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The TH-0 7A(G) and the TM-0 7(KlA are the only rad ios ever p rod uced that have both built -in TNC and APRsm operati ng software,allowing you to send and receive exact GPS positions. You can even send text messages over 144.390 MHz, an international APRSTMfrequency. Posit ion reports and two-way messag ing can also be ach ieved over the Internet. across t he country or around the world. Streetlevel mapping can also be employed using a PC. palm device or GPS. And yes, the TM-D700A is great for receiving satelli te packet!

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featuresp. 32

Vol. 60 No.1 0

p. 11

p. 54

4 HAM RA DIO NEWS6 ZERO BIAS8 ANNOUNCEMENTS

27 OUR READERS SAY43 READER SURVEY

112 co HAM SHOP

WASHINGTON READOUT: VECs hold annual conference with FCC officialsBy Frederick O. Maia. W5YJ

PUBLIC SERVICE : A better prepared amateur radio responseBy Bob Josuweit, WA3PZO

WHAT'S NEW : Test and prototype equipment, Vee dipoles, universalmount, and more By Karl T. Thurber, Jr., WBFXOX: aRMing nxcecmcns and OSUng ccnatcns By Carl Smith, N4AACONTESTING: Being a good guest operator By John Dorr, KIARBEGINNER'S CORNER: Contesting for the rest of us

By Wayne YOShida, KH6WZAWARDS: N2KX, USA-eA All Counties . 1095; OX and U.S. awards

By Ted Melinosky, KIBVVHF PLUS: More spectacular sporadicE openings By Joe Lynch, N6CLPROPAGATION: CMEs and the decline of a solar cycle: CO WoN OXContest predictions: OX Charts for Oct. 15 to Dec. 15

By Tomas Hood, NW7US

SECRETS OF TOP DXERS: Comments from leading OX operators, plustips on how to make it to the lop By D. E. (Dee) Logan, W1HEO5J9X: The CO WW OX SSB Contest from san Andres

By Clarence J. Kerous, W9AAZCO WW OX CONTEST ALLTIME RECORDS

By Frederid< Gapossela, K6SSSFRED TERMAN : Ham radio and WOOd War II radar countermeasures

By C. Stewart Gil/mar, W1FKTHE 707MM OXPEOmON: The Red Zebra OX Group'S DXpedition toMalawi, "ham heaven" By RiChard W. AJliserte. GU4CHY

NO DELAY ON THESE ECHOES: Responses to W6BNB"s artiCle onIong-delayed echoes By Bob Shrader, W6BNBCO REVIEWS: West Mountain Radio RIGblaster Pro By Don Rotolo. N21RZSPEECH SYNTHESIS ADDED TO PSK31 : You can monitor PSK-31 trafficwilhcullooking at you r computer monitor l By Ed Sack. W3NRGMATH 'S NOTES: Another vlsittc the past By Irwin Math. WA2NDMWORLD OF IDEAS: 6L6 resurrecton By Dave Ingram, K4TWJDIGITAL CONNECTION: More networtYng. EPROMS By Don Rotolo, N21RZORP: Mini reviews and notes for newcomers By Dave Ingram, K4TWJMAGIC IN THE SKY: Jeffs name in lights By Jeff Refnhardt, AA6JR

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Changes Proposed forCanadian Amateur Licensing Rules

The Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) has formallyasked Industry Canada (IC) to remove the Morse codetest requirement for ham operation below 30 MHz inCanada. IC is Canada's equivalent to the FCC in the U.S.RAC's petition still wants the code test to be availablefor those who want to have a code certitication printedon their licenses, and also wants to set an BD-percentscore on the Basic exam as the minimum for under-an-MHz operating privileges. More information is availableat the RAC's website,

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On TargetFinally. in response to last month's editorial and my com-ments on archery and kids, my wife directed me to theweb page of our Jocal archery club (http://bwjoad.njarchery,org/info.shtml) and its explanation of theNational Archery Association's youth program:

The NAA's JOAD (Junior Olympic Archery Development)program promotes the sport 01 archery with young people. hstresses getting a bow in hand quickly (instead of boring thekid with Iect1Jres), yetdoing sosalely ,and locuseson thepes-inve aspects 01 thesport. The USA's lastOlympic Gold Medalarcher startedout asa JOADarcher. While theOlympic effortIS important, it is far more important that archery be a fun andpositive experience so that the young archer will continue toenjoy the sport throughout life.

Got that? LeI me repeat: "It stresses getting a bow inhand quickly (instead of boring the kid with lectures) _.."Note also thai the NAA has a youth development programthat is put into practice by archery clubs all over the coun-try,ARRl has its "8ig Project- in schools.which we strong-ly support, but there needs to be more. There needs to bean ARRL youth development program that can be put intopractice by amateur radio clubs all over the country ... with-out boring lectures, Jim?

Final note, on the same topic and bringing us back toHuntsville: Jhad the honor once again of helping presentthe Newshne Young Ham of the Year award at theHuntsville Hamfest and spending some time with the win-nerand her family ,This year's winner is a delightful youngwoman named Andrea Hartlage, KG4IUM. One ofAndrea's many accomplishments has been adapting well-known games to help kids leam what they need to knowfor their ham licenses. Making learning fun. Quite a con-cept. I expect we'n all be hearing more in the future fromAndrea ... and I'm looking forward to it. 73. W2VU

A call came back. "NA2P. name is Peter. do you copy?" Isaid I did and told Peter I was in Ocean City, Maryland on ann -817 with battery power and an Arrow antenna on the 18thfloor of a condo. The reply was, "You are comingover 10 New

Yo~ just fine on 5 walls." ... I only made that one conlact on2 meters 558 lhat vacation, but I will always remember itl Iwill be taking my n -817 00 my next vacation, too.

I also heard from ARRL President Jim Haynie. W5J8P,who wrote:

Rich, Ienjoyed your editorial andyourcomments about melady knowing about ham radio. As you know, t travel a 101forthe ARR L. t make it a point to wear a League shirt wilh thelogoand mycall. It has become a game of sorts. in thateverytrip, someone at me airport and on the plane mentions mycall and that either they, or someone they know, are a ham.

Once I was getting 0" the planeat DFW(Dallas-Fort WorthAirport) and two guys came up to me and introduced them-selves as just getting their licenses. tl turns out they wereastronauts going from Huntsville. Alabama to Houston.

Another time. I had just boarded in Atlanta. and a guy wasin my assigned seat. Before I could say anything, he said, "Iguess youaregoing to give me some ORMabout being in yourseat." Turns out he was a ham as well. You just never know...

I also learned from a reader that we weren't quite aswrong as we thought we were in correcting our correctionon the whole watts for ohms debacle a few months back.Dale, K4EQ, wrote:

I got a good chuckle out of your "Oops Oops" in theseptember CO (p. 79). Actually, your mistake wasn't as faroff as you may think. Our lower case OW" is also the Greekcharacter lor Omega, only lower case. The symbol we usefor ohms is an upper case Greek Omega. So, you can retractat least one oops. Hi!

So let's see, that would be a retraction of a clarificationof a correction to a correction to a realty stupid error...Nah, I think we'll let this thing finally fade away.

~e-mail:

Myslery WritingOne of the enduring mysteries of writing a column like thison a regular basis is that you never know when somethingyou write will really connect with people. For example, lastmonth's "dayat the beach"editorial brought out more com-ments than I've received over the last several months com-bined. I'd like 10 share a few of those with you :

Jon. WB8YJF, wrote:I just read your story about going 10 Ocracoke Island.

Beauti ful place isn't it?! I have been going down there since1996 lor vacation and lor the lOTA contest & we love it there!I met the only active local ham about 6 years ago when heanswered my CO. The next thing I knew he showed up atourrental with a aSl card. We sal and chewed the fat for a while& he filled me in on all kinds of interesting facts aboutOcracoke. He lived there all his life and sadly passed away2 years ago. His OTH is now a craft/antique store. This yearon our way back to Hatteras at the end of our stay, the per-sonin thecardirectlybehind me was another ham!Henoticedmy ham plate and disassembled TA33Mini on top 01 thetruck and we struck up a conversation. He was from Virginiaand took his 2M rig 10 Ocracoke for some possible activity.Sadly, we had terrible condx. that week and he only made afew c's: myself about 400 or so (HF). Small world, isn't it?Hope to see you down there some day!

