Note for Europe: I like chasing DX very much so consequently call CQ DX

However some European ops do not seem to understand what DX means and keep calling and calling me.

Most likely I will completely ignore these callers and go on with CQ DX.

Do not get frustrated or upset when I am not answering.

If listening carefully before one starts calling, it is clear I am calling CQ DX.

 

During wintermonths, I often call CQ DX on 40m around our noon; This is challenging at my 53 degrees latitude North !

Most days in winter it is possible to work USA east coast stations near their sunrise and also several Pacific stations have been

worked at midday on 40m; with T30TS as highlight (being a new DXCC)  around 12:00 UTC early December 2013.

Even in the first week of March it is still possible from here to work USA Eastcoast at noon and even  VP6EU was audible up

to 1 hour before EU noon !

Although sigs are not that strong anymore in March, it's very nice to observe the greyline at the USA eastcoast starting to work.

USA stations suddenly start to get stronger for a short period of time, which is because of their greyline coming to action.

 

 

 

My location at longitude 6 East is 24 minutes ahead of UTC in wintertime, which means that real noon, with the sun exactly

south,  is at 11:36 UTC

In the CQWW 2014 I had my main interest in working DX at 40m during our noon.

The AZMap ( courtesy of Paul Burton AA6Z )  picture above shows the path to K3LR at 12:18 UTC on 29 november

2014 when a qso was made, which was just after my real noon.

Sunrise at K3LR was at 12:24 UTC on 29 November , so in fact the qso took place in broad daylight between the USA and

Europe.  

From the LOTW QSO confirm you also can see that the path already was open to the far east,  as an hour before the K3LR qso

a qso was made with RA0R in Bratsk ( near Lake Baikal )

The day after , and at about the same time as the K3LR qso, a qso was made with Japan 8J2VE

In this case, I  had the best reception this time during my noon with the dipole heading exactly north.  This skewed or crooked

paths are very common on HF.  

 

However most times I observe the direct path (QTF 290) being the best for the Eastcoast USA at my noon but when condx are

above normal ( because of  an average high solarwind described below ) the QTF can be pure West at 270 and the more

southern Eastcoast States then have the better sigs compared to the W1/VE stations.

Although I am in the north of PA, I witnessed several other EU stations being even  more to the south, who also had

good DX around noon.     In one occassion around the winter solstice 2016 , when condx were superb, even an Italian stations

was heard working the Eastcoast USA at EU noon.         That's even more a challenge being further south !

To determine the exact heading is by use of the rotary dipole 'dip'  which is 90 degrees off the mainlobe direction.  

By nulling out the station, the exact heading is 90 degrees from this dip.

 

DX during the daylight hours also is possible when EU just had it's sunset and being just around noon at the East coast of  NA.

Twice a qso was made with John KD2RD near NY,  when he was just past NY noon and on  a perfect day like the  2nd of

February 2017 when condx were really good, even Gary K9RX in South Carolina could be worked at 12:10 local SC noon !

That particular day I already had RBN spots from W1NT at 15:06 UTC ( 10 AM  Boston time ) continuing for many hours as

can be seen on the RBN picture just below.

 

 

Actually many days around the winter solstice I had RBN spots near USA noon and even around the spring and autumn

equinox, I witnessed this RBN spots.

It is very funny when watching the fading daylight at the western horizon and that same time being spotted over a distance of

6000 km with the propagation path on 40m being in daylight.

 

However, from my experience I learned that the station which is at the nightside,  can be heard pretty well at the daylight

side, but this daylight station let's say 4 hours before his sunset,   is much weaker received at the station being in darkness.

My sigs were heard very well when USA was just past noon, but the NA stations were pretty weak with me.

This situation is often encountered at the weekly CWT mini contest between 19-20 UTC, when I already see spots from myself

at the USA RBN, but it takes a while before I can hear the USA stations.

The same was true when I called stations in Asia, that I could hear pretty well, 4 to 5 hours before my sunset, but they had lots

of troubles digging me out.

One of the reasons is, that the noise floor raises with the nightside station and thus degrading the S/N ratio.

The other speculative reason might be; that the nightside station has a degrading D layer at it's side. This causes a refraction of

the transmitted signal, yielding a skip which is more extended as in the case of the daylight station, which still has a firmly

build D layer which only reflects and therefore minimizing the skip distance.

