N1UR Spratly DXpedition 2008

Next DXpedition

2008-03-28T19:34:00.002-04:00

Yes, there will certainly be other DXpeditions for us. We learned a few new things and we will make it even better. I am sure Ed will talk about it. But while I have your attention, I would like your feedback on the other communication element of this DXpedition: the web, the survey, the blog etc... What was good? What needs improvement? Please let me know... Leave a comment.
And... if you are yourself planning a DXpedition, here is a little plug for my web services. I will be happy to create for you something similar than what we had here, with a blog for you to update (as easy as a kindergarden game) during your expedition and giving you valuable feedback from DXers - instantaneously!
Price is unbeatable... for our DXers' friends!

Update from Spratly

2008-03-28T02:24:00.001-04:00

Well, we have been trying hard here at Layang Layang to get people from all over the World in the log on as many bands as possible. Here is a band by band breakdown of the activity:

10M – This has been very spotty and all in the JA – VK – BY South East Asia area. We will try again today and tomorrow. Mostly SSB on 28495 around 07 – 09Z alternating with 12M to see what is open.

12M – We had a nice opening to JA and even worked a couple of EU on Tuesday. We will also be on 24945 around 07 – 09Z today and tomorrow.

15M – No NA. No EU other than a little OH/SM. We will be likely on 21005 and 21295 +/- around 08 – 011Z. Nice JA/BY/VK runs though.

17M – We have had excellent runs on 17M including some EU and West Coast NA. 08 – 13Z and again around 23 – 01Z.

20M – Nice NA openings from 23 – 01Z and 13 – 15Z. EU has been excellent from 13 – 20Z although last night it shut down and then re-opened.

30M – A very fun band and surprisingly quiet using the vertical. Starting around 10Z on and off until 01Z. Often 20 and 30 are open at the same time. We have been hampered by interstation interference and have not been able to be active on both as much as we had hoped. I will be looking for NA at 23Z tonight.

40M – Its all about the dragon…sometimes its on and sometimes its off. When it is on…it literally shuts down the band. So when it is off, I tend to favor 40 because it will be back at other times. I have been going to EU around 15Z – 22Z however there have been times, like last night, when the dragon prevented it. Look for me again tonight around that time. For NA, the west coast is around 09 – 13Z. The East Coast has really only been one fantastic LP opening on Wednesday at around 2230Z. Boy that was fun.

80M – Nope. Noise actually isn’t terrible but my 100W to vertical a little too far from the water just isn’t making the cut. I have CQ’d on 3505 almost every day from 1030 – 1100Z and also at EU sunrise times.

160M – We didn’t put up the antenna based on the poor 80M performance.

We will be participating in WPX. When we are on the non-WARC bands on SSB we will be giving out contest exchanges.

48 hours to go.

73

Ed (N1UR) and Christine (KB1PQN)

Update... or not?

2008-03-27T20:14:00.003-04:00

Two days that Ed did not post an update. I told you yesterday he would do it after lunch... oh well, it did not happen. He was too eager to get back to the radio. He says you'd like him more on the radio than blogging anyway!
But I cannot substitute for his knowledge here. Afterall, I am just a little helper. He is sleeping now (8AM Malaysia and China time - 8PM Eastern US time... don't ask for Greenwich time... I am not sure). At 3AM this morning, he was stopped in his tracks by the dragon and went to bed.
I will try to interview him a little later and post for him.
One thing I know though: he is not going to put up a 160M antenna. 80M is not open enough.
Finally, I know you guys care about contacts, however from my end, one thing really fun is when the rate picks up. I had my best rate 2 days ago at 144, and that same afternoon Ed peaked to 200+.
Fun! Keep it coming!

Chasing a shark

2008-03-27T00:20:00.001-04:00

If you want to read about how Ed was literally chasing a shark, you are going to need to go read my posting at My Adventure in China.
For radio news, stay tuned, we should post an update in a couple of hours!

So much for the romantic walk!