Not only has Jon shared a similar experience. but hewas able to shed light on my question regarding residenthams (or lack of hams) on the island.

John, W3MTP, wrote about his vacation to Ocean City,Maryland, with his Yaesu FT-81 7 and Arrow II VHF/UHFportablebeam antenna. His goaJwastowork into a repeaterthat would let him check in with friends at his home OTH innortheastern Pennsylvania. When one of those friends toldhim tate one night that the a-meter band was "open a little"in Pennsylvania, he decided 10 Iry his luck on 2-meter SS8.niPPed the radio to the calling frequency of 144.200 MHzand called CQ. No response the first two tries, but the thirdtime was a charm, as John picks it up...

An Ongoing ConversationA t the Huntsville Hamlest in mid-August. I was stand-ingal thaCQboothwhena ham walked byand com-plimented us on the magazine, adding. -rm not partof themagazine. I'mjustareader."Myresponsewas,"Thenyou are part of the magazine-lhe most important part."After all, it it wasn't for you. our readers. there would be nomagazine. We don't publish CO for ourselves. we publishit '0( you. And in our case. we rely on you as more than justpassive consumers of information.

Some magazines are like one-way streets. passinginformation trom "authoritie s" on high to the massesbelow. Unlike those magazines, though, our readers areoften as knowledgeable as our writers, and CO is moreabout sharing information among peers than of those who"know instructing those who don't. The success of thismagazine has always been based on the willingness ofthose readers who have specialized knowledge or uniqueexperiences to share them with other readers. In tum,those writers often learn something mew themselves Iromthose same readers.

One 01 my long-standing goaJs as this magazine's edi-tor is to make sure that CO is always a two-way street-an ongoing conversation-between writers, editors andreaders-kind of a roundtable OSO, That conversationshould be in print wnen possible, but also on a one-to-onebasis, That's the main reason that I love going to ham-fests-to have a chance to meet so many of you, to chatabout wnat you do and don't like about CO, or to hear yourideas of what we ought to cover (to which I generallyrespond, "Great idea! Start writing!1.

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Heard it. UJorlfed it. logged itlBakel Howland. Clipperton. KingmanReef. Boise. No matter where you Ole orwhere yoo wonllO be, lei I!Je POW" 0131 BiI IF~IP show yoo how 10 pullsigno"out of rhe dirt thol old ooolog rigs rcn't. kom'sPROseries mekes the diflerelKebetween e successful OSO and (] lost opportunity. Ooo't miss out. visit yourauthorized kom dealer and ledistovel' the fun &emlement of OrTlllteIJ rOOlO.

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8 . CO OCtober 2004

en~c(1)E(1)oC::::JoCco

Old Mans Internat ional Sideband Society - According to Dennis,VE71PU, this society is alive and well and has a web page,

~.omjss.nel> . They is also a Wor1l.ed All States and awards net onmany bands.

- The rollowlng Special Event stat ions are scheduled to r October:W2U , from the Tri-Coonty Radio Assn. Platinum Jubilee. 70th Anni-

versary. Celebration. Westfield, NJ ; 1200Z OCt. 9 to 2200Z Oct. 10 on14.260. 28.260. 449.975 MHz. For OSlo send a SL and SASE 10W2LlfAA2ZJ, n P9fsinf Ave., Iselin, NJ 08830.

N4J. from Thomas Jefferson's summer home. Forest, VA; 1400-2200Z OCt. 9 on 7.265, 14.265, 21.365. 28 .365 MHz. For aSL sendO$l and SASE to Ed Narwid, 1799 OttamiU Rd., Bedford. VA 24523.

K5PAL, from Hot Pepper Festival. Palestine, TX; PalestinelAndefsooCounty ARC; 1300-2200Z Oct . 23 on 7.263 and 14.260 MHz. For cer-ntcate. send OSl and S ASE 10 K5PAl Special Event, Clo David Carna-than. N5XPC, 504 MicheaulC, Palestine, TX 75801 (www.pacarc.org).

W6CX, from Pectccn (see below)l8oy Seoul Jamboree on the Air:Oct. 16-17 on 14.290, 21 .360, 28.390, and activity on Echolink. For cer-tificate send aSl and SASE to Mount Diablo ARC, P.O. Box 23222.Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 (http://www. pacificon.org).

K8CY. from Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival, Jefferson,OH; Ashtabula Coun ty ARC; 14QOZ Oct. 8 10 21QOZ Oct. 9 on 28.460,21.360. 14.260 MHz. For certi ficate, send QS l and #10 SASE toACARC. 722 l yndon Ave. Ashtabula, OH 44004.

NOCWP, from Anamosa, Iowa Pumpkinfesl ; Jonas County ARC;13OQ-17QOZ Oct. 2 on 14.260 QRM. For cert ificafelQSl. send QSland SASE 10 Jim McClintock, NOCWP, 301 Vine St., Morley, IA 52312.

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If you're new to the sport of DXing (or even if you're not), you maywonder how the most successful DXers snag those rare stations andmake their way to the top of the various honor rolls . WI HEO, onaccomplished DXer and DXpeditioner himself, took the direct approach.He shores his results here.. ..

Secrets of Top DXersBY D. E. (DEE) LOGAN,. WI HEO

Ann Santos. WA IS, a member of the DXers' survey. has worked all but three ofthe DXCC entities, is a frequent DXpeditioner. and volunteers as a sorter for the

OSL bureau and DXCC card cnecxer. (WA IS photo)

W hat does it take to rocket to thevery top of the OX heap? Arehigh power. taller towers, big-ger beams. and mega-stations thekeys? Or is it simply developing sharpoperating skills, squeezing the mostout of your station, and having a bit ofluck? Are there tricks of the OXer'strade? Is it passion, competitiveness,addiction, grit. or determination that dri-ves people on?

I was curious. During the past 30years of OXing I often wondered howsome operators managed to workeveryOX entity, quality for 5-Band Worked AllZones, or crack 300 countries on 160meters. Few mortals achieve this levelof success.

Thus. I did some research. I asked100 of the leading OX operators toshare some of their secrets. A surveywas sent to radio amateurs listed on theCO OX Honor Roll, DXCC Honor Roll,and Worked All Zones programs, plusa few other leading DXpeditioners.Over 40% responded, which is a verygood rate of return. Their commentswere boiled down by category and arepresented here, along with a number ofquotes. for your enlightenment.

Success FactorsWhat do our outstanding DXers con-sider to be the main factors needed toreach the top? You immediately mightthink of t on-root towers and big amou-tiers. Surprise! Persistence and desirelead the list. As Roger Corey. W1AX.puts it. "The main factors are desire.dedication, and a cooperative family.Sure,good equipment is necessary,butyou don't have to have a killer station.I've never had more than a tribander at40 feet.-

9901 CypressCircle. Mentor. OH44060-722 1e-mail:

www.cq-emateur-raele.eemL- ~_~

Ben Stevenson. W2BXA, licensedsince 1929.adds. "Persistence over theyears, changing with the times. and agenuine interest in the hobby must havehelped me."

Operating skills. an adequate station.and patience are also noted by many.Ann Santos, WA1S, mentions these.adding, "The big antennas are a help,along witha good radio,but are not real-ly necessary if you have patience. Mostof my OX contacts have been with aninverted Vee or TH70XX and with from100 to 200 watts." Other important sue-cess factors are knowledge of propa-gation, experience, time, and longevity."Listen!" adds Elwood Johns, W7QK.

Of course . there 's also luck. JohnMunroe, W7KCN, recalls hearing whatsounded like Monk Apollo. SV2ASP/A,

on 20 CWobut knew he didn't work CWo"So I began to wonder ... but I jumpedin and got him. Turned out he was aGerman technician there for aday work-ing on antennas and got permission tooperate. What a stroke of luck!"

