February 2018 – March 2018 Isolda ZS2IW and granddaughter Jessica Gerber helping at the 5i50. This Newsletter is published by the Port Elizabeth Amateur Radio Society P.O. Box 10402, LINTON GRANGE, 6015 Editing by Eric ZS2ECH QSX-PE - Newsletter for the discerning Radio Ham Download QSX-PE from www.zs2pe.co.za/Newsletter/Newsletter.htm or www.commco.co.za/pears.htm PEARS Monthly Meeting 7:30 pm at the Italian Sporting Club, 17 Harold Road, Charlo. Sunday 11th of February 2018 PEARS social at Noordhoek Ski-boat Club. 11 am Coals will be ready at midday, or alternatively bring a picnic basket. Please do not bring alcohol; drinks can be bought at the pub. Tuesday 20th of February 2018 2014 CQWW DX Contest expedition to Montserrat (VP2MDX) by Ulrich Ann DM5EE Tuesday 20th of March 2018 Marine Radios and operations, by Gert ZS2GS DIARY OF EVENTS 29 Jan – 14 Feb Bouvet Island DXpedition 2018 4 February Antique Wireless Association CW Activity Day 10 – 11 February SARL National Field Day 10 – 11 February CQ WPX RTTY 11 February PEARS social at Noordhoek Ski-boat Club 17 February SARL Youth Sprint 17– 19 February ARRL DX CW 18 February Herald Cycle Tour - Mountain Bike 20 February PEARS monthly meeting 25 February SARL Digital Contest 25 February Herald Cycle Tour - Road Race 27 February PEARS 2 m simplex net on 145.500 MHz at 8 pm 2 – 4 March Addo Trail Run 3 – 4 March ARRL DX SSB 4 March SARL Hamnet 40 m Simulated Emergency Contest 10 – 11 March SARL VHF/UHF Analogue Contest 10 – 11 March RSGB Commonwealth Contest 20 March PEARS monthly meeting 24 – 25 March CQ WPX SSB 27 March PEARS 2 m simplex net on 145.500 MHz at 8 pm 5 April 80 m QSO Party 7 April Cockscomb Classic 15 April Ironman 19 May RAE PE-QSX page 2 RAE Classes Donovan ZS2DL will be hosting another session of classes for the class A Exams. These classes will commence toward the end of February for those wanting to write the exam in May. If anyone wishes to be part of these classes, please send Donovan an email to [email protected] he will add you to the list and contact you closer toward the start date with all the required info. Thanks, Don ZS2DL And Then There Were Three! Left to Right: Andre ZS2ACP, Barry ZS2EZ and Donovan ZS2DL Photo by Aidan ZS2CV Irrespective of who you are and what your specific claim to fame is in Amateur Radio, if you have DX’ed from more than one ZS call division and analysed your performance you will have noted that ZS2 is probably the more difficult call areas to work from, and be heard! Whether it is because of its Geographic position or lack of large contest style stations, who knows, yet it is. ZS2 stations always have had modest ambitions of getting onto the DXCC list and work a 100 countries. This has been done by several guys over the years but up until May 2010 nobody in ZS2 had ever achieved the DXCC or 100 entities worked and confirmed on all the original 5 DX Bands, 10m, 15m, 20m, 40m and yes, 80m! PE-QSX page 3 Now there are probably those that would say, yes anyone can achieve this with a yagi and a linear, but it would be incorrect to think this because as much as you would have a yagi for the high bands, 40 and 80 are reliant on wire dipoles or rotatable dipoles, and due to RFI, power on these bands are also curtailed to a large degree. ZS2DL decided the above notwithstanding to give it a go in 2007, 10m to 40m had already been completed but 80m was never used to chase DX. So with a total of around 9 on that band started burning the midnight oil. By May 2010 some 3 years later the objective had been achieved, with 1 SSB QSO and 99 QSO’s on CW decoded by ear using a wire dipole and on average 400w. Certificate # 6794 was issued on 17 May 2010. Making ZS2DL the first ZS2 station to achieve the 5BDXCC award. It felt rather lonely until 2014 when ZS2ACP announced he is giving it a go too. Andre had achieved a great deal already and is still the only ZS to have a DXCC on satellites. But as he would find out HF and especially 80m was a different type of challenge. Using wire and modest power Andre was able to draw on the advances in digital software technology and as a result managed the 80m DXCC and thus the 5BDXCC award on the 14 August 2017 - also little more than 3 years after making the commitment with Certificate # 8871. 