So from the daylight station, hours before the greyline,   towards the nightside station  will take more skips.

In this way there is a kind of one way condition, which I only knew from my 2m EME time.

 

Another experience of 1 way condx I observed  when a severe Aurora is going on;  sigs from NA still can be very strong.

Pressumably they end up very strong in Spain (as example) and then via one sidescatter hop they reach my antenna. 

From my qth the direct path is closed due to the degraded MUF by the Aurora and my sigs travel south to Spain, but then via

sidescatter they still have to make a few hops to NA.  These extra hops 90 degrees off the transmitted direction are much more

attenuated as sigs would have travelled the direct path with higher MUF.

During the CQWW several years ago I saw a big Scandinavian contest station struggle with these degraded MUF.  Only 1 or 2

louzy RBN spots from the Eastcoast NA were the result.

Recently I read a very interesting article, written by Frank W3LPL, which explains this phenomena. It's called the mid-latitude-

through and already discovered many decades ago. 

In wintertime, the ionosphere being south of the northern Auroral zone has a depleted total electron content and therefore a

significant reduced MUF, causing the path between EU and USA to be closed during nighttime hours, especially for the more

northern EU stations.  If communication is possible, it's thus via the above ,very skewed path, over southern EU and south of

this region with depleted electrons in the ionosphere.

For those who are interested, I recommend reading this very clear explanation;

http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/cq-contest/2016-November/115521.html

 

But if a mild Aurora occurs condx can be very good. Often I've seen great condx and within 24 hours the Aurora happened.

During the winterseason 2016/2017 condx have been rather good on 40m during the daylight hours for DX.

Especially those days when there was an average high solarwind, the electrons charged the ionosphere and signal levels at

those days were in general very good.  A big thanks goes to Rob W1MK, who almost called me at a daily base at my noon on

40m. Because of this daily qso's and the observations of the solarwind changes it has been possible to have a better

understanding of the possibilities for noon DX. The only exception was a week in January when condx were very poor and the

ionosphere therefore showed a depletion of electrons and a qso was hardly possible. Although Rob could hear me, I was not

able to dig his signals out.  It must be Rob his very good beverage that he could hear my sigs.

 

During an Aurora I also once observed a Long Delayed Echo when listening to a SM station which came in really strong.

A few seconds later his same message repeated at a much lower strength. Therefore I am often alert at this phenomena during

Aurora events and hope one day to make a recording of it.

 

Ham since June 1982 at the age of 17 with my novice callsign PD0NGH.

A year later in 1983, I got the full licence and till today it is PA3CWN.

Enjoying DX on HF ; mainly 40 meters and since Sept 2013 use a rotary dipole at max. 16m up.

 

I am very active on 40 m CW and occasionally SSB chasing DX with a Yaesu FT-2000 and sofar I did

work  316 DXCC:   312 CW  /  266 SSB ( latest: TX7EU & FT4JA ) on 7 Mhz, of which   all  316   are confirmed by paper

QSL    All bands mixed wkd/cfm =   321.

 

A new challenge was to start from zero again on my new QTH on 40 meters and since end August 2011 I worked 309 DXCC  

( CW:304 SSB:256 )  and  number 300 was made with T2GC (Stan UFB ears LZ1GC) at the end of September 2015.      

 In 4 years + 1 month time I did reach my goal of working 300 DXCC on 7 Mhz in mixed mode.

All done with help of my single band 4 x PL519 amp delivering 400W and the FB rotary dipole 

 

From about 1983 to 2011 I worked 279 DXCC on 40 , but on the new QTH this score had been beaten in less than 3 years time

so already that goal had succeeded. Now it's time to keep on going hunting new DXCC on 7 Mhz and that may take the rest of

my lifetime with 23 left to work  I guess ;-)

Another challenge I had in the 2013 CQWW CW :     140 countries/39 zones were worked in one weekend on 40.

 

I live in a city and don't have too much space around and therefore have to deal with

mostly a noisy band caused by QRM from the neighbourhood.

QRM means that reception has degraded and experience learns that I have more often to sent

QRZ to the DX compared to the past.

I am sorry for that, but if DX calls; please make a longer call !