The Mark 01 a Good DXer"Good nxers.' says Bob Allphin,K4UEE, "are skilled at both CW andSSB, understand the dynamics of pile-ups. time their calls. and have decentstations." Wayne Carroll, W4MPY, alsomentions patience and considerationfor others. The latter is a sign of classamong the best operators. Karl Renz,K4YT, comments, "Work the stationonce for a new one and don't fight pile-ups just to add another operator. This

OCtober 2004 CO 11

Scon Ginsburg. KIDS. is among the top DXers who consider the packet clusterthe number one real-time tool for spotting rare DX. (K IDS photo)

takes away a chance for a new ham toget a new country."

W1 AX agrees : ~A good DXer has thepatience to work the OX on both modesand on at least two bands (for insur-ance ), but never twice on the sameband.M he says.

Nick Cominos, W9UM. is among themany who emphasize listening morethan transmitting. Adds Jay Slough.K4ZLE, ' The number one skill of a goodDXer is a good set of ears and the dis-cipline to listen. listen, listen."

Station Equipmentand FeaturesAsk our top DXers what's needed to becompetitive and the number oneresponse is, predictably. the antenna.-Antennas, BIG antennas; says GlennJohnson, WOGJ . -High antennas forlow-angle DXing," adds Tom Taormina,K5RC. ~An antenna farm," smiles KlausUrbantke, VE7KDU. The drive to im-prove an antenna system is often notedas a fact or in achieving higher countrycounts. Scott Ginsburg, Kl0A, recallsthat when he installed a 1c-erement logperiodic on a za-tcct boom, "The differ-ence in what I was able to hear wasremarkable. It was as if the whole worldhad come alive in my shack."

Next to the antenna, a good selectivereceiver is mentioned by many, includ-ing Steve Hanzl ik, K2CDJ. "Learn theproper settings for various conditions,"he suggests. "Experiment with AGC andRF gain settings. A wider CW filter is ap-propriate for trolling across the bands."

Having a high-power amplif ier is con-sidered important by Charles Zutter -

12 CO oetceer 2004

meister, N6TNX, and several others inmy survey. Denny DuGal, WG6P, putsit this way : ~An amplifier and goodantenna are paramount. The key hereis (being) competitive. You may getthrough going QRP, but you are notcompetitive." However, Louis Arnold,K9ALP, who has used a Collins KWM-2175-83 combination for years, differs."A good basic station is all that is impor-tant," in his opinion.

Other tools mentioned include spot-ting networks, a low-noise QTH, and"good ears." Terry Wassell, K3JT, hasdeveloped an apprec iation for fullbreak-in CW, claiming that "lt adds theequivalent of 6 dB in making success-fuIOSOs."

Finding the Rare OXThree techniques for locating DX werelisted by a majority of our survey team:listening, reading DX news bulletins,and checking the DX packet clusters .Some other approaches were using the"buddy system ," setting schedules, andread ing rad io magazines (Whew!-ed.). Making a schedule with a DX sta-tion is an option, and with an e-mail con-nection, is done simply. However, notall operators in rare spots are receptiveto requests for a schedule, feeling thatthey're already smothered by too manycalls when they get on the ai r. In myexperience, the success rate on askingfor skeds has been under 50%.

"Finding DX in the old days was a mat-ter of lots of listening, talking with otherOXers, and reading what was avail-able," recalls W1AX. "Now it's all thatand packet , too." However, use packet

wisely. K4ZLE points out that DX clus-ters help , but "a good operator usesthose spots as part of the intelligencegathering process, not as a final analy-sis." W9UM acknowledges the value ofvarious research tools, but affirms that"Nothing beats hunting and searching."Tony Gullickson, W6WI, encourages usto "Get out there, spend some time, spinthe dial ; you never know who will showup for a one-to-one aso:

Success in Pile-upsNothing tests the skill , patience, knowl-edge, and luck of a DXer more than pile-ups. The bedlam of massive crowds ofscreaming operators sometimes driveshams out of the shack in utter frustra-tion. For those wnc pers ist. though, suc-cess can follow the struggle. The oneeffective technique frequent ly men-tioned by the survey group is to listenand study the operating pattern of theOX station before transmitting.

' First and foremost, listen a bit." sug-gests Kl OA. "Where's the DX listening?Look for clues on the cluster. If mere'sno definite pattern, my favorite strategyis to listen for a quiet spot in the pile-upand call there ." AI Rousseau, Wl FJ,agrees. "Find the pattern and attack it."he says, but he doesn't recommendstaying on one frequency.

O. B. Corning . W4S0, says. -o e whatthe DX station says to do. Try to stayone step ahead of him." Time your calls,adds K2COJ: "Time it so the previousaso is finished; if on phone, say yourcomplete call c learly and slowly; if onCW, send your complete call with cor-rect spacing and speed similar to the DXstation."

OXer Success Factors1. Persistence and desire (46%)2. Operating skills (36%)3. Good antennas (31%)4. Listening (31%)5. Patience (21%)6. Adequate station (18%,)7. Read newsletters (8%)8. Operate CW (8%)9. Time (5%)10. Know propagation (5%)11. Good receiver (5%)12. I.uck (5%)13. Experience (2%)14. Longevity (2%)15. location (2%)

Table 1- Th is is a listing of different DXsuccess factors offered by the respon-dents to my survey, listed in descending order of importance. The number inparentheses is the percentage of those

responding to each factor.

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Bob Allphin, K4UEE, is among leading DXers who "givesomething back" by joining DXpeditions. He 's shown hereon South Sandwich Island, one of 38 DXCC entities from

which he has operated. (K4UEE photo)

Other pile-up tips mentioned are to taltend the stationsbeing worked (it the OX allows it), be persistent, be patient,and be aware of propagation, As K2COJ explains, know ityou're at the propagation peak, and if so, make your call. Ifnot , and the peak is ahead, waiting may improve yourchances, However, he adds, "Your success will partially bedetermined by how well the DX station manages the pile-up,not how big it is."

Favorite OXing AntennasAntennas are considered more important than power byW2BXA and many on the survey panel. Which types of anten-nas are favored by our DXers for HF, 80 and 160 meters?Obviously, high gain is the goat, because Yagis and quads arethe overwhelming favorites lor the higher HF bands,Monobanders are preferred, but several stat ions with triban-ders do quite well . Hank Kiernan. KF20. is among the major-ity opting for a Vagi up as high as possible. Austin Regal,N4WW, is a case in point. "Equipment number one is towerswith beams at 70 to 130 feet in height," he states.

Very few respondents listed inverted Vees for the higherbands, but they are an option if you have either budget orreal -estate limitations, "l'd love to have better and higherantennas , but I have a small lot , so I use an inverted Vee uponly about 40 feet," sighs Phil Koch, K3UA.

Meeting the challenge of adequate OX antennas for 80 and160 meters revealed a variety of options from the polled hams,

www.cq-amateur-radio.com

~Yagis are good for low bands, but pricey ," comments DarrylBrown. N7FU. For 80 meters, the most frequently mentionedtypes were the four-square, vertical, inverted Vee. and dipole.Phased arrays are the favorite of Duncan Carman. W1JEN.Other types listedwere the stoper,doublet. bobtail curtain ,andCarolina Windom. On 160 meters the vertical leads the list,followed by the inverted "L." slooer, and delta loop.

"Everyone is limited to some degree by the real estate youown and can use." says John Burgio. W2JB, "especially onthe low bands. Always feed your LF wire antennas with open-wire tuned tine; you get much more flexibility on these bandswith appropriate tuners and phasing, and so on."

Lessons from the LogsAll top nxers have memories of contacts that are tru ly amaz-ing as well as unforgettable. I received so many of these thatspace is inadequate to share them all. Here are a few thatalso teach us something of the DXing game:

WA1S: "lt was sunset when I heard S05X runningEuropeans on 80 meter CWo1called several times, but hewas working nothing but Europe, I thought, 'fat chance I'llbreak this p ile-up,' so I'll transmit higher up the band andhope he'll tune away from the bee's nest. After 15 minutes Iworked him," Moral: Be patient.

