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KH7AL/KH9 Update (Jan 22)
After last week's 10m marathon I thought I had reached the top. However, the 12 meter band schooled me. Again, I am humbled by the number of stations looking to contact Wake Island after logging a personal record number of contacts between my morning and evening sessions on the air.
For the past several weeks I have received many questions about bands and modes people would like me to operate on. 12m was by far the most requested band. Naively I tuned up my radio Tuesday morning thinking this would be just another busy day sitting near the ocean with the luxury of being able to also play ham radio and get a bunch of contacts. I underestimated my understanding of "busy". The firehose was officially turned on full blast this day as contacts came flooding in. Thankfully I didn't drown in the cascade of calls as the past two months of operating on Wake have helped me get ready for a truly busy day like this one.
Just before 2000z on 20 January, I got my radio affairs in order at my new favorite spot to operate from called Pirates Cove. Happy with the SWR on the meter I turned on the radio and like normal I scanned the band for any signs that it was open. I only heard one other station chatting away but not booming in. I found a nice vacant spot at the bottom of the voice band and listened. Once I knew the coast was clear I put out my call and within no time, K7YK caught me, and quickly spotted me. Off to the races it went. Within a minute the calls were lining up so I switched to operating split and started filling the log.
Even with the sheer volume of new callsigns I've been able to meet, I have started recognizing a few repeat visitors. That part of ham radio I truly enjoy, the community. KL7KK and AL7KC, way in the middle of somewhere (Bethel) Alaska, are great examples. Partly because I got my first call sign while stationed in Alaska, those prefixes jump out to me and I tend to pull them out of the mix quicker. Additionally, it's amazing to me that the sound of a familiar voice through the chaos stands out so clearly. Nearing the end of my morning radio run, I distinctly heard Rob, AE7AP, calling from my hometown of Helena, Montana. He has a unique way he announces his call, as I'm sure we all do, that is distinct and personal and is transported via the ionosphere to my far off location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
As the calls kept coming in, time just flew by. I only seemed to notice when I wrote down when the hours rolled over, one, two, three... In my past operations, the bands will typically fade away after a few hours. 12m showed now sign of stopping and I only pulled the plug after four hours as it was about lunch time and my brain was thoroughly exhausted. Standing up was a chore as I had been hunched over the radio, tensed up, and nearly affixed to my chair for those four hours. Funny, flying more than two hours and I'm ready to climb the walls with boredom. Put me in front of a radio and voila. Time disappears.
After lunch I spent several hours logging all 498 contacts, and finished just in time to dash to the dining hall for dinner, eat quickly, and get back out to the beach for my 0700z showing of, "Making (Electromagnetic) Waves on Wake". This time though, 12m finally did show signs of mortality and began fading around 0900z. Although the evening wasn't as strong as the morning to the east, I heard stations from all over Europe and logged about 240 contacts.
All in, I spent about 6.5 hours on the radio, and logged nearly 740 contacts. The next morning I felt a bit hungover, without having drank a drop the day before. Is radio-aholic a thing? 73, AL
PS - Thanks again to several of you who have donated a few spare dollars to help me offset QSL costs and upgrade my antenna situation here on Wake. I hope to get QSL cards printed and begin mailing returns by the end of February with the help of my family back home. If you would like to contribute to the cause, or buy me a coffee/tasty beverage, use this link below. Cheers!
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Jan 17)
I have received many question and requests about 12 meters over the past couple months. Well, today I did something about it.
I get it. People hunt DX. Then they hunt rare DX by band. So, with some spare parts and wire I made a 12 meter dipole after work. Once hoisted and in the air I was shocked that the SWR was at 1.25:1 without any trimming. My family will be shocked because I'm typically a measure twice, cut three times type of carpenter. With my measuring skills out in the open, I just wanted to share that I have a 12m antenna ready to go for this coming weekend. Now I just hope the bands cooperate to make many contacts. 73, Allen
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Jan 13)
Wow. Just wow! Today was a personal record for the number of ham contacts in a continuous run. 10 meters just kept delivering today. Once I set up my gear this morning I found N6HU calling CQ at a POTA park in California and figured that was a good sign for the band this morning. After a quick QSO I started calling CQ just after 2000z and was quickly spotted. Off to the races it went. East coast, west coast US. South American. Australia and New Zealand. Japan. A few European stations and many others.
I fell into a rhythm and just kept working. Before I knew it, it was almost lunch time. Close to 2400z my radio reset unexpectedly when I transmitted. I realized my battery was quickly dying after four hours of fun on the radio. I reduced power a bit and pulled in a few more calls before having to call it a day. 468 contacts today. If you did not realize, I run a paper log and then transpose my log to a Google spreadsheet and processing for QRZ, POTA, and finally LoTW. Today's work resulted in another few hours of data entry. It was a full day effort.
