Almost home

Our 4 weeks trip to Asia is almost over. We will board to plane to Warsaw soon.

During this trip I activated 2 DU islands - Marinduque (OC-244) and Calayan (OC-092). Unfortunately most of the time I spent on FT8. Tried to work SSB but my equipment was very simple so it wasn’t effective enough.

I did 2262 QSOs (970+1292) including 472 QSOs with 27 countries on 6m band (20.9%). Detailed statistics to be provided later.

I am aware of it that many hams can be dissatisfied but I am glad that could give a new IOTA to many others.

QRT from OC-092

I am QRT. Last QSO was done March 24th 23:48 UTC. Thank you for all QSOs, especially those done on 6m.

All QSOs are uploaded to Clublog. LoTW upload will be done later. 

Now time to go back home. Long way ahead of me. Just waiting for delayed ferry.

We will miss Calayan!

QRT soon

I will be QRT tomorrow, March 25th, about 08-09 UTC. Time to begin long way back home...

Propagation down

Last 3 days weren't very good. I monitored 6m band but earlier good conditions to JA didn't repeat. It could be observed strong "bridge" between JA and YB, just over my head. Additionally I woke up this morning and saw this:

My activity from OC-092 is slowly coming to finish. The return ferry is already on the island so I am waiting only for information when it will depart to Aparri. It can be within 1-2 days.

3rd day QRV from OC-092

After 2 days on being on air from Calayan Island I have about 550 QSOs in log. 20% of them was done on 6m. Last night (local) I tried to work SSB on 15m but my signal is low so there is no many callers. Some stations called me non-stop not being able to receive. It was strange to send my report 15 times when I see that station who is calling me even does not try to listen it but calling and calling without any break not trying to receive something.

Calayan is a beautiful and clean island. A lot of flowers growing around houses. People here are very hospitable, friendly and polite. No many tourists here. Exactly saying it looks like we are the only ones...

Antennas ready

Both antannas (6m & HF) are up. First QSOs with NA and JA are done. Waiting for local sunset and good propagation to EU.

QRV on 6m

I am already on Calayan. 6m antenna is up and I started calling CQ. HF antenna will be ready tomorrow.

See you on air.

QRV from OC-092 delayed

I have just learnt that ferry to Calayan has been rescheduled on March 18. So, QRV from OC-092 begins not earlier than March 19.

On way to Calayan

Our nice stay on Marinduque island is over. I did 970 QSOs. 317 (32.7%) of them was done on 6m band with hams from 19 countries. I worked even with some stations from EU eg. OK, DL & SP. Very nice experience!

Now we are on long way to Calayan. We sailed by ferry to Lucena and are going by bus to Pasay. After night stopover there we fly to Tuguegarao tomorrow. Then we have to reach Aparri and take a ferry to Calayan. Fortunately the ferry, which operates irregularly, is scheduled for next Friday 😁. So, we shouldn’t have a delay.

 

Clublog updated

All logs from OC-244 are uploaded. So far there is 865 QSOs in the log, including 257 (29.7%) on 50 Mhz. I will QRV today around 0700z for a short time then I take antennas down and prepare to the trip to Calayan. See you from OC-092.

QRT tomorrow

My HF antenna fell down yesterday again. I did a second level of guying so now should be OK till the end of my stay on Marinduque. 

This antenna is doing strange job. For instance I hear many stations from NA with relatively good reports but very few calls me. It means that they do not copy me well. 

I am QRT tomorrow (March 14) afternoon about 4-5 pm local time (0800-0900z) as I need to pack all stuff and to be ready to get up very early on Wednesday. My ferry departs at 6 am and I have to check out from the resort at least 2 hours earlier and get 1 hour long tricycle raid to the pier.

150 QSOs on 6m done

That was an amazing day and night yesterday. I crossed a barrier of 150 QSOs on 6m giving new IOTA on VHF to many chasers. There was an opening to JA8 and Central Asia between 0500z-0700z followed by massive opening starting 1120z to rest of JA. The pileup was huge so I decided QSY to FT4 what allowed me to improve QSO's rate. I have never experienced such 6m propagation in SP. A lot of fun with some stress as I am still not able to work F/H mode. Additionally HRD Logbook which I use to store all logs also doesn't work so it needs more effort to manage pileup as well as make sure that any part of log hasn't been lost. Anyway if someone is not in log and believes he should be, please drop me an e-mail and I will check ALL.txt file. 

Magic band

My 6m antenna did a job today. 2 hours opening to west allowed me to manage 10 QSOs with stations from 7 countries. That started from copying 9N7AA and after turning antenna to right direction finished of QSO with him. After that my waterfall showed much more - stations from east EU.

The evening brought a wind which destroyed my HF antenna. The idea to bind guying ropes to bushes was very bad. Those plants appeared very fragile and even light wind broke them…

QRV from OC-244

Yesterday about 6 pm local time I started working FT8 on 10m. I tried to use F/H mode but just before commencing my trip I upgraded WSJT-X to the newest version and something is wrong because this mode doesn't work for me now. Have to check what has happen...

Till now there is about 150 QSOs on bands 10-20m in the log with mainly AS stations. I am copying EU and west of NA but only few of them copying and calling me.

I am also monitoring 6m band and from time to time calling CQ but the band is quiet here so far.

On way to Marinduque

After 2 nights in Quezon City we begin our journey to Marinduque Island. First by bus to Dalahican then we are going to take a ferry to the island. Finally we will need to move to Gasan where we have booked the resort. 

Great hobbies…

I am just wondering what “hobby” do I enjoy more - radio (especially IOTA) or food (especially Japanese). It seems to be a difficult question just after delicious sashimi…

Journey just begins...

My journey starts tomorrow night with a flight to Tokyo. Then I fly to Manila and then I move to Marinduque Island. This is the easier part of the trip. The transfer to Calayan is a bit more complicated. It requires a 6-hours trip by lampitaw boat and is very weather dependent. Please keep your fingers crossed that the rough sea will not cause me any surprises and delays.

The experience I've gained trying to make FT8 QSO with 5K0VT/5J01EA shows that the use of standard FT8 frequencies is a very bad idea. Such a DX station is constantly covered by local stations and, despite good propagation, it is very difficult to receive it. So when working on FT8 I will always be on a non-standard QRG using F/H mode or MSHV program. Unfortunately, I have no experience with MSHV, so I will have to learn it in the field.

Since I intend to work on HF and VHF at the same time, both stations will be tx-ing in different time slots. If HF is "even" then VHF is "odd".

See you on air soon, I hope!

Credit: Michael Lawrence