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Hey, good evening everyone. It's time for HamTalk
Live. It's episode number 138. The VP6D Doocy
Island D Expedition recorded live on Thursday,
October 25th, 2018. I'm your host, Neil Rapp,
WB9 VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this episode
of HamTalk Live. Tonight we're joined by Glenn
Petrie, KE4KY. and Gene Spinelli K5GS and we'll
take your calls live in just a few minutes. Last
week here on the show Russ Woodman K5TUX and
the LHS podcast gang was here to talk about Linux
in the ham shack. So if you missed that listen
anytime you want at HamTalkLive .com or your
favorite podcast app or on YouTube. A few announcements
again, lots of things going on right now, so
we do have a few announcements I need to get
in here. My friend Kevin Zerry, KK4YEL down at
Kennedy Space Center, wanted us to announce that
the NASA radio clubs have a very special slow
-scan television event planned for Saturday at
about 1000 Zulu. The ARIS and Russian international
partners have enabled a special transmission
of 12 images to celebrate NASA on the air. So
tune in on 145 .800 and for more about this tune
into my story on Amateur Radio Newsline which
comes out tomorrow morning at arnewsline .org
or a repeater near you. So don't miss the Special
slow scan television event from the International
Space Station The t -shirts for ham talk live
the made the grid square be yours shirts We're
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your size, get your orders in this week. And
last thing, the ARRL division director ballots
should be in your mailbox by now. So if you're
an ARRL member in the Central, Hudson, New England,
Northwestern or Roanoke divisions, you should
have a ballot. So make sure you vote and those
ballots are due back to Newington by November
16th. So be sure to check your mail and vote
and if you didn't get yours, let ARRL staff know
so that way they know that... you know, there's
something wrong there and they can work with
you. So don't forget about that. So we're going
to talk de -expeditions tonight. Ducey Island
is the big one right now, so we'll talk about
that and we'll give you a chance to talk to them
live via satellite phone hopefully as long as...
the satellite phone works. So get your questions
ready to go. And after the interview, you can
give us a call at 812 -NET -HAM -1. That's 812
-638 -4261. Or you can Skype us. It's HamTalk
Live on Skype. You can also tweet us at HamTalk
Live on Twitter. And I'll be back with Glenn
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on The early bird may get the worm, but the second
mouse gets the cheese. You're listening to Ham
Talk Live with Neil Rapp. Thanks once again to
ICOM for sponsoring the show tonight. They help
bring you AMTALK LIVE each and every week. Our
guest tonight is Glen Petrie, KE4KY. He's been
a licensed amateur radio operator since 1975.
First as WN4CSH and then WA4CSH. Glen spends
his time chasing DX or participating in the major
contests throughout the year, especially with
CW and RIDDY. He's been on the expeditions himself,
including ZL9HR and VK9MT, along with Gene Spinelli,
K5GS, who we will hopefully talk to live on Ducey
Island at the bottom of the hour. He is the chief
pilot for the VP6D Ducey Island De -Expedition,
and his wife has excellent taste in what college
team to cheer for, but just to show that I Don't
discriminate as a Kentucky Wildcats fan. Yes,
I've invited a Louisville Cardinals fan to be
on the show. Glenn, thanks for coming on. Well,
thank you very much. And I'm very happy to be
able to represent the EP6D De -Expedition team
on your show tonight. And we won't mention anything
about red or blue. No, we won't. But just real
quick. My wife Alinda we're gonna have a 35th
wedding anniversary in a few days So I can't
thank her enough for her allowances for over
the years Here especially here recently to let
me go on the 2d Expeditions that I went on because
it did take a lot of time a lot of resources
And I couldn't have done it without the without
the help of her You're a very smart man to remember
to say that so yeah brownie points Exactly Well,
tell us how this DXpedition for Ducey Island
came about and the website and all the funding
and everything about getting this one off and
rolling. Well, the VP6D DXpedition was formed
after the 2017 International DX Convention out
in Visalia, California. The people that organized
this one also organized VK9MT, also TX3X, Chesterfield
Islands here just in 2015. So basically what
they did was they formed up a team with the team
leaders, Gene being one of the co -organizers.
The team leader for this is Dave, K3EL, Les,
W2LK. What they try to do with our mission statement
is we try to go to rare, semi -rare DX locations,
entity locations. Basically, when you're starting
to get in the wheelhouse of being in the top
30, top 25, you're in those areas where this
team likes to try to organize their DX expeditions.
