Page last updated on: Sunday, March 10, 2013

IOTA News from OPDX

11 March, 2013

Island activities:
EU-047. Sebastian, DL1AXX, will be active as homecall/p from Baltrum Island (DID/GIA N-06) between May 20-26th. Activity will be holiday style on the HF bands. QSL via home callsign, direct or by the Bureau. Visit his Web site at:
http://www.mydarc.de/dl1axx
NA-174. The "DX-World.net" reports that David, VE3VID, is now active
as VY0/VE3VID from the rare Igloolik Island (WW.Loc EP-99).
He will be there for the next 3 weeks. Activity will be on SSB and RTTY. On QRZ.com, he also states that he will operate on PSK-31, and possibly more exotic digital modes like OLIVIA and HELL. QSL via his home callsign, direct or by the Bureau.

OC-042. Operators Jose/DU1BP, Torsten/DL2KGS and Rag/LA6FJA will be
active as DZ1B from Luzon Island during the CQWW WPX SSB Contest (March 30-31st) as a Multi-2 entry. QSL via LoTW.
ADDED NOTE: The CQWW DX SSB Contest (October 26-27th) operation
mentioned in last week's bulletin is now off.
OC-136. Operators Graham/VK3DOG, Keith/VK3FT and Tony/VK3TZ will be active as homecall/p from Phillip Island between March 15-18th.
Activity will be active on all HF bands 160-10 meters using a single transmitter into simple rotatable dipoles on the high bands and full size verticals on 80/40m. On 160m, they will try to have a vertical array (22m tall) with some parasitic elements, beverages and loops for receiving. The trio will be looking especially for Europe on the top band at their sunrise and also Stateside on 75m SSB. They plan to be active approx-
imately 20 hours a day, while resting during their off time by surfing, relaxing or sampling some beers or rum.
OC-151. Leo, YC9MLL, who has been live on Flores Island for 8 years,
informs OPDX this past week [edited], "...I have also improved my antenna. I put up a 33 ft vertical on top of our roof not with 13 radials (hope to increase it soon from wires recovered from a burnt transformer, hi!). It has an SG-239 auto tuner with a homebrew bias-tee for remote power. I would like to inform you that I am still on OC-151 and I am glad to be of service to any ham who would like to have a QSO. They can
always contact me at this e-mail address <yc9mll@gmail.com> for a schedule. Or most of the time I operate on Saturdays and Sundays. I can transmit on 160, 80, 40, 20 (up to 14.150 MHz only), 15, and 10 meters. I have an old power supply operating a 22A radio at 100W and the power supply barely can supply the radio's demand. That might explains the often times QSB. I put a car battery in parallel to remedy the situation.
I hope I can homebrew the MFJ-4403 like power conditioner. I have most all the materials except for the 25Farad capacitors and the 15KE15A and CL101 parts. I hope to find them soon so that my signal will be more stable. Our island's power is from several big generators in the center of the town.
Another thing that I learned from last December was about RFI. There was a Swedish station that was trying to contact me. I cannot simply
hear him, and he was using a yagi and a 1KW. There were too many cell phone chargers and other RFI generating devices plugged-in that time on the house power outlets. Now, I homebrewed another MFJ-like RFI filter from my junk box. I cannot have torroids to accommodate the 20-ish turns, but I was able to put in about 8-10 turns and the radio is quieter now, ready for another IOTA chasers round. These are the improvements I had on my 100W set-up. I hope I can reach out to the other IOTA chasers more. I am not a contester or any award chaser... I just have the
eQSL eDX on my sight but not really an avid (yet) fan for awards."
Leo can operate on CW, SSB, PSK31, RTTY and SSTV.
QSL via his home callsign (see QRZ.com).
OC-236. Operators YB8HZ and Ram/YB8BRI will be active as homecall/p
from Balang Lompo Islands between March 28-31st. Activity will be on 40/20/17/15/12/10 meters using CW, SSB and RTTY.
QSL via YB8BRI.
SA-049. Members of the Radio Club Ushuaia (LU8XW) will activate the
special callsign LT5X from Isla Redonda, beginning at 0000z on Saturday, March 23rd, until 1500z on Sunday, March 24th.
Activity will be on 80/40/20/15/10 meters using CW, SSB and PSK. QSL via LU8XW. Isla Redonda is a small island in the mouth of the Bahía Lapataia within the Department Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica and South Atlantic Islands Province. It is surrounded by the waters of the Canal de Beagle and has an area of ??about 50 hectares. Its maximum length is 1022 meters and its maximum width is 840 meters. Its center is located at coordinates: 54 ° 51'49 .26 "S - 68 ° 28'54 .47" W. Grid Loc:
FD55ue. On the island is installed a detachment of the Naval Prefecture Argentina that has been there more than 100 years.
Compiled by Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW
OPDX
RSGB IOTA website