For all the month of July they have been in vacation with the family in boat, nothing radio only a small marine vhf, I saw eve

IW0UEI expedition to JN30XN, August 2004

During the month of July I was on vacation with my family in the boat, no radio, only a small marine VHF. Every evening I saw a lot of meteors flying by and was thinking of my friends on the radio. Therefore I took a few free days to active JN30. The forecasts were good and the period the best possible one: during the Perseids.

Unfortunately I have only a small boat and because I had to be sure that the sea was good it was not possible for me to announce this far in advance.

August 10, 2004

Departure at 04:30utc from Sassari city, after approximately 30 minutes my wife and I are in the boat. We sailed around 05:15 and during the trip I installed the equipment. After about 1 hour and 20 minutes with the aid of a GPS we are in position in jn30xn.

My normal harbor is Tramariglio, a little cove in the large Porto Conte gulf, 11.5 NM from JN30XN.

The sea is very calm, almost no current and no wind so it is very difficult to keep the boat in a fixed direction. I do however mount the antenna. Around 07:00 a small breeze starts , therefore I lower the floating anchor and the boat is positioned with the prow to the North West. With a light delay I begin to transmit. My wife puts the decoys into the sea and by hand throws in the sardines. The result of the day will be a good one for me (18 qso) but not a single fish for my wife. Bursts are medium but frequent, qtf North.

August 11, 2004

Today is good day but because my wife had to go back to work I will be alone on the boat today and tomorrow. There is a breeze of about 7-8 knots from the South-West and with the experience of yesterday I am up and running fast. I notice that reflections are less than the day before but the burst are longer. The first two hours the antenna is heading North West, then to North. Total 10 qso. I go home at 11:00.

All night I am on the radio from home. I fall asleep at 02:00 and I sleep in the chair with three alarm clocks - I must be awake at 04:.00.

August 12, 2004.

Today the sea is very active already in the early morning, the waves are high: approximately 0.8m, this means that during the morning the sea will increase and the waves will get higher. In fact at 09:00 the wind is already force 3 and the boat is dancing. The antenna is aimed for North West but after two hours trying there is only one UK station in the log. 1 hour with the antenna towards the North until 10:00 I make 5 qso. When the wind increases to force 4 and the waves get higher at the beginning of the qso with PA5KM my antenna sometimes points into the water and the next moment back the sky. In these conditions it takes 1 hour for us to complete the QSO.

The bursts have been magnificently long and frequent but there were a lot that the program often did not decode. The S-meter often marked S9 even if the program indicated only 9-11db. Without greeting in the ON4KST Chat I recover the floating anchor and with great haste I return towards the port. During the return trip I have the waves on the flank and they make me suffer. The time to return is much longer than usual and I reach the safe harbour at 13.00z.

The experience has been very positive. I was only suffering from a great fatigue because for two days I was alone: transmitting, controlling the direction of the boat and watching carefully the development of the weather conditions.

In september I will be QRV again, also from JN30, but then only transmitting for 3 hours per trip beginning at 06:30z in the morning, finishing to 09:30z for 5 days with one or two day intervals. I will try to announce the exact day on the evening before because I must be reasonably sure of the weather conditions and reflections before making the final decision. During these trips I will operate the same way as on the last trips: No skeds, calling during the QSO is not useful. The next station will be the first one I decode after the QSO is complete.

The numbers:

12 hours of operation.

37 FSK441 QSO’s, 4 SSB QSO’s.

75 Nautical Miles sailed

9 hours of sailing

8.5 knots average speed

0.250 kg of coffee

Equipment used:

Icom IC820h

Icom IC706 (spare radio)

Microset PA 70W output

Dressler preamp with CF300

5 element antenna (part of a 9 element)

4 meter H1000 cable

Toshiba X3000 notebook computer

Homemade Audio/Vox interface

JN30XN Operation LOG, August 2004

Date	UTC	Station	Locator	Best P/B (ms/db)	Mode	Via
2004-08-10	07:40	DJ9YE	JO43HV	380/7	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	07:45	DL8EBW	JO31NF	15000/6	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	07:49	OK2ZW	JN89HI	680/6	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	07:50	IW1BCV	JN44FS	S/R=5-9/5	SSB	Tropo
2004-08-10	08:05	DG6JF/P	JO33QN	680/8	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	08:14	DK3EE	JO41GV	600/8	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	08:24	PA1GYS	JO22WW	1500/11	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	08:45	PE1AHX	JO21OS	700/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	08:51	G4FUF	JO01GN	3600/10	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	09:05	IZ5EME	JN52NS	S/R=5-9/5	SSB	Tropo
2004-08-10	09:12	PE1HWO	JO21GV	1520/12	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	09:28	DK3BU	JO33NO	1600/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	09:36	DF7KF	JO30GU	2000/11	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	09:58	DK4TG	JO31LB	4000/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	10:20	DF2ZC	JO30RN	4230/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	10:34	PA3BIY	JO22EB	6000/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	11:12	DF8IK	JO30JT	6000/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-10	11:20	I8MPO	JN70FP	S/R=5-8/5	SSB	Tropo