2008-03-24T00:27:00.000-04:00

At 11AM this morning, the bands were closed. Ed asked me if I wanted to go for a walk and then take a dive in the pool. Naively, I thought we were going for a romantic walk around the island. But next thing I know, Ed is treasure hunting for long bamboo poles! How naïve could I be!! The good thing for you guys searching for us on the air, is that we actually found a few 34-35 feet long poles out there. They seem to all be constructed the same way, with a square hole at the larger end, and fishing ropes attached to it. They must have some type of use for fishing, may be holding nets or something. In any case, we could get 40 feet by attaching 2 together. So, if you need 160m, don’t lose all your hopes yet! Ed will try to work 80m tonight before trying this major construction!
On another subject: I am sensitive to the “JA wall” issue. I am asking Ed when there is a chance for EU or NA to be open, and I have put the JA on standby a few times. So, let me know if you heard me while I was working JA. I’d love to know and to “serve” you better!
Talk to you on the air, hopefully!

Day 2

2008-03-23T21:12:00.002-04:00

We are having fun. Conditions are still very spotty. There are times where signals are loud and rates are high and other times the bands are totally dead. Good openings to Europe on 20m and 30m yesterday. NA has been primarily 20. I tried 40 last night but the dragon was S9+ and I will try again tonight. 80m antenna is having problems. We'll try to fix it today. Still unlikely for 160. Good luck to all getting in the log.

Update Sunday

2008-03-23T00:43:00.002-04:00

Conditions spotty. Tried 80m at sunset with no success. Will be on again at sunset. We're glad to have both radios operating!!! We blew a fuse yesterday trying to make 110 working on 220V. Ough!! We need more antenna flexibility, so we'll be putting up additional antennas on 15m and 17m today. 160m is doubtful at this time. I will try for success on 80. Hope to see you in the log and keep up the comments!

On the air!

2008-03-22T04:42:00.001-04:00

We are on the air... Tonight we will be on 80 – 20M CW and SSB. Please let us know how the signals are as we will be checking our blog's comments several times a day.
Good Luck to all.
Ed and Christine 9M6/N1UR Team

Setting up in Layang, Layang

2008-03-22T02:17:00.000-04:00

We arrived in Layang, Layang after the one-hour flight from KK, around 9h00AM this morning. The island is as small as we expected but I did not know that it was the extremity of a circular reef. Really cool. No wonder we are surrounded by divers! We are really the “odd couple” this way here.
With a room at the end of the resort, just beside the entry of the navy base, we have already set up the multi-band vertical, now set to 10m, the 20m vertical and the 80m vertical. It is now 2PM, and Ed is testing the radios.
I investigated with the resort about the 40 feet poles previously left on the island, but unfortunately they have been “thrown out”, which means “sent back to KK”. But Ed had no problem setting up the 80m in the trees which are right there between our room and the airstrip/ocean. The 160m might be a different story.
OK, back to work! We will keep you posted on our progress a little later.
PS: No photos unfortunately until we leave the island. It is actually forbidden to upload or download images at the resort.

On our way!

2008-03-21T02:46:00.001-04:00

We have left China and are on our way to Kota Kinabalu (KK). We stopover in Hong Kong and arrive at approximately 7:30pm at the hotel in KK. The plan is to catch a quick dinner and then work on preparing the bags for the following morning's flight to Spratly. We are looking forward to seeing our good friends, Alfons and Doris who have been so helpful in the preparations for the trip.
Preparation for the trip has been exciting. Now the energy turns towards execution of our plans… having fun while making Spratly a reality for many, as a new country or on a new band. Please join us in this experience.
Ed (9M6/N1UR) and Christine (KB1PQN) Sawyer

