FT4JA JUAN DE NOVA, EUROPA....Post your contacts

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - FT4JA JUAN DE NOVA, EUROPA....Post your contacts

Posted: 4/3/2016 2:53:15 AM EDT

Here is another damned hard DXpedition to get into my logbook.

I spent about 11 hours on Saturday trying to work these guys.

It was a miserable time due to DQRM, the LIDS, and overall poor propagation . I tried for hours on 15m, 17m, 30m and 40m with no luck and almost threw in the towel.

I ended up working FT4JA twice on 80m CW right after their sunrise at about 03:30 GMT. I was so unsure about making the first contact that I made a second "insurance" contact about 4 minutes later.

The fools tuning up on FT4JA's calling frequency made it almost impossible to work them, but I am very pleased to have made such a long haul 80m CW contact.

I love a challenge, but my pursuit of 5 band DXCC has turned into a damned obsession ... that sometimes borders on insanity.

Posted: 4/3/2016 6:33:52 AM EDT

[#1]

Damn you.... Like I need another of these to chase.

Was working out in the lab yesterday and was listening in on the 20M freq. Came to the conclusion that hams in general are by far the LEAST capable insulters...(a good example is the prev sentence :) ).

My favorite was "Why don't you stick your head in a garbage can". Followed by "Oh ya? Why don't you!"

Wifey almost feinted upon hearing these verbal assaults.

(...and congrats on the contact!)

Posted: 4/3/2016 10:09:59 AM EDT

[#2]

Congrats!

Quoted:
It was a miserable time due to DQRM, the LIDS, and overall poor propagation .

View Quote

This has taken a lot of the fun out of chasing DX, for me. If a station has a strong signal, and the pileup is not full of A-holes, I'll give it a shot. Otherwise, I'll spin the dial. I've reached the point where the fighting the pileup, is not worth the frustration.

Posted: 4/3/2016 11:09:58 AM EDT

[#3]

No low band luck for me but got two others so far.

ETA: The pile-ups on 20, 30, and 40 have been insane. Never been on 80 when they were yet. The only reason I got these two is because of my panadapter, I was able to see his pattern and anticipate where he would be listening next.

Posted: 4/3/2016 11:10:44 AM EDT

[#4]

Barely heard them once on 20 phone before the shitshow between the lids and cops started the other day and someone started playing music. That's been my total experience

Posted: 4/3/2016 5:43:27 PM EDT

[#5]

My lonely contact, but it brings me one closer to 80m DXCC. Life is good.

The bands have been really poor today, so hopefully things will improve when the sun goes down.

Posted: 4/3/2016 10:36:33 PM EDT

[#6]

Hah. Got him on the first try on 14.210. He replied. - Five nine, stRRrrong signal

All of my efforts with the antenna, amplifier and the radios are paying off.

Posted: 4/3/2016 10:42:39 PM EDT

[#7]

Quote History

Quoted:
Hah. Got him on the first try on 14.210. He replied. - Five nine, stRRrrong signal

All of my efforts with the antenna, amplifier and the radios are paying off.

View Quote

You want to the the boss....you got to pay the costs.

Good job!

Posted: 4/4/2016 10:42:34 PM EDT

[#8]

Great signal on 30 right now. Just worked them and waiting for the log upload.

Posted: 4/5/2016 9:14:59 AM EDT

[#9]

I squeaked another CW contact past the LIDS last night around 3:14 Zulu.

Posted: 4/5/2016 9:25:14 AM EDT

[#10]

I ended up watching ball game last night, was too tired to play radio afterwards. Figures they were on 30m! I hung a dipole 2 days ago just for 30m. Got it up about 45' off ground, trimmed & tuned. Tested it on JT65 a little Sunday evening. Works great!

Going to try for them tonight.

Posted: 4/5/2016 9:43:00 AM EDT

[#11]

For me in the Midwest the 03:00Z has been the best time to hear and work them.

Posted: 4/5/2016 10:03:12 PM EDT

[#12]

Quote History

Quoted:
For me in the Midwest the 03:00Z has been the best time to hear and work them.

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That's when I go to bed since I have to get up at 5 AM local time! I have a light copy on 80 off and on since before sunset here but turning off the radio now. Too much noise from this thunderstorm moving directly towards me.

Posted: 4/5/2016 11:48:19 PM EDT

[#13]

They had a good signal for over an hour here on 30m, but no joy for me. I can just barely hear Heard Island, so I didn't even try them. Bed time.

Posted: 4/6/2016 7:31:36 PM EDT

[#14]

Nice sig on 18.145 in East Texas. Wkd 23:24Z 23 x 23 ft inv-L 400 Watts.

Posted: 4/6/2016 7:39:37 PM EDT

[#15]

Quote History

Quoted:
Nice sig on 18.145 in East Texas. Wkd 23:24Z 23 x 23 ft inv-L 400 Watts.

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Must have just missed them on 17

Posted: 4/6/2016 9:10:28 PM EDT

[#16]

I could just barely hear them on 17 here and was fixing to sit down and try to wait it out when someone showed up at the house and that was the end of my radioing for the night

Posted: 4/6/2016 10:07:11 PM EDT

[#17]

What a mess on 7.019 right now!

Posted: 4/6/2016 10:32:47 PM EDT

[#18]

Quote History

Quoted:
What a mess on 7.019 right now!

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It's been like that most of the night. There was one guy early on that was constantly causing QRM but he was off frequency a bit and weak here, not to mention the usual stuff. When they came back on around 0000Z I worked them when they were 10 over here. Waiting for log update with my fingers crossed. They sent my call with two characters wrong which made it the call of a guy I know so I waited. When I didn't hear him call, meaning it couldn't have been him because I would have heard him, it must have just been a fluke of the pile-up, so I sent my call again and worked them.

