magazine-201408

DX News
by Steve Telenius-Lowe, PJ4DX
In the first DKARS-Magazine I noted that, for the first time since 2011, we had recently experienced a period of no sunspots. Fortunately, it
did not last for long and as of today (8 August) there is a sunspot number of158 and a solar flux (SFI) of 136. Generally, the higher
the sunspot number and solar flux, the better the propagation on the higher-frequency HF bands –although it is never quite as simple as
that! Propagation during the summer months (for example mid-May through to early September in the northern hemisphere)
is generally not as good as during the winter and the winter, in turn, is not as good as the period around the spring and autumn equinoxes.
But on the lower-frequency HF bands, and in particular on 80
and 160 metres, a low sunspot count often produces better
propagation than a period of high solar activity, and propagation
is usually at its best on these bands during the winter. What all
this means is that, as we move from August into September,
propagation should start to improve again, particularly on the
higher bands such as 15, 12 and 10 metres. However, we are
now on the downward slope of solar cycle 24, so it remains to
be seen if 10 and 12 metres will once again support the worldwide
propagation that we experienced earlier this year.
BENIN
Benin, in West Africa, is quite a rare catch on the HF bands, but
it must be even more so on VHF and UHF! Wynand, TY2CD, is a
South African diplomat based in Cotonou, Benin, for the next
four years. At present he is active on HF CW and SSB using 100
watts and wire dipoles but he is waiting for a 20ft shipping container
to arrive from South Africa which will contain beams
and amplifiers. The good news for VHF and UHF DX-ers is that
Wynand is planning to become active on 6m, 2m and 70cm
EME (‘moonbounce’) using a 10m long-boom Yagi on 6m and X-Y
cross-polarised Yagis on 2m and 70cm. Wynand says that on HF
he prefers to have a chat (on both CW and SSB) rather than just
exchange “59, 73, QRZ” type QSOs. I can confirm this, as I had a
very pleasant 30-minute long QSO with TY2CD on 15m SSB
at the beginning of August.
ZIMBABWE
Another rare African country these days is Zimbabwe. Atholl,
Z21LV, is one of the few regularly active amateurs resident in
the country, and – like Wynand up in Benin – Atholl also likes to
have a good chat. I was lucky enough to catch up with him on
15m SSB on 31 July. Zimbabwe is occasionally activated by visiting
amateurs. One such was Mirek, VK6DXI, who was active on
his favourite mode – CW – as Z21DXI during a business trip to
the country in July and early August. I was lucky enough to meet
Mirek in 2012 when he made a business trip to East Malaysia. At
the time I was living in Kota Kinabalu in the state of Sabah, on
the island of Borneo.
OTHER DX
I am a member of the British DX foundation CDXC, which runs an
annual DX ‘challenge’ using the facilities of the excellent
‘Clublog’ website (see clublog.org). The object is simply to work
as many DXCC entities as possible on either CW, SSB, Datamodes
or using mixed modes, in each calendar year. My QSO with
Atholl, Z21LV, gave me DXCC entity number 234 on SSB since 1
January 2014. Since then I have worked just one more counter:
the Japanese DX-pedition to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, VK9EC,
making a total of 235 (the current challenge leader is IK0OZD
with 255 entities worked this year).
Steve, 9M6DXX (now PJ4DX), and Mirek, VK6DXI / Z21DXI, in Sabah, East Malaysia,
July 2012.
Other DX in the PJ4DX logbook during the first week of August
includes: on 80m GM4YSN, VP2ETE; 40m HH2/PY3SB, VP5/K9HZ
(Bill, who was active from Bonaire as PJ4/K9HZ in January this
year); 20m 3G0YG (Easter Island), A43MI (Masirah Island), HQ8D
and HQ8S (on two Honduran IOTA islands), TJ3TS, VK9EX
(Christmas Island); and on 17m 5R8UI.
Prison Island in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands group, from where VK9EC was active
in August.
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DKARS Magazine, editie 2 -26- Augustus 2014