"Yes and Hey It's Good to Be Back Home Again" by John Denver

Prince Edward Island in DXpedition mode

Phil taking a picture of his twin Bill.  The North Atlantic in the background.

Here is Bill in the operators tent.  Solar panel kept the battery fully topped up.  15m. Was lively today.  Temperature was 69 with a cool land breeze.

Inquiring minds from the locals 

PEI VY2TT Console

13 Colonies Results Are In - Beat Last Year Despite Geomagnetic Storms

WE KILLED LAST YEAR BY +17,438 QSO'S!         TOTAL QSO'S FOR 2015 IS 126,296! 

GREAT job By all! Here is a state by state breakdown and the award winners:

K2A/NY  7456 (+2410)                       STATE CHAMPS:   K2L/South Carolina 15651

K2B/VA  9514 (+2798)                       HF HIGH POWER: AB1OC K2K/NH   6873  Fred Kemmerer

                                                        HF LOW POWER: N4YDU K2J/NC     5402  Nate Moreschi

K2C/RI   8154 (+1262)                       HF LOW POWER:  KD4MR K2L/SC  4140   Doug Ricafrente

K2D/CT  9688 (+1185)                       QRP (.05-10W):   W4QO K2G/GA  1034   Jim Stafford

K2E/DE  8273 (+719)                         CLUB UNLIMITED: K3MJW K2M/PA  6213  Skyview Radio Society

K2F/MD  9952 (+1286)

K2G/GA  9160 (+795)                        WM3PEN BONUS STATION:  5541 

K2H/MA  7880 (+799)                        GB13COL:  No Data yet!

K2I/NJ    8593 (+2399)

K2J/NC 12002 (+1910)                       State #1-K2L/SC

K2K/NH 10292 (+1271)                               #2-K2J/NC

K2L/SC  15651 (-1488)                               #3-K2K/NH

K2M/PA   9681 (+2082)                               #4-K2F/MD

Great job by everyone! I was SO suprised, I treated my self to McDonalds! 

Who would ever guess that we did so well based on the conditions and solar flares!

Next year (2016) We will add another award for Just CW/Unlimited because there was a lot

of CW activity. My keyer broke and had to run with an old military straight Key-Terrible!

Please be patient for the awards, It take time to order and ship.

Best 73' and congratulations to all! Every year we get Bigger!

ken Villone

KU2US

Event Manager

First Day Operating as NY4G/VY2

The trials and tribulations of taking control of unfamiliar equipment was upon us but Bill Chartier was up to the challenge.

The summary for operation is 318 Qs from me and 100 from Bob ND7J/VY2

The following are some antenna farm pics

This is the 40m yogi at 145 feet from two vantage points

This next one is the three stacked 20m yogis.  The top one has 6 elements.  The lowest one is always pointed at Europe.

The next is a pic of the 80m 4 square which has elevated radials.

This is the three stack 15m yagis.  There is also a stack of 10m yagis not shown. 

There are a couple of 160m phased verticals.

The receive antennas are shared apex loop arrays from Array Solutions

K2L - 13 Colonies July 4th Week Special Event

K2L 2015 Totals

NN4F 4516 - QRT

K4DMR 4140 - QRT

KI4LXH 1009 - QRT

KG4IGC 2563 - QRT

KG4IGC 33 (PSK31 seperate log)

NK4I 303 (all PSK) - QRT

NY4G 917 - QRT

N4IQ 1100 - QRT

WN4AFP 1070 - QRT

Totals  15,651

Paul Jones NN4F wrote

The 13 Colonies Special event is over, our group from SC operated as K2L (Kilo Two Lima) from SC and we had 8 operators throughout the week, and we made 15,651 contacts across the country and around the world... what a great time we had....last year we made 17,139 contacts, so a little less, but the band conditions weren't as good this year or so it seemed... but fun was had by all, representing the 13 colonies, honoring all the veterans and service people, but the outstanding part, we had so many God Bless America's.... that's what it's all about....

I was one of those Kilo Two Lima (K2L) stations representing South Carolina in the 13 Colonies Special Event. It was great working under Paul Jones NN4F leadership. He had been sick and recuperated enough to operate. When he did operate, he operated with a vengeance. Between Paul, Doug, Brian, Tighe and Frank accounted for 12000+ contacts. As one of the three newcomers in the group I contributed 917 along with Bill N4IQ and Dave WN4AFP for about 2400 more. We think we won the state competition. One of the NC (K2J) ops made over 5000 contacts. They call him QSO Cyborg. He may well win the top operator award

Field Day 2015

Band   Mode  QSOs     Pts

     7  CW      145    290

    14  CW     110.    220

    14 RTTY     1      2

    21  CW.     13     26

    28  CW      1     2

Total  Both   270   540

Score: 1080

To me Field Day is about setting up a radio infrastructure where there is none.  Our Field Day setup is at a beach house on Holden Beach NC.

We had three antennas - a portable hex beam mounted to the hitch of my truck, an end fed random wire, and a CrankIR.  Our call was K4J.  We worked 4 SC station, N4AW, W4IT, N4EE, and K4NAB.  We worked Mexico, Croatia and PR.  One lesson learned was on the proximity of the antennas to each other because of the small lot causing RFI.  The only way out of our dilemma was to either work S&P or work multi single.  We did both.  We will likely need isolation filters for next time or take shifts.

