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ST2AR – Khartoum, Sudan

By TF4M On March 24, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

Robert, S53R has been active from Khartoum, Sudan.

I had a rare SSB contact with him on 20 meters moments before he shut down.

As you can hear the competion was quite intense.

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Later I had a QSO with him on 10m CW, but no recording was made.

This is our QSO on 12m CW

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S21YZ, People´s Republic of Bangladesh

By TF4M On March 24, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

I have been chasing the S21YZ DXpedition across the bands.

Conditions are poor and the competition is intense.

QSO on 17m:

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QSO on 20m:

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QSO on 30m:

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Joy in the Arctic

By TF4M On January 30, 2011 · 8 Comments · In Amateur Radio

Skál !

I worked J28AA in Djibouti ( Zone 37 ) on 160 meters during the CQ WW 160 meter contest.

I understand that J28AA uses a vertical antenna on the roof of his apartment and his signal was rather weak.

I received this note from Darko by email:

I recently bought a 43ft S9V vertical antenna with an additional coil
for 160m with the intent to use it at Moucha Island AF-053.
Going to Moucha island was delayed, and I set up the antenna in the
attic of the building where I live. The lower part of the antenna with
coil and two radials are located approximately 3m below the metal roof
and the rest 10m of antenna is threaded through a hole in the
roof. I can not access on the roof!!!!
Hustler 6BTV is located at other side of building.

This was my first activity on 160m.
I hope that the building owner will not complaint and I will be able
to use this new fishing pole antenna.

I was only few hours in the contest and logged 117 QSO’ with Elecraft K3, 90W.

73 CUL

Darko

Extremely strong signals from SK7DX about 200Hz lower in frequency made copying the weak signal of J28AA very difficult as you can hear in the recording.

7 large Beverage antennas plus a OMNI-directional vertical antenna connected to each receiver (giving 8 x8=64 possible combinations of Diversity) in my Elecraft K3 transceiver along with narrow filtering pulled the DX station out of the cacophony of deafening signals.

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This completes my quest for the WAZ160 Award done in about two years.

During the 75 years this award has been available, only 160 stations have completed all 40 zones.

More than 2,000 people have successfully climbed Mt. Everest and more than 200 people have died attempting the climb.

Long live the Arctic King !

FLASH !:: LOTW confirmation has been received :

Station Call Sign TF4M
DXCC ICELAND
CQ Zone 40
ITU Zone 17
IOTA EU-021
Grid HP85fp
Worked Station
Worked J28AA
DXCC DJIBOUTI (382)
Date/Time 2011-01-30 01:20:40
Mode CW (CW)
Band 160M
Frequency 1.810
QSL 2011-02-01 17:00:08
Record ID 322443455 Received: 2011-01-30 16:13:32

K5NA@TF4X, TF4M and K5DU celebrate TF4M´s WAZ160 with a glass of fine Cognac.

K5NA@TF4X and TF4M celebrate TF4M´s WAZ160 with fine Cognac.

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A quiet day on the Arctic front

By TF4M On January 16, 2011 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

Top Band seemed very quiet, as I was reading a book in the shack I had left the radio on 1828 kHz by chance – listening towards Japan/VK3 with a Beverage antenna.

VK3PA started calling CQ and a hard but succesful QSO was the result. This is a difficult path around twice the distance to Japan.

16709.9 km to be exact.

See the article JA-TF 160 on the menu above for the explanation of this.

Only 13 contacts have been made between Iceland and Australia on 160 meters before this QSO.

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I understand that this contact completes Allan´s WAZ160 – Congratulations OM !

Later I heard T88TF in Palau, calling – his signals were weak and he did not appear to hear any of the EU stations calling him.

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Arctic DX

By TF4M On January 16, 2011 · 1 Comment · In Amateur Radio

Nothing beats the satisfaction of working a new country on Top Band!

I now have 164 countries worked on 160m.

Listen to my QSO with XU7ACY in Cambodia

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Because conditions were very difficult, I was not absolutely certain that Peter had got my call correct, so I listened for a while and when his signal peaked, I called him again for insurance since he wasn´t busy.

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I used a 400 meter long Beverage antenna with nearly 30dB preamplification to receive XU7ACY´s signals.

I later called CQ myself, worked a few North American station and was called by VE2TKH in Zone 2 !

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What a pleasure !

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ZL8X – First Ever QSO with TF on Top Band

By TF4M On November 29, 2010 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

A large DXpedition is underway in the Kermadec Islands using the call sign ZL8X.

