OnAllBands is thrilled to feature articles from noted author and amateur radio DXing legend Bob Locher, W9KNI.
Today, Bob remembers building the Elecraft K2 kit when it was released and using it to make an eleventh-hour QSO with Chuck Brady, N4BQW (SK)—the sole operator on the historic 3Y0C activation of Bouvet Island 26 years ago. Bob also talks about the past use of DXpedition “lists” and their role in DXing.
Be sure to check out these other fine articles in Bob’s Serial Sniper series from OnAllBands:
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Bouvet Island has been much in the DX world news this year, thanks to the terrific operation by the 3Y0K team.
In 1999, I was residing in rural Sonoma County, California. I had a good setup and lived on a ridge. My station at the time was a KWM-380 transceiver, driving a Henry 3KA amplifier to 1,500 watts out, and a Skyhawk tri-bander 60 feet high.
Editor’s Note: The 20/15/10M Skyhawk Yagi has been sold exclusively through DX Engineering since 2014.
It was a fine DXing station, and I was becoming bored with it all. I loved working new countries, but at that point I had worked pretty much everything that was available, and the occasions to work new ones were very rare events.
So what to do?
I knew I had a problem and was kicking around several possibilities in my head. At a DX Club meeting in September, Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ, (co-founder of Elecraft) made a presentation of the new Elecraft K2 to the group. The radio was only offered as a kit. At $599 plus tax I could get a radio good for about 12 watts out on all the HF bands. For an additional $89 I could get the SSB module for the radio. I was fully prepared to be unimpressed, right up until I sat down and listened to it for perhaps five minutes. That was enough to make me realize this could be a serious piece of gear. I went home from the meeting in a thoughtful mood and placed my order a few days later.
Building & Operating the K2
I know what I’m doing with a soldering iron. In my younger days, having more time than money, I assembled Heathkits for myself and others. Summers in high school and college I worked in an electronics factory as an assembler and later as a technician. I built a KW amplifier from scratch. It had been years since I had undertaken any serious soldering project more than putting PL-259s onto coax. But I was game.
The kit arrived. It was very well organized and had a good assembly manual. It took me roughly 35 hours to build. Did it work the first time I applied power? Well… sort of. But there was no BFO, so I could not copy CW or SSB. A look at the circuit diagram gave me a suspicion. Sure enough, I had wired in a diode backward. Twenty minutes later, joy! It was working beautifully. It was putting out a maximum power of 12 watts. Now, the QRP police will pull you over for exceeding five watts output, but I didn’t care. For me, 12 watts was close enough.
I set it up on a table next to my main rig and started working with it. Hey, this was fun! I put the radio on 20 meters and almost immediately started working DX with my mighty 12 watts. I do have to say that having a Skyhawk at 60 feet was, in modern terms, a significant force multiplier. Anyhow, the little box I had built had all the tools I needed to be a CW DXer. Split operation was well integrated. CW output was exceptionally clean—no clicks. The receiver was very sensitive. It had wonderful AGC characteristics and good receive selectivity.
Almost immediately, I began running a country count for QSOs with the little box. I was having a ball—the DXing juices flowing again. After several weeks, I assembled and installed the SSB module. Let me be honest: SSB has never been my favorite mode. I love CW DXing and like to think I’m fairly competent at it. That said, within limitations, SSB operation with the K2 was very acceptable. But for sure, 12 watts on SSB is a lot less effective than 12 watts of CW.
OK, now that I have explained my QRP credentials, let’s fast forward to working Bouvet Island with my little box.
Bouvet Island, a small island in the far southeast Atlantic Ocean, is considered the world’s most remote island and has always been a rare country for DXers. The first significant DXpedition of modern times was the 3Y5X operation in late December 1989/early January 1990. It racked up 50,000 contacts on CW, SSB, and RTTY. But even with that many successful contacts, Bouvet remained in the top ten list of needed entities.
Norway had assigned the prefix 3Y to stations there, but of course, normally there were none. Ten years later, the DX Community was electrified when 3Y0C came on the air. By design, the activation was totally unannounced ahead of time. The sole operator was Chuck Brady, N4BQW. Chuck’s resume, both in life and in ham radio, was exceptional. Professionally, he was an MD. He was a naval captain, NASA astronaut, and well-regarded scientist. In his ham radio career, he had contacted students while on the space shuttle Columbia as part of the Shuttle Amateur Radio EXperiment program (SAREX).
After he completed his astronaut tour, he helped activate Kure Island, Palmyra, Kingman Reef, Midway Island, Wake Island, and Baker and Howland islands—all rare countries. Then, in December 2000, came the stunning announcement that he had begun operation as the solo ham operator from Bouvet Island, serving as a member of a Norwegian scientific expedition. (Sadly, I use the past tense in all of this because Chuck passed away in 2006.)