With the help of my lovely wife back home, we were able to get the new KH7AL/KH9 LoTW certificate loaded onto my home shack PC and a copy to my laptop here on Wake Island. As of this afternoon, I have uploaded all 3068 /KH9 QSOs to LoTW.
Thank you to everyone for the contacts! 73, Allen
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Dec 30)
Some colleagues invited me to a campfire at the beach tonight. It was a beautiful evening and we witnessed a gorgeous sunset. After I set up my antenna I tuned around the band. The first station I heard calling CQ was none other than Santa Claus World - OF9X. I didn't realize at the time that I had a direct connection to the North Pole and missed out on asking St. Nick for a belated Hexbeam antenna for Christmas... Shortly there after I found a spot to operate and OZ6CM found me and was nice enough to spot me so everyone and their brother in Europe came calling too. Working split on the radio was just working much better tonight and my log shows it. When I can average 2 or 3 calls per minute the QSOs stack up in the log quickly. Once again, 15m conditions were outstanding tonight.
The campfire died down around 8:30 pm (local) and the party goers went on their way. I stayed behind, comfortable at the picnic table with my radio, all by myself and about 30m from the ocean. The soothing sound of the waves crashing ashore in the background and a light warm breeze made it easy for me to focus on the work of pulling out calls from the chaos. By 0930z, the 15m door to Europe was quickly closing and I wrapped things up by 0945z. 151 QSOs in 120 minutes. I can't wait to do that again in about 10 hours! 73, AL
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Dec 27)
I had some spare time this evening so I decided to head out to the beach and try 15m around 0640z. Several JA stations quickly picked me up and things were going smoothly. Then someone must have spotted me and at 0700z the band exploded with calls from EU rolling in. I initially set up and asked everyone to listen 5-10 up. There was another station 15 up and I did not want to cause them QRM, but I think eventually they were pushed out by the crowd unfortunately. Eventually I started listening up 5-15, as it was the only way to pick out calls from the pile up.
Tonight was probably the best conditions I have experienced operating into EU. By 0830z I was getting tired and could tell it was more effort to make sense of the calls coming in. Without the moon's light it was really dark outside. Then the rain started. I was parked sideways to the wind (parallel to the shore) so I had nothing to shield my radio that was sitting next to me on the bench seat of the vehicle I was in. I also had to maneuver my paper log onto the steering wheel to keep it from getting drenched as I pulled in the last couple contacts and announced I had to QRT.
I quickly unplugged my radio and stowed it in a weather proof container in the back of my buggy and began taking down my dipole antenna. In the beam of my headlamp I could see the heavy raindrops pouring down. I can't complain though. I like the rain, especially warm rain, but I was soaked by the time I was ready to drive back to my dorm. 119 contacts in two hours was no record but let the good DX conditions continue. 73, AL
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Dec 23)
Well, after calling on 28.320 for about twenty minutes and hearing no one I decided to tune around the band. Glad I did as I found N4BAA and after a quick QSO he graciously let me have the frequency. Away it went. Over 200 contacts this morning, putting my Wake Island QSO count over 1,000 and counting. The band conditions were odd today, but that helped to regulate who I could hear. One minute I could hear North America. The next, Central and South America were easier to hear. Thanks everyone! 73, Allen
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Dec 18)
Last night I witnessed a breathtaking view of the moon rise that turned a dark, star-lit night back to light. It was quite impressive (the picture above doesn't quite give it the justice it deserved). I sat and watched it for some time on the coral strewn beach and reflected as the warm trade winds blew in from the east. Speaking of reflecting, several people have reached out to me via email with suggestions about my ham activities on Wake Island.
I do appreciate the feedback and I try to get through all the emails in my down time. I am not an experienced DX'er. I am not a contester. I am at best an average ham radio operator, who has grown to really love this hobby over the past 15 years. My meager ability to handle a pile-up comes from a general calm demeanor and 10+ years of working piles (micro in comparison to what I have experienced on Wake) while participating in Summits On The Air (SOTA). Where I lack in expertise I hopefully make up for in, 1) keeping an open mind, 2) an eagerness to learn and get better at things, 3) keeping a positive mental attitude.
One ham pointed out that many 'big gun' stations will be hunting for me on every band and mode. They recommended I stick with a single band for a while to let everyone check that box and thereby allowing less powerful stations a chance to get through. Copy and check. As you will see on the "Upcoming..." page I am largely sticking with 17m for the next couple of outings to exercise this strategy. I have also learned it just so happens to be a great band to get into Europe. The other dilemma I face is being in between several continents and finding the right band and time to share with those looking for their 1st QSO with KH9. With the holidays coming up, I may throw in some mid-day (Wake time) activity to see who's around.
