A Few Thoughts on Dangerous DX

I’m not enough in-the-know to wish to venture any specific comments on the recently canceled P5 North Korea DXpedition.  I do know how hard it is to keep secrets secret even when everyone involved has security clearances, so I must commend the group for how little did leak out for such a long time.

Unfortunately second and third hand accounts did leak, and bloggers chose to run to print, strangely never reaching out to fact check, which if they had the need for no advanced press would have been reaffirmed.

The disconnect between the needs to fundraise and news blackout perhaps could never have been met.

But more importantly should dangerous DX be part of our DXCC program?

Should our DXCC program be tweaked to “suspend” accreditation for other than local residents of an area in a declared state of war? P5 has been for sixty plus years.

Should our DXCC program be tweaked to exclude moonscapes that are  uninhabitable?

While accounts of winds so strong we formed a human wall wearing our cold weather survival suits inside the tent as we weather the night seems to cross the line between calculated adventure and needlessly shaking the dice.

Now there is a certain rush a good adventure brings, and I am not immune.

But to be certain a fair number of these dangerous DXpeditions exist largely because of the encouragement hams intending to stay safe at home.

Is that six second QSO really worth it?

Most likely there is no good solution, and it isn’t like anyone forces these DXpeditions to happen.

Maybe there is another way to develop an acceptable risk policy for DXCC, but the one thing I do know is that our current policy violates a personal life rule – I will never ask anyone to take a risk I wouldn’t take personally myself.   We’re way past that line and I can not think of a reason why it could be possibly worth it.

73

Steve

K9ZW

 

 

The biggest threat to future DXpeditions is….

Paul N6PSE explains at his blog “Amateur Radio opinions & adventures of N6PSE” why we won’t see many rare DX activated – the ISIS Threat to Amateur Radio!

I would never expect fellow hobbyists to endanger themselves in ISIS controlled DX entities.

Simply not worth it.

For my 2-cents I think we should have a parallel program to the DXCC Program that excludes DX Entities currently considered too dangerous.

There is no QSO and QSL worth paying for with blood.

Link below.

73

Steve K9ZW

n6pse

The spread of Islamic Terrorism is the biggest threat to DXpeditions of the future.

I often find myself thinking about the future. What kind of world will my children inherit? What will the future be like? What about the future of this great hobby of Amateur Radio and DXing? What does the future hold? What are the challenges ahead and how will we solve them?

Raising enough money to bring a team to a remote and rare destination has been and will always be a challenge. When a large part of the world’s economy is slipping into recession there is considerably less “hobby” money available to support these endeavors. This is understandable and is part of life’s priorities for many of us.

As one of few Americans who has travelled to Sudan, Egypt, South Sudan, Yemen, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkey and Iran among many other places all on my own, I have…

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Dividing Up Gear between QTH’s – Second Look

Did the first update on my radio matrix splitting gear between home and the Island:

HF (Modern)

QTH          Main Rig       Knob Modern Rig   Amp (for Moderns)

Home        Flex-6700       TenTec Jupiter              Alpha 9500/QSO King 6m

Island        Flex-6300      TenTec Paragon II        Expert 1KW

HF (Vintage)

QTH          Vintage Rig           Amp for Vintage

Home        Collins KWM-2A            Collins 30L1

Island        Collins Full S-Line(1)    Collins 30L1

HF Antennas

QTH         Antenna 1           Antenna 2               RX HF          Vertical

Home      T-8 LPDA           W9INN 1/2 Sloper     Pixel Loop     TBD – 1

Island     Hexbeam   $$     W9INN 1/2 Sloper     n/a                 GAP Titan DX

VHF/UHF

QTH            Transceiver   Directional Antenna    Omni Antenna

Home          Yaesu 1800         T-28 LPDA              TBD – 1

Island          Yaesu 1900    #  TBD – 2                     N6JSX Copper J-Pole

TBD-1 – looking at a “flag pole vertical” which may cover both needs

TBD-2 – Initially not a priority

# – may have an Uliboard Interface added

$$ – island will have a W9INN Spacesaver 160-10m dipole as well.

(1) Full Collins S-Line setup consists of:  32S1 Transmitter, 75S1 Receiver, 312B-4 Station Monitor, 516F-1 Power Supply, 30L-1 RF Amp, N3ZI Digital VFO with Memories, Autek QF-1A Audio Filter, SM-2 Clone Mic, Collins Speaker

The Hexbeam is a SP7IDX Mark II HD that Waldi is building for me.

The Island feedline is on the way – between the shack and the tower I have enough 1/2inch Andrews Superflex hardline coming to do two separate runs.  Feedine will transition to DavisRF’s Buryflex for the vertical run (as the tower is a crank down, the hardline is not the right material for the whole feed), a combination which should bring the feedline losses quite low – adding in the vertical run up the tower and the jumper into the shack proper I calculate total system loss less than 1.5 dB loss for the entire feedline at HF and a loss just over 3 dB at VHF/UHF.    These losses are about half of what I have at the home QTH due to the very long feedline runs there.

