4W6A East Timor 16-26/9/2011

[IK0ZCW]

Announcing the Timor-Leste 2011 DXpedition

Steve 9M6DXX , John 9M6XRO , Tim M0URX , Ant MW0JZE , Oliver VK8DX and Stuie VK8NSB will be active as 4W6A from Atauro Island, IOTA OC-232, Timor-Leste between September 16 – 26, 2011. They plan to be QRV on all bands 10 – 160m CW, SSB & RTTY with four stations.

QSL via M0URX.

Full details
http://www.4w6a.com/

[IK0ZCW]

PRESS RELEASE NUMBER 4 – July 5, 2011

The 4W6A team welcomes Bernd Länger, VK2IA as the seventh and final member of the DXpedition. Bernd has joined the DXpedition in order to help balance the requirement for CW operation. He brings a wealth of DXpedition and contesting experience from Europe and the Asia-Pacific area.

Also joining the team, although not in Timor-Leste itself, are Col McGowan, MM0NDX and Kev Haworth, M0TNX Col, who is the founder and editor of the DX World website, has been appointed as pilot while Kev will be the assistant QSL manager to Tim, M0URX. Col will be responsible for providing feedback to the team on Atauro Island. He may be contacted at dxer59[at]gmail.com

CDXC ( Chiltern DX Club – the UK DX Foundation ), the RSGB DXpedition Fund, the German DX Foundation, the Northern California DX Foundation, the European DX Foundation, the Nippon DX Association and the Northern Illinois DX Association are the latest DX clubs and foundations that are kindly providing financial support for the DXpedition. The team is very grateful to all DX groups, companies and individuals who have offered sponsorship. All are listed with thanks on the 4W6A website. If you or your DX club also wish to help, there is a “Donations” page on the website. Payments may be made by credit or debit card and you do not need to have a PayPal account yourself in order to make a donation.

4W6A will be QRV from Atauro Island ( IOTA OC-232 ), Timor-Leste ( East Timor ), from 16 to 26 September 2011. Activity will be on all bands 10 to 160 metres, using CW, SSB and RTTY. The QSL manager is M0URX, direct (SAE plus 1 IRC / $2), via the bureau, or LoTW. The entire log will be uploaded to LoTW as quickly as possible after the end of the operation or, if possible, even during the DXpedition. QSLs may also be requested using the QSL request form on the website.

[IK0ZCW]

PRESS RELEASE NUMBER 5 – August 22nd, 2011

The 4W6A DXpedition is now less than one month away. Low-band operators will be pleased to hear that the team now has a Titanex V160E 87ft / 26.5m-high vertical antenna for use on 160m at 4W6A. The antenna was shipped from the manufacturers in Germany and has arrived in Darwin, Australia, from where it will be trans-shipped to Dili, Timor-Leste, later this month.

The team had previously planned to use an 18m Spiderbeam pole as the support for a 160m inverted-L. With the arrival of the Titanex vertical, the 18m Spiderbeam pole will now be used for a full-size 80m quarter-wave folded monopole vertical instead.

Other antennas include monoband quarter-wave verticals for 40, 30 and 17m kindly sponsored by Tony Burt, VK3TZ, of Rippletech Electronics in Australia, a 2-element phased array for 40m, an Australian-made Com-an-tena vertical for 10, 15 and 20m, a Butternut HF6V, a 15m vertical dipole, and a G3TXQ Hexbeam made by team member Ant David, MW0JZE. All the antennas will be located on the beach within a few metres of the ocean.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship received from many DX foundations, clubs and individual DXers, it has become possible to ship much of the heavier equipment to Dili, Timor-Leste, in advance of the expedition. The team is very grateful to all DX groups, companies and individuals that have sponsored the expedition. All are listed with thanks on the 4W6A website.

4W6A will be QRV from Atauro Island (IOTA OC-232), Timor-Leste (East Timor), from 16 to 26 September 2011. Activity will be on all bands 10 to 160 metres, using CW, SSB and RTTY with up to four stations simultaneously. The QSL manager is M0URX, direct (SAE plus 1 IRC / $2), via the bureau, or LoTW. The entire log will be uploaded to LoTW as quickly as possible after the end of the operation or, if possible, also during the DXpedition. Direct or bureau QSLs may also be requested using the M0URX Online QSL Request Service (OQRS). There is also a link from the 4W6A website.

[IK0ZCW]

PRESS RELEASE NUMBER 6 – September 9th, 2011

This is the sixth and final press release before the 4W6A DXpedition. The bulk of the equipment, including the linear amplifiers, the Titanex V160E vertical, Hexbeam and other antennas, left Darwin, Australia, on 6 September. It has all arrived safely in Dili, Timor-Leste, and is now awaiting the arrival of the team next week.