I have already learned a lot since arriving here just over a month ago. VOCAP for instance was a great find, thanks! Feel free to reach out and send me an email with any constructive feedback. Just realize I do have a day job and personal commitments, so it may be a few days for me to get back to you, but I will do my best to respond if requested. From my family to yours, I wish you all a Happy Holiday season and a healthy and prosperous New Year. I hope to catch you on the bands. 73, Allen
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Dec 16)
To rebound from a rough morning I headed out after dinner to try out 17m. As predicted it began to ramp up around 0730z and was going well into 0930z when I had to QRT. I think this might have been my best propagation into the EU since I've been here. Many contacts from Finland to Greece and Turkey. JA showed up strong and my friends in the southern hemisphere also stopped by to join the party. It was a fun evening on the radio and my privilege to share Wake Island with you all.
My reference to training in the title is referring to my radio. The Yeasu FT-891 that I brought with me I was not very familiar with before arriving. I bought the radio several years ago and used it primarily as a mobile rig. It served me well, but once I had it setup for that role I did not tinker with it and rarely dove into the menus. My first attempt here to try to operate split I mistakenly used the Clarify ("CLA") front panel button. That works but adjusting the receive frequency with the function knob is not convenient and tunes slowly. It also defaults to "0" offset and tuning 5kHz up takes a long time. This feature (I now understand) is used primarily for those stations that are slightly off frequency during a normal, non-split, operation.
The real split feature utilizes VFO A/B and makes tuning between 5 - 10 up much easier. Between reading the manual and watching a couple quick YouTube videos on the Split feature I was actually looking forward to meeting a pile up. My reluctance to do this early was largely due to hearing people refer to Yeasu radios as "menu heavy", and the -891 falls into that, but diving into the manual or watching some videos about your radio will reveal features to help you operate more effectively. So if you haven't looked over your favorite radio's manual recently, I suggest you do, just for fun to get out of your shell.
Also, my KH9 QSO count is now over 800, and counting...
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Along with ham radio, one of my passions is fitness, and specifically running. Coming from Montana and living at 4,000' and now being at sea level, has led me to run a LOT more while I've been on Wake as there is not much else to do. The great weather is also an added bonus. I typically run in the evenings to avoid the heat of the day with the help of the moon's light or a headlamp. Last night I was about a mile into my run and caught a rock on my left toe that caused me to stumble and go down hard. My hands took the brunt of it while I tried to roll out of it.
Shortly after this incident I went and explored an abandoned beach cottage. In the outhouse I found this little spider (below) and I decided not to stick around to find out its intentions. I finished my 6.4 mile run in just under an hour.
My hands look worse than they are, but it did not help while I struggled to set up for 15m this morning. Added to the pain was my 15m antenna did not want to tune below 2:1 SWR. I eventually changed locations back to my normal operating spot and it came down to 1.5:1 which is about normal for that antenna. Either way, 15m and 20m were dead for me and I only got a few contacts in the log. I hope everyone had better luck on 10m with the weekend contest. I'll be back on the air soon, hopefully without spider encounters.
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Dec 13)
I was working with a ham in India over the past week to schedule a contact. We had no luck last night so we decided to give it another try tonight around 0800z. I arrived at my ham shack in the woods early to set up. I was really early so I decided to tune around on 15m to see what propagation was like. This was just before 0700z, plenty of time before my 0800z meet-up, so I decided to find a clear spot and call CQ. My first contact was with a ham in Munich, who initially gave me a 53 report, and later called back as the band began to open and gave me a 57 "long path". This was a sign of good things to come.
Long path is a new experience for me here on Wake. That ominous echo you get from those far-off stations is really just amazing when you stop to think about how those radio waves are racing around the globe toward your antenna in opposite directions at the speed of light. As a wise man once told me, "If that does not light your fire, then your logs are wet." Speaking of putting a damper on things... Tonight's activity was off and going. I had many stations calling from VK/ZL, to JA and friends nearby, and a whole slew of hams in Europe. I switched to operating split early this time after learning my lesson on previous outings. However, this evening I was faced with all too many impatient people who decided not to listen to whom I was asking for, nor were they even listening to what country I was calling for.
Maybe it has been a long week, and I was a bit tired. Maybe Friday the 13th and a waxing moon brought out the animal in some folks. Whatever it was, I did not have the patience for some hams not following the DX Code of Conduct. I chose to shut down after about only twenty minutes. I could not make out any of the calls I was asking to repeat due to the unruly behavior. We could have had a lot of fun. My apologies to those who were being courteous. I wish there was a way to filter out the nonsense. I think next time I will focus only on a specific region for the duration. Hopefully by setting the expectation at the beginning it will result in us being able to make more contacts together.
Below is the DX Code of Conduct** from the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU). I'll just repost this here and hope more people will take it to heart.
1) I will listen, and listen, and then listen again before calling.
2) I will only call, if I can copy the DX station properly.
3) I will not trust the DX cluster and will be sure of the DX station’s call sign before calling.
