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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?
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.
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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Conditions are improving, there is less noise and signals from the west coast of USA are stronger.
WAS on 160 via LOTW is almost completed in two days of operation – only ND, UT and WA have still not confirmed via LOTW.
Update: 13 Dec 0600z -WA confirmed on LOTW, North Dakota and Utah not yet….:-)
I know I worked a couple of stations in UT, not sure about ND.
Update 13DEC: W0ZTL in ND was worked on Nov21 and a second time on December 10th. The Direct QSL cards are on the way ! Will QSL direct to the Utah contacts as well to be sure. This means that I Worked All States on 160 meters in three (3) days ! What a pleasure.
Update 14DEC: Jim, N7JW informed me that we exchanged QSL cards for an earlier QSO we had in January 2006. The card is already in hand for UTAH !! Only ND remains to be confirmed.
There has been some discussion on the Top Band reflector about how easy it is to work WAS and some stations in the US have done so in only a few hours. Congratulations on this, but let us not compare the difficulty of working from the Auroral Zone at 65 degrees North, with working Top Band from more southerly locations.
This was only made possible with superior transmit and receive antennas and with the cooperation of excellent propagation.
Working ZL or KH6 has never been thought even remotely possible from TF on Top Band.
Long Live the Arctic King.
If you worked me from one of those states, I would appreciate a prompt upload to LOTW – thanks!
I have uploaded all QSOs to LOTW and will be QRV tomorrow night as well to enjoy these conditions while they last.
The highlights of the session were working KH6AT in Hilo, Hawaii for the second time and working Tree, N6TR for the first time on 160meters.
Update, 13DEC: KH7C was worked this morning for the second time and KH6AT was worked again for the third time proving that the performance of the Arctic King is no fluke !
I used N6TR´s Contest Logging program TR Log for a while and I found it to be absolutely the best logger I have ever used. I did give up on DOS eventually though, but I still miss the quality and precision of TR while using a Windows logging program.
I have heard N6TR numerous times but never with such tremendous signals before.
Finally LU6QI in Argentina was added to the log as DXCC entity #129 on Top Band.
Lew, W7AT, who also made it into the log last night says it beautifully:
“The language of 160M is CW”
I concur from the bottom of my heart.
Last night the band was very noisy. I had planned to stay up all night in case conditions were good but only stayed for a short time.
I was called by 8P9NX in Barbados for a new one and later by VU2BGS and 4S7NE for two more new countries and Zone 22.
Some notable calls were FM5CD in Martinique and UK8DAN in Uzbekistan.
The day started well, with BU2AI being logged for a first QSO between Taiwan and Iceland and Zone 24.
2009 CQWW CW Contest: 0000 UTC, November 28 through 2359 UTC, November 29.
Three operators arrived from Reykjavik to operate the contest. Yngvi – TF3Y, Kiddi – TF3KX and Oddur – TF3OO along with a Sveinbjörn – a Gourmet Chef who had planned the feast for weeks.
Conditions were rather poor, not a single sun spot during the weekend made conditions on HF rather poor and in addition there was some Auroral activity affecting the lower bands.
Despite this 4525 contacts were made in 48 hours of operation.
You may listen to the activity from TF4X:
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The menu was fantastic. On Friday we had Tom Ka soup with Halibut followed by Real-Vanilla ice cream and cake, on Saturday the menu was Pigeon breast, Elk meat with carrots boiled in orange juice and Sunday we had icelandic mountain lamb fille, with baby tomatoes braised in olive oil and Maple Syrup garnished with fresh Timian.
The Arctic King awed us with the performance – 1270 QSOs were made on Top Band and this was only matched by 20M where 1306 QSOs were made using an array of Rhombic antennas.
We used Win-Test contest logging software which performed flawlessly on 5 computers during the entire contest.
We used a feature of the software called Targets Tracking, which showed us real-time graphs on the screen of our progress compared to last year´s effort. Right from the beginning things were going much better than last year and this was very inspiring throughout the 48 hours.
This graph shows the over-all difference on an hourly basis compared to the effort of 2008.
This graph shows the hourly over-all rates compared to 2008. 2008 in grey, 2009 in violet.
This picture shows the zones worked on all bands.
The Icelandic record in the Multi/Single Category was set by TF3IRA in 1980 at the height of the Sun Spot Cycle.
That record stood at 2,169,760 points. They made 3004 QSOs and they worked 85 zones and 231 countries to accomplish this.
We beat the 29 year old record handsomely as can be seen in the summary.
It is interesting to note that Yngvi, TF3Y and Kiddi, TF3KX were operators when both records were set.
Highlights of the operation was working a Pile-up of JA stations on 160 meters – this is the first time in history that JA/TF QSOs are made on Top Band during this contest.
KH6 (Hawaii) was worked on 80 meters for the fourth time in TF history that I am aware of. Prior to this, only Boggi – TF3TF (SK), Yngvi – TF3Y and Gudmi-TF3SG have worked Hawaii on 80 meters.
It was interesting to note some extremely strong poor signals that obliterated parts of the bands along with some strong EU stations that seemed to be completely deaf. It took me 46 minutes of constant calling to raise one of these stations on the low bands. It is absolutely necessary to have separate receive antennas for the low bands (160/80) to be able to operate there with any kind of efficiency.
A very successful weekend is behind us and a what a good omen of things to come.
Our SoapBox comment to 3830 was as follows:
Comments:
This was the first CQ WW with TF4X being active. TF4X is a
special call issued to the TF4M station. The latest addition, the
phenomenal Arctic King 160m antenna took us by surprise. Almost as
many QSO’s on 160 as on 20. Numerous new Beverages and zero noise
level on RX. The strength of the station is displayed by low band
performance. First time JA pileup for us from TF on 160m in CQ WW.
Propagation was relatively good as we had little Aurora and definitely
better on the Saturday. According to the raw score the 29 year old M/S
record from TF was broken by 1.1 million points.
While tidying up the Shack in preparation for CQ WW next weekend, I recorded TX3A on 160m.
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TF4M operating room
Villi, TF3DX the designer of the Arctic King antenna worked JA7FUJ last night on 160 meters from his car.
This is the first time such a QSO takes place between Iceland and Japan.
To put this in perspective, with 100 W feeding the mobile whip – even perfectly tuned, only 1 W is radiated.
To compensate for the low efficiency of a mobile antenna, Villi drove to the sea shore where he was able to take advantage of the excellent conductivity of salt water. The noise from the city was also reduced considerably at this location.
Congratulations OM !
TF3DX/M
Phil, G3SWH has accepted to be the QSL Manager for TF4X.
My plan of QSLing this call sign only via LOTW met with some grumbling – many DXers, even those using LOTW – still like a traditional paper card for their collections and I understand this perfectly.
Received direct requests will be forwarded to G3SWH.