W1KCN: -A511JH1AJT was on the air from Bhutan with -out any prior announcements. By chance I was tuning theband and stumbled across him.! worked him and then call edall the locals, At that time AS was exceedingly rare and goodold Zorro even called 'West Coast only: " Moral: Usten, lis-ten, listen.

K3UA: "VU4ATR and 3Yl VC were worked by studying thepile-up. I was in and out fast. Others took days to get throughwith much better antennas," Moral: Study DXoperators ' pat-terns before making your cafl.

W9UM: ~ It was 1979 and the first Spratly DXpedition , andI couldn't work them the first or second day, The th ird andlast day I spent hours in the attempt. Then they announcedthere would be only ten more contacts . Then only five more.I was the last one." Moral: Never give up.

K6YRA: SU2MT on 75 meter phone [was memorable]. Ittook 13 years for zone 34 and 5BWAZ on SSB: Ditto forN7FU , Moral:Be persistent;DXing is a marathon, nota sprint,

K2CDJ: "tn 1997 1had a successful 160-meter aso withVK01R, Heard Island , .. only because just minutes belore Ihad finished installing a temporary Beverage [antenna) tohelp overcome very bad local line noise: Moral: Antennasare important.

N8W: upS North Korea. He was on 1O-meter sideband, 55with aSB, working split. I d idn't hear any stations he wasworking. My gut feeling told me to stay parked on his upperlistening frequency and let him find me. It worked!" Moral:Instinct sometimes works.

Getting that OX aSLWorking that rare DX station is just the first hurdle. Gening theaSL can be a challenge in itself. True ,the new ARRL "LoqbockOf the World- promises some relief, but how many OX stationswill use it remains to be seen. Besides. many still enjoy hold-ing that rare aSL as a form of security, and it also looks mightypretty on the wall of the shack,

Many suggestions for boosting the aSL rates of return fromOX stations have been listed in the past, so there's no needto repeat them here, Our survey participants offered somecomments on the subject, however.

OCtober 2004 CO 13

Tom Taormina , KSRC, recalls working ZA fA white mobile in Texas , becauseoperator Manti Laine, OH2BH, recognized his voice in the pile-up. (KSRC photo)

"Getting a DX OSL is a matter of com-mon sense," says W1AX. "You want tomake it as easy as possible for the DXto reply to your card." N4WW still usesU.S. dollars and an SAE for goodresults. "I sometimes get mint stamps ifthe dollar doesn't work," he adds.WA1Ssends adollar or more "depending uponhow rare the country is. For majorDXpeditions a donation is another wayof saying thanks for being therer

Some other tips: Put the IRC (In-ternational Reply Coupon-s-you'll needtwo for airmail postage) or greenstamps (U.S. dollars) inside the self-addressed return envelope, or SAE(Bob Peterson,W7UT);never put a call-sign on the envelope for either the DXstation or yourself (W6WI); be sure thatyou have an accurate OSL route(K10 A); and send your OSL promptlyafter a esc (K4UEE).

I strongly agree that delay in sendingyour card may destroy your chance ofa reply. Ioperated with the re-issued callVK9LM on Lord Howe Island in 1999and was surprised to receive OSLrequests for contacts made years ear-lier by a previous holder of the same callwho was by then a Silent Key.

While the ARRLOSL Bureauwas sel-dom mentioned in our survey replies, itremains a very cost-effective option forthose who aren't in a hurry. Try to re-member that many volunteers give uptheir time to operate the bureaus, andan appreciative "Thank You" would bea nice touch. I've sent holiday cards toour sorter with gift certif icates for a fast-food restaurant, and also remember our

16 CQ October 2004

mail carrier, who is, after all, the finalimportant link in the OSL chain.

Advice for Reaching the TopWhat do our sage veterans say are thekeys to making it to the top of the DXers'heap? The number one requirement ispersistence, mentioned by ClaudeRichie,W9TKV, and others. CommentsMark. Michel, W90P, "They must havethe desire to achieve what they'reshooting for." Next is lots of listening."Be patient and listen," suggests LarryLehman n, KCODA. Staying informedabout the DX scene is also important."Don't miss out on important DXpedi-nons," cautions K3JT. "I missed Bouvetand regret it." Adds John w onderqem.K5KR, "Don't run hot and cold; you'llmiss some rare ones."

Operating skill is an important re-quirement. "A skilled operator can snagfar more DX from a very modest stationthan many can with a top-of-the-linesetup," says K2CDJ. "Some power willhelp," adds George Zeller, W8WM, "butknow what you're doing first. " Goodinstructions in that area are provided byseveral works on DXing, such as bookThe Compfete OXer by Bob Locker,W9KNI, plus the CO video "GettingStarted in DXing," both available fromthe CO book store.

An adequate station is considered anecessity by many of our experts, al-though there is disagreement over the"bigger is better" philosophy. Havinggood antennas is a common themethroughout most of our survey respcns-

es, as is understanding propagation.As an important footnote, ethics and

"giving something back" to the DXworldare stressed by a couple of our pros."Use legal power. follow ethical operat-ing practices, don't police pile-ups, fol-low instructions, and never lose enthu-siasm: urges K5RC. Adds WA1S,"What I really enjoy most is going onDXpeditions and giving out a new coun-try . Many times I've rece ived notesthanking me for being the DX stationand giving out a new country."

"Have plenty of time to devote (toDXing]: says Ed Soltwedel, K6PZ,because it's a key factor in working themall. This is frequently beyond the controlof DXers. An optimistic note on this pointissounded by VE7KDU:"Time is onyourside. Eventually every DXCC country onthe list will show up. Just be ready whenthe new country is QRV: Of course, thisassumes longevity,assagely mentionedby K6YRA. Support of an understandingfamily is mentioned by Larry Amodeo,W2AX,who says. "Don't get married ,butif you do, find someone who is veryreceptive to your passion.

Since stress is often a by-product ofthe competitive nature of DX chasing,we're reminded by K9ALP to "Have fun.Enjoy yoursenrThe Other Side of the Pile-upThe comments in this survey have re-flected the views of operators who areprimarily chasing the DX. How about theviews of rare DX station operators andDXpeditioners? While beyond thescope of this survey, here are somecomments from world-famous DXpedi-tioner, contester, and new-country pio-neer Martti Laine, OH2BH:

"Yes, it takes 'two to tango,' and noDXer can be successful without an effi-cient 'take in' at the production end: hepoints out. ' You may want to empha-size the fact that one needs to rely onDXpeditioners' skills and strategy forthe most part. Thus. there is only a lim-ited amount that can be done at thehome base." Martti says that his phi-losophy at the production end of the cir-cuit is covered in his book Where DoWe Go Next? and N7NG's pile-up oper-ating tips available from INDEXA (see"Sources & Resources").

As Martti and countless other DXpe-ditioners know, putting the rare ones onthe air is a very expensive undertaking.Future major operations will be evencostlier, and therefore will require evenmore financial support from DXers.Certainly organizations such as theNorthern California DX Foundation and

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the International OX Association(INOEXA) , which have long been effec-tive in raising funds, will be leading thiseffo rt. However, additional support fromindividual OXers wait ing at home will beneeded as well. As many at our experi-enced OXers have mentioned, helpingwith donat ions, no matter the size, is theright thing to do. There's no such thingasa free OX lunch. noris the Tooth Fairyleaving cash under the Dxpeditioner'spillow. The best operator with the big -gest station will never make it to the topwithout rare ones to work.

