Saturday, November 8, 2014

Hunting for Tromelin

After my succesfull DX last week I imagined that I would work the FT4TA Tromelin Isl. DXpedition very fast. Unfortenately you need to be on the radio when propagation is best, for this DXpedition that's around 10-12 UTC. Guess where I am at that time? Yes, on the job and unable to be on the radio. I tried to hear the DXpedition at several evenings but everything above 10 Mhz is dead then en only noise can be heard. I am unable to hear them on the low bands. Today I had the opportunity to call for over half a hour on 10m around 11 UTC (best time). Their signal was S7 on the HB9CV. Unfortenately the pile-up was huge and 20 KHz wide! And I was unable to break it. They will dismantle equipment monday, and actually that is the first day since the start that I am able to call them for real.  So tomorrow will actually be my last chance, if I have any chance at all...wish me luck...

But first is the PA-beker contest tomorrow. I made a small test on 80m recording, listening and viewing my signal on a webSDR on the other side of the country. I was astonished about the signal I was transmitting (9+40dB). I will try the record some audio tomorrow. Hope to have a  QSO with some of my readers then.

Update 9-11-2014 11:30 UTC The PA-beker contest is over (11:30) I quickly pushed buttons to 10m and heard FT4TA with 59 !. 2 times calling and I was in the log. It's my lucky day!!


4 comments:

Peter pa4o said...

Hoop je te werken Bas.. CW viel me wat tegen vandaag. Laatste uur bijna helemaal geen aanbod meer.

Peter

Hans said...

Hallo Bas, ik hoop dat je nog gelegenheid krijgt om FT4TA te werken, dat zou leuk zijn.
Morgen veel succes met de PA Beker, mogelijk dat ik je nog hoor en je kan werken. We zullen zien. 73 Hans, PE1BVQ

John AE5X said...

Congrats Bas - excellent timing! Navassa & Iran next!

PE4BAS, Bas said...

Thanks John I'll do my best to work those too. 73, Bas