Band Plans

2008-03-20T06:53:00.001-04:00

I have been studying the propagation to different parts of the world from Spratly to make the best use of our 2 station set-up. I will summarize by Region:
EU - From EU sunrise until Spratly sunrise (2238Z) plus about 90 mins (0000Z) there is a band open to Spratly. We will be looking for the 10 – 17M openings right after EU sunrise each day then sliding up 15 – 17 and 20M as our sunset approaches. Look for Christine, specifically looking for EU on 17 and 20M SSB from about 09Z each day. For darkness paths – it is going to be a primarily CW routine (possibly some 40M SSB if the noise and dragon cooperate). As we get closer to sunrise Spratly, I will be heading lower and lower in frequency hoping for 160M just before sunrise (2238Z). Look for 40M around 16 – 18Z to EU.
W/VE – Right before sunset (~1020Z) I will be camped out on 80/160 (with the very possible exception of the first night) looking for W/VE. I will be sliding up frequency on a number of days to give 160 – 30M a chance at various times. Christine will specifically be looking for W/VE on 20 – 17M SSB from about 12Z each day, maybe later depending on openings and should be camped out on the best open band until they close around 16Z. If we get a really good opening on 20 and 17 at the same time, I may move to 20 to maximize long haul Qs.
JA – This is just about a 24 hour opening on some band. We will be asking JAs to stand by for the most critical openings but will work JA frequently after asking for standbys. If possible, the operator will run 10 mins of JA on a once or twice an hour basis to balance the standby cooperation. It is much appreciated.
VK – Also open just about 24 hours a day. Feel free to jump in whenever JAs are running or if the operator is not specifically asking for EU or W/VE.
Only 2 days to go!!

Leaving China

2008-03-19T19:33:00.004-04:00

After 7 months in Xiamen, we are leaving tomorrow morning to Spratly. We are leaving here some nice friends... and our high-speed Internet and Internet phone. So, we hope we are going to be able to continue our daily blogs from Spratly, with the dial-up connection we'll have there.
We will blog here about our DXpedition but I will continue to blog on my other blog My Adventure in China about the "non-radio stuff". So, stay in touch!

Goals

2008-03-18T08:08:00.001-04:00

Every DXpedition should have goals. Obviously, we are 2 people, with air shipped antennas, and it is the bottom of the sunspot cycle, so we have to be realistic. Still, the reason to be here is DXing and the antennas we have will be right on the waters edge. We should do well for periods of time.
6M – Probably not going to happen
10M – A couple of JA runs would be nice.
12M – The same.
15M – This has some chance for EU and certainly could produce excellent JA runs. We will go to it mid day and afternoon.
17M – Many people need 9M0 on 17 and the propagation has a much better chance for long haul, even to W/VE so this will be a primary band for us, especially for Christine on SSB.
20M – Old faithful. We will concentrate on giving “the deserving” a new one on this band especially Sunset to the East Coast of the USA where there is the greatest need for an all time new one.
30M – This is a great band for a few hours after and before sunset especially long haul. Also, we will camp out on 30M during periods of darkness when many other bands are closed.
40M – This is also an excellent long haul band an hour or so before and after sunset/sunrise. We will be dodging “the dragon”.
80M – I am very hopeful that many people will get a new zone and country on 80M. The openings to some areas are very short. We will focus on them each day.
160M – This band is a crap shoot quite honestly. The grey line is perfect to the US East Coast and there is plenty of darkness to EU and JA. US West and Central have more darkness than the East Coast than the East which is measured in minutes.
QSO Goals: 15,000 total would make it a success. 20,000 would be outstanding. 10,000 can’t be unexpected. We’ll all know when it's done.

Where to look for us?

2008-03-16T21:49:00.002-04:00

Obviously, we are at the literal bottom of the sunspot cycle. Not the best time to go to Spratly from that standpoint but we are taking advantage of being “nearby”.
We don’t expect SFI over 71. The K/A looks good for the Saturday through Tuesday period. Wednesday through Friday may be more disturbed and then Saturday may again be good.
Therefore we will be heavily concentrating on the polar paths for the first half of the DXpedition and turning more towards and EU focus in the second half. EU has much longer windows to Spratly anyway, so during the whole time there will be plenty of open paths to EU. Obviously, JA, Pacific, Africa and South America as well.
Please use this as a planner for when to spend time to look for us from North America. We cannot guarantee that we will have 160 or 80 up in time for the first evening. We will concentrate on having 10 – 40 up first. If we have enough time before the first sunset openings, we will put up 80. If not, both 80 and 160 will go up on Sunday.