And the funny thing was is that after this was
formed, what we determined was because of what
Club Log did to a lot of their statistics, it
kept rising in its most wanted status. It was
in the high 20s. And then as they started to
do some research with the numbers and the gentleman
that runs Club Log started crunching numbers,
it ended up being number 19 overall most wanted
as far as Club Log is concerned. So we were very
happy that this ended up being a top 20 de -expedition.
And the last time Doocy was on the air as a D
expedition with VP6DX in 2008. Sometimes you'll
see some overlap of some people that have been
somewhere before, but all of the team members
that are on VP6D, this is their first trip to
Doocy. One thing about it is that the Braveheart
also went to Doocy in 2008, and that was their
transportation of choice after they started.
trying to cull all of the opportunities to get
to the island. The Braveheart was the was the
choice, the best choice for this particular de
-expedition. So they were able to to use a repeat
on that. One thing about Ducey Island is it's
uninhabited. It basically is ran by the Pitcairn
government. It's in a protected marine area,
which means you have to do a lot of extra special
things. And when it comes to these de -expeditions,
sometimes the funding becomes more important
because it's harder to get into some of these
areas because of the protected status. And so
it's in a protected area, which means it takes
a little bit more for an operator of a boat,
a ship, to be able to get in there. After the
formation of the team, the most important thing
obviously was getting the license, getting the
permission to actually be on the island, securing
everybody's passport and credentialing to be
able to get in through customs and so forth.
It's about 535 kilometers east of Pitcairn Island.
Another de -expedition has just stated they're
going to Pitcairn here pretty soon. And Pitcairn
Island has a historical context from the standpoint
of the Christian, Tom Christian, Mutiny on the
Bounty that a lot of us have seen the movie and
also read the book. So it kind of places it in
an area of the Pacific Ocean that a lot of us
can have visions of what it's like to be there
already just from those different things. Right
now the team is composed of 14 radio operators.
I can go through those later if somebody would
like to, to be able to go over the operators.
Most of the operators on these de -expeditions,
usually in these, the ones that are the most
wanted, you're gonna see a lot of people that
have had prior de -expedition experience before.
They come from a background of de -expeditioning.
extensive contest experience and so that's where
our team pretty much comes from is from people
who have either done the expeditions large or
small or they're accomplished in the the contesting
world as well and so equipment is one of the
biggest problems with with the logistics of getting
all the equipment there how do you get it there
getting it shipped there through customs and
then suppliers for the equipment. We cannot thank
the people that have helped us out with equipment
such as Ellicraft, the antenna suppliers, just
everything that we can think of. And I encourage
everyone to go to the VP6D website and look at
the people that have been supporters of the D
Expedition from the standpoint. of corporate
sponsors, and those are the people that you see
routinely supporting de -expeditions, whether
it's ours, whether it's Heard Island, or anybody
else that you can think of for good, the Baker
Island, the one that just finished, you're gonna
see the same corporations, the same companies
that have stepped up each time to support de
-exing in the amateur radio ranks, and so try
to support those people that support us. Yeah,
it's really important that you have that support.
I know these things are not cheap and It's really
important to have all that equipment around so
you can be ready to go and deal with things that
may not work right and all that. You know, you
can't just run out to the store and pick up something
while you're on Ducey Island. So it's real important
to have that. So let's talk a little bit about
the funding of this. How did the funding go?
How's the fundraising going? And tell us a little
bit about that and if people want to donate,
how they can do that. Well, they can still donate
to the vp6d .com page. We'll be more than happy
to accept any donation, large or small, and it
doesn't have to be all that big. Corporately,
if more DXers just chipped in in a small sort
of way, it could help these DXpeditions in a
big fashion. Think the funding goal for VP 60.
I was looking on the website. It has been met
since the expedition started, but I believe it
was the total I have it right in front of me
the total of the of the D expedition budget was
about a hundred seventy five thousand dollars
was budgeted for the for the D expedition to
cover all of our costs And what we were hoping
to raise on the website was about $65 ,000. And
according to the website, when I looked at it,
it doesn't give a total amount. But we have exceeded
what our goal was just through the web page of
$65 ,000. So anything that anybody gives beyond
this is just going to help defray some of the
additional costs that we incurred for shipment.
