9M4SLL Spratly Island DXpedition AS-051 10-18/3/2013

[IK0ZCW]

9M4SLL will be active from Layang-Layang Island , Spratly ( IOTA AS-051 ), on all bands 160 – 10m CW, SSB and RTTY from 10 to 18 March 2013 inclusive.

Operators will be John, 9M6XRO ; Steve, 9M6DXX ; James, 9V1YC ; Ben, DJ0YI / N6MUF ; Don, G3BJ ; Christian, EA3NT ; and Tony, KM0O

The group will use several stations with linear amplifiers to vertical antennas all within a few metres of the ocean.

QSL Manager for this operation is Tim, M0URX (OQRS, direct, bureau, LoTW). Logs will be uploaded to LoTW as quickly as possible after the DXpedition.

More details to follow later.

73,
Steve, 9M6DXX

[IK0ZCW]

UPDATE from Steve 9M6DXX

On 9 January I sent you some brief information about the 9M4SLL Spratly DXpedition which will take place between 10 and 18 March, and promised more details later. Here now is some further information.

Unfortunately Christian, EA3NT , had to withdraw from the DXpedition due to work reasons, but he has been replaced by two experienced Hungarian DXpeditioners: Pista, HA5AO , and George, HA5UK . The other operators are John, 9M6XRO ; Steve, 9M6DXX ; James, 9V1YC ; Don, G3BJ ; Tony, KM0O and Ben, N6MUF / DJ0YI (total 8 operators).

9M4SLL will operate with five stations simultaneously at peak times, using mainly Elecraft K3 and K2 transceivers plus full legal power linear amplifiers on all stations. The antennas will all be verticals and all will be sited within a few metres of the ocean. In particular we will have a Titanex V160E 27m (87ft) high vertical for 160 and 80m with a Pennant antenna for RX on those bands. Activity will be on 160 to 10m, CW, SSB and RTTY. There will be no 60 metre operation as that is not permitted by the Malaysian licence.

The QSL Manager is Tim, M0URX, and direct or bureau QSLs can be requested by OQRS from his website. Logs will be uploaded to LoTW as soon as possible after the end of the DXpedition – within a few days. We plan to upload to an online log once per day during the DXpedition. Further information, including suggested operating frequencies, can be found on the 9M4SLL page on M0URX’s website http://m0urx.com/9m4sll

[IK0ZCW]

Steve 9M6DXX updates: "Despite getting up at 3.00am for the flight to the island and then working in the hot sun all day we made over 2000 QSOs by 0400UTC today. We should start with all five stations at about 0800UTC today. All of the antennas are now up with the exception of the topband receive antenna. We are aware that there is a Great Wall of jamming and pirate activity and suggest that people check Clublog to determine that they made a QSO with 9M4SLL rather than a pirate."

[IK0ZCW]

Steve 9M6DXX updates: “We have not done any 80m SSB yet, the main issue being that the Titanex vertical is being shared between 160m, 80m CW, and 80m SSB. The only other 80m antenna we have is an HF2 but it is well down on the Titanex so is by no means as effective. We have decided to do some 80m SSB tomorrow night, from very approximately 1500 UTC on 15th until after UK / Ireland sunset time. This means there cannot be any 160 or 80m CW during this time period, but we hope to work many people on 80m SSB instead. We’ll try to do some 80m SSB earlier to catch the North America East Coast opening on other days. Also, our 160m TX freq is being changed to 1820.5kHz from 1030UTC today, due to widespread QRM from a beacon in Europe on 1811.5..”

[IK0ZCW]

Steve 9M6DXX updates: “The solar storm or CME really hit the bands here, conditions have been poor for about 24 hours now, though oddly 12m continues to work even when 10, 15 and 17 are effectively ‘dead’. And the Russian DX Contest and the BARTG RTTY contest have effectively wiped out 10, 15, 20 and 40m on SSB, CW and RTTY! The first antennas come down tomorrow morning our time (around 2300z tonight ), but we’ll keep some up till much later..”

[IK0ZCW]

QRT

QSL manager M0URX says: The final log of 9M4SLL, Spratly Islands, has now been uploaded to Club Log and LoTW. The team have taken down all antennas and packed everything away and heading home.

They made just under 44000 QSOs.