Thanks to all of you

Thanks to all of you who called and tried to contact 5H3NP. I tried to make as many contacts as possible, but with my teaching, visiting and such it was a challenge. I made over 1050 contacts to 102 countries by last count. Hopefully, I can confirm all of those countries and make a nice DXCC out of it.

Cards will go out in January when things settle down a little. I will write a more complete summary of the trip and certainly get to talk to some of you about running a DXpedition like this. My basic advice is:

• Make contact with a local ham, get advice from them
• Get one of the logging programs figured out quickly
• Bring or acquire batteries -- local power is very unreliable
• Pray for good conditions
• Be ready to use CW for many contacts unless you can build a very high powered station
• Be ready for rude and insolent stations to interrupt your QSO's. Ignore them.
• Bring a very reliable computer and radio.
• Bring a G5RV and a MJF tuner
• Have a great time.

Last day effort

Will be on 15 and 10 BPSK as time allows on Saturday. Will be on later in the day frm about 1100 Z to 1300 Z then after 1800 Z if there is anything left of the band.

Getting to the end

Unfortunately, I am getting near the end of my stay. We depart Monday 17 December. I have 102 countries with the addition of Columbia last night. I have tried to communicate with a Tanzanian station, 5H3HO but no luck on either 15 or 20 last night. Will try again tonight.

I am operating 15 and 20 BPSK from about 1000 Z to 1300 Z and then usually 20 m from about 1800 Z to 2100 Z if I can stay away. For the last few nights the bands have died about 2000 Z and the only stations I hear are South Africa and those around the Indian Ocean.

We have entered the rainy season and it rains for a few hours every few days. We have had only one all-day rain, but it looks like that will start to be the case as it has started a nice steady rain today.

Keep trying and I will keep listening. 73

100 Countries

Saturday I finished the 100th country -- Norway. Conditions have been very bad for the past week or so. 20 is open in the morning but closes by about 0600 Z. Then 15 opens up from then until about 1400 Z and it is back to 20. I even made a BPSK contact on 40 m last night at 2000 Z with IK5FKB in Italy. Noise has been fairly strong on 20 and 40 so only the strong European stations are heard.

We have had fairly reliable power for the past week. Unfortunately, the water was off for Monday and Tuesday -- they are installing new mains along the street. When the pressure returned it clogged some valve in our system and we had no water pressure in our bathrooms. Saturday the plumber arrived and he finally tracked down the clog.

Will do some casual operating on 20 and 15 today. Hopefully, I can get a few more folks contact with Tanzania before we depart.

Trying JT65

Yesterday in frustration over very poor HF conditions, I downloaded JT-65 software and started using it. I immediately got HS0ZIO in Thailand to make country 94. Conditions here have been very poor and I have had only two BPSK-32 QSO's: one with P43RR in Aruba for country 95.

Today there are a couple of PSK contests going on: one for Ukraine stations and another for EPIC stations. I really don't need any more U's or R's as I have over 100 stations from up there. I am watching the DX spots for things like ZL's and such but can only hear the stations calling them. I am now on JT-65 again and will see what comes up. I see come good DX but their levels are -27 and -28. I find that levels less than about -20 just don't make it. I will keep listening.

I have received a number of e-mails saying they heard my JT-65 CQ and now want a schedule. I hope to figure out good times to North America and Germany so that I can make these schedules work. The only real frustration with JT-65 is that a QSO takes about 5 minutes at least.
CQ from me
Answer from DX station with their report
Answer from me with my report
RRR from DX station
73 from me
73 from DX

Each of the above steps takes one minute of transmitting or receiving. I can do my e-mail while waiting but it is very slow. I now hear some BPSK-63 stations moving up in the 14.076 region of 20 meters. They are drowning out the JT-65 stations, so I guess I will have to wait until that contest is over.