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Last QSO in
the Online Log: Dec 6, 2004, 01 UTC - 26400 QSOs - including all CQWW QSO's |
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9N7BCC:
Ben, DL6RAI (l.), Rudolf, DJ3WE
and Falk, DK7YY (r.) |
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Famous
Everest beer - pretty strong stuff! |
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9N7BCC
and 9N7CQ Continent Breakdown |
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160m |
80m |
40m |
30m |
20m |
17m |
15m |
12m |
10m |
Total |
Percent |
| USA/Canada |
0 |
8 |
65 |
120 |
190 |
54 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
437 |
1.7% |
| Europe |
477 |
1274 |
2414 |
1529 |
1350 |
2717 |
3756 |
2216 |
2283 |
18016 |
69.9% |
| Siberia |
89 |
272 |
336 |
130 |
273 |
211 |
335 |
74 |
180 |
1900 |
7.4% |
| Japan/Korea |
107 |
308 |
567 |
442 |
287 |
806 |
957 |
382 |
514 |
4370 |
17.0% |
| S.
America |
0 |
7 |
14 |
38 |
73 |
10 |
27 |
18 |
22 |
209 |
0.8% |
| Rest
World |
12 |
56 |
134 |
66 |
200 |
69 |
152 |
47 |
102 |
838 |
3.3% |
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685 |
1925 |
3530 |
2325 |
2373 |
3867 |
5227 |
2737 |
3101 |
25770 |
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News
/ Diary --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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Saturday,
Dec 25, 2004 |
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We are glad
to present you an Online QSL Request
Form (OQRS) to apply for 9N7CQ bureau QSL cards. Click
here. |
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Monday,
Dec 6, 2004 |
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9N7BCC
and 9N7CQ are QRT after 26,400 QSOs. The QSO statistics will follow
later and will be published here. Roberto made another 1,000 QSOs yesterday
and Ben some 100 more on 80m and 13 on 160m. Highlight on 80m was NL7Z.
Unfortunately 160m didn't work. |
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We now dismantle
the rest of the antennas, pack the equipment and go to the airport to take
our flight back home. |
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Sunday,
Dec 5, 2004 |
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The HF6V vertical
and the 30m dipole are dismantled. The LP5 and V80 are still standing for
the last night. We plan to QRT at about 00 UTC after our sunrise. |
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Not much was
happening on the low bands last night. We finished operating at 22 UTC because
there was nothing more to do on 80m and the ARRL contest was on 160m. But
the highlight last night was the QSO with KL7HBK on 80m. |
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We added new
pictures to the bottom of picture
page 5. |
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There were
some 32,000 visitors on this page in the last weeks. Please guys, we would
be glad if you enter a note in the 9N7BCC
and 9N7CQ Guestbook! It was a tough job for us listening for you,
the audience, through all the QRM/QRN but hopefully we could give many of
you a new country, band or mode. So we would really appreciate you taking
just a minute time to write a word or two. Thanks! |
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Friday,
Dec 3, 2004 |
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It was a rather
successful low band night for us under the given circumstances. Ben is flying
to Mount Everest today. One more weekend of radio activity and then we dismantle
the station. |
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There will
be no log updates here on Saturday. Next one planned on Sunday night. |
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Thursday,
Dec 2, 2004 |
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The share
of stations from Zone 3, 4 and 5 could be increased significantly yesterday.
We worked 78 US and Canadian stations 20m, 17m, as well as 30m and 40m.
There were pretty good conditions, signals were rather good. We now have
587 RTTY-QSOs, 18797 CW and 3714 SSB. We logged 9125 unique callsigns from
a total of 23098 QSOs. |
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Wednesday,
Dec 1, 2004 |
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Sorry guys,
we don't spare you with new pictures! Look on picture
page 5. |
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Strange day
today, nothing was going at day time. Even at the peak times between 08:30
and 11.00 UTC. Maybe conditions are still worn out after the CQWW contest.
