VU4K Andaman Islands 23-30/3/2014

[IK0ZCW]

W4VKU sarà attivo da Andaman Islands 23-30 Marzo 2014 come VU4K
Trasmetterà sulle Bande HF SSB , RTTY
QSL via W4VKU , OQRS

[IK0ZCW]

UPDATE from Krish VU4K

" The pile has been crazy is an understatement. 15kc spread is just not sufficient to pick folks out. I have tried AGC off, AGC with filter and full auto. Unless I can segment the pileup, there is no way I can pull people out. It is just an unintelligible buzz that is heard at this end in the entire 15kc spread.

There was some useless chap from EU telling that "everyone everywhere is better". The crap started when I told I am moving to 15m to work NA. The tirade was on 17m and was against me doing numbers and alternating between NA and EU. I had to get the QSO’s rolling no matter. I cannot let people keep calling me endlessly and take away that hope of a QSO, and did not want the probability to go down to zero either. I was on 15m and I moved to 17m since the path was open to NA, whereas 15m did not show any opening to NA that early on and that EU chap did not like that.

Its been days since I have had any sleep over 2 hours. I was finding it hard to concentrate after long runs. Day #1 and with 26 hours of operation, there are over 1600 Qso’s. I will upload a picture today of the setup. It took 8 hours to install the 2Ele steppir and the sunset is 5:30pm. We spent 2.5hrs on the terrace with a flash light in the dark. There is a sheet metal roof which is an open sloping walk way to the terrace and nothing will stop one from rolling down from at over 6 storey. Treacherous especially when hauling gear across.

The vertical has not yet been installed. I am not sure if the vertical is going to do any better and it takes at a minimum 4 hours to install and I need to run 500feet of LMR400 to get to the water. Except for 80m, the steppir covers all bands. I will take a call in the next day or 2, but the priority is to hand out QSO’s.

Internet has been an issue. The USB dongle seems to recognize the SIM data card and i can see the full bars for the signal but there is a problem with trying to connect. The same setup worked fine on Mainland. it could be an authentication issue for establishing the connection down here. I will spend some time to look into it. It is such a handicap without real-time net access. "

[IK0ZCW]

UPDATE from Krish VU4K

This much can be said. The EU nastiness has gone through the roof as compared to the past years. There’s complaints about looking out for NA. There’s complaints about the size of split. Complaint about running by numbers. With the AGC Off and the loud ones all cleaned out, pulling the weak ones is like cherry picking, since there are many and they are all at the same level. It takes time. And then you have the Italians, some JA, some Russians, some Spanish all call out of turn. Every intervention takes time. Plus the short sleep cycle means, I am alert during the day, but as it gets closer to 10pm and later, the fatigue sets in, thus reducing the ability to concentrate. Yesterday, while working EU, they were asking me to go by numbers. So what am I to do? Running by numbers is hated, but the QSO rate is pretty high and everyone knows that.

Tomorrow (27th) will not be available at the local sunrise to work NA and also JA/EU during the day, but will be available at my sunset. Will start 20m today. True to word, will work EU/JA again today on 10m, so will not spend any more time for those geographies when the band is open to NA.

There are a lot of dupes, a lot of band-fills. Opening up 20m operation will lead to another round of band-fill hunting. But if 20m is best for the hard to hit areas and for ATNOs, then a surgical action might yield more results. How could that be done?

As far as 40m, the window appears to be very small at my sunset. Lots of tropical band noise here. About S9+. Unless one is running a good antenna with power, forget about 40m for the masses. I am surprised, since the rotary dipole on the Steppir is at way over 100ft with a clear shot and this is all we get out of the setup. Will keep trying.

As of Wednesday morning 3/26/2014, the following stats are:
- 4704 QSO’s
- 3386 uniques
- 27% NA
-15% JA
-2% VK/ZL

So it can be safely assumed that over 50% of the QSO’s are with EU.