Ohio/Penn DX Bulletin No. 283, December 16, 1996

The Ohio/Penn Dx PacketCluster
DX Bulletin No. 283
BID: $OPDX.283
December 16, 1996
Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW
Provided by BARF-80 BBS Cleveland, Ohio
Online at 216-237-8208 14400/9600/2400/1200/300 8/N/1

Thanks to the Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society, Northern Ohio DX Association, Ohio/Penn PacketCluster Network, NW3N, N4GN, KK6EK, WA8JOC, KD7H, K9EL, WB0RJY, NL7TB, 9M2/G3NOM, DF4RD, DF7RX, JA0VSH, JH1ROJ, PY1VOY, RW3XA and ZL2TT for the following DX information.

5R, MADAGASCAR. Rick, PY1VOY, heard 5R8EW on 20 meters SSB at 1830z with a real good signal in Rio. He stated that 5R8EW was trying to copy USA but had no success.

7O, YEMEN. Over the past week there have been several reports of possible activity from this one. Franz, DJ9ZB, and Zorro, JH1AJT, reportedly are leaving for a demonstration operation at Aden, Republic of Yemen. Their demonstration operation and discussion of amateur radio will be with the Minister of Communication officers there. The orginal report OPDX received stated, "....Based on a VERY reliable source in Japan, JH1AJT and DJ9ZB will be in Yemen December 14-21st for a radio demonstration. They believe there is a VERY good chance to receive permission to operate. The operation will be SSB only: 3797, 7060, 14195, 21295, 28495. No WARC, CW, or RTTY. Equipment: TS50 and FL2100B Antennas: R5, plus dipoles for 40, 80. Appropriate best times for propagation to all parts of USA have already been passed to the team." The callsign is currently unknown at this time, but the QSL route will be via JH1AJT...... Zorro, JH1AJT, was heard saying that they will make as much time as possible to be on the air, but it might be very limited. They will focus on 20/40/80m bands. Zorro would like to put together another team for next year that would who take care of higher bands/WARC bands/CW and other modes if permission can be obtained. LATE UPDATE: As this bulletin was being prepared 7O1A showed up around 1430z on 14180 kHz listening up.

D2, ANGOLA. D2EB was heard on 14210 at 2130z. His QSL address is: Box 2344, Luanda, Angola.

EA8/NW3N, GRAND CANARY ISLANDS (a NASA site). Rich, NW3N, and Chuck, KE3ND, are part of a "mobile crew" that is supporting the MINI-SAT launch out at the Grand Canary Island. Rich will be attached to Range Saftey as a Data Quality Officer, and Chuck is engineer in charge of command/destruct. They will be operating out of a mobile van built up for support of this mission. The van is located at the old NASA site at Masapolomas, now INTA, the Spanish government's counterpart to our NASA. The site is a couple hundred feet above sea-level and has an expansive view of the ocean to the south and west. During off-hours, they will try to operate EA8/NW3N on 14260 kHz (SSB) and 14036 or 7036 kHz (CW) if possible. (Note: local time there is GMT) The equipment they will be using doubles for "over the horizon" communciation for the project. An IC-735, 2KL-C linear amp and a Cushcraft R-7, as well as a 40 meters folded dipole will be used. They are restricted to 200 watts. They have one transceiver, so it will be difficult to cover all frequencies. Due to a schedule changes, they will not return until January, 1997. The specific date is yet to be determined. ADDED NOTE: Rich's, NW3N, complete message sent to OPDX with more details about this interesting "Special Event" station will be sent to all OPDX InterNet Subscribers.

E3, ERITRIA. Jin, JF1IST, who was active as E31FAO last week, unfortunately has to go QRT on December 12th, cutting his operation short because of a business trip.

KC4, ANTARCTICA. Nikolai (Nick) Makarov, UA3YH, has been active on the air from the Amundsen-Scott South Pole station. He will stay there until late January, 1997. Check these frequencies: 14020 CW and 14180 SSB at 1600-1900z for Europe and 0000-0300z for North and South America. He uses an IC-735 with amplifier IC-2KL (500w) and 6 element monoband Yagi on 20 meters directed to the U.S.A., Tri-bander (20-15-10m) antenna directed to Europe and a 3 element monobander Yagi on 17 meters. He uses both the callsign KC4AAA (QSL via NC6J) and callsign UA3YH/KC4. QSL for contacts with UA3YH/KC4 would be sent via bureau via RW3XA (ex UA3XBY) or SASE to Box 461, Obninsk, Kaluga region, 249020, Russia.

QSL INFO AND NEWS............

USI Alert (1st. of the Oregon islands!). John, NL7TB, and others will be active from the mobile on Columbia River Islands near Astoria, OR. Try 14260 kHz +/- starting around 1700z (or earlier) on Saturday, December 21st. They will QSY to 40 meters if requested. Islands may be activated in this order: Little (WA-new), Puget (WA-072R), Anunde (OR-new), Long (OR-new) and Svensen (OR-new). The first two islands will be accessed via ferry and should be easy to do while the others may take 30 min. to 1 hour driving time each.

V6, MICRONESIA. Tack/JE1SCJ, Kazu/JA0VSH, and Kazu's wife Miyuki, JG0PBJ, will go to Pohnpei Island (OC-010) and operate from December 28th to January 1st as V63YT, V63KZ and V63MP, respectively. They will be active on 160-10 meters including WARC bands. Kazu told OPDX he is interested in 160 meters, so he maybe active everyday. Check the frequency 1823.5 kHz. Their equipment will be as follows: TS-850S + Amp Output 500W, IC-736 - Output 100W, and antennas will be a Tri-band HB9CV; Fishing rod Vertical for 40m and up; and an Inverted-L for 160, 80, 40 meters. QSL to their home calls, direct or bureau.

