5R8UM – CQWW DX CW Expedition 2018, Nosy Be, Madagascar
5R8UM team was active from Nosy Be Island, IOTA AF-057, Madagascar, 19 – 29 November 2018. Team – K2BB, UU0JR.
Alex, K2BB and Pavel, UU0JR went to Nosy Be Island, AF-057, Madagascar during November 19-29, 2018. Plans were to QRV on 160-6m, CW/SSB/Digi/EME, and to participate in the CQ WW DX CW contest.
The Team
Location
No More Short Calls
Our original plan was to request nice short calls like 5R8R and 5R8U… Not so fast, boys… ARTEC (Madagascar telecom authority) stopped giving away short call signs and the only option now is 2-letter suffix. They simply added first letter of our last names to requested calls, so we end up with 5R8RG and 5R8UM.
The only call to be used in this trip will be 5R8UM – it sounds better in CW and we don’t mess with two LOTW certificates, ClubLog pages and two QSL card designs.
Radios, Amplifiers, Antennas
- Radios: Kenwood TS-590S, Elecraft KX3, Odyssey 2 SDR
- Amp: Elecraft KPA-500 with KAT-500
- Antennas: SpiderBeam for 20…10M, Verticals for 160…30M, Beverage for RX, G0KSC 6el 50Mhz Yagi
- Modes: CW-SSB-FT8-JT65A
- QSL: ClubLog, OQRS for direct QSL and LOTW
- EME: Yes, we will try 6M EME – moonrise/moonset only, using JT65A @ 50.193. Watch ON4KST chat for exact frequency
Blog, while on the island
2018-11-22
Our FT8 Frequencies, DX-pedition mode (fox-hound): 1.840, 3.567, 7.056, 10.131, 14.090, 18.095, 21.091, 24.911, 28.091, 50.323
2018-11-23
EME – JT65A – 50.193. Looks like our transmitting frequency is +350 Hz up… We are planning to resume EME operation after the CQ WW CW contest ends.
2018-11-25
CQ-ing in WW CQ contest, giving people needed mult. Propagation is 50/50. First 7 hours of contest gave us only 200 Qs… The loudest stations on 20m in the morning were S2-S3… Then, about local noon, propagation opened worldwide – all the way from JA to EU-NA-SA.
Second night was the same like the first one. Rain and thunder, solid S9 noise on 40 and 80m bands… We stopped the CQ WW CW activity and have spent whole night running FT8 on 40 and 80 in parallel. Uploaded all current logs to ClubLog.
2019-02-01
All direct/buro QSL received by the end of January were mailed mid-February.
2019-03-01
All direct/buro QSL received by the end of February were mailed mid-March.
2019-05-01
All direct/buro QSL received by the end of April were mailed mid-May.
2019-06-10
All direct/buro QSL received by the mid-June will be mailed by the end of June.
2019-06-11
Complete log uploaded to the LOTW. Enjoy 🙂