425 DX News #1649

10 December 2022 A.R.I. DX Bulletin
No 1649

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**** DX INFORMATION ****
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Edited by I1JQJ & IK1ADH
Direttore Responsabile I2VGW

6W - Earl, WA3DX will be active holiday style from Senegal between 22
December and 20 January. He will operate FT8 and some SSB on 40-10
metres. Specific locations may include Dakar and Mbao as 6W1/WA3DX,
Kaolack and Marloj (one of the Saloum Islands, not IOTA) as
6W6/WA3DX. QSL via LoTW, or direct to home call.
A6 - A60BHR is the special callsign for the Emirates Amateur Radio Soci-
ety to take part in the celebrations of Bahrain National Day on 10-
16 December. QSL via EA7FTR. Individual operators may append a
serial number to the special callsign, and be active as A60BHR/0,
A60BHR/1, etc. (see qrz.com for the QSL routes).
A9 - Celebrating the Kingdom of Bahrain's National Day, the Bahrain
Amateur Radio Society will be active as A91ND until 16 December.
QSL via EC6DX. Also taking part in the celebrations will be the
Saudi Amateur Radio Society as HZ1BHR on 10-16 December, as well as
the Kuwait Amateur Radio Society as 9K9BHR on 12-18 December.
OH - Celebrating the Christmas Holiday Season, the OH9A team is once
again active as OG1XMAS on all bands and modes between 28 November
and 26 December. QSL via LoTW (preferred), Club Log's OQRS, or
direct to OH1NOA.
SM - Once again the unique and still operational long wave transmitter,
with call sign SAQ, at the Varberg Radio Station at Grimeton
(southern Sweden) will be activated on VLF 17.2 kHz on 24 December.
The message transmission will take place at 8 UTC and the
transmitter will be tuned up from around 7.30 UTC. Built in 1922-
24, the Varberg Radio Station has been inscribed on the UNESCO
World Heritage list since 2004. As for the amateur bands, Grimeton
Radio Station SK6SAQ will be QRV on CW (3535, 7035 and 14035 kHz)
and SSB (3755 and 7140 kHz). QSL SK6SAQ via the bureau or direct to
Alexander GVV Radiostationen, Grimeton 72, SE-432 98 Grimeton,
Sweden. See https://alexander.n.se/en/ for more information.
TR - Roland, F8EN will be active as TR8CR from Gabon between 29 December
and mid-March 2023. He will operate CW on 30-10m. QSL via F6AJA,
logsearch on http://LesNouvellesDX.fr/voirlogs.php. [TNX F6AJA]
VK9N - Marcelo, ZL1MTO will be active holiday style as VK9MTO from Norfolk
Island (OC-005) from 29 December to 5 January. He will operate SSB
and FT8/FT4 on 20, 15 and 10 metres. QSL via LoTW, Club Log's OQRS,
or direct to home call.
VP8 - Jonathan, 2E0KZN now expects to be stationed at the Royal Air Force
(RAF) Mount Pleasant Complex, Falkland Islands (SA-002) until some-
time in January, as his stay has been extended [425DXN 1630]. He is
QRV as V P8TAA from the RAF club station, and as VP8TAA/p while on
on SOTA activations. QSL via M0OXO's OQRS.
VU_ant - A member of the 42nd Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica,
Sunny, VU2CUW will be based at Maitri Station, Antarctica for about
one year. In his spare time he will be active as AT42I. QSL via
VU2CRS.
ZF - Edmondo, VA3ITA will be active holiday style as ZF2IT from the
Cayman Islands (NA-016) from 29 December to 5 January. He will
operate SSB and digital modes on 40-10 metres. QSL only via LoTW.

CARIBBEAN TOUR ---> Heli, DD0VR and Bigi, DE3BWR will visit and be active
from Aruba (P4/DD0VR) on 16-23 December, Curacao (PJ2/DD0VR) on 23 December-
5 January, and Bonaire (PJ4/DD0VR) on 5-13 January. They will run 15-10
watts on SSB, and 5 watts on CW. QSL via home calls. [TNX DX World]

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**** GOOD TO KNOW ... ****
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Edited by I1JQJ & IK1ADH
Direttore Responsabile I2VGW

Access to the main functions of www.425dxn.org is provided by the 425DXN App
for Android. It is available on Google Play - free of charge, no ads. Enjoy!

