Poor condx this morning on 50MHz MS. No completed contacts made at all. Heard were Dave VK7DD @ 1958z (RS51). Brad VK2QO @ 2026z (RS51) and Brian VK5BC/P @ 2101z (RS58).

Very little 50MHz MS activity on Wednesday morning. Es started almost as day broke, so with a grey but not rainy sky my attention turned to the 15m yagi and it's urgent need of maintenance. Since taking down the 10m yagi, all but a couple of cable ties on its coax run had fallen off, leaving the coax dangling and prone to damage.

The 15m yagi lowered, and ready for maintenance.

All done. Back up and ready to action!

Following is a video of QRM experienced on Dec 27, starting at around 0500z and continued for at least 5 hours... signal peaked at S9+10 with beam heading 260 degrees.

The signal was relatively narrow dropping out within 2KHz either side of the centre frequency, and sounded like an open microphone.

Monday morning brought a return to more normal 50MHz MS condx. Worked were David VK3AUU @ 2029z (RS57), Joe VK7JG @ 2039z (RS51) and Brian VK5BC @ 2104z (RS51)

Been a couple of weeks since I last posted... thought that Google had an error. How wrong was I... desktop has an issue with Google applications... so trying to fix it now.

50MHz MS has been poor to say the least. Some contacts being made but to nowhere the frequency that they were a few weeks bank. Log has been limited to the following:
Dec 17, 2010
Frank VK7DX @1932z (RS57)
Gavin VK3HY @ 2010z (RST519)
Dave VK7DD @ 2010z (RS51)
Glenn VK7AB @ 2037z (RS51
Peter VK7PD @ 2224z (RS54


The excitement of the return of trans-Pacific F2 and SSSP condx hasn't been lost with condx continuing in the last week. Both Jack OA4TT and Al CE1/K7CA have been there during the peak window... with Jack OA4TT working Bob ZL1RS... but no completed QSOs to VK.

Good condx again today with Bob ZL1RS also working a number of W stations - even though it was still Christmas night on their end of the path!

Finally some real 6m DX being worked with the return of some TEP based propagation.

Yesterday it was Willem DU7/PA0HIP with very strong (RS59) signals into QG62 (and beyond). And today Joel KG6DX. For those of us who still need to be at the QRL daily, the opportunity to work these stations is much more limited... but at least there is hope being breathed into the band. Maybe there's still a chance come Saturday or Sunday!

Got confirmation that I was making it back across the Pacific when I received an email from Mike K6MYC...


Snip:

"HELLO SCOTT.  YES I FIGURED YOU GOT HIT WITH QRM.  I WAS COPYING YOU WELL AT TIMES. AND PLAYED YOU THROUGH THE LOCAL REPEATER TO BOB, K6QXY, K6QG AND NA5XX. THEY ALL HAD PERFECT COPY.

THANKS FOR THE NOTE. LET’S KEEP TRYING.

73, MIKE"

Hopefully the next opportunity wont have the same level of QRM from locals trying to work FK8 stations! 

Exciting stuff - first F2 heard this season. Bob K6QXY @ 2343z RST419, and then built in signal to RST519. Then Mike K6MYC @ 2356z RST529.... no completes but a partial with Mike.

Unfortunately the QRM from a couple of local VK4 stations working FK8 (both sides of that path were RS59++ signals) prevented the F2 path being completed.

Soooo close.

Brad VK2QO in his regular 50MHz MS email wrote that we would be in for a quiet time... I just didn't expect that it would be this quiet!

Just one station worked this morning - Frank VK7DX @ 2006z (RS51).

The allusive ZL7A finally appeared on Tuesday evening (see spot from VKLogger below)...

07-Dec-10 08:17

VK4CZ

>> ZL7A in AE16 on 50.1170 CW 519 > QG62LP @ 3239.5km 132° RX Only

but only their beacon. After requests on HF were made to have a operator QSY to 6m failed, I gave up.

So after the disappointment of listening to the ZL7A beacon for over an hour on Tuesday evening, then the fantastic Es condx which occurred both Thu and Fri mornings I had high hopes for Sat morning. Sadly these expectations were unrealistic!

With no Es condx present at all, and very poor MS enhancements only two stations were worked. Norm VK3DUT @ 2059z (RS55) and then Brad VK2QO @ 2107z (RS52).

MS activity for Sunday morning delivered mixed results. Not too many good quality burns experienced, but the odd burn did enable Qs to be completed via MS.

Brad VK2QO @ 1921z (RS51) was first in the log. Rhett VK3GHZ @ 2001z (RS51) was next - and his first ever MS contact on 6m. AT 2009z a good burn resulted in Glenn VK7AB (RS51), Dave VK7DD and Frank VK7DX (RS56) all being worked. Glenn VK7AB was worked again @ 2011z (RS52) and finally Steve VK3OT @ 2017z (RS53).

The afternoon any radio time will be focused towards the ZL7A operations.

What an afternoon - weather was poor and spent too much time by the radio listening to propagation indicators from New Zealand to provide any hope for ZL8X.

Finally around 0240z the first of the NZ TV1 audio signals were rx'ed. At this time local activity was concentrating on VK3 and VK3 Es paths. ZL1SWW was first worked at 0346z. This patter continued for the afternoon with ZL TV being received and then QSBing down.

At 0715z  ZL8X first appeared. Bob ZL1RS was reporting them and a scatter signal was heard. Weak CW about RST419 at best, but there. At 0723z Alan VK4WR worked ZL8X on CW. Path differences were obvious as they had faded to nothing while Alan worked them. And at 0724z there signal rose quickly and I bagged ZL8X on CW. I immediately called them on SSB and at 0725z I also completed an SSB QSO. Another new 6m DXCC. The first for 8 years.

While all this was happening local traffic still was working domestic and ZL stations.... that all changed quickly.  ZL8X was then easily workable from the eastern seaboard of VK for the next 2 1/2 hours. Amazing condx.

Now for ZL7A today!

An interesting morning on 50MHz MS... what had started out slowly built to deliver a number of good Q's. But also what was great was the number of participants. This has been building and now there is reasonable good representation along the eastern seaboard.


Worked were: Brad VK2QO @ 1930z (RS51), Glenn VK7AB @ 2001z (RS51), Dave VK7DD @ 2002z (RS52), Frank VK7DX @ 2002z (RS53) - all of these VK7 completes were made on a single burn - John VK2FAD @ 2019z (RS55) and Joe VK7JG @ 2037z (RS51).