9M6DXX and 9M6XRO leave Malaysia on 12 September for a transit stop in Bali, from where they plan to be active ‘holiday style’ as YB9/G4JVG and YB9/GM3OOK respectively. Unfortunately, due to a late change of airline timetable, they will not now arrive in Dili before the afternoon of Friday 16 September. The chartered boat taking the team and the equipment to Atauro Island has therefore been rescheduled to later that afternoon.

It is likely that only one or two stations will be on the air that day as the team will run out of daylight before all the antennas can be erected. The remainder of the antenna work will commence at first light the following morning (approximately 2115UTC on 16 September) and 4W6A should be fully operational by the morning (UTC) of 17 September.

4W6A will be QRV on all bands 10 to 160 metres, using CW, SSB and RTTY with up to four stations simultaneously. It is hoped that log search will be available, thanks to the Clublog facility, but this is dependent on a reliable Internet connection being available on the island. Col, MM0NDX, is the pilot for 4W6A and is responsible for providing feedback to the team. He may be contacted at dxer59@gmail.com

The QSL manager is M0URX, direct (SAE plus 1 IRC / $2), via the bureau, or LoTW. The entire log will be uploaded to LoTW as quickly as possible after the end of the operation or, if possible, also during the DXpedition. Direct or bureau QSLs may also be requested using the M0URX Online QSL Request Service (OQRS). There is also a link from the 4W6A website.

We look forward to having fun in the pile-ups and we hope you have fun chasing 4W6A.

73, The 4W6A Team.

[IK0ZCW]

PRESS RELEASE NUMBER 6 – September 16th, 2011

Bernd, VK2IA, arrived from Sydney on Wednesday afternoon in Darwin. With 5 members of the team now at Stuie’s house we had a meal and talked about the work ahead of us over the next 12 days. It had to be an early night for all as we needed to be awake at 3am to leave Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia for a 0545 hrs local time flight with Air North to Dili, East Timor. It was in the departure lounge that the team met with the Timor-Leste, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, our team leader VK8NSB Stuie had the chance to inform him of our DXpedition to Atauro Island. The team had a group photograph with the Prime Minister before boarding our flight.

The team were met at Dili International Airport by Kim & Tony our local support team and driven to the Hotel where the team members had various pre DXpedition shopping and logistical matters to deal with. The final two members (9M6DXX & 9M6XRO) of the team are still in Bali, Indonesia prior to leaving for Dili on Friday. We had a meeting with Kim & Tony to discuss all the duties that we would need them to assist us with in getting the fuel over to the Island daily for the generators along with supplies for the team. The Hexbeam was delivered to the hotel, and the generators have been checked over for collection later.

This afternoon has been a stressful time for the team – by mid afternoon it became obvious that there was a problem developing with the customs / shipping office. Our team leader headed down to the offices with Kim our contact and after some long negotiation and hours later Stuie pulled through for us. The generators collected and together with the 500 kgs of communications gear, everything was transported to the boat ready for an early start Friday.

On Friday the roads will be closed for the Tour de Timor race, this will add a few problems to our transport plans, but we are on target to get two stations on air dark by Friday. This IS a third world country and you must all realise that problems do and will arise; problems can can be overcome with diplomacy and being cool headed. The sewers here run along the side streets and into the sea and yes we do have to walk through that to get to the boat, something worth thinking about when you are trying to work us in the forthcoming pile ups. We do ask you to follow the DX Code.

[IK0ZCW]

By MM0NDX, 4W6A Pilot

Many active DXers around the globe need Timor Leste as an all-time new one on either 80 or 160m. It’s also evident the online log is not yet activated.

In my capacity as 4W6A Pilot, and news updater of this website, together with very many recent queries, below is a couple of snippets from the team posted on their Facebook page.

- Their noise level on 80m and 160m is VERY high and this will likely affect their overall effectiveness on LF.
- There is no internet where they are, but they hope to go to a nearby town soon for access to upload QSOs shortly [to Clublog: http://www.clublog.org/charts/?c=4w6a].
Do bookmark the 4W6A Facebook page as fresh info is often relayed there and not necessarily on their official website: http://www.4w6a.com/

[IK0ZCW]

The team have been active for two full days now. They remain on Atauro island for one more week, working round the clock. Approx 10K QSO’s are in the log.

Relaying messages is becoming a difficult task. With extremely limited internet access, the group have not yet read the various messages which have been sent to them. Indeed, simple text messaging is proving difficult too. Operators with a good, solid copy are requested to ask the guys if they have any important news to pass. [Please use the email address below to provide any news given.]