SummaryThis survey has been an enjoyable pro-ject. Perhaps there are few surprises inour report. Ustening to the experiencedvoices of many fellow OX operators hasbeen a pleasure. Their stories are inspi-rational. Many of their contacts have led10 lasting international friendshipsgrowing out of asos that went wellbeyond the signal reports. I hope thattheir comments have been of interest.and that you. too, will someday workyour way to the top of the Honor Roll. Inthe words of Ralph Waldo Emerson,"The reward of a thing well done is tohave done it." I trust that someday youwill have done it. as well.

www.cq-amateur-radio.com

Sources & Resourcesa SLlng: Send a crisp, new dollar bill

(green stamp) with your aSl to OX sta-tions,or use an International Reply Coupon(IRC), available from many post ollices($1 .75). If yours doesn't carry them, askyour Postmaster about ordering some. TheIAC is a way to prepay for postage for aSl smailed from another country without send-ing currency through the mail. You'll needto enclose two for airmail postage. Detailson IRCs are available at . Mint foreign stamps are anotheroption. Check ads in radio magazines.

A chapter on aSling is included in thebook The Complete DXer, by Bob l ocher,W9KNI, available from the CO Book Store.

Operating t ips : In addition to the tocherbook, more detailed information on OXoperations is contained in OXing Basics"by Wayne Mills, N7NG, available lor $5.00from the International OX Association(INOEXA), P.O. Box 607, Rock Hi ll, SC29731.

Newsletters : Information on OX activi-ty, OSl managers, OXpeditions, and moreis available in various newsletters. ORZOX, published by cas OX EdItor, CartSmith, N4AA, provides weekly updates.Contact: OX Publishing , P.O. Bok OX,leicester. NC 28748 ; telephone '-8n-3978254, e-mail : :.

,..-- - - - - - - - - - - - -- ._----_. _._ -

One of the things for which contesters are always grateful (in additionto good band conditions!) are the DXpeditions organized especiallyfor a test. The Florida DXpedition Group did iust that for the CQ WWDX SSB Contest last fall. In spite of the third largest solar flare everrecorded, they made lots of contesters happy and had fun!

5JOXThe CQ WW from San Andres

BY CLARENCE J . KEROUS,' W9AAZ

The SJOX Team San Andres. Alf of 1heops were also able to sign HKOlhomecalfwhife on San Andres. Left to right: front row-Clarence, W9AAZ, and Larry,WfLR; bad< row-Cory, N 1WON; Jan, K40D; Bob, KR4DA; William, N2WB;

and Bill. W4WX.

I

For many, preparing lor a contestmeans checking out the station justa day or two prior to the start of thetest. For members of the FloridaDXpedition Group (FDXPG) . preparationfor the 2003 CO World-Wide OX SSBContest began in January 2003 at our reg-ular meeting. We wanted to be on from areally sought-after location. Bill Gallier.W4WX, FDXPG President and ourDxpedition leader, suggested we try SanAndres island in the far western Caribbean sea. San Andres is not on the air allthat often, and we all agreed it would bean ideal location if we couldsecure licens-es, transportation, and lodging.

The PlanningBill, W4WX, found a website for the RedCrab Villa (www.at vacations.ccrtvRedcrab/Of) on San Luis beach , SanAndres. After e-mailing the owner andinquiring about prices and permission toerect antennas. we reserved all four apart-ments for eight days in October 2003 forthe CO 'NW SSB.

The next challenge was licensing. Bille-maned the Liga Colombia Radio Afi -ci onados (LCRA) in Bogota. Colombiaand inquired about securing licenses foroperating on San Andres island. which isColombian territory. Ms. Maria TheresaRodriguez of the LCRA advised Bill tosend her photocopies of our licenses, acopy of the picture page of our passports.and a color photo of each operator andshe would begin processing our applica -tion. As licensed u .S. hams in Colombia , , 104 Buggy Whip Trail, Middleburg. FL32068e-mail: SJOX website:

18 CQ October 2004

we could use HKC either before or atterour calls for up to 60 days. What we real-ly wanted. though, was a special call forthe contest. We put in a request for 5J0Jand 5J0X in early February 2003.

The last obstacle in getting the SanAndres operation into high gear wastransportation . Bill searched the internetand found a flight out of Miami Intern-ational Airport to El Dorado Internationalin Bogota with a connecting flight to SanAndres at a reasonable price.

With these plans in motion, the teamstarted to firm up, with seven members ofthe FDXPG signing on for the operation :Bill, W4WX; Clarence, W9AAZ, FDXPG

VP/Secretary ; Larry, W1LR; William,N2WB. Treasurer: Jan, K40D; Bob,KR4DA; and Cory. N1WON.

After several months of silence Irom theLCRA, Bill ,W4WX, again contacted MariaTheresa. She advised that all was in orderlor issuance of the special call 5J0J . Shesaid the license would be issued aroundthe end 01 August and would be mailed toBill. We were overjoyed.

William, N2WB, got a websi te lor ourcontest effort up and running . We solici t-ed support from various ham radio man-ufacturers and received a commitmentIrom Heil Sound for four Pro-Plus head-sets plus four foot switches and Kenwood

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The Red Crab Villa, home of the SJOX team. The accommodations were great!

r

adapters for the headsets. Acorn gener-ously supplied us with an Acorn 1000 1-KW amplifiers. William had an additionalAcorn amp, which we also planned to takealong. Ell! QSls in the Czech Republicsaid it would supply us w ith 10.000 aSLcards after the contest. We also receivedmany monetary donations from the OXcommunity. Without the support of somany people. the trip to San Andres wou ldhave never gotten off the ground .

After Labor Day, Bill, W4WX, securedairline tick ets for the group. We wou ld flyAvianca out of Miami 10 Boqota and thenfly Soc. Aero De Medellin to San Andres.

It was now almost the middle ofSeptember and the license had not yetarrived . Daily Bill frantically a-mailedMaria Theresa . He tried 10 callthe l CRAon the phone. but he knew little Spanishand kept getting transferred and gave upin complete frustration. He then contact-ed a Colombian ham who was working inHouston. Texas. Roberto Rey. HK3CW.agreed to help try 10speed things up. Aftera few phone calls he advised us Ihat thelicense had been approved but had notyel been issued.

It was now Ihe first week in October.Finally. the president of the l CRA. SenorIgnacio Barraquer. HK3CC. arranged 10have the license issued . Bill received it onOctober 10. only nine days before wewere to leave! We were issued 5J0Xrather than 5JOJ. At th is stage of the gamewe couldn't have cared less!

Twenty days before our scheduleddeparture Avianca Airlines decided to can-eel the fl ight from Miami to Bogota. Werebooked on American Airl ines. The only

www.cq-amaleur-radlo.com

fly in the ointment was an additional costof $322 per person. Ouch! If it had not beenfor the generous donations we received.the DXpedition would have crashed andburned right there! To all of those whomade donations. thank you again from allof us on team San Andres 2oo3!

We're OH!On Sunday afternoon , October 19, Billand I rented a 15-passenger van to takethe seven of us and all our luggage toMiami International Airport. We had 14checked bags as well as 7 carry-ons. Atthe time there was a major security alert allover the country . After we got our board-ing passes, the Transportation SafetyAdministration proceeded to open andcheck every one of our bags,both checkedand carry-on! It took what seemed like aneternity, but finally we and all of our lug-gage were cleared. We then boarded AAflight 913 to Bogota . Upon our arrival inBogota. we had to present the list of equip.ment and our intentions for the trip writtenin Spanish by Roberto. HK3CW,to the cus-toms officer. We then were allowed to pro-ceed without any further delay and boardour flight to San Andres.

As we approached San And res. thecaptain announced we were flying overthe south end of the island and wou ld thencircle to the north toward the landing stripat the airport. We really got a good lookat the island, which is about 10 miles longand 3 to 4 miles wide. With a bump wetouched down at 4 :35 PM. right on time.

We proceeded outside. where we weremet by Pedro and his lovely wife

Adrianna . who manage the Red CrabVilla. where we would be staying for thenext eight days. Luckily Pedro had a full -size Ford F-150 pickup truck. which wequickly filled with all our luggage andgear. We hailed two cabs and proceededin a caravan to San luis beach. The-Magnif icent Seven- unloaded the lug-gage and stowed it in the four apartments.We had two on Ihe ground floor and twoon the top floor. They were really fabu-lous accommodations.