The team is trying to pick up about 50 % or better
of the de -expedition cost. And so any of the
donations that come in just help to defray that
and help the de -expeditioners because none of
the monies that's donated by any of the foundations,
clubs or individuals go for airfare, go for the
stay or food or anything like that of the teams
while they're positioning and ready to go on
the de -expedition. All of those all of those
monies go directly to de -expedition related
costs. So the de -expeditioners themselves have
to come up with a lot of money. Sometimes it's
more than others depending on where they're going.
for airfare to get to where they're going to
stage, to stay for the two or three days before
and after the de -expedition in order to get
equipment and other things sorted out, loaded
on a boat or loaded on a plane, depending on
where they're going. So all of those costs are
absorbed by the de -expeditioners themselves.
So anytime that there's any extra that can be
left over to help defray some of the extra costs
that the team decides to pick up on their own,
it goes a long way. Trust me, it's not a making
venture for any of the DXpeditioners. All of
the money that's spent, I mean still a lot goes
out of the DXpeditioners pocket and so it's just
nice and it's very nice for the DX community
to be able to look at the DXpeditioners and thank
them for what they're doing, for going out and
doing this by supporting them as best they can
individually. Well, that's an understatement.
And we really appreciate all that they've done
and appreciate all those that are supporting
the cause. Well, we're going to talk a little
bit about how to work the team and I'm just going
to play a couple of clips here actually. Monday
night I got on from home on the dipole at 10
o 'clock at night on 20 meters Which was a bad
idea to start with and and I could hear but it
was really weak I couldn't get through so kind
of gave up quick, but Yesterday I ran up to the
school shack after school And just thought, oh,
we'll see if I can have any luck. And I had them
within two minutes. No more than got the radio
on, set the split up, and was on the air and
got them on the first call on 20 meters. So I
decided, well, we'll run over to 15 and see what
we get. And I get there on 15, and I have to
work at it for a little while. But then I hear
this. Kilo Echo, four kilo Yankee, Haigland,
five nine. Thanks, yeah, well we're getting some
good numbers really pleased with it and thanks
for all your support Yeah, we hope so we're shooting
for that 7 -3 Glenn have fun. This is Victor
Papa 6 Delta 5 to 15 So I caught you working
them This is awesome. That is absolutely awesome.
I when you sent me that I was so surprised that
that was just just great So I hung in there for
a few more minutes and and this is how mine went.
You know Bravo eight Romeo Yankee five nine I
Mean there's some there's some stateside stuff.
That's not that clear. I mean that they were
just booing in Yes, they were absolutely booming
in and very quickly when I when I worked Steve
yesterday or the other when you got that clip
I was just sitting there listening to him for
probably close to an hour and he just kept building
and building in strength. And so finally I just
decided to give it a try. And so it took about
maybe five minutes worth of trying out. I didn't
flip on the amplifier. It was just the 100 watts
with the 10 element log that I have up about
60 feet. And it didn't take too long, I don't
feel like it took too long, but it was very good
to be able to speak to a team member. I've worked
with him on the back side, doing some testing
with some things, so it was just very gratifying
to be able to speak to a team member and express
to them how good of a job that they're really
doing because sometimes when you're there and
you're tired, you're fatigued, you're either
hot, you're either cold, depending on where you're
at, it's just very good to be able to have a
friendly voice, somebody you know go say, hey,
you all were just doing a bang. job, just keep
it up. Yeah. And I had to laugh at the, uh, he's
working the split because Monday night I went
upstairs, got on the X summit, found out what
the split was, put, put everything into both
VFOs had it all ready to go. And about a minute
later I hear he is working split. And I'm thinking,
Oh geez, you know, somebody's not. not doing
this right and then I look down and oh that's
me I forgot to hit the split button I had had
all the frequencies in everything ready to go
so it's been happening quite a bit in fact uh
even saw a post 12 ago somebody said we should
start a VP 60 drinking game that uh every time
you hear he's working split you take one so I
don't know so so they're working split Yes. So,
we can remember that. We all do that, you know.
