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Penguin Lust

A Production ofThe Boring Amateur Radio Club

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MethodologyMethodology

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DXpeditions We Used As Models• VK0IR – Heard Island, 1997

– 6 complete stations with Alpha amplifiers– 70,000 lbs of gear

• ZL9CI – Campbell Island, 1999– 6 complete stations with Commander amplifiers– 9 yagis, 9 masts

• D68C – Comoros Islands, 2001– 26 corporate sponsors, 41 radio club sponsors– 26 operators, three weeks on the air

• 6Y2A Contest Expeditions to Jamaica– Vertical antennas only – no yagis

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• Up front funding by– Team members– An exclusive grant from northern California DX Foundation

• No club, individual, equipment or QSL sponsors

Simplified Financial Process

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Expedition Goals

1. Blitz-style operation, with quick setup and dismantle

2. Work a lot of guys

3. Live to tell the story

1. Be prepared to leave the island on 4 hours notice

2. Eliminate anything that doesn’t contribute directly to survival and to working lots of guys

1. Web sites

2. Web logs

3. Pilot stations

4. “Promises”

4. Achieve above with <1000 lbs of gear

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Expedition Goals

5. Avoid living in this house

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Penguins Micro-Lite Gear• Lightweight Honda generator

– Looks like a vacuum cleaner– Weighs 13 kg (29 lbs)– Super quiet– 900 watts continuous duty

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Penguins Micro-Lite Gear• Kenwood TS-50

– HF mobile rig – Weighs 3 kg– Introduced 10+ years ago– Rugged

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Penguins Micro-Lite Gear• ¼-Wave verticals• ½-Wave vertical dipoles• RG-8X mini coax• Band pass filters

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Penguins Micro-Lite Gear• Dell Latitude XPi/133 laptop computers

– “Disposable” – Compatible with K6STI RiTTY software + WF1B– CT version 9 for logging SSB and CW contacts– No network– Backups made hourly– Backups of backups made daily

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Operating Strategy• Vertical antennas

– You don’t have to be a propagation genius when you are using a vertical

• Heavy shoveling• Recruit “big gun” ops

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A “Big Gun” Operator inaction

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Falkland Islands

South Georgia

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South Georgia

South Sandwich

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Southern Thule

South Georgia

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Where do Penguins come from?

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GulfQuebecFloridaONLY!!

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Hasta 10 estaciones iguales a estas para concursos en multi-multi

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ObservationsObservations

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Operating from both SG & SSI was difficult

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Nobody Listens to the Radio Anymore

Example session:• Call CQ on 21024, no answer• Continue calling CQ for 10 minutes with same result• W1JR/QRP answers with a good signal• 500 stations calling on next over

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Pileup Management, aka Shoveling

• Work guys as fast as possible

• The more guys you work, the fewer are left to call

• Going “by numbers” probably doesn’t pay off

• Directional CQs may be counter-productive

• Waiting is frustrating

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• The best situation for the DXer is to know where the DX is listening

• The best situation for the DX is to receive one call at a time

• Conclusion: at times the goals of the DXer and the DX are at odds

Shoveling

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Introducing A Useful New Technique for Working DX: Listening

• The DX often announces his RX frequency• You may miss this announcement if you are

transmitting• Transmitting at the same time as the DX is not

productive, and therefore is not recommended

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Shoveling

– CQ CQ DE VP8GEO VP8GEO UP 5

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Shoveling

– TU VP8GEO QSX 042 UP 5

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Shoveling

– TU VP8GEO DOWN 5

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Shoveling

– This is VP8GEO listening 200-210……….and 218

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Conclusions• We were not loud• Being is loud not essential,

but it helps• We made 70,000+ QSOs

with 100 watts and verticals• Both the DXers and the

expedition operators had to adapt their techniques

• This would have been harder during a solar minimum

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