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VU7A Update (Dec 13)
The station was up till 0200z and then was progressively shutdown. I severly underestimated the extent of work involved in teardown and repacking. It was grueling and back breaking work to take everything down and prepare for loading on the vehicle. About 4 hours in the humid outdoors. The gear is all bound to the ship. So need to stretch. We finished with about 52,610 QSO's and about 12,013 uniques. So now, its time to rest. 73
Source: https://www.qrz.com/db/VU7A
VU7A Update (Dec 12)
It is about 10:45Z now (Dec 12) and in an hour or so, the Hexbeam will come down. 60m has no more chance at this point. The TS480 antenna port-1 is now showing high SWR from that 60m antenna with the coax that appeared to be faulty. A VNA sweep indicates a high SWR point at the 60m location to 90m length of the cable. At any rate, the good news is, the second antenna port of the TS-480 still works, so no loss of a working station. So folks that worked 60m on Dec 11th, you got lucky :) and atleast my effort was not in vain to build that bamboo lashed 60m vertical.
Tonight will be 30/40/75-80/160 and 1 higher band at night. Tomorrow (Dec 13) morning, around 0200Z, will go QRT and will bring down the verticals and start packing up. Have about 3 hours for the gear to leave the premises and board the ship.
This is intense to keep everything running and not make mistakes, keep the antennae working optimal and then responding to folks on log issues, band requests etc. Its fun, but tiring with around only 3 hours of sleep a day for the past week. So will be using the next couple days to recover and then head to VU4 and do it all over again.
I am a bit cautiously optimistic and would like to set the expectation that, VU4 is a different animal, esp for the NA-East. Its a tough path. But i am hoping to do the best.
Source: https://www.qrz.com/db/VU7A
VU7A Update (Dec 11)
Today, moved the 60m vertical wire off from the 80/160 vertical. Lashed 2 bamboo poles and ran the wire to build a 60m vertical. The good news is, the vertical tunes nice, when near the antenna. But the 450Ft of spare LMR400 that was deployed for this antenna, seems to have some sort of invisble damage. The cable was used in VU4KV last, in 2014. The coax shows a SWR of 1.7, when connected to a dummy load at the other end. Also, there are numerous reflections, when swept with the analyzer. The net net is, the SWR is over 2.1 to 2.5. Going to try to run it tonight. Not too hopeful about the performance, but worth a try. Given the interest for 60m, need to send another roll of coax, the 12m fiberglass pole and the holder to hold the pole in the beach on 15th night by aircargo to VU4.
It also appears that some QSO's are not showing up, despite even manually uploading individual QSO's to clublogs from within MSHV log menu( after someone notified me of their missing QSO). I will reupload the entire files, if the issue persists.
Source: https://www.qrz.com/db/VU7A
VU7A Update (Dec 10)
Tried 6M and worked 1 JA station and about 4 EU/AS. So not too promising with the Hexbeam.
There was a request for FT4, so FT4 on 17M standard frequency. The pile is big. So please have patience. Not sure, if multistream is allowed for FT4 on non-standard frequency. Will look it up.
I did get the 60m Vertical tuned. Running 60m would mean, i cannot run 80 and 160 on that antenna. No Bandpass filter. So a bit nervous. Lets see.
Source: https://www.qrz.com/db/VU7A
VU7A Update (Dec 08)
160m - Will TX 1817 and Rx 1836
80m - Will Tx/Rx 3567 ( EU CW ops are complaining when FT8 is used in 3547 and they were DQRMing, so not worth it). If you need me to accommodate a specific country band plan, please drop me/N1UK a note and we will try.
60m - I have strung a wire and it is yet to be tuned. This might cannibalize the 80/160m operating at the same time. Will keep you all updated. If it works, will only be briefly on 60m. Again, need to check the VU band plans again.
Also, for those hams in countries where my frequency plan is an issue, please reach out to either me or N1UK and we will adjust accordingly.
Logs were uploaded manually this morning. So, if you are missing QSO's please try to work again. There is the MSHV error file. But the issue is, what if i cannot find your QSO after the operation.? So not a good situation to rely on log correction.
SSB - Will operate soon. My voice is getting better after the transatlantic airplane trip and the upper respiratory issue.
Source: https://www.qrz.com/db/VU7A
VU7A (Nov 28)
Op: W4VKU
Bands: 6M - 160M
Modes: SSB & FT8
Qsl Info: Qsl via W4VKU
Start Date - End Date: Dec. 05 - Dec. 10
Webpage: https://www.qrz.com/db/VU7A
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