The first upload of the online log was completed today. It’s clear some QSO’s are unaccounted for. In one of the many messages to the team, they have been made aware of this issue. Note, the log was uploaded via a very slow internet connection. The next upload may actually fix the current problem, so QRX for this. It is currently unknown when the next log update will occur.

Regarding 80 & 160m – the issue surrounding high noise level on these bands has been found and corrected. By now you will see 4W6A working well on Top Band. With seven days left, hopefully the deserving get their chance to fill the missing Timor Leste on their 160m band slot.

Requests to the Pilot about missing contacts or incorrectly logged callsigns are welcome, however the log will not be amended until the expedition is over. Similary, if you have other queries or suggestions, please contact Col MM0NDX at dxer59 @ gmail.com – bear in mind, and to reiterate, no messages to the team have yet been read.

[IK0ZCW]

UPDATE @ 0945UTC

Over 16K QSO in log. Next log upload in a few hours. There has been an issue uploading logs – a generator failed at the same time as a recent upload. This is the reason why the online logbook is not showing some calls. All QSO’s are safe even if not displayed, with the problem likely to be resolved soon or just after the expedition. Feel free to work them again to make sure of your band slot.

4W6A will be looking for EU on 80 and 160 tonight at sunset. There is a very high noise level on 80, moreso than 160. Conditions are good on HF, with many QSO’s on 10m. The team are aware east coast NA is a difficult path on the bands and will ask regularly for this part of the world.

Internet is unreliable to the point of unuseable. There is a possibility of a dongle in use via satellite so they can read messages more quickly and act accordingly.

All the team are well.


September 18th – The following info is from Ant MW0JZE, one of the operators at 4W6A.

- The main reason why contacts have been a little slow is that we’ve had a malfunction with one of the transceivers, particularly when operating on RTTY & SSB. We are now running without back up.
- A power problem on Atauro has caused some logging files to be corrupted – we hope the next upload will correct this.
- We are on an island with limited infrastructure – even with local guidance a journey to upload logs takes an hour or more each way – please understand this.
- The location we have available, including antenna space, means we’re having some difficulties fulfilling all requests. Additionally, we’re suffering bites from local insects.
We are in a beautiful place with amazing people looking after us, but unfortunately, there are times we have to work as a small team with no outside help, please respect this.

[IK0ZCW]

UPDATE @ 16:35UTC from Pilot

It would again appear a problem with uploading logs from the jungle has occured. We are attempting to establish comms with the team on Atauro island to ascertain exactly what the problem is, but for the moment we suggest all ops with “missing QSO data” keep details of your contact(s). As soon as we clarify the issue, the 4W6A website will be updated.

[IK0ZCW]

UPDATE II @ 13:25UTC

4W6A expects to go QRT a little earlier than expected at 0200UTC on Sunday 25th. Additionally, no more log updates will be completed until the team return to VK.

UPDATE @ 04:30UTC

Log re-uploaded with previous missing QSO’s now showing. The team make aware that Clublog did not process the earlier upload, and since they are using only GPRS, partial uploads could occur. Please be patient if you do not see your callsign/band slot listed.

[IK0ZCW]

The 4W6A DXpedition is now history. The team of Stuie, VK8NSB (team leader); Oliver, VK8DX; Bernd, VK2IA; Ant, MW0JZE; Tim, M0URX (also QSL manager); John, 9M6XRO; and Steve, 9M6DXX; plus pilot Col, MM0NDX, and assistant QSL manager Kev, M0TNX, would like to take this opportunity to thank all the DXers who made a QSO with 4W6A for their patience during the big pile-ups.

Copies of the licence and other validation material have been sent to both the DXCC desk and the RSGB IOTA Manager and 4W6A has been accepted for DXCC and as OC-232 for IOTA. Logs were uploaded to Logbook of The World a few days after the end of the DXpedition. QSL cards have been ordered and we are awaiting the final proof of the QSL design from the printer. As of 23 October, QSLs for over 11,000 QSOs – 27% of the total log – have already been requested either direct or by OQRS. And this less than a month after the end of the DXpedition! These requests have already been processed and the direct QSLs will be sent as soon as the cards are received from the printers. Bureau cards requested by OQRS will be sent out soon afterwards, with direct mailings to the major QSL bureaus of the world.

A report on the DXpedition with a few photos and videos can be found here while 150 more photographs have been uploaded here. More videos taken by VK8DX and MW0JZE can be found on YouTube – search “4W6A” and look for the videos uploaded by “mw0jze”.

Finally, we would once again like to publicly thank all the DX groups, companies and individuals that so generously sponsored this DXpedition. All are listed on the 4W6A website at http://www.4w6a.com/sponsors We look forward to seeing you from the next location – wherever that may be.