VK9NTLatest News
Update 23rd Sept 2014:
Clublog OQRS has been enabled. LotW will be uploaded as soon as THEY stop being difficult!
Please use online services, if possible, to lighten the load on QSL Buros. Thank you.
Update 22nd Sept 2014:
QRT! Thanks to all. Hope we got you in the log. See you next time.
73, VK9NT Team
Update 19th Sept 2014:
Conditions continue to be good.
QSB on 20m and 12m has been noticeable. Both CW and SSB
operators report QSO rates are not as good with EU as they could be.
Many people are not complying with DX Code of Conduct or listening
to the VK9NT operator.
NA, JA, OC, SA and AF have all been very supportive when responding
to VK9NT operator requests.
The team will continue to try 160m each
evening and morning our time; but our mornings have yielded very
poor results into EU. 80
metres has also not been performing particularly well either.
The equipment is all standing up to the
conditions very well. The KX3 and KXPA100 (purchased for this trip)
is a great radio. The rx
is handling he pileups extremely well; it appears to be the radio of
choice for some operators - no overloading of the receiver and no
ringing on CW.
With only 2 full days of operation left, we
plan to be as active as possible before commencing tear down on
Sunday afternoon our time.
Update 16th Sept 2014:
15 metres has been the outstanding
performer, being open 7am through 2am local time. This is reflected
in our logs with openings to pretty much all continents. Each
evening (local time) we've had one station on 160 metres with a
constant flow of takers, mainly OC and NA. the last 2 mornings we
have been on 160 metres looking for EU short path with no results.
Generally, conditions have been mixed, with
good results on 12 and 15. We plan to spend more time on 17 and 20
in the coming days. 30
and 40 have been average and 80 has been quite poor. As mentioned in
earlier dispatches, 160 has been reasonably good and we will
continue to operate one station on that band each evening and early
morning. We suspect the CME of 10 Sept is still impacting Top Band.
The weather has been outstanding with local
QRN and QRM almost non-existant. The team has enjoyed a couple of
breaks to visit some of the local sites and soak up the sunshine. We
are advised the weather will change in the next day or 2, so we'll
likely spend most of the days on the radio between now and Sunday
when we commence tear down.
Hope to hear you on the bands,
73, VK9NT Team
Update 15th Sept 2014:
160m has been more productive than last year but the noise floor
gets up to s9 about midnight local time. We then QSY to more
productive bands. We start on 160 about 30 mins after sunset (approx
0630utc) and if conditions are favourable we keep at it until about
1230utc. We will attempt grey line our morning on 16 Sept - so EU
stations pls QRV.
20m over the weekend had the contest so we stayed clear and ran up
some QSOs on the WARC bands, 10 and 15. Overall conditions are
reasonable and we're starting to get some EU into the log on the
higher bands. We will start spending some time on 15 in our evening
and get some of the EU folks into the log - propagation permitting.
The operators are all having a great time; for the most part the
pileups are doing well and there is always a band open somewhere.
Thanks to you all for the continued interest and we hope to work you
on the bands you need. More news later in the week.
VK9NT Team.
P.S. Check out the teams new Facebook page for more pictures and goings on!
Update 13th Sept 2014:
The team have completed erecting the antennas today and now have the
stations operational. Conditions appear quite poor currently
following the flare of 10 Sept. Over the course of our day we had
fair conditions into NA and a few SA QSOs. OC needless to say was
very busy.
We look forward to improving conditions and being able to work into
EU and AF in the coming days. We have internet connectivity but it
is slow and patchy.
73, VK9NT team.
Update 11th Sept 2014:
Flight to NI departs Syd Int at 9.30am local on 12 Sept. and lands NI approx. 1.40pm local. Plan is to have 2 stations on-air by nightfall Friday (say 08:00UTC), and setup the 3rd station first thing Saturday morning. We expect to be fully operational with 3 stations on-air 160-10m by 00:00UTC 13th September. We note a flare is likely to disrupt propagation in the next 48-72 hours so we’ll monitor the higher bands for openings. Internet access has been arranged but is slow and inconsistent; so will only be used for uploading logs when possible and emails back home. We will endeavour to have our logs uploaded as often as possible (hoping to do daily) but this will be dependent on internet access.
From time to time we will QRV for QRP stations; please standby when you hear us calling for QRP stations. Please visit our website for news updates and also read our Operating Principles which can be found by following the links from our home page. http://vk9nt.odxg.org
73 and see you in the pileups, VK9NT Team.
Update 25th August 2014:
Announced. All flights and accommodation booked. Equipment etc being sorted and packed in readiness.
Update 18th August 2014:
Here we go again :-)
