Ducie ...

[Chris Kantarjiev K6DBG]

All this talk of easy RTTY QSOs got me going: I rigged my K2 with
a couple of patch cords to the sound card and figured out MMTTY: I
just made my first ever RTTY QSO to VP6DX with 5W on 30M ...

I've got them QRP/CW on 80-10 and RTTY on 30. I'll keep trying for 160 but my
best antenna for that is a 40m dipole, so I rarely hear them much less
try to transmit :-)

73 de chris K6DBG
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[w7aqk]

Chris and All,

I don't know if it's too late or not, as they may be packing
things up at VP6DX as we speak.  But give that antenna a try
on 160.  The K3's ATU seems to be very wide ranged.  I
worked VP6DX on all modes from 10 through 160--that's 20 out
of 22 possible (didn't hear a peep on 6 meters), which is as
much as anyone had I think.  All of that was done with an R8
Vertical, which isn't supposed to work below 40 meters.  And
no computer was used either--just the CW input to the K3
converted to RTTY on the 3 bands on which they operated that
mode.  Anyway, the point is that the K3 does a lot more than
one might think.  It won't make a bad antenna good, but it
certainly will deal with some strange arrangements!  This is
another plus for the K3 over the Orion II.  The ATU in my
Orion II absolutely won't handle anything on 80, let alone
160, with my R8.  I was getting a 1 to 1 match on 80, and a
2.5 to 1 on 160.  It would be nice to have an antenna for
those bands, but I just can't do it here.  Of course, that
doesn't mean I'm going to be able to work those bands
regularly, but it is kind of fascinating to find that the K3
will do so much more than just about any other radio out
there.  Having said that, I don't think I will press my luck
and stress out the K3 on 160 with something like RTTY!  But
in a pinch I might be able to at least say "Hi" to someone.

Dave W7AQK

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Kantarjiev" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 7:56 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] Ducie ...

> All this talk of easy RTTY QSOs got me going: I rigged my
> K2 with
> a couple of patch cords to the sound card and figured out
> MMTTY: I
> just made my first ever RTTY QSO to VP6DX with 5W on 30M
> ...
>
> I've got them QRP/CW on 80-10 and RTTY on 30. I'll keep
> trying for 160 but my
> best antenna for that is a 40m dipole, so I rarely hear
> them much less
> try to transmit :-)
>
> 73 de chris K6DBG
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[n6wg]

Good job, Chris
No rtty here, but I did work them everywhere but 6 and 10m.
Not sweating 6m, as I don't work that, but really bummed I
could never hear them on 10m.
Oh, well, there will be another VP6 DXpedition someday,
if I'm still around :-)
73, Bob N6WG

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Kantarjiev" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2008 6:56 PM
Subject: [Elecraft] Ducie ...


> All this talk of easy RTTY QSOs got me going: I rigged my K2 with
> a couple of patch cords to the sound card and figured out MMTTY: I
> just made my first ever RTTY QSO to VP6DX with 5W on 30M ...
>
> I've got them QRP/CW on 80-10 and RTTY on 30. I'll keep trying for
160 but my
> best antenna for that is a 40m dipole, so I rarely hear them much
less

> try to transmit :-)
>
> 73 de chris K6DBG
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> You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
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[w7aqk]

Hi All,

I just took a look at the QSO statistics for the VP6DX
operation.  It is available on their website.  This may not
be the final tally, but it is close.  According to their
website, by now the east campsite has been dismantled.
There still may be operations this evening until about 1430Z
Thursday, after which the remaining equipment will be packed
up.  So, you still "may" have a chance to get them on 160,
80, 40, or 30 meters.  Apparently the 80 meter and 30 meter
operating position is a shared one, so probably you won't
hear them on those two bands simultaneously.

The statistics are interesting, and you can draw some
interesting assumptions/conclusions from them.  They had
planned 22 operating slots, but apparently there were no 6
meter contacts.  So, 20 slots are all you could get.  Well,
that's not exactly true for 1 person!  There was 1 RTTY QSO
on 40 meters, so that person could have worked 21 slots, but
hasn't done so as of now.  Over 181,000 QSO's were made,
which is a new DXpedition record.  I think it is safe to
assume that a K3 was involved in every one of those QSO's,
and many times there was a K3 at both ends.  Elecraft's
advertising department should be able to make some noise
with that!

The total QSO's by band and mode are interesting as well.
About 95% of all QSO's were on either SSB or CW--not a big
surprise perhaps.  But I think it is important to note that
just about exactly half of that 95% were CW QSO's.  CW
"ain't" dead folks!  I should note, however, that because
there is no SSB on 30 meters the CW total got a nice boost
from the nearly 10,000 CW QSO's made there.  But on both 80
and 160, CW QSO's exceeded SSB QSO's.  The ratio was over
3:1 on 160, so you top band DX chasers best keep your CW
skills honed.  And the total CW QSO's was very close to the
total for SSB on both 40 and 10 meters.