Practice, Practice, Practice

2008-03-15T06:49:00.001-04:00

We have begun practicing using the software and pile-up techniques so that we are fresh and ready to go when we get on the air. We will actually be using the TR4W version of TR Log since it runs better in the Windows XP environment which is on our laptops.
Each station will have a laptop and radio. Antennas will be configured depending on operating band.
Meanwhile boxing up of our stuff in China is going on as we are not only heading for Spratly at the end of the week but also moving back to the US from China. Busy, busy, busy.

Not much time left

2008-03-13T21:34:00.002-04:00

8 days until we leave China and head for Kota Kinabalu (affectionately called KK by anyone who has been there or lives there). We will be arriving KK in the early evening on Friday the 21st and be met at the airport by our local hosts and invaluable logistics partners Doris, 9M6DU and Alfons, 9M6MU. They will be bringing all of our advanced shipped goods from their local storage, as well as the original copies of the Navy permission and 9M6 licenses. From there, we will break the boxes down into the lightest and smallest containers for airplane transport the next morning.
We expect this will take us a few hours Friday evening and again a few hours Saturday morning. The plane should arrive on Layang Layang, Spratly at around noon local time 0400Z.
Ed N1UR/BY

While on the radio...

2007-12-06T22:52:00.000-05:00

While Ed was on the radio, and after I helped him set up the antennas, I had pretty exotic experiences there in Borneo, Malaysia. So if you want to read about something else that radio, you can check my blog out. Did I say "head hunters"?

Simple but Nice

2007-12-01T07:57:00.000-05:00

This website, which was created by my wife Christine, KB1PQN, is a really effective way of getting information out, looks good, and she was able to do it quickly for us.
Please let us know what you think of it.
Ed N1UR

9M6AAC becomes Spratly "dry run"