VK0, HEARD ISLAND WEB SITE UPDATE. Bob, KK6EK, provides the following update for the Heard Island web site: http://www.ccnet.com/~cordell/HI "I will maintain this site until Dec. 23, when I leave for Europe. Updates during the expedition (January) will be done by Don N1DG (WB2DND), and will be accessible directly at this home URL. Please note that we are listing every person and organization who has made a contribution. You can see these by adding /scoping/HI97_sponsors.html to the home URL (above). You might also have interest in the little animation of the site, which you can get by adding /java to the home URL. The animation approximates our layout and operations on Heard Island. You must have a java-compliant web browser to see the animation."..... Bob KK6EK

ZS8IR, MARION ISLAND (Reports of Storm Damaged!). Rob, KD7H, received a message from Chris, ZS8IR, regarding storm damage to his antennas. Last weekend, Marion Island was hit with a bad storm that lasted two days. Chris called it a "major" storm. The low band vertical (Battle Creek Special) was damaged: "it snapped like a straw" and his two rhombics' wires snapped. The rhombics have been repaired but he is not sure if the vertical is salvageable.

SPECIAL NOTE FROM THE EDITOR. Please send all DX announcements/information "ONLY" to the addresses below and "NOT" to the distribution InterNet address of: dxinfo@barf80.nshore.org

OPDX INTERNET SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE REQUEST: opdx-request@nshore.org
OPDX WORLD-WIDE WEB HOME (provided by John, K8YSE):
http://www.en.com/users/k8yse/opdx.html

Excerpts and distribution of The OPDX Bulletin are granted as long as KB8NW/OPDX/BARF80 receive credit. To contribute DX info, call BARF-80 BBS online at 216-237-8208 14400/9600/2400/1200/300 and leave a message with the Sysop or send InterNet Mail to one of the two following addresses: kb8nw@barf80.nshore.org -or- aq474@cleveland.freenet.edu - OR - Send a message via packet to KB8NW @ WA8BXN.OH.USA.NA - OR - Use the VOICE or FAX answering machine at 216-237-8208 which shares the same phone line as BARF-80 BBS using a data/fax/phone switch. To access: 1) Dial Number. 2) Wait for first ring (the second ring should be a false ring from the fax/data switch box) and then dial four quick ones ("1111"). (NOTE: Some FAX machines that send single "BEEPS" every second will not have to do this step.) 3) The phone will pick up and after the "BEEP" leave your voice message or FAX.

Tedd Mirgliotta KB8NW InterNet: kb8nw@barf80.nshore.org
Basic Amateur Radio Frequency BBS (BARF-80) +1 216/237-8208
"Totally devoted to Amateur Radio" - 24 Hrs a day 8/N/1 14.4k-300 baud

Additional Bulletin for OPDX InterNet Subscribers

Date: Tue, 10 Dec 1996 13:27:24 -0500 (EST)
To: kb8nw@barf80.nshore.org, aq474@cleveland.freenet.edu
From: "Richard A. Stern" <richard.a.stern.1@gsfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: EA8/NW3N at Grand Canary Island's NASA site
Mime-Version: 1.0

Myself(NW3N) and Chuck Jacob(KE3ND) are part of a 'mobile crew' that is supporting the MINI-SAT launch out at the Grand Canary Island. I will be attached to Range Saftey as a Data Quality Officer and Chuck is engineer in charge of command/destruct. We will be operating out of a mobile van built up for support of this mission. The van is located at the old NASA site at Masapolomas, now, INTA the Spanish government's counterpart to our NASA. The site is a couple hundred feet above sea-level and has an expansive view of the ocean to the south and west.

During off-hours, we will try to operate EA8/NW3N on 14.260Mhz(USB) and 14.036Mhz/7.036(CW) if possible.(note: local time there is GMT) The equipment we will be using, doubles for 'over the horizon' comm. for the project. An IC-735, 2KL-C linear amp and a Cushcraft R-7,as well as, a 40M folded dipole will be used. We are restricted to 200watts. We have one transciever so it will be difficult to cover all freqs.

Due to schedule changes, we will not return until Jan. 1997. The specific date is yet to be determined.

KE3ND has built up a HAM station at E-134,Wallops Island main base, for operation by any local active hams. We have just started to get organized only during the last years,partly through the help of J.F. McAllen(N3OEE), who now through an unfortunate auto accident is now a 'silent key'. The club, so far is loosely organized. We do not have a club callsign.

I managed to get some finacial support from the Wallops Moral Activities Committee. They have alloted us money for the reciprocal license fees on the Canary Islands. I have priviledges for one year as EA8/NW3N. At first, the papers appeared as if I was issued the call EA8NW. I have check my call books and noted that this callsign was already allocated. So, I'm sure a 'typo' is on the operating licence. The station license is EA8/NW3N and that's what we will operate as. (Go fiqure!)

At the moment, we are focusing on QSL cards. We would like to put a picture of the Pegasus vehical with the call sign EA8/NW3N and other standard QSO info, plus a small NASA logo somewhere on the card. QSL via NW3N. A QSL will be returned, as soon as possible, provided a S.A.S.E. is mailed to NW3N's address,which is good in the '96' Callbook.

The support we are looking for really is 'moral support'. We would like to get this info out to the HAM community. Our club, if that's what you would call it, is interested in making our 'Special Event' a success.

Wallops Island Amatuer Radio Club will update the ops. schedule as soon as the dates are confirmed. Thanks for the bandwidth.....

de Rich(NW3N)