Donnerstag, 21. März 2019

Final Diary March 19th and 20th


The EF9LZ activity is finished. With 178 QSOs the number of contacts is far higher than we had even dreamed of the first evening when we realised the actual noise situation on site. We cannot imagine many worse things than knowing that many ham friends are copying us well while we do not have copy from them in either polarization due to the high nose floor. Luckily at times it was so much better like on the 16th and 17th when some hours it felt like a “normal” DXpedition in normal noise situation.

At moonrise we always had not just a hill but also a big tree between us and the reflector in the sky. It felt like this tree would harm the rx side more than the tx side. This got gradually better from day to day as the declination became less and the moon rose to more southerly directions. From FK8CP we finally at least saw a sync during our last moon rise in EA9 but sadly we could not manage to complete a QSO.

More or less reliably all rx signals disappeared when our moon rose above 70 degrees: Zero copy was observed in both planes, strange. And strange was also that we had nearly zero return power from our antennas. They were the same as with CR2EME or D44TU etc when we always had some 5 watts return from our Tajfun LDMOS amp. This time it was just 100 mW which normally cannot be. However, as we were copied very well and also had some loud signals at times, best 4 yagi signal was -18 from DL1DWI, best signal at all was -15 from HB9Q, the system obviously ran well.
The 70 cm thing (SWR 1:2 on both antennas combined as well as on each single antenna) will be investigated. Maybe it was always that high? Then we would have made all our 70 cm QSOs with a sub-optimal antenna system at CR2EME. We had double-ckecked booms, element spacings and lengths as well as both dipole boxes but did not find even a clue.

When returning home on the 20th with leaving the house at 6 am we noticed quite high winds and hoped the ferry would not be cancelled. Luckily it was not but we had quite a bumpy ride from EA9 to EA7. There we collected our rental car from the parking house (rental companies do not permit to bring their cars from EA mainland to EA9) only to realize that somebody had dented the rear bumper bar – which added some 250 € to the rental cost. Then driving 140 km to Malaga airport and catching flights home. Personally I always feel a bit uneasy at the security checks when I have to present my hand baggage with the FT857 and the 12 V power supply. You never know if you run into some poseur who takes himself very very serious. So far I have never met such a person at the security checks but you never know. This time in Malaga there was just a nice-looking young lady who wanted to know if the FT857 is something such as a police radio…no, of course not. And again nobody checked the weight of my pilot’s case which was 12 kg, way over the 8 kg limit. When carrying it you always had to maintain a face that it is a very lightweight thing hi. It also paid off to have a jacket with many pockets because the weight of the jacket does not add to the pilot’s case content ;-).

With our checked-in luggage everything was fine. It sure pays off to always add a copy of the radio license and a paper with “Amateur Radio Equipment” in capital letters with contact details into every box and also on top of the entire content when packing the suitcase. Chris PA2CHR once told that he always does so – and this helps a lot, thank you Chris. A friendly smile at the check-in person also helps to avoid excess charges if you have 2-3 kg more than permitted.
QSL Routes are via DF2ZC only, direct with SAE and 3 US-$ - no IRCs please. However, to keep it simple you can also send us 3 US-$ via paypal by clicking the donate-button at the top/right of this side. Please do not forget to enter QSO details!

The X-Team will also go on DXpedition in 2020, most probably in March again. To where we do not know yet…but we will be on the road, for sure.

Last not least: A BIG THANK YOU goes to Jorge, EA9LZ. Jorge was a big support to us not only arranging for the location in EA9 but also helping with customs and many petty things. EA9 for instance is part of Spain and also of the European Union but it is tax-free. Therefore there could have been a big mess bringing so much equipment into EA9 and particularly back to EA mainland. Jorge went with us to the Guardia Civil and explained to them. We finally received a paper to confirm we brought the equipment into EA9 before we brought it back to EA. This saved a lot of time let alone nerves. One must not forget it is very hard to find an English speaking person in administration (and also elsewhere) in Southern Spain. So communication would have been tough.
Muchas gracias Jorge!!!



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