Fw: [DX-NEWS] message from K7C

[WB3AAL]

K7C Bulletin - Oct 1st

This is a short information bulletin to our DXer friends around the
world.  We want you to know that we have heard your concerns
regarding
QSOs with DXers in Europe and other places on the other side of the
polar path.  We've all been in your situation, so we have empathy for
you.

Let's start with a technical consideration of which you should be
aware.  As you already know, we are using vertically-polarized
antennas very, very close to salt water and with large radial fields.

This makes our signal launch angle very, very low - quite a bit lower
than most horizontally-polarized antennas on dry land.  As a result,
the K7C signal has been reported to be very loud on the receiving
end.
 This doesn't mean, however, that you are just as loud here.  All it
takes is a couple of extra "hops" from a higher launch angle and your
signal will change from an easy-to-work S5 to being undetectable.
The
K7C team has observed a number of occasions when it is obvious that
you can hear K7C easily, but on our end the pileup is only an
unworkable S-1 grumble.  This is most pronounced at the beginning and
end of an opening so you may be hearing us long before or after we
can
hear you.  Marginal openings on the paths to Europe, the Middle East
and Northern Africa may be entirely "one-way" - incredibly
frustrating
for you to have K7C be as clear as bell, but not hearing the most
important DXer of all - you.

While we can't change propagation and certainly don't want to raise
our signal take-off angles, we can and will make sure that DXers far
away from Kure know that we are making every reasonable effort to
work
them.  To that end, we will be  "listening for EU only" whenever an
opening - even a low-probability, marginal one - is a possibility. We
want to be clear - we have not discounted EU openings before now.
Everyone on the K7C team has considered EU to be the top priority
since the onset of operations last week.  But we just haven't been
hearing workable signals from EU except during the prime openings.
Nevertheless, it is important that the DX community has confidence
that we are making every effort to make EU QSOs. In order to spend
more time focusing on EU, we will have to ask our US and JA friends
to
stand-by and grit their teeth during some periods when it would be
easy to work K7C.  We hope they'll understand that the special extra
effort for the difficult paths is the same as made by expeditions to
D6, FT5X, and 3B9 in the past.

How can the DXer that needs a QSO with Kure help themselves to make
the contact without rushing to spend the college fund on an
amplifier?
 Fortunately, the steps are easy to take...

1) Listen.  One well-timed, well-placed call is better than an hour
of
random calling.  If you are transmitting, you are not finding out
where or when we are listening.  Resist the urge to press the mike
switch or send your call - listen for the right frequency at the
right
time, instead.

2) Follow the Golden Rule.  In a very weak pileup, bad pileup manners
can close down an opening just as easily as low solar flux.  It takes
very little rude behavior to drop the QSO rate from more than one per
minute to nothing.  Take a deep breath and resist the urge to call
over someone else.

3) Follow instructions.  If the K7C op says 200 to 205, you probably
won't get in the log at 207 or 198.  Call ONLY when called or when
the
requested call is VERY CLOSE to yours.  If the K7C op says, "Radio
Charlie", then N0AX should be quiet.  When we are working "SA and OC
only", then NA should go get a drink, visit the head, or kick the
dog.

4) Spread out according to the instructions.  If K7C says "Up 2" and
everybody is exactly 2.00000 kHz up, it makes pulling out calls a
very
tough job.  Use timing to set your signal apart from others.  Send
your full call and use standard phonetics every single time.

5) If you have a choice, use your lowest angle antenna, not
necessarily the one with the highest gain.  The key is the launch or
take-off angle of your signal.

Finally, please have patience and a little empathy for the team.  A
DXpedition to a remote location like Kure is hard, uncomfortable work
although the rewards of making DXers happy is ample compensation.
We're out here for you, even though sweat is puddling in our chairs
or
we are running low on sleep or maybe we were busy fulfilling our time
commitments to the island administrator - part of the price of
admission to Kure.  These are not excuses, just the reality of
DXpeditioning that we all accepted when we signed up.  Imagine
though,
having a ghost crab nibbling on your toes just as you're trying to
pull out that 50-watt-and-attic-dipole signal!  It's not like home.

Keep the faith, brothers and sisters.  We're pulling for you just as
hard as we can - don't give up!

Ward Silver NØAX
K7C


--
=======
K7C
KURE ATOLL DXPEDITION
Steven Hammer, K6SGH
DXA Webmaster during operations
[hidden email]
www.cordell.org/DXA


_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: [hidden email]
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
 http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft   

Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com

[Gilbert J Cross]

        Does the following have some real meaning or is it simply an
illustration?
                Gil K8EAG

>
> K7C Bulletin - Oct 1st>
> 3) Follow instructions.  If the K7C op says 200 to 205, you probably
> won't get in the log at 207 or 198.  
_______________________________________________
Elecraft mailing list
Post to: [hidden email]
You must be a subscriber to post to the list.
Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.):
 http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft   

Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm
Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com