In spite of extremely difficult weather conditions—with winds topping 120 mph—and heroic efforts to keep antennas up, he was able to make 17,000 contacts, the bulk of them on SSB. Near the end of his operation, I was not in the log. Twelve watts of SSB was not going to make the grade in a time of howling pileups. Me and my mighty 12 watts were getting desperate. During his last few days on Bouvet Island, along with his regular operation, Chuck was working list operations with a fellow in North Carolina, where Chuck had long-term roots. These lists were occurring in mid-afternoon California time. They were high up in the General Class portion of the 20 meter band.
What Are List Operations?
List operations in those days were, in some respects, similar to the DX net operations of today. The idea was that stations in good communication with the rare DX station would call for a list of people to work. Everyone would call the list-taker, and he or she would select typically ten stations to be on the list. Then the list-taker would pass the list to the DX station, who would, in turn, start calling and working the stations from the list one by one.
Though I don’t know this for a fact, I strongly suspect the list-taker, a WA4 (a southeastern U.S. prefix) who lived in North Carolina, was a friend of Chuck who was helping a lot of the locals get through. Like most serious DXers, I disliked lists—too much like shooting fish in a barrel—but again, like most DXers, pragmatism ruled. So, every day I tried to get on the list. I was a quick study and learned a few things about lists. For one, once I knew I could actually hear the DX station with my Yagi pointed at him or her, the thing to do was to move the Yagi and aim it at the list-taker. It was he or she you had to contact to get on the list—the rare DX station was an after-the-fact dessert.
Sadly, I was unable to get on the list after trying for multiple days. It seemed W4s were favored—and, of course, they were much closer to the list-taker AND not running 12 watts.
Then came March 1 in UTC time. The DXpedition was to end the following day. I was becoming increasingly despondent. Spring was coming; maybe I could take up golf? It was do or die time. At about 2300 UTC, the last day of February, I listened to the list-taker starting a QSO with the 3Y, obviously on schedule. With my Yagi on the 3Y, he was about 4 by 4—not great but probably good enough for a QSO in a one-on-one situation.
The WA4 list-taker gave him a 5 by 7. After a few exchanges of remarks, including Chuck stating that he was about to pack up, the list-taker passed Chuck a short list of stations already somehow on the list. The list went through, not without some difficulty, as some of the stations had very poor copy on the 3Y. Then the WA4 took another list—this time over the air, and once again I failed to make the grade. Rinse and repeat for several more lists.
But conditions began to change. It was becoming obvious that the North American East Coast was losing propagation, as evidenced by list station reports: “When last heard, you were 3 by 3, 3 by 3, over over.” (“Last heard” probably meant 40 minutes earlier!) And there was no response from Chuck; he could not hear them. The sun was well down on the East Coast by this time, and the band, at least to the southeast, was closing. In the meantime, his signal to me on the West Coast was slowly building. Chuck was now a comfortable 5 by 7 copy for me.
Finally, I heard the WA4 tell Chuck that he no longer had any copy. Chuck did copy him and attempted to respond, trying to set up a schedule for the following day, but the WA4 heard nothing.
“3Y0C, here is Whiskey Niner Kilowatt, Norway, Italy, that’s Whiskey Niner Kilowatt, Norway, Italy, Over.” My heart stopped beating… “Roger. W9KNI from 3Y0C, you are 5 by 6. Can you copy WA4xxx and pass him a message?”
“Roger, thanks for the report. You are 5 by 7 to 8, and running QRP here, 12 watts. Handle is Bob. I can copy WA4xxx and would be glad to help. Over.”
“OK, thanks Bob, good copy. Your QRP is doing great. Please tell him there is a good chance I will be able to meet him tomorrow, same as today, OK? Over.”
“OK, will do. Stand by while I turn my antenna to him.” Which I did. And now, marvel of marvels, the WA4 came back to me. NOW he could hear me. I passed the message, got a thanks, cleared, and turned my antenna back to the 3Y station.
“OK, Chuck. He did copy me, and I passed the message. He will be there tomorrow if you are.”
“OK, much obliged. Going to QRT now; work to do. 73 and again thanks. W9KNI from 3Y0C clear.”
I sat there stunned, a golden glow over my spirits. I had just worked a very rare country using very low power, from a radio I had built myself, and with an antenna I had assembled myself, mounted on a tower I had put up myself. AND I did not have to work him from being on a list!
Aftermath: Chuck’s departure from the island was delayed several days by horrendous weather, so he made a few more contacts before leaving. He kept all logs by hand on paper, which were later transcribed into digital mode and posted on Clublog… and my call is not in there. I have no idea why. Yet, after his return stateside, Chuck and I exchanged several messages, in which he commented that he had read my book and loved it, and thanked me for helping out with the WA4. He remembered the QSO. And, since I did not need it for DXCC, having worked Bouvet ten years earlier, I never sent for a QSL. The contact is in my log and in my heart—a special moment.
And a reminder: Never give up until the ship has sailed! The contact with Bouvet was DXCC country #260 with my little QRP rig at 12 watts. QRP DXing is fun!
The post Legendary DXer Bob Locher, W9KNI, Presents Tales from a Serial Sniper Part 4: My Bouvet Island QRP QSO with 3Y0C appeared first on OnAllBands.
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