Yeah, I mean it happens to the best of us that
we don't hit split button or something catches
our, or we're trying too fast to get to where
we're going, but as long as you recognize it
quick, it's just recognized as something that
happens. The other thing that's happening is
FT8, new mode for the Expeditions. You know just
recently that started being used and there's
still some misconfigured FT8 stuff going on Well,
what's happening is and there was just a I just
received an email something that's going to be
going out to all of the the editors DX world
DX news some of the bulletins and so forth And
what they have here is they have two camps. They
have a sideband camp, a CW camp, and in the middle
is a headquarters. And the two station camps
are a kilometer apart. And so what they have
is they have this infrastructure that they had
to lay out in order to be able to send the data
back and forth, in order to be able to get up
to DXA, in order to be able to get to the logs
and so forth, the way the computers are networked
for logging. And so this network infrastructure,
it has just been tenuous. It has just been difficult
for them to keep up. They've been drenched for
the last couple of days. And I'm sure if Gene
gets on, he will tell you that they just started
drying out today from some torrential rains that
they've had, some storms, a little bit of wind,
but nothing that caused any damage. And so it's
just one of these things where these networks
are just, they're not 100%. And so they're noticing
a lot of dupes, a lot of duplicates. And what
they're going to be asking is that if you've
already worked them, just give them a chance.
And I have been assured that there are no lost
QSOs. Now, some people are saying it shows up
on DXA, but it doesn't show up in the log. Then
vice versa. I have a FTA 17 meter contact that
showed up on DXA. My call rolled over the internet.
on DXA just like it should. It registers on DXA
as a band slot, but it's yet to be uploaded to
the log. I'm personally not going to worry about
it because it's one of those things that in order
for it to get to DXA, it had to go through a
log, so it's somewhere. So I'm sure they'll work
it out. And it's caused a little bit of angst
among the DXers because Number one, they want
to see it on DXA. And then number two, there
have been some FTA CUSOs that have not ended
up in the log. There's also been some CW contacts
that did not initially end up in an upload. And
I think they've caught up with that because the
network was down because of the rain that they
were experiencing. And I think that was addressed
in a statement that came out from the island
today. Gene is able to send some things to Twitter,
and I think you could probably tell when it's
me doing things on social media, either Facebook
or Twitter, as opposed to the statements that
sound like they are coming directly from the
island itself. So Gene does have the ability
to be able to send those Twitter posts, and I
think there was something that was sent out today
about don't worry about the lost CWQs. They're
there. They'll get up. So it has been a little
bit of a challenge for them and my inbox has
been overloaded with emails about the FT8, the
DXA, and some missing QSO issues. The best I
can tell you is I can't do anything about what
is either in the log or not in the log. I can't
check the log. I don't have access to logs. All
I can tell you to do is if you think you have
a good QSO, if you can get a snippet or a screenshot
of it, save it. If you can print the FTH string
that shows that you got the Roger Roger 73, keep
it. After the de -expedition is over with, well
after the de -expedition is over with, let the
guys come home, unpack their suitcases, and then
you can start our webpage very clearly states
if you think you have a busted call and not in
log and you are sure that you made the contact
there is a mechanism for you to do an inquiry.
And that's what we're asking everybody to do
is just be patient. And so there's a mechanism
there to try to get you your cue and get you
credit for it. And I'm sure that we have on the
island, I know of two guys that are programmers.
There's probably some other folks that are there
on the island that are also IT equivalent. So
it's not like this is. something that's escaping
them because of inexperience or inability. I
think it just has a lot to do with a lot of issues
with the infrastructure, the rain, the networks
that are having to use. And so it's just one
of those things. It's just one of those things
that happen. And all you can do is say, we're
sorry for it, but we're marching forward. All
right. Well, I want to get to our break because
we're expecting a call from Gene and we don't
want to keep them on hold with satellite phone
calls. So we're gonna take a break. We'll be
back with Glenn and hopefully Gene live from
Ducey Island right after this word from Tower
Electronics right here on HamTalk Live. Hey honey,
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and We're hoping to get a call here from Jean
here in just a moment And we've got some of your
tweets coming up, but we'll We'll kind of hold
off on that until we see if Jean can get through
on the on the satellite phone but We hope to
have a report from him live. So we'll give him
a minute or two Glenn one thing that we wanted
to talk about was on the other end on the user
end of FT8 A lot of people are not configuring
their their FT8 correctly to to be heard down
there Yes, they need to make sure that they're
using one of the latest versions of the FTA program
I should have written it down, but I don't. But
they can go to our p6d .com page, and they will
find the FT8 instructions there. The most important
thing is to be in the Fox Hound mode. If you're
not in Fox Hound mode, you're going to be causing
a lot of inadvertent QRM. I imagine what it could
do is if you thought you were parking yourself
on top of their transmit frequency, the streams
that they're they're transmitting out is you
would just be blocking them from somebody that
they're trying to work. So it's very important.