425 DX NEWS MAGAZINE ---> The November 2022 issue is available for download
at https://www.425dxn.org/. [TNX IZ3EBA]

3Y0J: SETUP PLANS & FT8 ---> On 7 December Ken, LA7GIA posted the following
to the Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/3093983840726129/) of
the 2023 DXpedition to Bouvet.
Our camp build up plan consists of 4 distinct steps that have been matured
and developed during the last 2.5 years, based on lessons learned from
other DXpeditions. Lesson 1 is be prepared to go onshore Bouvet during a
short WX window. Thus, if our only chance is going onshore during a 3h WX
window, we will bring our lightweight equipment in Step 1. Step 2 is
defined as expanding the station setup with yagis. Step 3 is bringing on
the lowband antennas, and Step 4 is the final step where we complete our
setup.
We have had some feedback on FT8 and the operation. Because we plan to run
12 stations at peak times, going QRO on FT8 is a question about logistics,
fuel and risk.
A lot of amplifier failures on DXped are due to high power and human fail-
ures. Thus our setup minimizes this risk by running the 4 FT8 machines as
much as possible on the yagis, no setting changes allowed by operator. FT8
operator can adjust the number of streams, redirect his call to specific
continents or adjust the dB level of receiving stations.
The machines will be running on fixed 100W. We will start with 2 streams,
and we might also go single stream. We will monitor our signal reports be-
fore an adjustment.
Bringing fuel for amplifiers is also a constraint logistic wise, all fuel
has to go into the zodiac and onto the shelf, please understand that this
is not a fly in/out DXPed - we're running on generators. We will on Bouvet
continuously check the available fuel, we have an inline electronic meter-
ing system. Based on available fuel we can
(1) increase the heat in the tent (our tent is not heated 24/7!),
(2) go QRO on CW/SSB,
(3) go 500W on FT8, two machines max due to power output bottlenecks,
(4) start the 1000W waffle machine.
Please note the RF output power levels are thus initial power levels dur-
ing start up! Thus FT8 QRO operation >100W is a question about logistics,
power rating of the generator circuits and how to dispatch the load, but
also an energy constraint and amount of fuel available.
Given we can handle the power output and energy constraints, we will try
2x500W on FT8, that might as well include 160/80m. However, our lowband
ops are likely to be able to man the 160/80 station during the 8h opening,
only in the case we're not able to man the 160/80m we will discuss to put
the FT8 machines on lowband.
We're not ruling it completely out, but seeing the strong team of CW/SSB
ops this is unlikely to happen, but not impossible. We have low band ops
paying $25,000 to go on this trip for their lifetime 160m experience. I
personally doubt all of them will be sleeping during prime time!

ARRL SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE ---> On 15 December between 9 and 13 UTC "the
ARRL HQ network infrastructure will have a major upgrade performed", Bob
Naumann, W5OV, ARRL Director of Operations has announced. "While not specif-
ically related to LoTW, it is likely that during this time period, you may
not be able to reach the LoTW system (or any other ARRL system) until the
upgrade is complete. Please try to avoid this timeframe".

QSL CQ7P ---> The Portuguese DX Group, CS5DX (ex CS1GDX) is receiving QSL
requests for recent QSOs with CQ7P. That was the callsign used by Joao
Rafael, CT1BOP during this year's CQ WW DX SSB Contest, and the QSLs should
go direct to Joao Rafael Almeida, Colegio Campo de Flores, Estrada Nacional
10-1, Lazarim, 2829-514 Caparica, Portugal. Cards already received by the
PDXG will be forwarded to him. [TNX CT4NH]

VK5KI ---> Effective 5 December, VK5KI is the new callsign for Tony, VK5AVB,
a resident on Kangaroo Island (OC-139) who operates mainly SSB. Originally
granted to VK5GR, the callsign was used from Kangaroo thrice (July 2020,
January 2021 and July 2022). Charles, M0OXO will continue as the QSL manager
for VK5KI (QSL via https://www.m0oxo.com/oqrs/logsearch.php) [TNX VK5GR]

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QSLs received direct or through managers: 3DA0RU, 5R8LH, 5X7W, 7P8RU,
AP2FLY, E20AX/p (AS-107), E51BQ, EP2HAM, GB22HQ, HK0/PY8WW, HZ1HZ, K7K (NA-
070), OZ5TG, PV8DX, S21SM, V31XX, V85T, VK0MQ, VP8ADR/40, VP8BTR/40, YJ0CA,
Z6/KN4PRE, ZD7BG.

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425 DX News is a free of charge weekly bulletin
edited by Mauro Pregliasco, I1JQJ and Valeria Pregliasco, IK1ADH

Its contents may be used, reproduced and distributed
in part or full provided that
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Contributors are invited to send their DX information to
Mauro Pregliasco, I1JQJ (i1jqj.mauro@gmail.com)
The deadline is 12 UTC on Fridays

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Direttore Responsabile
Gabriele Villa, I2VGW
Giornalista Professionista - Tessera n. 071675
Ordine Nazionale dei Giornalisti
Roma, Italia