Also the internet line was out of order for 24 hours... |
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Not enough,
the VSWR of the HF6V suddenly began to fluctuate. It seemed to be the wind
but there was none. We climb out of the shack and see what happened. One
little tuning wire was waving in the wind. This was rather quickly fixed. |
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At evening
time 15m and 12m suddenly opened and half an hour later also 17m and 20m.
Roberto had a rather productive USA run on 20m and Rudolf and Ben on 17m.
This added another 50 US into the log which increases the North America
share by 20%. We know that you have a hard time with us!
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Tuesday,
Nov 30, 2004 |
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We worked
a couple of US stations on 10.1 MHz between 0100 and 0145 UTC. This time
is more favorable for us because the QRN level is lower at our morning time.
This is probably because the local street lights are switched off in the
morning. On 10.1 MHz we have most QSOs with the US: 98. We worked 7 on 80m,
27 on 40m and 31 on 20m. We keep on trying to increase the North America
share of only 0.9% this week. |
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Otherwise
it was a rather lazy day yesterday with only 326 QSOs. |
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Monday,
Nov 29, 2004 |
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We made some
5,400 QSOs in the CQWW CW Contest and are rather happy about the result
despite the high noise levels. And we are surprisingly fit after having
slept for six hours and after a full breakfast. |
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Falk is flying
back to Berlin today. We loose one 160m operator but Ben is highly motivated
to fight for many more topband QSO's. |
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Today we had
a presentation of
our station to the factory supervisors. That was much fun and everybody
was impressed when we had a SSB QSO with a UR5 station. However, it was
sobering for them of course to hear about the investment for a small ham
radio station. This is easily an annual salary. But we got them interested
in the hobby... |
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We will try
everything to get more North America into the log, also on 40m. Please keep
on trying! |
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Here are some
pictures from the contest! |
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Friday,
Nov 26, 2004 - 15 UTC |
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Another set
of pictures added after
Rudolf's and Falk's trip to the Himalaya and the old center of Kathmandu.
There is not much radio activity today. We want to rest before the contest
and have the last common dinner before Falk is heading back to DL on Monday
after the contest. |
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Friday,
Nov 26, 2004 - 09 UTC |
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The deserving
PY's made it into the log on 80m. The openings are extremely short. Lowband
conditions were "average" for us last night. We have some 1,000
80m QSO's now, 400 on 160m and 507 in RTTY. Mr. Pagano, 9N7CQ, is hard-working.
We limit RTTY to 20m with the call 9N7CQ. |
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The average
overall QSO rate per day is 1,467. The peak hours are between 08 and 11
UTC. We are not happy about the low share of North America QSO's; it's just
141 QSO's so far. |
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DJ3WE and
DK7YY are currently on a sightseeing flight to Mount Everst, the highest
mountain on this planet with 8848m. Unfortunately DK7YY has to fly back
to DL on Monday. |
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There will
be no online log and news updates during this weekend. Please switch on
you radio and give 9N7BCC a call in CQWW Contest CW this weekend! |
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Thursday,
Nov 25, 2004 |
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Again, new
pictures added to the picture
pages! |
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No conditions
on 160m for us last night except for the QSO with Max, KH6ZM, at 16 UTC,
and a few UA9 and UN7. Nothing to hear from JA and EU. We checked once every
hour but no copyable signals. |
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80m however
was relatively good and we came close to the 1,000 mark. We could log a
lot of JA. |
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QSO count
is now almost 13,000. We plan an optimistic 5,000 QSOs in the WWDX CW
this weekend. Let's see if we manage that. We are going to keep both stations
running during the 48 hours.
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Wednesday,
Nov 24, 2004 |
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New pictures
added to the picture pages! |
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The QRN
situation
is changing, sometimes to the positive side. It's worst during our evening
hours until about 1900 UTC. The early morning hours are relatively better.