I think we've got Gene on the line here. So let's
hang on. We'll come back to that. Gene. Hey,
welcome to Hamcock Live all the way from Ducey
Island. Thank you. We're happy to be here. All
right, this is Gene Spinelli K5GS live on Ducey
Island. So Gene, I know you don't have a whole
lot of time here. So tell us what's going on
at the moment. Well, at the moment the rain has
finally stopped. It's been raining here for about
three days and we've been heavily saturated both
outside and inside the tents. having a little
difficulty, but I think as of this afternoon
we're drying out. I'm standing on the northeast
side of the island staring out at the Pacific
Ocean. The Braveheart is anchored about 300 meters
from shore. We have three camps built. One camp
is the central camp we call the headquarters,
where we keep our computers and satellite uplinks.
We have another tent called the single sideband
tent camp there are four stations in that camp
and then on the other side of the island we have
the cw camp with four more stations i am staring
at the satellite antennas and uh and uh we have
a six meter eme antenna that we've installed
yesterday in a rainstorm and we're working with
that over the next couple of days But it's been
wonderful. The weather, other than the rain,
is pleasant. It's 65 to 75 degrees and sometimes
humid, sometimes not humid, but the sun is always
very hot. The consistency of the island is a
lot different than the previous islands we've
landed and done the expeditions from being Melish
Reef and Chesterfield Island. Those islands were
comprised of crushed coral, and some low vegetation.
This island surprised me a little bit because
it is about three meters above sea level and
heavily vegetation, heavy vegetation, trees and
shrubs, I would say consistent of what you would
find in a jungle. So it's pretty interesting.
There was a de -expedition here 10 years ago
this month. And we found their old camp, and
we're set up in one of their old camps. So that
saved us a lot of work. Oh, nice. The boat crew
is supporting us. Yeah, it's really cool. The
boat crew is supporting us. We have a couple
of crew members here, 7 by 24, to keep the generators
running and to keep the team fed. We have 14
men from, I think, five different countries.
We're operating 7 by 24 All right Yeah, how are
things going on the air? What what what are your?
What are your best bands and modes so far and
that kind of thing? To wear on all bands almost
the pileups have been fantastic propagation and
wonderful 1720 I would tell you are the most
active that I can tell you about 40 meters of
course at night We've made quite a few contacts
on 160 already and 80. So, you know, those are
the traditional DX edition bands. The pileups
have been relatively, how shall we say, well
behaved. Sometimes they get a little out of hand.
But nonetheless, we're pretty happy with the
way it's been going, the way the DX is. who are
calling us are following the traditional protocols
for DXPILOT. Probably the one question or one
request that we have is we ask the people to
stop, not to dupe us, there's a lot of people
we know need this for an all -time new one and
they want to make sure they're in the log so
they call us twice and that's kind of wasting
our time and taking a contact away from somebody
else. Yeah, I was listening yesterday actually
worked you guys yesterday and heard a lot of
times that you know They'll say oh, you know,
we've already got you in the log. Here's the
date. Here's the time We've already got you and
so please don't you know, don't do that again.
So I know that's that's been Go ahead no, go
ahead No, I said I've been doing this for a long
time I can understand somebody's enthusiasm for
something like this and they want to make sure
they're they're in the long This island probably
will not be activated for another 10 years So
it's it's it's in demand and and we'll try to
We'll try to become very bored by our last operating
day, which is about seven days from now If we're
bored, that means the pileups is pretty much
subsided Now Jeff wheel guess kb9 BVL Posted
earlier on Facebook said we're going to come
up with a VP 6d drinking game that that every
time you hear somebody call on your calling frequency
You take a drink. So we got to remind people
that you're running split Well, fortunately,
I can't hear them calling on my frequency, so
I guess I go without drinking. All right. Well,
Jeff, there you go. So what advice do you have
for people who are trying to get you? I just
played a clip actually yesterday of both Glenn's
contact on 15 and mine. And I mean, it was clear
as a bell. But what advice would you give to
people trying to get you in the log? Well, you
know, I think it's the same with any of the expedition.