Posted: 4/6/2016 11:56:17 PM EDT

[#19]

20m phone.....another contact I was unsure of. I worked it the other day, but it just showed up. I makes me think that FT4JA's logs might not all be uploaded at the same time.

I worked them again tonight on 40m CW at about 3:30 Zulu. I will also wait with fingers crossed for their next uplad to see it makes it.

Posted: 4/7/2016 6:44:21 AM EDT

[#20]

I've spent several hours trying to get through on 20 SSB with no luck yet.

Posted: 4/7/2016 8:35:52 AM EDT

[#21]

Figure I can get them on 17m but that's probably about it.

Posted: 4/7/2016 9:04:36 AM EDT

[#22]

Last night's 40m CW contact made it into their log....life is good.

Posted: 4/7/2016 3:13:09 PM EDT

[#23]

Just worked them on 15 meters and it took me about 15 minutes of calling. First time working them and I'm currently band limited to 6-20 with the small steppir db11, so I'm glad to have worked them at all. If they come in on another band I'll give it a shot, but once is enough for me really.

Hopefully it shows up on clublog in the next day or so

Posted: 4/7/2016 3:32:56 PM EDT

[#24]

Ya - I wonder about their update policy. I'm positive I got my call sign back from them the other day on 17M, but 2 or 3 updates later and I'm not showing up :(

Posted: 4/7/2016 3:47:33 PM EDT

[#25]

Hope you show up in there, mate. Hope I do too. I know for sure I got my call back right from him. Maybe I'll try to work them on another band too just in case.

Posted: 4/7/2016 3:57:19 PM EDT

[#26]

Quote History

Quoted:
Just worked them on 15 meters and it took me about 15 minutes of calling. First time working them and I'm currently band limited to 6-20 with the small steppir db11, so I'm glad to have worked them at all. If they come in on another band I'll give it a shot, but once is enough for me really.

Hopefully it shows up on clublog in the next day or so

View Quote

One is always better than none.

Good job.

All of my contacts are with a wire antenna.....ZS6BKW inverted V.

Posted: 4/7/2016 4:41:17 PM EDT

[#27]

Quote History

Quoted:

One is always better than none.

Good job.

All of my contacts are with a wire antenna.....ZS6BKW inverted V.

View Quote View All Quotes

View All Quotes

Quote History

Quoted:

Quoted:
Just worked them on 15 meters and it took me about 15 minutes of calling. First time working them and I'm currently band limited to 6-20 with the small steppir db11, so I'm glad to have worked them at all. If they come in on another band I'll give it a shot, but once is enough for me really.

Hopefully it shows up on clublog in the next day or so

One is always better than none.

Good job.

All of my contacts are with a wire antenna.....ZS6BKW inverted V.

Just for poops and grins I worked them just now on 17m... first call

Posted: 4/7/2016 5:24:13 PM EDT

[#28]

I came home for lunch and got them on 12 CW. Also actually heard them fairly well on 10 SSB, but light with mild QSB. Couldn't get through there before I had to head back to work.

Posted: 4/8/2016 11:11:04 AM EDT

[#29]

I must be on their shit-list

CW contact for sure on 20M, and RTTY on 30M last night... Not to mention the others on 17M and 40M from a few days ago that I'm not quite sure of. None show up on the latest log update.

At least I have a screen cap of the RTTY contact. I guess that both of last night's could have been pirates?*?!*&?

Posted: 4/8/2016 7:50:06 PM EDT

[#30]

Every time I hear hams talking about this one, I think of this

Posted: 4/8/2016 11:13:05 PM EDT

[#31]

Quote History

Quoted:
I must be on their shit-list

CW contact for sure on 20M, and RTTY on 30M last night... Not to mention the others on 17M and 40M from a few days ago that I'm not quite sure of. None show up on the latest log update.

At least I have a screen cap of the RTTY contact. I guess that both of last night's could have been pirates?*?!*&?

View Quote

Hope it wasn't a pirate. I feel like it would be fairly easy to tell pirate or not working phone. The ops with ft4ja are great.

They haven't uploaded their logs in a while. Their last qso in their uploaded log is 12 minutes before my first qso with them.

Posted: 4/8/2016 11:14:51 PM EDT

[#32]

I tried like hell to get them on CW 30m this evening. They had a great signal for over an hour, but no joy. It was LID free for the first 30 minutes.

Posted: 4/9/2016 3:05:05 PM EDT

[#33]

Probably all I am going to be able to work them.

Posted: 4/9/2016 4:46:39 PM EDT

[#34]

This expedition is coming to a close soon, so work them if you can.

Posted: 4/10/2016 9:50:03 AM EDT

[#35]

Log updates are slow to happen but they're working.

Posted: 4/10/2016 9:59:34 AM EDT

[#36]

Looks like everyone here worked them but me.

I spent 3 hours last night trying them on 40m. Today & tonight will probably be my last chance. Not even sure if I want to fight the LIDS tonight. I'm sure they are getting tired of the mess also. Takes them 2 minutes to work someone CW because of all the dip shits.

Posted: 4/10/2016 11:09:47 AM EDT

[#37]

I tried last night on 40m CW for about an hour

My plan of waiting til the end of the DXpadition, . . . after the enormous pile-ups,.... failed

....the plie-up was still enormous

yep, the tuner-uppers, simplex callers, and "up up" police get worse every year.

After Navassa, I've lost a lot of interest