Z81X – South Sudan – Radio Arcala Adventures
Inviato: 3 maggio 2013, 18:35Martti OH2BH writes: With the rainy season now underway, transportation of the Z81X team is taking up much more time as the team heads every morning to the Ministry of Telecommunications for various meetings and functions. Today, Friday, upon their return from Juba, the team members prepare for some rest and then increasing on-air activity at Z81X. Look for them at the peak propagation hours to all key areas of the world as they will try to ramp up their QSO total to reach 12K in a balanced way.
As they are running a generator and are subject to thunderstorms almost every day, it is no surprise that power failures have occurred concurrent with voltage spikes. Earlier in the week, their solid-state KW amplifier was snuffed out and they were left with nothing in hand. Massimo, Z81B gave the Z81X crew a helping hand with a vintage KW1000 amp manufactured almost 50 years ago. But with a pair of 572Bs they are now receiving excellent reports from all over the globe. The radio they are running is a Yaesu FT-950.
As the rainy season may potentially bring malaria mosquitos into the region, the operators are sleeping in netted beds – looking almost like those in for a honeymoon experience. The beds are pink colored. This makes a huge contrast as the actual sleeping quarters are located in local huts of at least of 4 stars – not counting those twinkling in the sky here in this exciting Juba outpost.
The team’s length of stay will be finalized after another meeting at the Ministry on Monday but it is expected that Z81X will remain active well into the coming week. More information is to follow. With the old amplifier now hooked up to the FT-950, there is no band position for operating 160M nor WARC bands, but it is possible that an inverted-L will be used on 80M. This late in the season, not much is heard on the low bands, and the rainy spell is not helping these efforts, either.
Operating continues as much as possible, but it needs to remembered that this is not an all-out DXpedition. The two ops do as much as they can with the time and equipment available. QSL via OH0XX. Moreover, OQRS will be set up soon and is expected to go online detailing the objectives of the overall mission.
As they are running a generator and are subject to thunderstorms almost every day, it is no surprise that power failures have occurred concurrent with voltage spikes. Earlier in the week, their solid-state KW amplifier was snuffed out and they were left with nothing in hand. Massimo, Z81B gave the Z81X crew a helping hand with a vintage KW1000 amp manufactured almost 50 years ago. But with a pair of 572Bs they are now receiving excellent reports from all over the globe. The radio they are running is a Yaesu FT-950.
As the rainy season may potentially bring malaria mosquitos into the region, the operators are sleeping in netted beds – looking almost like those in for a honeymoon experience. The beds are pink colored. This makes a huge contrast as the actual sleeping quarters are located in local huts of at least of 4 stars – not counting those twinkling in the sky here in this exciting Juba outpost.
The team’s length of stay will be finalized after another meeting at the Ministry on Monday but it is expected that Z81X will remain active well into the coming week. More information is to follow. With the old amplifier now hooked up to the FT-950, there is no band position for operating 160M nor WARC bands, but it is possible that an inverted-L will be used on 80M. This late in the season, not much is heard on the low bands, and the rainy spell is not helping these efforts, either.
Operating continues as much as possible, but it needs to remembered that this is not an all-out DXpedition. The two ops do as much as they can with the time and equipment available. QSL via OH0XX. Moreover, OQRS will be set up soon and is expected to go online detailing the objectives of the overall mission.