You have to listen, just have to listen a lot
and listen a lot more than you talk and try to
understand what the operator is doing, trying
to follow the operator's technique. Some in a
split will move up slowly and work people along
the way and then work down the split slowly and
work people along the way. You just have to learn
what the operator is doing. Position yourself
where you think there's an open spot and the
operator will find you. I've done that a lot
myself. It's a lot easier than sitting there
calling and calling and calling. So you just
look for what the operator is doing. And of course,
you have to do it when you can hear us. You'd
be surprised at the number of people that will
continually call even though they don't hear
the DX very well. So you've got to play propagation.
You listen for the loudest signals for your location,
for your time of the day, and that's when you
should be in here calling us, not when you can
barely hear us because we can barely hear you.
Well, I know you've just got a couple of minutes
left here on the sat phone but we did want to
take a call and we do have a Call on the line
here. So I believe this is Scott. Yes Yes, it
is. It's killer zero Mike Delta and I know gene
because he was my first Contact this the expedition
on DC gene. I'm I appreciate you hearing my call
Yeah, I've got how are you I remember a thing
in the log Yeah, I know I'm well you guys are
doing a wonderful job I wanted to just say I'm
really impressed having worked you and listened
to your pileups on 12 meters through 160 what
a great job your operators are doing I've not
encountered the expedition where everyone is
just so good so calm so logical so patient with
all of the callers It's best I can tell you guys
are Well on your way to becoming the Expedition
of the Year with your team. And Glenn, thanks
for all your support with Gene and the team.
You guys are just really incredible. Mike, congratulations.
Thank you, Scott. And Scott, thanks for your
comments. We saw your comments on the pilot reports
that we received this morning. So thanks for
your comments. You're very welcome. Thanks for
being there and doing it. And safe travels home
in a couple of weeks. I still see a lot of Twitter
reporting today about people still excited to
work you. So I think the pileups are going to
stay deep and hungry for a while. Are you guys
going to be on the contest this weekend at all
by chance? Yes, we are. We will be in the CQ
Worldwide SSD Contest. I can't tell you where
right now, but we just made that decision about
an hour ago. Well, that would be really exciting.
And Glenn, I hope you can put that on Twitter.
That's going to really excite the contest to
have this zone available for the first time in
a long time 73 thanks again congratulations neil
as well on a great show tonight thanks scott
all right gene i i don't want to keep you much
longer here so any uh we'll talk to glenn a little
bit about some of the qsl information that kind
of thing but any uh any last uh comments here
before you take off uh And for everybody that's
listening, and that's great news about deciding
to operate CQ worldwide. No, I think all I ask
people to do is be patient and just persevere,
because that's the key in getting into a de -expedition
like this that's in heavy demand. But by next
week, we'll be operating for seven more days,
at least seven more days. unless there's some
dramatic change in the weather or some other
emergency. We'll be operating for seven more
full days and that should give everybody an opportunity
to get in the log, especially with FTA. FTA has
been just amazing. On the other bands die, we
go to FTA and there they are, there's people
calling us. It's just a wonderful mode. We've
got one more call here real quick mark Brown
in for BCD chimed in earlier and we've been so
busy We hadn't had a chance to to get him and
I know he's been trying to get through here.
So mark go ahead Great if gene is still on the
on the sat phone It is just a truly a pleasure
to to say hello and to say that you guys have
been doing it Absolutely over -the -top fantastic
job down there at Ducey Island I got a lot of
contacts in the log, I know a lot of other folks
do, and I just wish you guys safe travels, and
again, great job. Okay, thanks a lot, I appreciate
the comments, and you know, we also have to recognize
the crew of the Braveheart. These guys are absolutely
amazing, what they've done. When you see the
pictures, you won't believe it, what they put
together for us. It's just wonderful. I'm excited
to work you guys or see how things work in CQ
World Wide Phone this weekend. And I'm appreciating
to Tom, KE4KY. for putting out there the DXA
cluster and letting us know that there's another
place to find our contacts in the log. And sure
enough, I've been listening to the program tonight.
I contacted you guys on 10 meter phone today.