We had very strong winds sometimes gusting to 40 to 50 mph.  The guys on the CrankIR took a beating and we had to monitor the tension.  The EFHW was on top of a shortened Spiderbeam pole at 30 feet on one end and at the 3rd story deck on the other.  The hexbeam survived the wind but only because the mast was lowered.  The ops were NY4G and WM4AA.

We had fun as always and had a good nights sleep despite despite a broken AC.

WM4AA (Matt Collier) station

NY4G station

Overlooking the InterCoastal.  The CrankIR had 3 guys and performed well hearing west coast stations.

The ocean is 500 feet away in the foreground

Spiderbeam pole - unguyed but clamped to the ground with bungees

The Quest for #275

There is nothing magical about #275.  But you do get another sticker from the ARRL at this milestone.  After 275 it is a long slog.  The ARRL recognizes this and issues stickers after 300 every 5 DXCC entities.  Even 5 DXCC can take years to get at this stage.I consider myself fortunate to having line of sight to 275 after 5 years of DX Chasing

#266 XW1IC Laos confirmed in LOTW
#267 YB4IR/9 Indonesia 30m Confirmed in LOTW
#268 TI9/3Z9DX Cococ Island  QSL card received
#269 ST2NH Sudan QSL Sent
#270 E6ZS Niue Card Received
#271 JG8NQJ/JD1 Minami Torishima QSL Card Received


The only other new ones will come from

T31LP Central Kiribati June 2015 (offshore no good for DXCC)
JA0JHQ/VK9C Cocos Keeling September 19-25, 2015
RI1FJ Franz Josef Land - more details soon
TX3X Chesterfield Islands in  October 2015
3W3MD Vietnam October 2015
VK9WA Willis Island November 2015
T2GC Tuvalu September 2015
Z21MG Zimbabwe September 2015
3C7GIA Equatorial Guinea October 2015
3Y0F Bouvet Island December 2015

2016 Brings a whole bunch to the fore

KH5/p Palmyra Islands in January 2016
VP8SGI South Georgia Islands also in January
P5 North Korea (a long shot for me as this is a single person SSB only)
VP8STI South Sandwich
FT/j Juan de Nova in March 2016
VK0EK Heard Island in March of 2016
VK9C Cocos Keeling in March 2016
CY9 Saint Paul Island July 2016

Discounting P5, I can be at 284 by spring 2016.  Hopefully I can get lucky with Mount Athos and Nepal  along the way

FP/NY4G QSL Card Design

DXCC Status As Of 6/10/2015

DXCC Award	New LoTW QSLs	LoTW QSLs in Process	DXCC Credits Awarded	Total (All)	Total (Current)
Mixed *	0	0	265	265	265
CW *	0	0	254	254	254
Phone *	0	0	121	121	121
Digital	0	0	54	54	54
160M	0	0	33	33	33
80M *	0	0	111	111	111
40M *	0	0	150	150	150
30M *	0	0	115	115	115
20M *	0	0	187	187	187
17M *	0	0	120	120	120
15M *	0	0	136	136	136
12M *	0	0	104	104	104
10M *	0	0	129	129	129
2M	0	0	1	1	1
Challenge *	0	0	1085	---	1085
5-Band *	---	---	---	---	---
5-Band 17M *	---	---	---	---	---
5-Band 30M *	---	---	---	---	---
5-Band 12M *	---	---	---	---	---

* = Award has been issued

ATNO #271 Minami Torishima

Take, a Japanese ham operating under JG8NQJ/JD1 was QRV while away from his meteorological duties on Marcus Island.  He was spotted and I could hear him faintly at my SC station.  He was being worked by station after station.  I booted up my remote station in San Joaquin, CA and there he was loud perhaps S7 on the SteppIR Tribander.  I worked him at 100 watts.

Last Card for WAZ

Nice Surprise from the ARRL

E-mail from K9OT

• Message 
• 
  
• Gm Ariel, good luck with the trip to FP. You will find that it is a very unique place. Take time to look around the island, and visit some of the shops. It looks like you are going to stay in St.Pierre. We have always gone to Miquelon and stayed at the motel, but I think that it is closed right now for renovation. There is a very good hardware store in St. Pierre if you need anything that you did not anticipate. I will try to make a QSO with you while you are there. 73 Paul K9OT FP/K9OT

FP DXpedition Update - Planned Operating Frequencies

Operations will be SPLIT at all times.  Listen for where I am listening or any directions I will provide.  My planned operating frequencies are the following +/- QRM : 

BAND	CW	SSB	RTTY
40 m	7'016 kHz	7'146 kHz	7'046 kHz
30 m	10'126 kHz	- - -	10'142 kHz
20 m	14'026 kHz	14'276 kHz	14'082 kHz
17 m	18'086 kHz	18'146 kHz	18'106 kHz
15 m	21'026 kHz	21'276 kHz	21'082 kHz
12 m	24'906 kHz	24'946 kHz	24'926 kHz
10 m	28'026 kHz	28'546 kHz	28'086 kHz

This has also been posted in the FP/NY4G website at the following link

www.fp-ny4g2015.com

This blog will be a mirror site to the website above.  It will be likely that updates appear here before they appear on the website.

I have secured a Microsoft Surface as the main DXpedition computer.  I have configured it to run N1MM and have tested its operation during the CQ WW WPX Contest during which it ran 7 hours straight on the internal batteries.

The WPX was also good practice.