4) I will not interfere with the DX station nor anyone calling and will never tune up on the DX frequency or in the QSX slot.
5) I will wait for the DX station to end a contact before I call.
6) I will always send my full call sign.
7) I will call and then listen for a reasonable interval. I will not call continuously.
8) I will not transmit when the DX operator calls another call sign, not mine.
9) I will not transmit when the DX operator queries a call sign not like mine.
10) I will not transmit when the DX station requests geographic areas other than mine.
11) When the DX operator calls me, I will not repeat my call sign unless I think he has copied it incorrectly.
12) I will be thankful if and when I do make a contact.
13) I will respect my fellow hams and conduct myself so as to earn their respect.
**Retrieved from: https://www.iaru-r1.org/on-the-air/spectrum-abuse/dx-code-of-conduct/
73!
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Dec 08)
A week later and Wake is still popular to a lot of hams apparently. This go around I tried my luck running split on the radio for the first time. I was expecting peace and tranquility. What I got was 5 kilohertz of people trying to call me. It reminded me of trying to find a place to operate on a big contest or Field Day. Perhaps this helped and was slightly better than the week prior, but daunting nonetheless. I had to quickly train my brain on listening to those off frequency calls to focus on them and pull them out of the crowd.
Another morning filling the log book. I found 115 friends during the morning shift on 10m. Side note, prior to this past summer I had never made a contact on 10m. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite bands during this heightened solar cycle. The morning shift saw most of the action into north and south Americas. That also included a great contact with my hometown friend, Bill, N7MSI. Being way out here in the middle of the ocean, ham radio has allowed many connections to help displace any possible feeling of being disconnected.
Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment, but after a challenging morning, I decided to head back out for a late shift to try and work into Europe. I got more than I hoped for and another 100 contacts on 15m. The signals from Europe were not strong but definitely good enough to make a solid contact. The challenge was to keep different parts of the globe from all calling me at once. I really do appreciate all the eager operators who wait to call until it's their turn. Highlights of the evening were working many VK, JA, and Europoe stations. And to end the evening, two contacts to Kuwait.
My total contacts from Wake are now over 600, and counting!
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Dec 01)
After a successful first go, I moved locations closer to the ocean and setup my linked dipole. I used my SOTAbeams collapsible mast and tied the ends to some nearby shrubs. On the short drive over to this location I realized I forgot my hat. From the pictures you should be able to tell I'm a fan of shade, or rather, I don't like to burn the top of my head. Thankfully, I had invited a coworker out to see what this was all about. About 10 minutes into the mele he showed up and helped provide some shade for us. This was my first really big pile up.
I have gotten used to working pile ups from my 150+ activation with Summits On The Air, but this was like putting twenty of those together at once. Based on my speaker's inability to project any intelligible audio to my ears due to the steady stream of letters and numbers blended together through an apparent transoceanic and ionospheric wormhole, I decided to break the pile up into groups. Thankfully the crowd did their best to contain their, and my, enthusiasm as I started working through the call numbers for North America. Never had counting from 1 to 9 seemed to take so long, and I almost forgot the Zero call group, as Japan and others patiently waited. This went on for over two hours when I had to call it off for the day with 200 contacts in my log.
Thankfully I got through it largely without emotional scars. I also think I learned a thing or two. Like I need to figure out how to run split. I never had a need to do that before here. Much to learn...
KH7AL/KH9 Update (Nov 14)
I arrived on Wake on 14 November 2024, two days after leaving Montana to start a new job here. The final leg to get here involved flying from Honolulu. It's an odd feeling to take off in one day and land in another without witnessing a sunset. Wake sits about 2000 miles west of Hawai'i, and just over 900 miles west of the international dateline. For a quick background on Wake Island's history check out the Wikipedia page about it here.
I lived on O'ahu for four years about a decade ago and the weather here is very similar. There really is not much of a temperature swing between day and night. Lows are in the low 80s or upper 70s (25-27 C), and the highs get into the upper 80s to low 90s (30-33 C). What I am not used to is the elevated humidity that varies between 65 and 85% that helps to push the heat index up. What helps is the trade winds that blow steadily from the east that provide some comfort.
After getting used to the time change and getting oriented with my new role, I was getting excited to get on the air. That took place on the afternoon of 28 November. They say that "All's fair in love and war." It could also be said that playing radio from a DX location is all fun and games until someone spots you on a cluster. Well, I think I did this one to myself by posting an alert on the Parks On The Air page. I was glad I did because a couple of my first contacts were with some familiar voices back in my home state of Montana. My friends in Bozeman, and POTA power couple, Stacy (KK7CJV) and Eric (KE7NLU), were my first two in the log. 115 contacts later I had to call it a day. Longest contact of the day was to Brazil with PY2TWI, over 10,000 miles (16,500km) away. Bring on the DX.
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