Getting Down 10 BusinessWe then got down to serious business. Weunpacked and set up fou r complete oper-ating positions. We placed two setups ineach of the ground-floor apartments. Eachconsisted of a Kenwood TS570 HF trans-ceiver; a laptop running CT for logging andalso for use for RTTY. PSK-31 . Hell -scnreiber. etc.: and a Rigblasler to inter-face the transceivers with the computers.In between the two rigs in each apartmentwas an Acorn 1000 1-KW amplifier 10 beused alternately by each rig.

By now it was starting to get dark. Asone group assembled the four stations.outside another group put together twoSigma 5 HF vertical antennas. One wasplaced in a bucket of sand by the far endof the pool. The other was lashed to Ihesecond-floor balcony ra iling with duettape. Coax was then run from the two rigsto the Sigma s'e. As it was now totallydark. we planned to erect all the otherantennas the next morning.

The two stations and the verticals wereall set up. I had the honor of making thevery first a s o from San Andres. I got on14.1 95 MHz SSB and called ~aRZed fromthe 2003 San Andres Island Dxpedttion.This is HK0iW9AAZ.wI instantly got a callfrom W4AWP. Don. in Gree n CoveSprings. Florida. which is about 10 milesfrom my home OTH in Middleburg. Donwas kind enough to call my wife and lether know we had arrived safely and tohave hercan all the other guys' wives.Talkabout luck-detting someone back homeon the very first cam After that I turned overthe rig 10 Cory. HK'l/N1WON. He got aninstant pile-up going.

The next morning it was time to put upthe rest of the antennas. Cory put up a 6-meter delta loop in a tall palm tree in thefront yard . Jan, HK01K400. and WilliamHKO/N2WB. put up Jan's hcmebrew30/40meter vertical also in the front yard.We then assembled a Mosley TA-33 Jr.for 10/1 5120 meters and put it on a push-up pole about 20 feet high out in the fieldnext to the apartm en ts. On the other endof the second-floor balcony we assem-bled a ZX Mini-Beam for 10/15/20 metersand secured it to the balcony raili ng withmore duct tape. Back out in the field weput up a low-band vertical for 80 and 160

OCtober 2004 . CO 19

meters. We then spread radials on the ground around it. Janthen strung up a 4O-meter delta loop in the rear of the apart-ments. By then it was afternoon and the temperature was almost100 degrees, so we went back to the Red Crab, kicked off oursandals, and jumped into the pool with our shorts and 'l-shirtsstill on !

Next we got down to the task at hand-working pile-ups! Alltour stations quickly were manned and hundreds of stations werelogged by all on SSB. CW, RTTY, and PSK-31 . We noticed thatband conditions were not good at all . Then that evening we werewatching CNN on the satellite TV and learned that there hadbeen a mater solar flare . which was disrupting communicationsworldwide. It was the third larqest Hare ever recorded.

In spite of very poor band conditions, we made lots at con-tacts, all with the U.S., Canada, and South America. We couldnot work into Europe. We cou ld work EA8, Portugal, and Spain,but that's as far as we could get. Irs as if a brick wall hadbeen erected . This continued for several days. If the bands wereflat, we jumped in the pool or went sightseeing. San Andres isindeed paradise !

I stayed up late at night and got on 160 meters. I had one atthe Acom amps tuned for smoke with 1 KW out to the low-band160/80-meter vertical. I called CO time after time and finally gota reply. The noise level was really bad. I cou ld barely copy any-one, and they were all right down in the noise. After two hoursof trying I had only made 41 OSOs on 160. Then some thun-derstorms began moving in and the static crashes started to pinthe S-meter. so I finally gave up. It was very disappointing, asTop band from the Caribbean is usually much better!

The ConleslSoon Friday afternoon rolled around and it was time to preparelor CO WW SSB 2003. We moved the two Acom amplifierstogether to use them with the two run stations. We would be inthe High Power Multi-Two category. All the antenna coax wasrun into the apartment to the two contest stations. The other tworigs would still be available for use on the WARC bands if any-one cared to use them during their off time. We checked andrechecked all the gear and antennas. We set up two laptops withCT for loggi ng and linked them up with a null modem cable.

We all would be on the air according to a schedule drawn upby Bill , HKO/W4WX. We would work two hours on and four hoursoff , then on again for two hours, then four off and two on. andthen 6 hours off . This schedule gave all of us ample time to getsome rest.

The author. Clarence, W9AAZ(in the foreground). andJan,K40D. working "the Deserving" from San Andres.

20 CO October 2004

Finally everything was ready as the clock ticked down the lastseconds before the start of the CO WW. Bob. HKOI KR4DA, andJan, HKO/K400, were the first hapless victims to sit in the hotseats and begin the contest!

Bob and Jan starting call ing "CO Contest from FiveJapan Zerox -ray" and the OSOs started to flow into the two laptops. Thenthe unthinkable happened: The computers refused to talk to oneanother. We could not figure out what to do. In desperation weshut down both of them and rebooted.Thankfully. they then start-ed working. After a false start out of the gate we were at last offand running.

My first shift was not until 0400Z. so I slept for a whi le. All toosoon it was time for my tour of duty in the hot seat of the #1 runstalion. I quickly slipped on the Heil Pro-set Plus headset.stomped down on the foot switch, and called CO Contest fromSJOX: The din from the pile-up was almost deafening ! I loggedOSOs as fast as I cou ld talk and type. Twenty meters was hot1It was like that for my entire two-hour shift . In the back of mymind I kept wondering why I was not working hardly anyone out-side the U.S. I hoped things would improve by my next shift andsome OX would start showing up.

In what only seemed like a few minutes my two-hour shift wasover and I was relieved by larry, HKOIW1 LA. I rested and wasback at 1000Z on the #2 run station. I was now on 40 metersworking split and on my frequency. I logged a ton of stateside,Caribbean, and South American stations. but alas. no Europeat all. Conditions were really terrible due to the solar flare.

My shift soon ended and I then had 6 long hours oR. When Ireturned at 1800Z. I was on the #1 run station, and Bill, HKO/W4WX, was on #2. I was on 10 meters and Bill was on 15. FinallyI was working some EU stations, but there were no big EU pile-ups like there usually would be at that time of day. It was prettymuch the same for Bill on the #2 station . We had to really worxfor each contact. Conditions were very poor! My next shift waswith William as my partner. It was the same old slory-slim pick-ings, no big pile-ups. just steady OSOS that we had to call sev-eral times.

By now it was early Sunday morning and Bill and I were ontogether at oaooz . It was really the pits. It was without a doubtthe worst contest shift I had ever experienced, and this was afternine years of doing the CO WW from a OX location . The bandswere almost flat out dead . Bill tried 160, 80 , and 40 with littleresults. In 2 hours he made a total of 10 contacts! I was on 20and was only making a contact every few minutes by calling untilI was hoarse! Bill and I were both glad when this graveyard shi ftwas over. On Sunday after sunrise the bands came back to life

Bill, W4 WX (in front), and Bob, KR4DA, working the pile-upsduring the contest.

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san Andres and Getting ThereSan Andres is definitely a "paradise lost: It is difficult to

get to, as there are no direct flights in or out. We all tooksome personal risk getting there, as we had to go throughBogota. II you are th inking about going to San Andres,please get on the internet and go to the US Department ofState website and d ick on the travel warnings for Colombia.The State Department warns U.S. citizens against travel toColombia. Terrorist activities and criminal violence affect allparts of the country. The State Department website advis-es that the U.S. government's ability to help U.S. citizens islimited. The EI Dorado airport has many sold iers and policewalking around. Also when you land or take off you cannothelp but not ice the sand-bagged machine-gun nests andsoldiers in them that surround the airport.

San Andres was much safer, or so it seemed. The RedCrab Villa is surrounded by a high concrete wall, and theonly way in is through a heavy , locked iron gate. We had nosecurity problems, but if you decide to go , be advised thatthe possibility does exist.

William, N2WB (left), and Cory, N1WON, sightseeing in down-town San Andres.

Table I- Breakdown of the claimed contest score of 5JOx.