Note the Island would also gain a Pixel Loop RX Antenna but only if I added a rig that would use it to do diversity reception.  The Flex-6300 cannot do this.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Dividing Up Gear between QTH’s

I’me starting to get a clearer idea of how to handle having to QTH’s

Presently I’m kind of leaning this way on my radio matrix

HF (Modern)

QTH          Main Rig       Knob Modern Rig   Amp (for Moderns)

Home        Flex-6700       TenTec Jupiter              Alpha 9500

Island        Flex-6300      TenTec Paragon II        Expert 1KW

HF (Vintage)

QTH          Vintage Rig           Amp for Vintage

Home        Collins KWM-2A       Alpha-78

Island        Collins Full S-Line    Collins 30L1

HF Antennas

QTH         Antenna 1           Antenna 2               RX HF          Vertical

Home      T-8 LPDA           W9INN 1/2 Sloper     Pixel Loop     TBD – 1

Island     Hexbeam            W9INN 1/2 Sloper     n/a                 GAP Titan DX

VHF/UHF

QTH            Transceiver   Directional Antenna    Omni Antenna

Home          Yaseu 1800         T-28 LPDA              TBD – 1

Island          Yaseu 1000        TBD – 2                     N6JSX Copper J-Pole

TBD-1 – looking at a “flag pole vertical” which may cover both needs

TBD-2 – Initially not a priority

Note the Island would also gain a Pixel Loop RX Antenna but only if I added a rig that would use it to do diversity reception.  The Flex-6300 cannot do this.

Of course there are a lot more things to set up for each QTH

A lot of choices are based on what I have on hand, and I haven’t listed my back-up gear for each QTH, or each go-kit’s gear.

Each QTH gets a Windows-7 PC and an iMac, and most likely a Linux GP Box that will double down as a Music Media Server (I feed my Sonos speakers at home with a headless Linux device already

I may have to build a dedicated box to control the tower at the Island remotely when off the Island, which then can pick up some other monitor-and-measure tasks

Hmmm….

73

Steve
K9ZW

May 2015 Operation from Washington Island WI-001L – Trying for DXCC in one session

For a good part of last week I was on Washington Island, Wisconsin – US Island WI-001L – operating from my friend George W9EVT’s shack.

I had informally set myself a DXCC in a visit goal.  Despite poor weather I didn’t come too far short.

The first 16 QSOs I used George W9EVT’s Icom IC-7800 and then for the remaining 174 QSOs moved over to the Hilberling PT-8000A Transceiver.

Here is the country list for the visit:

1. Aruba
2. Andorra
3. Austria
4. Azores
5. Argentina
6. Algeria
7. Balearic Islands
8. Bahamas
9. Bahrain
10. Bonaire
11. Brazil
12. Belarus
13. Belgium
14. Bulgaria
15. Bosnia-Herzegovina
16. Croatia
17. Chile
18. Cuba
19. Canada
20. Canary Islands
21. Cayman Islands
22. Crete
23. Denmark
24. England
25. Estonia
26. Falkland Islands
27. France
28. Georgia
29. Greece
30. Germany
31. Guinea
32. Guayana
33. Grenada
34. Hawaii
35. Hungary
36. India
37. Iceland
38. Israel
39. Ireland
40. Italy
41. Kyrgyzstan
42. Kuwait
43. Kenya
44. Latvia
45. Liberia
46. Lithuania
47. Lebanon
48. Luxembourg
49. Macedonia
50. Malta
51. Netherlands
52. New Zealand
53. Norway
54. Northern Ireland
55. Oman
56. Portugal
57. Panama
58. Paraguay
59. Philippines
60. Poland
61. Qatar
62. Romania
63. Russia – Asiatic
64. Russia – European
65. Sardinia
66. Saudi Arabia
67. Spain
68. South Cook Islands
69. St. Martin
70. St. Barthelemy
71. St. Lucia
72. San Marino
73. Slovenia
74. Slovak Republic
75. Switzerland
76. Svalbard
77. Scotland
78. Sweden
79. Turkey
80. United Arab Emirates
81. Uruguay
82. Ukraine
83. USA
84. Wales

I’m rather sure that without the storms and lightening, that 100 DXCC entities wouldn’t have been much more work.

In addition to the DX, I also worked a “Clean Sweep” on the Ham Nation special event and a handful of special event stations that caught my interest.

I did fudge and organize one sked – I had called and arranged to work my good friend Paul AE5JU as my final QSO for the visit.  Nothing finer to “close the logs” with working a good friend about 1000 miles away!

While I only added two DXCC entities to my all time list, the exercise was a lot of fun for both myself and George W9EVT.

73

Steve
K9ZW

W9DXCC Convention & Banquet

Have made plans to attend “The 61st W9DXCC DX CONVENTION & BANQUET – September 20 & 21, 2013” in Elk Grove IL.

Good friend George W9EVT is coming down, and will be joined by Bill KC9YBL for part of the event.  Unfortunately school/work commitments will leave two of my licensed sons at home – hope they keep off my Flex-6700 [Grin].

W9DXCC

 

Looks to be an excellent schedule again this year – details at the Website:  http://w9dxcc.com/

 

Society of Midwest Contesters

We will join the SMC (Society of Midwest Contesters) for Pizza Friday night – Website: http://www.w9smc.com

Let me know if you will be there, and perhaps we can chat in person!

73

Steve
K9ZW