The DXpedition web site has a link to a Web Cam into the active volcano on Raoul Island.

I have been listened for the DXpedition´s signals since the start of the DXpedition and for the past week I have only ever heard a slight flutery trace of their signals, certainly not workable on the higher bands from my northern location.

Conditions have been poor with a slight Aurora, but during the CQ WW CW contest I heard their signals for a few minutes and was able to raise them on Top Band.

I transmitted a kiloWatt into the most powerful transmit antenna on the planet – the legendary Arctic King designed by TF3DX and I received the signals from ZL8X with a 400 meter long Beverage antenna in the direction of 323° .

In addition I used two cascaded preamplifiers on the receiver – Elecraft K3 with 250 Hz filter – for a total of 30dB receive gain to be able to hear these extremely weak signals.

This is possible due to the extremely low noise level in my location, I experience a noise level which is probably 60 dB less than in populated areas.

This QSO would also not have been possible if the operators on Raoul Island had not set up a powerful station on 160 meters.

The distance from my location to ZL8X is 15,700 km.

I believe this is the greatest accomplishment of the Arctic King until now. All Hail the King !

For insight into the effect of the Aurora on 160m conditions in TF please read the article by TF3DX by clicking on the “JA-TF 160” menu button above.

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28dB pre amplification on Top Band

By TF4M On January 6, 2010 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

This is what JA signals sound like with 28dB of pre amplification from a Beverage antenna !

Keying errors on my side are mainly due my fat fingers and because my side tone was set at a low level and I was listening on the loudspeaker…I didn´t hear my own sending…

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Incredible isn´t it?

Happy New Year in the Arctic

By TF4M On January 1, 2010 · 2 Comments · In Amateur Radio

The first QSO in the new year was with JD1BMH in Ogasawara.

The recording is made with almost 30dB of pre amplification from the JA Beverage.

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BA7IO was also heard with clear signals but I was unable to raise him.

BU2AQ in Taiwan was also worked for the second time and we exchanged HNYs.

I took some photos of my view, the first photo is towards the North, the Arctic King may be seen in the distance.

The second photo is taken towards the South.

A day in the life of the Arctic King

By TF4M On December 30, 2009 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

Yesterday I worked JD1BMH in Ogasawara for a new country and zone. This morning I was up early and was called by JD1BMH for a second QSO immediately followed by a QSO with JD1BLY – also in Ogasawara !

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Earlier I made a few QSOs with several JA stations:

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Eduardo, TI8II in Costa Rica was worked for a new country #134.

This afternoon after adding another 16dB of pre-amplification using a DX Engineering Receiver Preamplifier 0.3-35 MHz – DXE-RPA-1 to the already present 12dB pre-amplification in my Beverage antenna system, I tested the system on 160m.

The noise level at my location is so low at times that I can actually get away with almost 30dB of pre-amplification from the already high output of my Beverage antennas. Receiver protection is included by switching the extra preamplifier off automatically during transmissions using a The DX Engineering TVSU-1 Time Variable Sequencer Unit.

I am now experiencing a new smoothness in my station along with peace of mind.

Several weak JA stations were worked and it was revealed that they would not have been workable without the extra amplification.

My reception is no longer only crystal clear, now it is powerful and crystal clear.

It seems that the Arctic King is even more powerful than I thought.

VK6GX called and we exchanged 559 reports, a bit later HS0ZEE in Chiang Mai, Thailand was worked for #135 and Zone 26 and Ross, 9M2AX also called me with excellent signals.

It is all rather hard to believe. Audio files will be posted in the Online Audio page soon.

NOTE: 01 January 2010. The recording time stamps in the recording were corrupted for some reason. The entire file may be listened to here:

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or downloaded directly: -http://tf4m.com/audio/160M_28Dec-31Dec2009.mp3-

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First ever QSO with Ogasawara

By TF4M On December 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment · In Amateur Radio

This morning I got up early and called CQ on Top Band.

I was called by KH6ZM in Volcano, Hawaii and we had a QSO-twice !

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and later by JD1BMH in Chichi-Jima in the Ogasawara Islands.

We were unable to complete the QSO on the first try, but I called him a bit later when conditions had improved and we made the QSO solidly.

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This is the first ever QSO between Ogasawara and Iceland on Top Band.

JD1BMH sent me his recording of the QSO.

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Thanks for a new country #133 and WAZ – Zone 27!

I now need QSOs with Zones #2, 26 and 37 to complete WAZ on Top Band.

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