SJOX CO WW SSB 2003 Totals

Band 050s 050 P1s. Average P1sJOSO Zones Countries160 45 98 2.18 6 1880 69 160 2.32 14 2940 474 996 2.10 14 4920 1370 2852 2.08 19 6115 151 6 3212 2.12 21 6710 1834 4088 2.23 22 72

Totals 5308 11 ,406 2.15 9 296Score: 4,471 ,152 points

somewhat. At last the other ops started towork some EU stations. They even got afew JAs and VKs in the log .

My last lour of the contest was the finaltwo hours 01 the COWW with Bill as mypartner once again. I was on 15, and Billwas on 10 and then 20 meters. We start-ed to log some real OX contacts, includ-ing C5Z and A61AJ, and Bill snagged anA45 station in Oman. Finally the clock onCT rolled over to OOOOZ and the COWWSSB 2003 was history. Bill quickly savedthe logs from both stations to floppies.later after we returned home Bill mas-saged the logs and removed the bad calls.We ended up with 5308 Os (see Table I),which was very disappoint ing . The solarflare had taken a real toll on us. However,we took some small comfort in the knowl-edge that we were not the only operationhit by the flare. We had had a lot of otherCaribbean contest stations all asking usrepeatedly if we could hear Europe. Con-testers live and die by the solar flux indexand the A- and K-indices.

Post-ContestAfter the contest was over we cookedsteaks out on the grill. I then had had

enough and called it a night. DiehardsWilliam and Jan got back on the air. Corygot on 6 meters and made a lew contacts.Cory and Bill worked over 60 stations totalon 6 meters. None were from the U.S.; allwere Caribbean and South Americancontacts. Cory even worked CEO. EasterIsland on 6.

On Monday morning after the CO WWI got up at around 6 AM and stumbled intothe radio room to find Jan working a nicepile-up on 30 meters CW oI then got on 40CW and had a nice pile-up going in shortorder. Around 8AM we enjoyed a leisure-ly breakfast and everyone pretty much d idwant they wanted. Bill and Bob, HK0/KR4DA, got on RTTY and made a lot ofcontacts . Later Larry, HK0!W1LA , got on20-meter PSK-31 and worked a bunch ofstations. Late in the afternoon I got on14.080 MHz and called CO using Hell-schreiber. I got a last reply from KA4RAB,Julio, in Hialeah, Florida . I then workedseveral more stations using Hell. Thesemight well have been the first-ever Hellcontacts from San Andres. Bill and I werefortunate enough to work two ops backhcme-c-Jake, K5WTA. and Greg KG4 IAL.

We would be leaving the tropical par-adise of San Andres on Tuesday after-

noon. On Monday afternoon we took downthe low-band vertical. We left all the otherantennas up until Tuesday so that anyonewho wanted to could operate. Finally, onTuesday morning all the other antennascame down, and we packed up our sta-tions and prepared to leave the island.

During our eight-day stay on SanAndres we made a grand total of around12,000 OSOS with very bad band condi-tions. Hopefully we were in your log !

From the CO WW SSB 2003 SanAndres team, thanks for working us. Seeyou in the pile-ups from somewhere lorthe 2004 contest!

AcknowledgementsThe seven members of the 2003 SanAndres CO WW SSB Contest DXpeditionwould again like to thank all of our sup-porters. Without you, the 5J0X operationwould not have happened. A specialthanks to Acom and Hen Sound. The ampand the headsets all performed flawless-ly. Also a special thanks to ELL! for sup-plying the 5JOX OSL cards.

We would like to extend a very specialthank you to Mr. Roberto Rey, HK3CW.Without his assistance we would havenever gotten the special call to use dur-ing the contest. To you Rob, muchas gra-cias co/ega! Even though you were notwith us, as far as we are concerned youwere part of the team!

We would also like to thank a very spe-cial lady, Karen Adamitis, WB9YBL, ofGood Buy Travel and Cruises in OrlandPark, Illinois. She went the extra mile inarrang ing our air transport not once, buttwice , after Avianca cancelled the flightout 0 1Miami. Thank you, Karen !

A special thanks to Ron , N4GFO, whoworked us daily and passed messages toour wives and families.

22 CO OCtober 2004 Visit Our Web Site

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250 milliwau maximum inpul.B:SC connectors. Shielded."lages. Connect bel ....eenreceiver and antenna and use S-meter a.. a precision calibratedfield strength meier. Preventreceiver block ing . cross-mode-lario n. Determine gainlloss.ideal for fox hu nting. Evaluatelinearity. Iso late circu its .Extend ra nge of se ns itiveequipment. Measure input/out-put level differences.

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80

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'",..' 52

.,.520' 785383"..." 3" 5605

213638383939

183161

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7.5555.eee5.'"6.67552587.82832n5.7235.181

96.2.6723.eec3.521' .5893.962

1.83.57.0

"2128

CW Single Operator/Single BandWORLD RECORD HOLDERS

C4A('99) (Dpr-. 9A3A) 261.489EABEA(96) (Opl'. OH2Klj 1.175.5S0EABEAf (3) (Opl'. OH2MM) U n.OSOP." V("91) (Opr. N7NG) l .883.700Z08Z("97) (Opr. N6TJ) 2 .357.967ZXSJ('99j (Cpr. N6TJ) 2 .131.942

Single Operator/All BandAF EA8BH('OO) (Opr. NSTJ) 18.01 0.765AS M 5XRf(3) ._ 10.837.0434EU CT8TfOJ) (Cpr. OH1NOA) 7.613.6llONA KP3Z('03) (Cpr. N5TJ) 11.0230o KH7X("03) _ 7.673.31.SA P.DE("03) (Opf. CT1BOH) 15.943.070ORP NOW('99) (Opl'. W2G0) 5.02 .800low Pwr, NDW("Ol ) (Opl'. W2G0) 10.198.792Asst. CT9M("02) (Opr. 0l.2CC) _ 11.225..52

WORLD RECORD

692' 75589592392595381508500

102110137175179151

"3335383839

175" 3155165170175127

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"2128

CO World-Wide OX Contest All -Time Records BY FREDERICK CAPOSSElA, K6SSSThese records represennre pinnacle of achievementby the true champions of contesting,We congratulate them on their success. Number groupsafter calls are: year 01operation, total score, contacts, zones and countries. AIIBand and Multi-Operator records include a band-by-band break-down al tha worid leader in each category.

Phone SIngle OperatortSingle BandWORLD RECORD HOLDERS

lG9/1V3TAN('96) 1,252 1,203109T('95) (Opf. IV3TAN} 816.959 t .938IG9GSF('97) (Opr. 1T9G$F) 1,249.236 2517PYllFMl'94) (Opt . PY5CC) 3 .202242 5.109Z08Z('94) (Opr. N6TJ) 3.481.925 5.535HC8A(01) (Opt . N6KT) 3.916.600 6.957

AF EA88H('99) (a:.l~~~~)~.~~.~~.~~d 10253AS JY9NX(1l1 ) (Opt.JM1CAX) 10, 785.336 6290EU GIOKOW('99) 10 . 57.6601 6,375NA KP3Z('02) (Opt. N5TJ ) 15.6SS.517 8.656o KH7R('OO)(Opr.CT1BOH) _ 11 .894.730 7. 73SA HC8A('99j (Opr. N6K1) ._ 18.607.050 8.638QAP P4OW('OO) (Opt. IN2GOj _ 5 .097.780 3.599lowPwr. DTD('02) (Opt. IV3TAN) 11 .199.793 6.097Asst 9V. ZCf(3) (Opt. Dl.6F8l) _ 1 .979.05S 8.1' .

WORLD RECORD

sta- Band osos Zooe>; eo..-

1.8 150 13 5, 35

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(1999) 7.0 23' 29"

120001 7.0 ,7> 29 1037.898.499 14.0 1.145 38 "2 8 .756.568 140 988 33 ,,,

21 .0 1.150 36 '23 21 .0 ... 33 'll- ~- -~>- 325V 504>- /'

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lots of heat being generated. This not only stressedthe tubes, but heated up all of the nearby compo-nents as well. If you ever got burned by acciden-tally touching an operating 5U4GB, you knowexactly what I mean. Some of this equipment evengot so hot that auxiliary blowers were included tohelp control the internal temperature.