And honestly, you guys were 10 to 20 over 9 here
in middle Tennessee on 10 meters at 4 o 'clock
local time. It was just amazing. That contact
is in the log there on DXA. So yeah, I understand
your concerns about folks trying to work here
multiple times. We just got to be patient and
it's nice to know there's another source of information
out there that we can get our contacts confirmed
over OQRS too. OK, we're going to let Gene get
off the phone here, but Gene, thanks so much
for being here and best of luck with the rest
of the DXpedition and CQ Worldwide this weekend
and thanks so much for calling in. OK, Neil,
thanks a lot. I appreciate the opportunity to
speak to the DX community. I did lose you and
I came back on the phone. I lost the satellite,
but I just called back and thanks a lot for the
opportunity. We'll see you guys when we get home.
All right. Thanks and safe travels home. That's
Gene smell Spinelli K5 GS live on Ducey Island.
Thanks so much gene and seven three Yeah, and
mark three, bye bye and mark thanks for calling
in we appreciate it Yeah, Neil. This has been
a one of those over -the -top great the expeditions
I've I've got a matrix here in front of me that
a whole bunch of boxes checked off still more
to go but These guys have been doing an absolutely
fantastic job and thanks for the opportunity
to call in. And Tom, again, thank you for the,
uh, for mentioning that D X a as a web source
for confirming our contacts. Okay. Thank you.
All right. Nope. See you, Mark. Take care. 812
-638 -4261 is the number. We'll go a little over
time here tonight because we do have a few things
we want to get in. But if you want to give us
a call, you can. It's 812 -638 -4261. Glenn,
before we get too far here, we were talking about
configuring the FT8 and I think we got that pretty
well taken care of. But let's talk about the
QSL information real quick here before things
get away from us. Yeah, VP6D .com if you go there,
there's a log search feature. All of the contacts
that are there for the maritime mobile contacts
that were made are there. It's very easy to navigate
and once you're there it shows you how you can
and tells you how you can get your QSL card.
Gene and company created some software that they've
shared with M0URX and some other people, I believe,
as far as QSLing. And so it enhances the QSL
process for these guys that handle thousands
and thousands a month. And so the online QSL
process is very easily explained on our website,
and it should not be very hard to get the card
at all. If you got your card from TX3X, it's
going to be the same procedure. So very easy
to get the QSL, and the LOTW, for most people,
will probably be about five or six months after
the DEXpedition is over with, and you can read
the QSL policy there that the team has developed
on the webpage. as well. All right, very good.
And Jim, KF4WLS wants to know, is there a set
schedule for listening in the general class band
on 20? Not to speak out of school as far as a
strategy or anything like that, but obviously
the pileups for these wanted Entities can be
very the competition is very stiff. And so I
think what the what they're doing is is they're
working down the piles They're they're barely
at their halfway point if if they say that they
got another seven days They're reaching their
halfway point on this de -expedition. You are
probably going to start seeing shifts on the
things that they do just a little bit more. I've
been receiving emails from the RTTY guys. When
are you going to do RTTY? Because so far on the
stats that I have in front of me, and I can talk
about that in a minute, there's not very many
RTTY contacts in the log versus FTA. So hang
in there. Hang tough for the people that don't
have extra class privileges. They started today,
it's already been posted on social media and
some other places, some forums. I believe 14
-281, they were listening all the way up there
from time to time to try to get some folks in
the log. And I think that you will see as the
de -expedition progresses and the pile -ups actually
start to decrease in intensity, broadening that
out a little bit. Because if you went straight
up into the general band, the pileups are still
going to be the same. And so, uh, it, it, I think
it's just a strategy to kind of lessen the pileups
a little bit and then move and just adjust and
vary what you're doing to try to get the whole,
uh, the whole spectrum. Yeah. I know yesterday,
uh, my contact on 20 was, they were on, uh, I
think 14, 185 and then it was 14, 281 that they
were listening on. So they were already in the,
And the general part of the band. So that's,
uh, that's good news for those people who were
doing that. Uh, you know, just because they're
transmitting down there, it doesn't mean you
can't work them. It's just, uh, um, a very big
split. So, uh, let's see, we're trying to catch
up here with all the tweets. This is a bit of
a popular one. Uh, Troy Simpson, W nine KVR says,
uh, we got them today on 20 on FT eight first
call. 17 on sideband. Very strong signal. Better
than anything we had during school club roundup
this week. And boy I agree with that Troy. Those
school club roundup conditions were awful. And
he said Fox and Hound worked really well. So
thank you Troy for that. And we got Dr. Scott
Wright in here. We got Mark in here. We got Jeff,
and so I think we're caught up. So let's see,
anything else on the list here? I think we got
it. So Glenn, anything else that we need to talk
about here before we go? Well two things I want
to cover when I got the the stats for where the
d expedition is standing at this point in time
and 1806 Zulu was the last log upload today 1806
Zulu 51 ,827 total queues on that last log upload
is in the log. Now, DXA may show much more than
that by now, but 51 ,827. 50 % of those are USA.
