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    #21
    VP6R News 22 October 2019 Message from W0GJ.
    We have been discussing what we see on the bands.

    On 160, 80 & 40M, EU is STRONGER than NA, especially at our sunset. It cannot be long path.
    We think some of it is that there is less need for VP6 in NA. Trust me, EU is STRONGER than NA and
    there is no need to call EU ONLY at this time. Our logs show far more EU than NA in the low band
    logs when EU is in the dark. Very interesting phenomenon.

    Please pass this along for those complaining the team is not standing by for EU on
    160, 80 & 40.
    73 Al 4L5A

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      #22
      VP6R Pitcairn Island Images 22 October 2019 part 1 From Nodir Tursun-Zade, EY8MM.



      VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 1

      Sailing to Pitcairn Island


      VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 2

      Early morning arrival. — in Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands.


      VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 3


      VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 4


      VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 5

      Antenna work. Camp 1.
      73 Al 4L5A

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        #23
        VP6R Pitcairn Island Images 22 October 2019 part 2 From Nodir Tursun-Zade, EY8MM.


        VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 6

        W0GJ, JR4OZR.


        VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 7

        160 m ant is ready for erection. — in Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands.


        VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 8

        RA6LBS matching box for perfect match. We used supplied DX Eng tuning network for 80 m vertical. — in Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands.


        VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 9

        Camp 2. Old radio site. — in Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands.


        VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 10

        QSO machines. JR4OZR, EA3HSO.
        73 Al 4L5A

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          #24
          VP6R Pitcairn Island Images 22 October 2019 part 3 From Nodir Tursun-Zade, EY8MM.


          VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 11

          RX antenna direction switching.


          VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 12

          1000 ft Beverage to EU. — in Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands.


          VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 13

          Camp 1 — in Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands.


          VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 14

          Beautiful Pitcairn — in Adamstown, Pitcairn Island


          VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 15


          Adamstown, Pitcairn Islands.
          Attached Files
          73 Al 4L5A

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            #25
            VP6R Pitcairn Island Images 22 October 2019 part 4 From Nodir Tursun - Zade, EY8MM.


            VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 16


            VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 17

            Sunset on camp 2.


            VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 18

            160 m station.


            VP6R Pitcairn Island 22 October 2019 Image 19
            73 Al 4L5A

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              #26
              VP6R Press Release 22 Oct 19

              Things are going well with the remaining team and the propagation has been wonderful to just about everywhere. We have had a lot of activity on 12M and some on 10M, including more EME contacts. We now have about 35,000 contacts in the log after 4 ½ days of operation.

              There are more FT8 contacts that have not been updated into our N1MM logging program. Some of the computers will not as yet add FT8 contacts to the N1MM log, but hopefully we can find a work-around to get this done. IF you see your FT8 contact confirmed with “RR73,” you can be assured that you are IN the log, even though it won’t show now on ClubLog. They will be merged from the WSJT log at some point.

              If you operate FT8, PLEASE READ THE MANUAL FOR WORKING US IN FOX & HOUND MODE!!! We see MANY calling us using a frequency below 1000 Hz. We can see you but the FT8 software does NOT see you. You MUST use a frequency above 1000 Hz to work us. We are transmitting usually somewhere below 500 Hz. The software will move your transmit frequency down automatically when your turn comes up in the que…..IF you have F/H mode set up properly. When conditions are good, we can work 300-400 stations/hour. Our peak rate with one station today was an incredible almost 900/hour!

              Our last antenna went up today for 60M and we will be QRV tonight and in the future on 5.357 FT8 F/H mode. We are limited to 100 watts and must be in satellite phone contact with New Zealand and to QRT if there is any interference to primary users of the frequency.

              We will continuously have at least one station active on 20M throughout our stay to hopefully provide a chance for everyone to make an all time new country contact.

              We will be entering the CQWW SSB Contest this weekend on all bands. There will be some operation on the CW bands and WARC bands during the contest.

              Our pilots are your contact points. We are aware of many “complaints” about this or that issue with the logs. These will all be corrected with time. If you have any doubts, please work us again if you did not show up in the log. Please use our pilots for reporting band opening times and long path openings to help us be there so we can get you in the log. This is the purpose of the pilot program.

              Our evacuated team member has made it to the hospital in Papeete, French Polynesia. Thanks for your prayers and concerns. All family members are aware, but for privacy, we will not release a name here.

              The weather is fine without rain…..yet. Today we watched the spring arrival of the whales for the season from our operating chairs. Spectacular!!!

              See you in the pileups!

              73
              Glenn W0GJ
              73 Al 4L5A

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                #27
                VP6R Pitcairn 24 October 2019. EY8MM.
                160 m shift. Full night. Lots of sparks from thunderstorms make RX to North almost impossible.


                VP6R Pitcairn Island 160m 24 October 2019 Image 1


                VP6R Pitcairn Island 160m 24 October 2019 Image 2


                VP6R Pitcairn Island 160m 24 October 2019 Image 3


                VP6R Pitcairn Island 160m 24 October 2019 Image 4


                VP6R Pitcairn Island 160m 24 October 2019 Image 5
                73 Al 4L5A

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                  #28
                  VP6R Press Release 25 October 2019

                  As of 0000Z this date, we have approximately 47,000 contacts in the log.

