Name: Steve

Photo above: VE6WZ on a two day mountaineering ski trip into the Rocky Mountains

VE6WZ was licensed in 1973. He graduated from University with a BSc in Geology and has worked in the Oil and Gas exploration business for about 30yrs. VE6WZ'smain interest is building antennas and working DX on the "Lowbands"40, 80 and 160m. You will only rarely hear VE6WZ above 7 mHz.

STATION: Radios: FTDX-9000D, FT-1000d, IC-7000

QTH: A 60'X 100' city lot in Calgary AB. See Google Earth view: http://www.qsl.net/ve6wz/QTH_ve6wz.jpg

Antennas:

View from tower: Some photos taken from the end of 80m Yagiboom at 100': http://www.qsl.net/ve6wz/ve6wz_view_fromyagi.htm

160m- US Tower HDX-589Mdpl motorized crank-up tower is shunt-fed for 160m.

(RX)- Various single and end-fire phased Beverage antennas (winter only) on third party land. Also, the 80m 2-el Yagi elements are phased in the shack using the NCC-1to yield a very effective 160m rotateable RX Yagi at 100'. There are 2 phased end-fire 2 el vertical arrays for EU-OC and SA-JA. See below for photos and more detail, or click here: http://www.qsl.net/ve6wz/ve6wz_160m_rx.htm

80m- 2-el homebrew Yagi at 105' (32m) with 1/2 size (66') Hi-Q mid-element coil loaded elements on a short 28' boom. See construction details ofthe homebrew 80-40m Yagi: http://www.qsl.net/ve6wz/intro.htm

40m- Sharing the same boom with the 80m Yagi is a 2 el inductor loaded short 40m Yagi.

20-10m- A Force-12 Yagi is used on the high bands.

WARC- No antennas. Using the rig ant. tuner, force load the 40 and 80m Yagis for low-power use.

QSL via LOTW

VE6WZ DXCC & LOTW Status here: http://www.qsl.net/ve6wz/dxcc.htm

Below: RX Antenna layout

160m RX System at VE6WZ

The objective is to be able to actively phase the various RX antennas available using the DX-engineering NCC-1 phase box for either noise elimination, or for pattern and RDF development. There are two en-echelon staggered 140m long beverages to EU which can be phased with the NCC-1. The 2 el 80m Yagi at 100' has vacuum relays at each element to switch in CAT-5 feedlines so that each element can be either actively phased with the NCC-1 unit, or passively phased with a homebrew unit. There are 2 short vertical pair arrays (spaced 50') which can also be either actively or passively phased. There is a single 100m JA beverage wire and a single 120m SA beverage wire which can also be routed through the the NCC-1 phase box and phased with another antenna. The switching system also allows for any antenna, or passively phased pair, to be routed to the SUB-rx of the FTdx-9000d while any other antenna can be used on the main RX port to allow for antenna diversity RX. For example, the EU en-echelon beverage pair will be used in the main RX of the radio, while either the passively phased RX Yagi or EU short vertical array will be fed the the sub-rx. For more detail click here: http://www.qsl.net/ve6wz/ve6wz_160m_rx.htm

The photo below shows a close-up of the 160m RX switching console.from bottom up: NCC-1 Active Phasing unit, on top of that, the Switch Box which provides routing options to the NCC-1 unit, and on the very top is the Passive Phase unit which contains a switchable delay-line unit to passively phase the 160m rx yagi and two 50' spaced short rx vertical pairs.

Below is the HDX-589mdpl motorized crank-up tower with the 80-40m Yagi at 100' (32m) (Also, these 80m elements are vacuum relay switched into an "RX mode" and phased in the shack to yeild a 160mRX yagi)

Below is a view at 100' looking EAST from the end of the 80m Yagi. In the distance is the "downtown" city core.

All-time DXCC totals are not the best measure of a stations DX capabilities.  Annual DX results more accurately reflect the current station capabilities rather than many years of historical activity, possibly spread over multiple QTH's with different equipment and spanning multiple solar cycles.  Collecting annual data is also useful for studying DX success as a function of solar activity. (a seven year statistical study of 80m DX at VE6WZ is summarized here: Click ) A 10yr. 80-160m EU study is here

Each winter DX season at VE6WZ DXCC totals are summarized for 80 and 160m. Beginning on September 1, and ending around March 30,  worked DXCC entities are totaled by the logging program.  Below is a table showing the past results since 1999. (for some years a link to a table showing the entities worked is included)

There certainly appears to be a correlation with increased Low-Band DXCC entities worked and lower geo-magnetic activity during the low flux years 2008-2010 !!