2004-08-11	07:46	S57TW	JN75EX	6000/8	FSK441	MS
2004-08-11	08:00	HA6NQ	JN98WA	2500/6	FSK441	MS
2004-08-11	08:28	HA8CE	KN06EN	1200/6	FSK441	MS
2004-08-11	08:44	OK1DFC	JN79GW	380/11	FSK441	MS
2004-08-11	09:00	S51AT	JN75GW	400/11	FSK441	MS
2004-08-11	09:10	PA2CHR	JO22XA	6000/6	FSK441	MS
2004-08-11	09:22	DK7BY	JO33RJ	1200/8	FSK441	MS
2004-08-11	09:41	DL8BDU	JO43AA	1640/8	FSK441	MS
2004-08-11	10:01	ON4GG	JO20AR	11000/7	FSK441	MS
2004-08-11	10:57	OZ1PIF	JO65AN	9000/9	FSK441	MS

2004-08-12	07:40	EA6FB	JN08PW	S/R=5/5	SSB	Tropo
2004-08-12	07:49	ON4IQ	JO20AR	25000/8	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	08:04	F1DUZ	IN97NJ	30000/10	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	08:16	PA0JMV	JO21PM	20000/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	08:31	OZ2M	JO65FR	20000/5	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	08:44	DK1KO	JO53CT	26000/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	08:49	GW8ASA	IO81EM	30000/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	09:08	DF6NA	JN49XS	30000/8	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	09:31	DJ5BV	JO30KI	30000/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	09:44	PA5DD	JO22IC	24000/9	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	09:53	OZ1LPR	JO44UW	12000/8	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	10:04	PE1GNP	JO31IX	4600/8	FSK441	MS
2004-08-12	11:01	PA5KM	JO11WL	20000/8	FSK441	MS

Squares worked:

Stations heard and audiofiles

The following is a list of stations heard and/or worked and audiofiles available. If you are interested in receiving any of these audiofiles please let me know. I will send them in ZIP format. You can ask directly on the ON4KST chat site or via subdive-pleaseremovethis at libero dot it.

Date	Call	N.audio files
10-08-2004	DF2ZC	3
10-08-2004	DF7KF	6
10-08-2004	DF8IK	8
10-08-2004	DG6JF	2
10-08-2004	DJ9YE	3
10-08-2004	DK3BU	5
10-08-2004	DK3EE	2
10-08-2004	DK4TG	5
10-08-2004	DL8EBW	4
10-08-2004	F1DUZ	2
10-08-2004	G4FUF	15
10-08-2004	OK1FDD
10-08-2004	OK2ZW	5
10-08-2004	ON4GG	3
10-08-2004	OZ1PIF	4
10-08-2004	OZ2M	2
10-08-2004	OZ1LPR	5
10-08-2004	PA0JMV	1
10-08-2004	PA1GYS	5
10-08-2004	PA3BIY	5
10-08-2004	PE1AHX	3
10-08-2004	PE1GNP	2
10-08-2004	PE1HWO	8
10-08-2004	PE9DX	1
10-08-2004	S57TW	1

11-08-2004	DK7BY	4
11-08-2004	DL2ARD	1
11-08-2004	DL5GAC	2
11-08-2004	DL5LRB	1
11-08-2004	DL5ROB	2
11-08-2004	DL8BDU	4
11-08-2004	HA6NQ	2
11-08-2004	HA6ZB	1
11-08-2004	HA6ACE	5
11-08-2004	OK1DFC	3
11-08-2004	ON4GG	9
11-08-2004	ON4IMM	1
11-08-2004	ON7EH	4
11-08-2004	OZ1LPR	3
11-08-2004	OZ1PIF	3
11-08-2004	PA0JMV	1
11-08-2004	PA2CHR	2
11-08-2004	PA3FSA	1
11-08-2004	S57AT	2
11-08-2004	S57TW	4

12-08-2004	DF6NA	15
12-08-2004	DG2KBC	1
12-08-2004	DJ5BV	6
12-08-2004	DJ9CZ	14
12-08-2004	DK1KO	16
12-08-2004	F1DUZ	19
12-08-2004	GW8ASA	3
12-08-2004	ON1IMM	3
12-08-2004	ON4IQ	6
12-08-2004	OZ1LPR	6
12-08-2004	OZ1IEP	1
12-08-2004	OZ2M	3
12-08-2004	OZ8ZS	1
12-08-2004	PA0JMV	6
12-08-2004	PA1T	3
12-08-2004	PA3CSG	2
12-08-2004	PA5DD	4
12-08-2004	PA5KM	9
12-08-2004	PE1GNP	8
12-08-2004	Long Burst	3

QSL information

QSL only via direct. All QSO’s will be confirmed via postal mail, please send your card the same way to:

Antonio Achilli

P.O. Box 486

07100 Sassari

Sardinia

Italy

QSL cards for all QSO’s on this page have now been mailed. If you do not receive yours, please let me know.