 40’ fiberglass mast. I had to be in Fort Worth this past week on business so had to have it shipped there to be brought back to Orlando. Everything fit in the SKB case which is 48” long by 12” wide. This case will also hold another Spiderbeam 40’ fiberglass mast which I had previously ordered and is sitting at home waiting on me. I was able to pick up quite a lot of supplies at the Melbourne, FL hamfest last Saturday including coax connectors and barrels, wire and a G5RV antenna. The packing list is as follows: 2 Spiderbeam 40’ Fiberglass masts (only about 46” long when not extended) About 500’ wire 6 100’ sections of RG8X Icom IC-R7000 Heil HC-10IC headset Bencher Paddle Coax connectors, barrels, jumpers etc. MFJ-259 with rechargeable batteries Buddipole deluxe kit with extra arms and low-band coil HP Laptop with N1MM and MMTY installed (Little Rascal interface from Buxcomm for RTTY) Samlex SEC-1223 Power Supply Bencher Balun, lots of end insulators Rope for guying masts and antenna supports Wooden supports for antenna ends. G5RV antenna Dummy load 3 position coax switch LDG 7000 Automatic Antenna Tuner Multimeter 500' tape measure I’m sure I’m missing something major on this list. The goal is to have everything packed and ready to go before I leave for P.R. Sunday evening. The masts, coax and anything else I can fit in will go in the SKB case. I have another large suitcase for everything else that won’t. Both of these will be checked. I will carry the IC-R7000 and the laptop in a carry-on laptop case along with another carry-on bag with my clothes and other personal items. The antenna plan is to go with 2 full-wave delta loops with one point of the triangle at the top of the 40’ masts and the other 2 as high off the ground as I can get them. One will be aimed at N.A., the other EU. I will try to get the G5RV up after the contest replacing one of the 40M loops. Hopefully this combination will give me a good signal into the major ham population centers. I’ll make one major admission-I haven’t had a chance to really operate the IC-7000 yet. I assembled it with the power supply, laptop, paddle, RTTY interface, dummy load and headset last weekend and everything checked out. Sunday before I leave I will go through the manual and practice operating the rig to be able to set filters, work split and set and playback CQ and contest exchanges etc. My main rig has been the Kenwood TS-2000 but it’s really too big to lug with me. I sure hope the IC-7000 is intuitive; it’s pretty risky to be heading on a contest expedition with a rig I’ve never used yet. I’ll report back tomorrow evening with the (hopefully happy) results.

C6AQW Licensing/Publicity

2007-10-21T00:46:00.001-05:00

Licensing for the Bahamas was relatively painless. The only concern I had was that the websites on licensing said it was a very slow process (up to 3 months). Since I made my decision to go there only about a month prior to my trip I was a bit concerned. I have always found that speaking to licensing officials in person is the best policy so I found the phone number and name of Chizelle Whyms, the person most knowledgeable about Amateur Licensing in the Bahamas Public Utilities Commission. A quick purchase of a phone card online made calling and faxing there pretty inexpensive. Ms.Whyms told me there were no formal licensing applications I would have to write a formal request for a license and fax or email it to her. There was, however, a form I could fill out and fax to her with my credit card number to expedite payment of the $25 licensing fee. I emailed and faxed her both of these along with a copy of my U.S. license and passport photo page. Since I was going to be participating in the contest I was eligible for a C6Axx callsign instead of the usual C6A/WQ5W reciprocal licensing. I sent her a list of preferred C6A callsigns, with C6AQW being the only one available. That was OK, C6AQW is pretty close to my U.S. callsign and it sounds good phonetically and on CW. Ms. Whymms was very friendly and easy to work with and she emailed me a .pdf copy of my C6AQW license Friday (10/19) so I’m ready to go. I plan to send this license shortly to the ARRL so I can obtain a LOTW certificate for this call so I can upload my logs during and immediately following the trip.