With help of 4xPL519 some 400W is used on 40 only and 100W on the other HF bands as well as 6m

 

A delta loop is used for 30 meters and I am amazed how well it works with 100W: numerous Pacific DXCC have been worked:

T32,  C21,  CE0/y,  FK,  FO/aus,  FO/mar,  5W,  3D2,  A35,  E51,  E6,  VK9/l,  ZL7,  ZL9,  KH0 , VP6  but still need many

Europe DXCC on this band ;-)

This delta loop has been redesigned for 30m, as I used it before on 40m,  when I did not have a rotary dipole then and working

Pacific on 40m with 100W and a delta loop was much more a challenge.  It's showing 30m is easier as 40m, but a real nice

band !

Above is the current setup:   added a 7 ele 144Mhz yagi, 3 ele 50 Mhz and a 20/15/10 rotary trap dipole FB-13

Situation till spring 2017

 

I also used a TTL Xtal CW transmitter which is build around a 74LS00 and 74LS03 final and producing only 50mW .

Nowadays I produce this QRPP levels with help from a PI resistor Attentuator  connected to the FT2000 and my sigs have  

been spotted by W3LPL during the top of the greyline peak on 12 March @ 0630 UTC, producing a 7 dB report.  A day later 

this was a 2 dB report at 0622 UTC. And the third day in a row delivered a 3 dB spot at W3LPL, at about the same time.      

I reached this ODX with 50mW because of the rotary dipole and now I hope for a qso over the Atlantic with 50 mW.

During the CQWW 2015 I started with this QRPP power at 0800 UTC and till 10.00 UTC I was able to reach 12 USA

eastcoast stations, which was beyond my expectations as I had hoped for a few during a narrow time around the greyline. It

seemed this QRPP was still possible even the sunrise was 2,5 hours before.

 

I did not reach these results with the delta loop I used previously, indicating the rotary dipol is doing better and also my

logbook proves that since the dipole is in use,  I worked more rare Pacific stations with QRO as ever before on 40.  

The QRPP experiments also benefit because of this fine antenna.

 

However It's not my performance to make this distances.

The receiving capability on the other side, who reads my weak sigs does earn the real credits.

Working QRP and having succes is only possible by the station setup and skills of the QSO partner !

In a QSO with W9PRD (Indiana ) I copied Bob his 500 mW sigs and sofar this is my ODX in QRP received.

I like  the magic of nature which makes these kind of DX possible.  

 

In spring 2017 I added some extra antennas and being back on VHF is very nice.  50 Mhz is a wonderfull band

and also being back on 144 Mhz with a small setup (50W + 7 ele ) is big fun again.  I already enjoyed the first

Esporadic on 2 meter and one day hope to break my ODX on this band which dates back to June 1999 in a qso

with 5B4VL , just below 3000 km.  Working EA8 one day would be a thrill for me on 144 Mhz !

 

2011 till Sept 2013:

 

Earlier times:

Above two pictures are from my start at the age of 17 at my parents home.

On top the Fuba XC-91c UHF antenna, which reached almost 18 meters up for reception of

German TV and also used for TV DX because beside the 11 ele 2 meter yagi it was rotatable.

For 2m vertical I used a discone and for the HF bands dipoles were used.

 

 

For a couple of years I have been very active on 144Mhz EME and worked 82 initials in CW.

This was at  my previous setup at my former home from 2006 till 2010 :

Homebrew 4 x 9 ele yagi H 18.5dBd with full elevation. Design by DK7ZB

 

To the right a recent picture of me in action.

 

QSL POLICY :

CHANGES:   From 1 January 2017 on I will stop the QSL handling via the QSL buro.

LotW ,  eQSL as well as direct QSLing will continue after the above mentioned date.

I send QSL to those who sent a qsl direct.

For direct QSL a SAE and enough return postage ( 2 USD ) will do.

Because I am still busy putting my paper logs into digital,  it is possible that QSO's from

early years are not yet available, simply because it has not yet been uploaded.

If you made a qso with me in the early days and want to see it confirmed in LotW,

then send me an email,  so I can give it priority to upload in LotW

 

JT65: I DO NOT confirm JT65 qso's anymore. After reading ( info sm2cew.com) and understanding

the true meaning of the DS decoder I got aware of this 'guessing' technique.

Therefore my opinion is that JT65 has no DXCC credibility.

Your lucky if you already posses a card with confirmation of a JT65 qso, because it was before I got

aware of this JT65 DS issue.

 

Hope to meet you soon on one of the bands !

73 Oene

PA3CWN

GDXF member 871 http://www.gdxf.de