20 meters was the top producing band with over 33,000 QSO's
(about 38% CW and 51% SSB).  It was a little surprising to
me that the next highest total was on 17 meters (over 31,000
QSO's with CW about 38% and SSB about 53%).  I've long
thought that 17 meters was a great band (that's why I have
my K-1 set for 17 meters instead of 15 meters), but this
suggests it is even better than I thought.  40 meters was
next (nearly 29,000 QSO's, and about 50/50 CW and SSB),
followed closely by 15 meters at nearly 28,000 QSO's  (4:3
SSB).  160 meters was the low producer (not counting 6
meters) at about 6,000 QSO's.  10,000 RTTY QSO's were nearly
evenly divided between 17, 20, and 30 meters.

I don't have any statistics on QRP, but I am confident that
the lion's share of those contacts were made on CW.  But I
think anyone who made a QRP contact on SSB can crow a bit.
I only tried it on 17 meters, because it was pretty easy to
do from here.  On the other bands the "KW" competition just
seemed too great.  I was tempted to try it later on during
their operation on other bands, but I don't think they
appreciated duplicate QSO's, and it might slow down the
others trying to get their first QSO.  But the "ERP" for my
160 meter QSO's had to be almost equivalent to QRP
considering the antenna I was using.

Anyway, I think it's kind of fascinating how the QSO's were
divided by band and mode.  It certainly galvanizes my
convictions about the ongoing viability (and use) of CW.  At
least when it comes to chasing DX, you are only playing with
half a deck if you don't "do" CW.  A little K3 "mojo"
doesn't hurt either!

If any of this trivia intrigues you at all, you might go to
the VP6DX website and draw your own conclusions.  There are
several other compilations available there as well.  It's
really quite a website.  My apologies to anyone who thinks I
have too much time on my hands, but I guess that comes from
my career as a "beancounter".  Hmmmm!  Not much going on
today, so maybe I'll try and graph this stuff!

Dave W7AQK









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[S Sacco]

>Over 181,000 QSO's were made,
>which is a new DXpedition record.  I think it is safe to
>assume that a K3 was involved in every one of those QSO's,
>and many times there was a K3 at both ends.

Well, there are not even 500 K3's out in the wild.  Of those, not
every one is owned by someone who cared to work VP6DX.    "Many times"
might be a "tad" of an overstatement, no?   ;-)

They did a fantastic job - the operators, the K3's, the antennas and
nearly perfect ground plane, and the low noise environment all played
important roles.

I did not get an opportunity to work them on 80 or 160, sadly.  My
fault for not trying harder.  Got 'em everywhere else and didn't run
more than 100 watts, using a borrowed Yaesu FT-100D (my K3 arrived too
late), which, according to some on this reflector, is the equivalent
of an Elecraft running  ~1 watt ( a "negative 20 "Mojo Factor"), so
I'm pretty happy.   :-)


73,
Steve NN4X
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[Doug Faunt N6TQS [phone]]

   Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 15:17:54 -0500
   From: "S Sacco" <[hidden email]>
   Content-Disposition: inline

   >Over 181,000 QSO's were made,
   >which is a new DXpedition record.  I think it is safe to
   >assume that a K3 was involved in every one of those QSO's,
   >and many times there was a K3 at both ends.

   Well, there are not even 500 K3's out in the wild.  Of those, not
   every one is owned by someone who cared to work VP6DX.    "Many times"
   might be a "tad" of an overstatement, no?   ;-)

I'd say many-  current K3 owners are more motivated than most.

I actually got on to my butt, and got them twice on RTTY, once on 30M
using a very inefficient 80M dipole.  On 20M, it was about the third
call, but I've got a real antenna on that band.  This was my first
operation in 6 months, for personal reasons.

   They did a fantastic job - the operators, the K3's, the antennas and
   nearly perfect ground plane, and the low noise environment all played
   important roles.

What he says.

73, doug
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[w7aqk]

----- Original Message -----
From: "S Sacco" <[hidden email]>
To: <[hidden email]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2008 1:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] OT-VP6DX Operation

> >Over 181,000 QSO's were made,
>>which is a new DXpedition record.  I think it is safe to
>>assume that a K3 was involved in every one of those QSO's,
>>and many times there was a K3 at both ends.
>
> Well, there are not even 500 K3's out in the wild.  Of
> those, not
> every one is owned by someone who cared to work VP6DX.
> "Many times"
> might be a "tad" of an overstatement, no?   ;-)

Ah!  But you perhaps forget that all the radios used by the
DXpedition were K3's!  So, at least 1/2 of every contact
involved a K3!  As for saying "many times", I thought that I
was being appropriately conservative, and clearly with the
knowledge as to how many K3's are out there.  But perhaps
you would prefer it if I had said "a few" or "several".
Both of those terms would seem to indicate only a "handful",
and I think there were a lot more than that.  I wasn't
trying to exxagerate it, however, and I certainly wasn't
suggesting it was a "significant" percentage of the 181,000
QSO's.  I really have no definite idea how many folks with
K3's actually did work the VP6, but there have been enough
comments right here on the reflector about doing so that I
think it safe to assume that "many" isn't an unreasonable
term.  I also know of some K3 owners who did work the VP6,
but haven't even said "boo" here on the reflector, or at
least about having worked the VP6.  So, I'll stick with
saying "many", but obviously it has to be taken in context
with the number of K3's actually out there.

Dave W7AQK



Dave W7AQK



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