I prepared a press release announcing my expedition and emailed it to all of the major DX publications and contest websites. I then contacted the major QSL database managers with my QSL information and posted the call on both QRZ.com and Buckmaster. The expedition was announced in several of these publications last week. I have found that preparing a professional looking press release is very effective and necessary even with small expeditions such as these. It makes it easy for the DX editors to cut and paste into their publications. Publicity is a good thing! Hopefully many contesters will put me on their list of multipliers to look for during the contest as a result.

Background

2007-10-15T22:29:00.001-05:00

I relocated in March to Orlando Florida when I accepted a promotion within my company. Prior to that I had spent all of my life in the Dallas Fort Worth area. During the last several years I had realized my dream of having my own station with multiple towers. You can see a description of my station with pictures on my website www.qsl.net/wq5w. I sold the house/station in August and saw all of the towers come down (a sad sight to any ham). Florida has been great but I am in an apartment until at least May of next year so I have only been able to operate portable the last few months. I really miss the big station, especially contesting and DXing!

As my new position takes me to Puerto Rico and the USVI frequently on business I got the idea to possibly combine one of my trips with a contest operation this fall. I first started looking at places to operate in KP4, KP2 or VP2V but found nothing that combined a good location with a reasonable price. Also, all of the big stations had already been reserved or were no longer available for rental (Windwood, USVI for example). I then looked at other Caribbean rental locations and found the Sand Dollar Villa in Abaco, Bahamas, Sea Cliff Cottages in Dominica and the V26B superstation in Antigua were the best available.

I have operated from the Caribbean/Central America 3 times; VP2MW and VP2M/WQ5W from Montserrat in 1988 (when I was 19), ZF2TG in 1992 from Little Cayman Island and as V31RR from Belize in 2004. All of these were “rent-a-stations” with all of the antennas and rigs already in place. Of the 3 places I chose for this fall only V26B has all of the antennas and rigs already in place. Sand Dollar Villa in the Bahamas has a couple of verticals in place and a power supply/tool-kit, Sea Cliff Cottages in Dominica will require me to bring everything.

I chose to go to the Bahamas for the first contest of the season as the location will be a good “practice” operation for the next trip to Dominica for CQWW CW. The Bahamas operation will require less setup and less things to take than Dominica but hopefully will give me good experience. I also chose the Bahamas first because although I seem to do very well in phone contests, phone is not my favorite mode. If I screw things up in the Bahamas it’s OK because it’s only phone (my apologies to any serious phone ops). The CW trip is serious so I want to make my mistakes in the Bahamas if I make them. The Antigua trip is a purely contesting trip in conjunction with a business trip to Puerto Rico. I will fly in on Thursday evening from San Juan and return to San Juan immediately following the contest Sunday.

That said, I still have goals for the C6 trip. I chose to operate 40M single band because it will require less operating time on my part (this is a vacation after all), it is one of my favorite bands and 40M is probably the best place to be during the bottom of the sunspot cycle without having to erect huge antennas. Also, I hold the NA record for CQWW CW as ZF2TG in 1992 so having that and the NA record low power record for CQWW SSB simultaneously would be a great feat. Yes, I know 40M SSB is not nearly as nice as 40M CW to operate but it will be a good learning experience if nothing else.

During the Dominica trip I hope to beat my own NA record for 40M CW. Again, that’s going to be a huge challenge as I will be operating low power and I set the record running about 800W high power from the Caymans and had a 2 element beam. I would at least like to set the low power record. We shall see.

Antigua should be fun as I think the location and station gives me a realistic chance to win. I haven’t decided if I want to go low or high power. I will make that decision as we get closer to contest and I see how the competitive landscape shapes up.

Welcome

2007-10-14T13:32:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the C6AQW/J75W/V25W blog. I'm Alan, WQ5W. I will be operating as C6AQW from Treasure Cay, Abaco Island in the Bahamas from October 25-31, 2007, from Dominica November 21-28 as J75W and from Antigua as V25W November 30-December 2 . The purpose of this blog is to give you news from the trips and insight into the preparations for the trips. I hope it can serve as instructive for those preparing their own DXpeditions.