2007-11-30T07:59:00.002-05:00

Eagle Plateau is the new home of 9M6AAC as the station that used to be quite active at Hillview Gardens is slowly going to be transferred. EP, as it is known, is at 2700 feet and literally is about a 100 acre plateau that drops off on all sides with very steep drops. It could someday be a world-class DX location from 9M6. Alfons, 9M6MU, has one heck of a location there.
Currently, EP has a 25 foot tower and a TH3 on it. It is located virtually in the center of the 100 acres and has little if any terrain enhancement in my opinion. The rotor has gone bad and needs to be replaced. There were no other antennas available before I got there and the tallest tree is 30 feet. I had shipped much of my Spratly antennas to EP prior so it was waiting for me to unpack. Unfortunately, I just had the one day and it was hot. However, my wife, Christine, newly licensed as KB1PQN, was there to help so we quickly went about assessing the situation. The TH3 worked great on 15 and 10 but was a somewhat high SWR in the CW band on 20. There was a mast above the TH3 which would allow a tie off at 32 feet with rope, and I had plenty of rope. So it was decided that we would put pulleys up at 32 feet and use that to raise the 160 and 80 antennas. 40 – 10 was to be additionally provided by a Force 12 40XK.
The plan was to go simple SO2R. No filters and “dual ganged” receiver outputs into one headphone. I would pick off easy mults on radio 2 while running. That was the plan anyway.
Well, it started off okay, with the 160M loaded vertical (50 ft) going up at about a 45 deg angle and the 80M half wave loaded vertical (50 feet) becoming a ¼ wave loaded vertical (25 feet) and going up basically vertical. 4 radials were installed for 160 and 8 radials for 80. Then it was off to the 40XK.
The Force 12 40XK was to be used on 40 and 20. Well, it went together mechanically, but had infinite SWR. I checked coax and all connections and couldn’t get it going. I was running out of time and hadn’t gotten my radios playing yet. So, I decided to throw up a 40M dipole at 25 feet to have at least one antenna on all bands and headed to the radios to set them up.
The radios were my IC-706 (which will be used for Spratly) and 9M6MU’s IC-756Pro. The headset patch had been tested before as had the keyer from the notebook. Everything worked fine there. But, I got hit with an unexpected feedback problem and couldn’t run higher than 50W without locking up the radios. The issue was not helped by the fact that EP is running on an ungrounded battery powered grid with an inverter. So, I decided to just go into the contest SO1R and have a go at it and made a note to bring some torroids for the Spratly trip.
The conditions from 9M6 were just awful especially with 100W and this antenna portfolio. I CQ’d endlessly in many spots on 20M at the start with very poor results. EU was still strong with S5 – 7 sigs and would respond to my S & P calls but I just couldn’t find a spot and get a run.
I then went to 15M and ran JA as EU finally shut off around 0130Z. The JA run was fine and put about 80Qs in the log for an hour. I went to 10M and heard and worked a JA and BY and figured I would try and run 10 since both the stations were S4 – 5 on the meter. I got one call from a JA, who I saw later spotted me, but never got another response.
Back to 15M for some more JA but now not as plentiful. EU opened up around 06Z but again, I could S & P but not run. I tried running many many times at places all over the band, including up high at or above 14.100 and never got much going.
Then I lost power. We scrambled to get a generator going. That worked but created noise on the bands. So I would periodically go on and off the generator and the battery powered grid to have power but no noise. I had my best success on 40M actually using the dipole at 25 feet and had a great 150 Q run into EU at the early afternoon EU time as the band opened.
After one too many on and off of the power and frustration of the events and conditions, I decided to get some sleep and wake up for the NA 40M LP opening possibility at 2130Z. That was not happening for sure as I woke up, but 20M did provide some good JA and Western half of the US openings.
I also started to become concerned that I could be in real trouble for Spratly if I left the next day and still didn’t know what my 40XK problem was so I decided that this contest expedition was now a “prep for Spratly expedition”. Christine and I then took the next 5 hours and not only found and fixed the 40XK problem (bad pigtail coax from the factory) but also tuned and marked the antenna so it would be “good to go” out of the suitcase at Spratly. Which it now is and worked fine for a number of Qs on 20 and 40 later in the contest.
So as I went into the Sunday afternoon, I was actually more DXing than contesting now. Remember that Spratly is “right around the corner” from 9M6. Sunday afternoon in 9M6 is about 0800Z. So I fired the 40XK up and CQ’d on 40M and had some nice west coast W/VE and JA and UA9/0 runs. I then decided to sweep the band and work whoever I heard. About 50% could hear me. I did this from 0930Z – 1200Z. Never hearing ANY Caribbean stations, never hearing ANY W1/2/3/4 stations, never hearing ANY Central America stations. Not even HC8N. Unbelievable.
Then it was off to 80M and I found that the 80M antenna didn’t do badly. I had a small run of JAs and worked a number of VE/W West Coast stations. That antenna should do much better on the beach at Spratly. Later, it was off to 160M where I was able to work as far away as KH6 and JA. Again, I believe that this antenna will do way better over the beach and I am hopeful that the 40 foot bamboo pole is still there at Layang Layang and can be put to good use for 80 and 160.
I was up again at 2000Z to finish the contest DXing and making some CQers happy with a mult, or double, from 9M6 on 40 and 80. I heard and worked K1AR on 40M long path, hear K1LZ but he couldn’t hear me. Worked a number of Midwest and West Coast US stations. Never heard KC1XX or W3LPL or NQ4I anywhere, on any band! I did finally work K3LR who called in while I was enjoying a reasonable run on 20M about 90 mins before the end of the contest.
I also never heard HC8N or 6Y1V or PJ4E or 6W1RY or many other big stations.
W1KM, Greg, said “You know Ed, you might as well have been on Mars because I never heard you”. Greg, I felt like I was on Mars. But at least I have the Spratly stuff ready to go.
Ed N1UR

Ham radio license

2007-11-11T19:26:00.001-05:00

It seems I am going to have the first posting on this blog. But I have an important news for our DXpedition. I took... and passed... my Technician ham radio license exam last Wednesday night.
I don't think I will get a call sign before our trip to Malaysia in 2 weeks , but for sure watch for the French accent, female voice between March 22 and 30, 2008 in Spratly!