By replacing these rectifier tubes with silicondiodes,we cansignificantly reduce the heat in suchequipment. This will not only allow adjacent com-ponents to operate cooler, it will also eliminate theadded stress on the power transformer, since therectifier's filament supplywill be no longer required.In addition, since the solid-state components areonly added to the power supply, the rest of the vac-uum-tube circuitry is untouched.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a typical powersupply providing 350 volts at about 250 mil-liamperes, such as might be found in a small 75-watt transmitter. The power transformer has a 650Vrms high-voltage secondary (or as it used to becalled, ~325-0-325~ volts) , a 5-volt filament wind-ing (at 3 amperes), and a third output winding forthe rest of the filaments (usually 6.3 volts). As youcan see, the circuit is a common full-wave rectifierwith the 5U4 doing all of the work. Dissipation inthe circuit consists of about 50 volts droppedacross the tube (50V x 0.25A = 12.5 watts) and 15watts for the filaments (5V x 3A = 15 watts). Peakvoltage between the plates and cathode of the tubeis 91 0 volts (650 x 1.41 ). To provide a solid-statereplacement for such a tube therefore wouldrequire a rectifier diode that could handle 250 mil-liamperes as well as withstand a reverse voltage

of at least 950 volts. Fortunately, the veryinexpensive 1N4000 series is ideal.

Fig. 2 is a schematic of the revisedpower supply. The diode we have chosenis the 1N4007, which has a peak reversevoltage rating of 1000 volts. If this partic-ulardiode is not available, you can alwaysuse two or more lowerbreakdown voltagediodes in series, as long as the totalreverse breakdown of the string exceeds1000 volts. If you do choose to connectdiodes in series, it is a good idea to par-allel each diode with a resistor of high-value, such as 47K or 1OaK, to assure aneven distribution of reverse voltage asshown in fig. 3.

The voltage drop across a typical vacu-um-tube rectifier is, aswe have mentioned,anywhere from 20 to 60 volts. The 5U4 inour example will drop about 45 volts.Silicon diodes, on the other hand, will onlydrop 1volt or less. As a result, the DC out-put voltage from the modified supply will behigher. If the voltage rating of the filtercapacitors is high enough and the rest ofthe circuit can handle 50 to 60 volts moreB+, then all is fine. You will even gain a bitof output power aswell. If not, you will have

Fig. 1- A typical high-voltage vacuum-tubepower supply.

To Filaments

do CO magazine

W hen we reminisced about the "vintage"Kenwood T8-5308 transceiver we pur-chased last year (see theJanuary 2004col-umn), we received lots of mail from older amateurswho also share our feelings about vacuum-tubeequipment and who still enjoy using much of it. Inthatcolumnwe alsosuggested that newcomers,par-ticularly those on a budget, consider the great val-ues that can be had in the used equipment market,purchasing high-quality equipment at a small frac-tion of its original cost. As a sort of follow-up, thismonth we will look at a fairly simple way to 'update"such equipment (as well as possibly extend its life)by "modernizing" the power supply. Before we start,however, please bear in mind that high and possi-bly lethal voltagesarepresent inmany vacuum-tubepower supplies, and the utmost care is requiredwhen working with them. It therefore is a very goodidea to have a fused outlet strip and a way to reducethe input line voltage when testing. Such a methodwill be described at the end of this column.

As you might be aware, most vacuum-tubeequipment employed rectifier tubes of the 5U4,5Y3, 5Z3, 6X4, etc.. variety. These were used toconvert AC from a power transformer to high volt-ages in the range of 150 to 600 volts at currentsranging from 50 to 350 milliamperes, dependingon the requirements of the particular type of equip-ment. These rectifier tubes usually required a fila-ment voltage of 5 to 6 volts at 2 to 3 amperes anddropped anywhere from 20 to 60 volts betweencathode and plate (anode). All of this resulted in

Another Visit to the Past

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50 . CO October 2004 Visit Our Web Site

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To Filaments Fig. 2- Silicon-diode-modified high-voltage power supply_

Keyers:Loglkey

K3.Super

CM05-3.CMOS-4

Fig. 3- Series connection of rectifier diodes.

toprovide a means to lower the DC to theoriginal value. This is mosteasily accom-plished with a resistor. Fig. 2 also showswhere you would add the resistor.

Choosing the resistor will require asimple calculation. In our example. weneed to drop 45 volts at a current of 250milliamperes. Using Ohm's Law. we findthat we need a value of 180 ohms(45/0.25 "" 180). Furthermore, the resis-tor will be dissipating 11.2 watts (45 x0.25 '" 11.2), so a 25-watt resistor willbe needed (conservatively) .Asanalter-native. you can use two l BO-ohm resis-tors (at 15 watts each) in series witheach diode string (also shown in fig. 2)if the 25-watt variety is hard to find.Power resistors such as these used to

be commonly available and can still bebought for a nominal cost from manysurplus sources if needed. They areeven available from the major distribu-tors (such as Mouser Electronics), butyou will pay around $2 to $3 (for newones) from these sources. If you doneed to use dropping resistors, the heatyousave from the tubeswill now begen-erated by the resistors. However, thesedevices are much more suited for heatdissipation and can be mounted some-where ' fn the clear,n and you will stillsave the filament power.

The examplegiven above is based onreplacing a 5U4 with silicondiodes. Thistube has a filament (or healer) whichalso serves as the cathode. Other tubes

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SV4, 6W5, 6X4, 6X5, 6Z5, 6AXS, SCM, 5138, 5839, 5852, 62D2, etc.

Fig. 4- Connections for rectifier tubes with indirectly heated cathodes.

Standard lampSocl-------~- ,,

'7IC loge YersiDn ~estOl"Vel""", c _ _ R /Ti. . '.....,

Fig. 4- Th6 OR function. In this revised version thediodes are reversed FlfJure~ Simple voltage reducer lor testing purposes. In this versionfrom the original. the "other hair of the Circuit I omitted has been res tored.

52 CO OCtober 2004 Visit Our Web Site

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. I'cool.. your JX""cr supply for long life.

Two mt)(/d s 10 C"OO.~t' from . . .~1t"J-U25'I\'. ."'''.95. 25 Amp"

maximum or 22 Amps contmuou... Weighs3.7 pound... Measures 5'1.Wx4'I:Hx60 in .

~1tJ.....a2.15~ 1 \', 199,95. .15 Ampsmaximum or.w Amps continuous. Weighs5 .5 pound... Mea..ures 7'1:\\'x4 '/.I lx90 in .

plus !o&h"They are fully protected with O ve r Volla!!t'and Over Current protection circuits.

norM.wl' lrnatilUy~"'J M jghryLirt'J'" can he used any -

where in the world! "They have ..witchableAC input voltage and work from 85 10 135VAC or 170 to 160 VAC. Replacea ble fuse .

.\fightylilt'J"" . . . Mighty Feamresfront-panel control lets you ' Oaf)' out-

pur f rom 9 to 15 Volt:\. DC.Front -panel has eavy ecce.... five-.....ay

binding posts for heavy dury use and ciga-relic lighter socket for mobile accessories.MFJ .....245 MV has two set s of q uick-con-IlIX1.S on the rear for acce....cries.

Bri~hU)" ill uminated 3 inch meters klyou monitor load voltage and current.

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It ' s h ighly regulated with load regula- nect... for accessories and a cove red ciga-lion bet ter tha n 1%. Ripple voltage is Ie.... rene lighter soc ket for mo bile ecce....orie....than 30 mY. No RF ha.\h it's super d ean! A from- panel fuse ho lder makes fuse

Full)" protected has over voltage pro- replace ment easy. Whisper quie t fa n speedtectio n. fo ld back short circuit protect ion increase.. as load CUTTent increases -- keepsand over-temperature protection. comp onent... cool. 9 '/,W x6H:\9 '1,[) inche...

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