3Y0J the expedition of all expeditions ?

Complete books are written on social media about this expedition.  

A success ? a total failure ? something in between ? 
I don't know.  I worked them only once, just like FT8WW, VK0IR, 3Y0X, VK0MM and other special ones in that region. 
My english is not good enough to write down my remarks, it would be too much black/white while the real story is grey.

But I have questions, many questions :

1.  Funds received from corporate and private sponsors arrived at about 800.000 US$.  Well done !  The goal was 12 HP stations on the air, several weeks on the island and achieving 150.000-200.000 QSO.   

How high would sponsoring have been if they had communicated that this could be limited to two 100W stations with simple wire antennas ?   Was story-telling part of the marketing strategy ? 

2.  What if the vessel - or a similar one - used by the VK0IR/3Y0X team was used ?  Helicopter in stead of a zodiac ?   A real boat in stead of a sailing ship.  What if the VK0IR or 3Y0X team went to Bouvet ?  3Y0X made almost 87.000 QSO on all bands.  Was this a lucky shot or the result of a perfect planning and better choices ?

3. What's going on with pirates and QRM makers ?  With only 100W on the island, almost every station in the world was able to disturb.  What if 1500 W was used ?  Did the ham community change so quickly and so badly ?

4. 3Y0J communicated their poor setup and conditions and asked for working them only once to give a chance to as much hams as possible. 
184 QSO were made by Belgian amateurs.  ON7** made 8 QSOs !!  I can't understand this.  Why should one make a contact on 15m SSB+CW+data and on 17m SSB+CW+data ?   Not one award gives points for so many combinations.   I only see one reason as an anwer to that question : a selfish operator.   

5. Is it needed to count an unhabitated rock somewhere at the end of the world as a DXCC entity ?

6. Many hams are complaining they could't work Bouvet.  Can you expect to work such a most-wanted expedition with a 3 element and some power ?  This is an important question for my own station ?  Is my setup sufficient to work every dxpedition ? 
But, suppose I had a 5 element 20m monoband antenna in stead of my 3 el Steppir.  Not one contact was made on 20m with ON-stations.  In this case it was much better to have many smaller antennas in stead of one big one.

7. Does FT8 comply with big expeditions on remote locations without internet time-control ?  Is there a standard for F/H in WSJT, MSHV and JTDX ? 
Multi-channel DXing in FT8 costs several dB on transmitting side.  If only 100W can be used on a wire, isn't more logic to use the basic FT8 modus ? 

8. Am I the only one that classifies the TN8K Congo expedition as THE expedition of 2023 ?

  

DXCC 318 : 3Y0J Bouvet Island

 I made it.  3Y0J is in my log... even better, I'm in the log of 3Y0J.  

For sure one of the hardest contacts I've ever made. 
Full of stress, trying to win a price in the big pile-up lotery.

Nothing like my Bouvet-plan : 

- on Sunday - I made a 35km trip to my shack when I was informed that the expedition should end after only a few days of activation - in stead of the planned Monday or Tuesday time schedule.

- on SSB (my God!) in stead of CW or FT8, on the 17m WARC band, and with ON4CCP in stead of OT1A

I used every Watt I had, I was lucky to have a 3 element on 17m (my good old dear Steppir yagi), and it must have been the longest chaaarlieeee - chaaarlieeee - paapaaaaa ever.  

Never experienced a pile-up like that.  It felt like at least half of the callers were not hearing the DX station.   It my first experience with the Flexradio.  I

In my dreams, I saw just one signal of a split station showing up on my computer to respond to 3Y0J.  It should be very easy to pick up that frequency and call.
In reality >20 stations were calling again and again, without listening.  Impossible for me to detect where 3Y0J was listening.   I couldn't determine the responding station. 

I can't understand why people are doing this. You can't make a contact if you do not listen !      

New distance record on 160M : VK3ZL

 After my recently confirmed distance record on 80m with New-Zealand, I just worked  the Australian station VK3ZL... on 160M !
16.633 km with 350W.  I received -10dB and he was -17dB on my inverted L antenna.

As from now on, a DXCC on 160m is just a question of time and patience.  This QSO was due to grayline propagation.