We logged VE1ZZ on 80m today. |
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At daytime
the bands are rather closed and signals are really thin. We now concentrate
on working North America. Only 1.5 % of all QSO's have been made
with North America. Europe has the major part with 70 %, 20% JA and the
rest of the world some 10 %. We would like to shift these shares, however
the USA runs are usually not very productive with an average of just 1
QSO every 2-3 minutes. It's amazing that some US stations made it into
the log on 2 or even 3 bands.
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Here is a
long report about the local conditions and the noise situation. |
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During the
past week we have received a number of mails expressing regret - sometimes
even dismay - about our capabilities to listen. There are two sides to the
coin: First of all we are relieved and glad that our signals - especially
on the low bands - obviously are pretty good. Actually they should be: We
have a choice location on top of the highest building at the highest spot
in the Kathmandu vallley; we have strung a lot of radials for the V80; we
have very adequate RF power and very clean, well stabilized AC power available
24h a day. So, actually we feel we are better off on 160 and 75 than many
of the stations calling us. That is good. They hear us! Small wonder that
we are heard by more people than we can hear, one should think. |
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Yet, in all
likelihood, our hearing is not up to the mark. However, we are glad to tell
you that we have achieved some 325 QSOs on 160 after 4 nights on the band
- and mind you they are all dx, there are no nearby stations in this part
of the world - plus around 865 QSOs on 75. That sums up to more than 1000
QSOs on the low bands. So we do hear stations and in all modesty we feel
that 1K QSOs after just 4 nights on the low bands isn't all that bad for
a small DXPedition like ours. We would never have been able to do that without
the experience and diligence of Falk, DK7YY and Ben, DL6RAI. The joy of
some of our partners logging us on 160 to 30 is a very strong motivation
for us to try our level best to read their call signs even if they are "below"
the noise level. |
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Conditions
here are strange. QSB is extreme: Quite often we receive loud calls and
can easily read the first two letters of the call sign, than the figure
and one or two letters disappear in the noise after which we catch the last
letter. But is it really the last letter? |
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The other
thing you have to get used to is that a band all of a sudden just closes.
You don't hear anything! After 10 or 15 minutes the band comes back. In
the beginning we were completely puzzeled and checked the TS850s, the switches,
the match box and the plugs on several occasions. In the meantime we learned
to live with it and have a cup of tea to bridge the gap. |
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The other
side of the coin is our location in a big city of a developing country with
an enormous amount of man made noise. Yes, we brought a qrm-eliminator,
but the noise comes from all over the place.... and of course our verticals
just love to pick up the noise. So, yesterday, we put up a dipole, cut for
10,1 MHz. It reduces the noise tremendously - but for some reason we don't
understand, it also reduce the signal strength of the wanted signals to
the trx. However, last night we did many comperative checks and definitely
the signal to noise ratio improved on 40m and 30m and we believe that this
is one of the reasons why quite a number - as compared to the first days
of operation, where we had not a single NA station in our log - of US stations
could be logged last night and during the early evening today. |
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Can we do
something to further improve the situation? Difficult. We have been thinking
about two single quad loops hanging perpendicular to each other towards
EU and NA along the walls of the factory and just use them as RX-antennas.
But we are running out of coax cable and other stuff. So let's see. We won't
give up easily and meanwhile let's just hope that conds will improve... |
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We have now
recorded some 10K QSOs and we hope to be able to double that figure in the
following two weeks, although Falk needs to return to Berlin on Monday next
week. |
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We hope that
many of the stations we have worked so far will give us a call during the
contest. |
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Best
73 from the 9N7BCC and 9N7CQ Team!
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Tuesday,
Nov 23, 2004 |
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The 9N7BCC/9N7CQ
team will reach the 10,000 QSO milestone today. Michael, PA5M, is also in
Nepal, however on business. Please visit Michael's webpage at http://www.pa7fm.nl/.