10 QSO’s on SSB and 90 using JT65 and FT8 digital modes. Not to be outdone, in 2016 Barry, ZS2EZ realised that something was afoot and decided he cannot be left behind when it came to the 5BDXCC award, and already having achieved so much on the HF bands decided to take his DXCC to the next level. His website Biography sums it up perfectly. As at 12/02/2017 80m DX Total stood at 39 worked/confirmed. Mostly CW/RTTY. First JT65 QSO on 12/02/2017 with LU. From my website (Biography Page) : During the 2017 CQ WPX RTTY Contest I happened to try listening on 80m - as usual, on my 80/40 trapped dipole I could hear NOTHING. By chance I happened to switch to my EZ-Wire antenna - despite high SWR on 80 I was clearly hearing stations! During the lull on the Saturday morning I dug out an old balun from my drawer, measured out some 2.5mm insulated wire and put together an 80m full size dipole. I put this onto an 8m (25ft) pole and put this pole up on a wall bracket about 15m from the shack. A quick bit of tuning and I had a dipole resonant on 80m. Conditions on the Sunday morning were poor, but I could now copy JT65 signals well!! Having always ignored 80m (at this stage I had a grand total of 39 DXCC entities on this band!) I now found myself working New One after New One - 10 in the first 5 days!! After working XT2AW for my 100th Entity in October 2017 the last few confirmations were gathered in, and on 2 November 2017 I finally got my 80m DXCC verified and with it my 5BDXCC!! Certificate # 8916 being issued to Barry on 2 November 2017. PE-QSX page 4 *Note By ZS2DL – ZS2EZ’s words to me were: I will never operate 80m, as it is meant for those seeking Masochism! ** Another Note- He has now changed it to I will never operate 160m, as it’s a Masochists band! Now there are 3! What’s next for this bunch of radio junkies? 160m, maybe? A Dx-pedition to a rare sort after Entity? Who knows, but what is confirmed is that working DX on the low bands with simple wire antennas and relatively low power is possible even from ZS2. Who will be next to achieve the 5BDXCC from ZS2…. Will it be you? To celebrate our achievement we had a Photo taken of us, holding our prized 5BDXCC Certificates. 73 es gud DX Andre, ZS2ACP; Donovan, ZS2DL; Barry, ZS2EZ #2 Most wanted DXCC Entity about to be activated An Expedition to Bouvet the Worlds #2 most wanted DXCC entity has started. It is the first expedition to Bouvet since 1991. The Team has departed from Chile on the 15th January and anticipate a 14 day journey to Bouvet! You can follow the expedition at https://www.bouvetdx.org/ Not to many ZS2’s have worked Bouvet so I suggest getting the antennas resonant, moths out of the rigs and dust off the old Morse keys… this is going to be as close to DX-mania as you will ever get! Note: One of the operators Keith, VE7KW was a member of Donovan’s 7P8D expedition to Lesotho. No doubt having this expedition on his CV and being a fine operator, secured him a spot on this team, Hi! 29 January 2018 to 14 February 2018 PE-QSX page 5 Vertical Directive Arrays (VDAs) Used by recent DXpeditions TX6G, T32C, VP6DX, FT4TA, etc. rather than low horizontal yagis (10-20m) The VDA is a 2-element ½ wave yagi in the vertical plane, with a wire dipole driven element and a wire reflector behind it Broad 139˚ beamwidth in the horizontal plane Low 7˚ elevation angle in the vertical plane 8dB gain relative to a low horizontal beam reported when used over sea-water wetted sand, or when used elevated over normal ground 30dB null at the rear (!) PE-QSX page 6 If you don’t have a conductive salt-water ground, elevate the antenna as high as possible in order to get a clear path to the horizon, otherwise you will get reduced performance For use at the beach, the following are the min. recommended heights of the boom above ground: 20m – 6.24m; 15m – 4.45m; 10m – 3.66m Away from the beach, raise the boom as high as you can Boom and support mast must be composite non-conducting material Coax feedline should exit the boom at the center, at a 90˚ angle for at least 1 wavelength before dropping to the ground. Ferrite common-mode chokes may be necessary on the feedline. Copied from: http://www.va3cco.com/images/2015luncheon/VE3IKV_Verticals_VDAs.pdf The demise of the RJ45 connector For the many of you who have complained about the RJ45 mic connector used on many mobile rigs, this may be good news, perhaps! The integration of smart systems into the factory has led to a huge increase in the demand for reliable, robust interconnection.