New distance record on 80m : ZL3IO

While preparing my system for an ultimate effort to work TN8K on 80m this night, 

ZL3IO appeared on my FT8.  Just for fun, I called him with 500 W.  

Bingo !  First call = QSO. 

Distance 18.700 km, a new DXCC on 80m and a new WAZ zone on 80m.

To be fair, this is not because of my poor home-made inv-L antenna, but because of his 80m 4-Square.

Anyway, he made my day. 

DXCC 317 Crozet Island

 This was a hard one.  Finally worked FT8WW on 20m FT8.

I worked him a few days ago, received my report but not the RR73.  I wasn't in the log.  A hard moment.
Afterwards I detected a problem with the yagi.  Again the director failed on 20m.

I can solve this with a retract of all elements, but for sure there is something wrong with my good old Steppir.

Yesterday evening was bingo time.  A well working yagi at 22m, 1500 W (!!) in FT8, and a lucky moment.   And of course, 70 km/h stormy wind.   The first time I pull out the tower at full height, and just on that day so a heavy wind.

This is a hard expedition on FT8.  Many people are sending without listening.  Robots are in the air for hours and hours, sending out stupid reports.  

Yesterday, ON7USB was the absolute LID-champion.  For many hours his robot was sending... in the wrong period.  This caused QRM,  DXcluster frustration and absolutely no result.   

What does an 'amateur' like this think ?  I have to go to work, but I put on my computer, and hopely when I arrive at home this evening FT8WW will be in my log.   Just crazy !

Funny to see other hams trying to confuse his robot and making it believe that there is a valid qso.  All effort just to stop the QRM.

FT8WW also seems to cause problems : in stead of using F/H in WSJT, he uses other software.  First days, he was sending on odd periods, now on even periods.  This makes a hard expedition even harder.

But bravo for all effort he does, as most wanted man of the ham-world.

Next step : put my Optibeam 30m dipole above the yagi and work him in CW

QSLs 2022 printed and sent via buro

 All QSL requests received via Clublog in 2022 are now printed and handled by QDURE.

First big steps on 160m

 It isn't easy.  160m looks like a separate world (as it is on the 6m magic band).

I'm still in my experimental era, testing the TX antenna and learning how to work with separate RX antennas.

First positive conclusions :

1. My TX antenna works fine.  

During the WW contest I was able to work 66 countries; E2A (Thailand) and PJ2T (Carribean) found me while I was running CW.

Even better was a good copy (-18 dB) by a VK3 station of my FT8 signal transmitted with 350W and also detected by a ZS station.

2. A windom antenna can be used as a RX antenna.
The pattern looks omnidirectional, I didn't remark any difference between this one and the inverted L, although signals arrived more qrm-less.  Only one station felt into the windom that I couldn't copy on the vertical : WA7NB, Arizona, arrived with a nice signal and passed away few minutes later.

This is what is mentioned in literature : sometimes DX stations arrive unexpected on a low dipole antenna.

3. A BOG works !  I have installed a Beverage On Ground, 60m long, and it works.  But, I need the preamplifier of the transceiver.  It has also directivity and a nil on the backside.  Installed SW to NE, RA stations entered very well, but EA was practically unhearable.

On FT8 I did a test listening to callers to a 5R DX station.  A my inverted L 5 callers were detected.  On the BOG 33 (!) callers appeared on the screen.  

First negative conclusions :

1. I need more directional receive capacity.  No only to hear better the DX, but to eliminate European QRM of callers who don't listen.  This is really a problem.  Due to this, I missed a lot of Carribean multipliers.  

I can install 4 BOGs on my own property, and I'll do someday because it is almost invisible an easy to do, but...

2. I'm not sure that a BOG is able to perform well on long-distance DX.  Imo a normal beverage will do this job much better.

For that reason I ordered the necessary beverage stuff with preamplifier (DC over coax),  at the antenna.  Only to install in case of an expedition (read : Bouvet)

Listening is not cheap at all.  Today, 100m of Ecoflex-10, the coax I normally use for all antennas, costs 555 €.  For RX purposes on 160/80m I prefer RG213 for price reasons...