Michael has received the callsign 9N7M. |
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Monday,
Nov 22, 2004 |
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This was the
best 160m night so far, conditions were rather good. Signals from Europe
were louder and easier to copy. Also the noise level seemed to be lower
than on Saturday. We continue to work everyone on 80 und 160 who is calling
us! From the US we only have five West Coast stations in the log on 80m.
QSO total on 80m = 564 and 160m = 276. |
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North America
is most difficult for us on every band. Even Japan is not running as well
as expected. |
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Sunday,
Nov 21, 2004 |
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We have opened
a guest book. The team is
reading it! If you feel 9N7BCC should listen for particular areas or particular
bands at certain times, please leave a note. Thanks. We know that we are
not hearing too well on the low bands due to the strong local noise. |
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The receiving
situation on the low bands is still tough at 9N7BCC but they have quite
a strong signal. Theo, ON4ATW, made a short recording. Click
here to listen to it (WAV file, 53 kB). Thanks Theo!
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On Thursday
DJ3WE and DK7YY visited Satish, 9N1AA. It was a real nice visit that included
a tea ceremony. On Monday we plan to go for dinner with all Nepal hams -
there are currently four hams in the country. |
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The local
support in the factory is more than excellent. We even have a human tea
cooker who brings tea to the radio shack. Not to talk of other helpful people
- a cleaning lady, a gardener, an electrician and a mechanic. If we only
knew what they think about us and our radio activities... |
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The owner
of the building even organized a bicycle for Ben, DL6RAI, Ben thinks he
must drive bicycle in Kathmandu ;-) |
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Saturday,
Nov 20, 2004 |
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We wrecked
the V80 tuning unit for 160m last night so that we could operate only 80m
on the low bands. At least some 140 QSOs found their way into the 80m log
which makes a total of some 400 QSOs on this band, the largest percentage
with Europe. We use the K9AY
receive loop on 160 and 15m. It doesn't help much on 80m. |
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Two stations
are up and running. The stations share the Dunestar bandpass filters and
antennas - the Titanex V80 for 160 and 80, a Butternut vertical for 30 through
10 and the Titanex LP5 Log Periodic for 20 through 10. |
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We think about
building two dipoles better get hold of the noise situation on the verticals.
If we are able to lower the noise of 2 S-units, then we probably had two
or three more hours of "radio-time". |
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Today, Saturday,
is "Sunday" in Kathmandu while people work on Sundays. There is
also a Hindu holiday today with splendid robes and much of dissonant music.
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Weather is
sunny and warm with noon temperatures at 23°C.
Relatively intensive solar radiation despite the mist. The dust makes it
unfortunately impossible to view the surrounding mountains of the Himalaya.
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Friday,
Nov 19, 2004 |
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9N7CQ is Roberto's
(IV3IYH) call. QSL via IK2ILH. Roberto has a license for all bands except
160m. On Topband you'll find 9N7BCC only. |
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The QRM situation
is rather noisy. Interference from many sides, especially on the vertical
antennas. Falk made some 100 QSOs on 80m last night and just seven on 160m.
The furthest station west was OK1RD. VSWR of the vertical on 80m and 160m
is still too high; we are working on it. Meanwhile we have built a K9AY
loop. |
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We hope to
be able to upload the first logs to the Online Log Search tomorrow. |
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Wednesday,
Nov 17, 2004 |
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Everything
is ready to go! 9N7BCC came on the air today at 1245 UTC. The call sign
9N7CQ was used on 30m tonight. QSL route for 9N7CQ is IK2ILH. One of the
operators is unfortunately suffering from a diarrhea. |
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Tuesday,
Nov 16, 2004 |
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The team arrived
very well in Nepal yesterday. They will receive the licenses tomorrow at
noon, go to the airport afterwards to get the transceivers from customs.
Guest licenses are pretty expensive in Nepal, some 1000 US$ had to be paid. |
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At the earliest,
first activities may be expected on Wednesday, Nov 17th at noon UTC time. |
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All antennas
are already on the roof of the factory, some are already standing. |
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