                  Late yesterday we were hit with a tropical storm with torrential rain and gale force plus winds. We had several antennas come down, but they are repairable and will be back up when it is safe to go outside, probably not until tomorrow morning.

                  We have had great band conditions from 160 to 10 meters. We had a very successful night on 60M 5.357 MHz two days ago and will be on again. We are using FT8 in Fox/Hound mode.

                  We have been working a lot of FT8 on all the bands (except 160M) and find that this “weak” signal mode is putting a lot of new and unique callsigns into the log, proving that this mode is valuable for a great many! Most DXpeditions, including VP6R, are using FOX/HOUND MODE. If you are not in F/H mode when you call us, it will be impossible to make contact. MAKE SURE THE RADIO TAB HAS SPLIT SELECTED and you have selected HOUND MODE ON THE ADVANCED TAB !!!!!

                  If the Hound is using the wrong software version, it does not respond properly to the Fox. The message formats are not compatible. The Fox will call the Hound three times and then they are dropped without making a successful contact.



                  Summary for a successful FT8 contact:

                  1. MUST use WSJT-X version 2.1.0 Any other version is INCOMPATIBLE!

                  2. MUST be in F/H mode

                  3. MUST be in SPLIT mode (in WSJT-X program, NOT your radio)

                  4. MUST set your transmit frequency ABOVE 1000 Hz



                  When conditions are good and everyone has FT8 set up properly, we have seen peak rates over 1000 contacts/hour and often sustained rates of 400 contacts/hour from a single station! And, yes, it is possible for one person to operate two stations at once. We do it often.

                  We will be on 160M with FT8 starting 0000Z, Tuesday, October 29. Frequency – 1.836 MHz. Mode: FT8 FOX/HOUND. Depending upon success, we might spend additional time in that mode on 160M.

                  We have had two successful schedules with the Dorothy Grant Elementary School (K6DGE) in Fontana, California. It has been fun to chat with the kids and answer questions. We love their enthusiasm!

                  We will be temporarily shutting down about 2200Z on Friday to prepare for the CQWW SSB Contest. We will be in the Multi/Multi category on all bands. If you need VP6 Pitcairn Island on SSB, look for us in the contest this weekend.

                  After the contest we will be back in “DXpedition mode” until October 31. That is when we must start dismantling to get ready to meet the Braveheart which will take us to Mangareva for the weekly flight back to Papeete, French Polynesia, and then to our homes.

                  Our next news will come after the CQWW SSB Contest.

                  73
                  Glenn W0GJ
                  73 Al 4L5A

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                    #29
                    VP6R Press Release 28 October 2019
                    We just finished working in the CQWW SSB Contest and made about 8500 SSB contacts on 160-10M. We had a lot of fun giving out a rare multiplier! Several worked us on all six bands.The VP6R team wants to thank everyone for working us during the contest. We hope you had as much fun as we did despite the challenging propagation conditions. We will now resume our regular DXpedition operations.
                    We now almost 60,000 contacts in Club Log with 4-5 full days of operation left.
                    We have had reports of several FT8 contacts not being uploaded to Club Log. We carefully documented a long session of FT8 and noted the stations that did not show up in “Fox.log” window, the log that FT8 creates in the Fox/Hound mode. We found about 1-2 “missing” contacts per hour. There is another text file that FT8 creates while running AND WE FOUND THE MISSING CONTACTS. One of our team members has written a program to extract them and add them to log database. The FT8 development team is now aware of this issue and this will be addressed in future releases. Summary: IF you have seen us send “YOURCALL RR73”, you can rest assured you ARE in the log and your contact WILL be uploaded to Club Log. Give us some time after we go QRT to extract and add the missing contacts to our logs.
                    We will have one more night on 60M this date (Oct 28) starting at about 0400Z.We will be on 5.357 MHz with FT8 F/H mode.
                    We will NOT have any RTTY operation on this DXpedition. We will continue to operate FT8 until we go QRT.
                    We have had several days of torrential rain with high winds. Some wind gusts were recorded over 100 mph. We have had damaged antennas, which, fortunately, have all been relatively easy to fix. The weather is starting to improve, but we are also near the beginning of the rainy season. Today we have had sunshine, then downpours, then sunshine. Repeat every 5 minutes. We can attest to the fact that Pitcairn boasts of “the world’s friendliest mud.”
                    We have two operation sites. The remote old Radio Site where all of the low band operation has taken place, will be dismantled after local sunrise on October 31. The next morning, November 1, we will be totally QRT and dismantle everything at our base location. Everything must be packed and stored. Some of the equipment we have used needs to be loaded onto the Braveheart for the South Orkney DXpedition. We depart Sunday, November 3, on the Braveheart.
                    73 Al 4L5A

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                      #30
                      Hi,

                      We plan one more night to be active on CW. We already retuned vertical back to Cw part
                      and start about 0245Z. Next night or two will be FT8 activation. There is still
                      chance of some CW but we are looking for good weather window to put Topband
                      vertical down (starting Wed). If forecast is good we might keep it till Friday.

                      We aware of high demand especially in EU and trying to maximize our efforts.

                      73 EY8MM/VP6R
                      73 Al 4L5A

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