Well, that's a given because the USA, it's right
in our back door. European contacts are 25%.
Asia is 13 % and then the rest of the geographical
areas really start declining there a little bit.
CWQs, 28 ,743. Sideband QSOs, 13 ,520. FT8, 8
,910. That could be 16, according to my writing.
So it's 8910, we'll just say. RTTY 646. So we're
really hitting the bands hard. It has just been
phenomenal with what I have seen. Other de -expeditions
have done very well. But I tell you what, this
one has just, it just surprised me how quick,
once they got on the air fully, Monday into Tuesday,
how fast the QSOs were just adding up. The other
thing I want to mention is, We have an additional
North American pilot. You can find his information
on VP6D .com under the team section. That's Mason,
KM4SII. He's a 14 -year -old. He may be 15 by
now, but I got to meet him up in Dayton this
year. He's assisting me with some of the North
American pilot duties, and he's an up -and -coming
ham. Starting to see him in some of the contests.
One of the, he's involved in one of the Young
Ham activities for the youth. Up and comer there,
look for him in the future to possibly be the
next big D Expeditioner in the next 15 or 20
years. We also, I also want to thank our pilots
from all over. Africa, Europe, Japan, Asia. Asia,
we have a pilot from Asia who covers the Baltic
states, the Eastern European region, Oceania
and South America. So all of the regions are
covered. They're sending information and data
to me. And you go, well, what does a pilot do?
Well, I'll give you a good short example. The
Europeans, and also Pista, H -A -5 -A -O, H -A
-5 -A -O in Hungary, he is the webmaster of VP6D,
has been helping me out tremendously. The Europeans
are basically cataloging what the best times
are for the bands, particularly on 12, 15 and
17 meters. And so after several days of seeing
what the de -expedition is capable of, what the
propagation is doing, they're narrowing down
their times of saying, this is when you need
to hit us. And that's what we're able to do as
pilots is funnel that information to the team
so that they can make adjustments in the coming
hours or the coming days. And so it's not that
we dictate what they do, but we can offer them
suggestions from the DX community about. how
can other regions or specific areas get into
the log a little bit quicker, a little bit easier.
And so by forwarding those kind of propagation
reports firsthand to the team within an eight
or a 12 hour basis of receiving them, it makes
it just. creates efficiency. And so I would encourage
anybody, not only in the US, but anywhere else,
to contact your regional pilot and provide them
what you think are things that could help aid
your geographical area of getting into this log
a little bit quicker. All right. All great information,
Glenn. And thanks so much for making the arrangements
to get all this going and all your work. spending
some time with us tonight on ham talk live and
it's just amazing it's gone really well I've
heard nothing but but great comments on how well
the operators are doing and and how well things
have progressed and of course conditions don't
always cooperate but you know you just keep fighting
through it and and I think I think everybody's
gonna be able to get a shot at this patience
and persistence that's the game yeah sure is
all right well I think we're gonna wrap things
up here tonight but thanks for coming on and
I appreciate all you've done and some good stats
there too. And again, visit vp6d .com and you
can see a lot of those statistics and where they
are. So great resource, great website as well.
Thank you very much. This has really been fun.
I appreciate it. I've done some things over the
internet on doing presentations on some of the
de -expeditions I've been on, but this was really
fun, and I'm glad you invited me to come on tonight.
All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate
you being here. That's Glenn Petrie, KE4KY, and
Gene Spinelli, K5GS. Thanks to both of them for
being on the show tonight, and everybody out
there in cyberspace for calling in and tweeting
in and commenting. And we invite you all back
next Thursday night at 9 p .m. Eastern Time when
HamTalk Live is back. And for a list of all of
our upcoming guests, visit HamTalkLive .com.
And if you like HamTalk Live, please consider
leaving us a review on iTunes or wherever you
listen. It helps others find us faster. So this
is Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7 -3, 7 -5. Good
luck on CQ Worldwide this weekend. And hey, we
get VP6D in CQ Worldwide, too. Now that's some
news. And of course, may the good DX be yours.
Thanks for watching.