EA6/HB9COG, JM08ov, Cala Carbo, Ibiza, Balearic Islands

2018 DXpedition

Q-Team

HB9COG, Sam (Q-engineer and co-operator)

HB9CRQ, Dan (operator)

Equipment

1.5m dish 1x2mm mesh, homemade automatic azimuth and elevation control

23cm: 100W at feed, circular, preamp at horn

13cm: 90W at feed, circular, preamp at horn

6cm: 80W at feed, circular, preamp at horn

3cm: 50W at feed, v-pol, preamp at horn

not QRV 9cm: (not allocated to amateur-radio in EA)

Results

23cm:
85 QSOs (10 CW, 75 JT65c)
73 initials
26 DXCC (DL8FBD, EA8DBM, ES6FX, F1RJ, G4IDR, HB9Q, I1NDP, JA6AHB, W2HRO, LA3EQ, LU1CGB, LX1DB, OH2DG, OK1IL, ON4AOI, OZ4MM, PA3FXB, SP5GDM, SM2CEW, UA3PTW, UA9FA,VE3KRP, VK4CDI, YL2GD, YO3DDZ, ZS1LS)
6 continents = WAC!
Smallest station worked: DF2VJ 2.6m mesh dish 140W at feed (-26/R-24)

13cm:
32 QSOs (7 CW, 25 JT65c)
25 initials
17 DXCC (DL7YC, ES5PC, G3LTF, HB9Q, IK3COJ, JA6AHB, W5LUA, LX1DB, OH2DG, OK1KIR, ON4AOI, OZ5G, PA0BAT, SP3XBO, UA3PTW, YO2BCT, ZS6EME)
4 continents
Smallest station worked: G4BAO 1.9m mesh dish 210W at feed (-18/R-28)

6cm:
30 QSOs (10 CW, 3 JT4F, 2 JT65C, 15 QRA64D)
26 initials
17 DXCC (DF3RU, ES5PC, G3LTF, HB9Q, IK3COJ, JA1WQF, W5LUA, KL6M, LX1DB, OH2DG, OK1KIR, OZ1LPR, PA0BAT, SM6CKU, UA3PTW, UN6PD, UR5LX)
3 continents
Smallest station worked: PA7JB 2.4m offset dish 30W (-18/R-12)

3cm:
32 QSOs (4 CW, 28 QRA64D)
28 initials
17 DXCC (DF1OI, EA3HMJ, G3CBW, HA/G3WDG, HB9Q, JA1WQF, W5LUA, LX1DB, OH2DG, OK1KIR, OZ1LPR, PA0BAT, SP3XBO, UN6PD, UR5LX, VK7MO, YO2BCT)
4 continents
Smallest station worked: OK2AQ 1.2m solid offset dish 40W at feed (R-18/-17)

The EA6/HB9COG story

The first day we drove 1000 km to Girona (EA3) and stayed overnight in this very nice little city. The second day another 550 km to Denia (EA5). Here we spent a very nice afternoon and evening in the marina. In the morning of the third day we had a 4h transfer with the ferry to Ibiza (EA6). And just after midday we arrived at our home and QTH for the next two weeks.

We started building the station and after 3h all was tested and ready for next days early morning moon-rise.

Day 1 we worked 23cm. On moon-rise up to 20° elevation we had a strong and very strange interference with very high noise-level (+10dBs). We suspect it came from a power and phone-line just some 10-40m away. After moon-set we relocated the dish by 7 meters and the maximal noise went down to 7dBs. Never the less we could work many stations through the noise.

Day 2 to 4 we were not QRV due to new-moon. We used the time for some very nice sightseeing.

Day 5 was again 23cm. Day 6 we were QRV 13cm. Day 7 on 6cm, Day 8 on 3cm. Day 9, 10, 11 and 12 we switched bands according to activity and request. With this we tried to accommodate our „customers“ needs.

Our trip back home was easy and very nice. There was almost no traffic in EA and even in France there was only little traffic. So we arrived safely home after 3600 km and 18 days.

This was our second DXpedition with our “portable” station. This time we experienced very high gusty winds (well over 50 km/h peaking probably 80 or more km/h) and very strong rain. We are very happy to report that we had no wind or rain damage at all. We can confirm that we are capable to operate up to 50 Km/h wind and also during heavy rain. We experienced no technical problems at all. We are very happy with the performance of our station.

When at 3DA0MB we worked a total of 160 QSOs and 140 initials on 5 bands and now from EA6/HB9COG we worked a total of 179 QSOs and 152 initials on “only” 4 bands! On all bands we were CQing for hours with no takers, so there is obviously a lot of opportunity to work more stations!

This time we used WSJT-X for all bands and the Doppler-control modes CFOM (Constant Frequency On Moon), Own Echo and Full Doppler to DX grid. It is a great help to have those modes available. It would make everything easier and more efficient if all stations would use CFOM. Hopefully more people start to take advantage of automated Doppler control modes. Especially on 6 and 3cm it is a must for successful QRP operation. It was nice to work a total of 31 CW QSOs on the 4 bands. However CW QSOs are only possible with the big-guns.

Looking at the smaller stations worked per band, it is obvious, that we could have worked many more, if they were QRV. It is great to see that on 23cm we can work stations using less than 3m dish with less than 200W. And on 13 we can even work stations of about our size. On 6 and 3cm even stations smaller then ours. It is obvious that we are capable to work many more stations than we actually did. This is very promising for the future and we hope this generates more interest and activity during DXpeditions.