News #6 April 2, 2018
The log correction XR0YD was done and the log is on Club Log. We received some requests for FT8-QSOs. If we didn’t receive all lines, we didn’t send 73. Without our 73 that means the QSOs is not complete and we cannot confirm it as QSO. The problem is that the signal strength can change very quickly with +/- 10 dB from period to period. Also QRM can destroy the QSO. For requests we will check the all.txt data file under well-meaning.
For further log requests contact Georg, dl4sva@darc.de please.
QSL-card preview
Two motives for our QSL card are designed and the paper QSL traffic will start around April 20th. LoTW first upload for our sponsors will follow still in April. For all others we will upload some months later.
Thank you all and enjoy our hobby
73 from XR0YD team
News #5 March 13, 2018
Our DXpedition comes to an end. It was a nice experience on the wonderful Isla de Pascua with friendly people and warm temperatures. We enjoyed great pile-ups and we are very satisfied with the high number of logged contacts on all bands. FT8 seems to be a great mode for the future with a lot of activity. It allows a deep decoding on each band.
We are going to QRT on Thursday (March 15) around 13 UTC.
A great THANK YOU to all who have worked us, sorry to all who were unlucky (this time). The log will be corrected when we are back in Germany and OQRS is already opened. Requests to dl4sva@darc.de please. Paper QSL traffic is going to start in approximately 6 weeks. LoTW will follow.
73 from the team XR0YD
News #4 March 10, 2018
All team members are in a good shape. The half time of our stay here is over. Our target with 30.000 QSOs is already reached. Pile Ups are still strong. Good to see that there are still operators who have their first QSO with us. We had stormy weather the last days and the 80-m-antenna was damaged but is already repaired. Today we had an unexpected power cut. Since that time the main power isn’t stable anymore. When writing these lines (14.00 Z) we don`t have any power.
FT8 seems us to be a good mode for long distance QSOs under unstable conditions. By the way “up” in CW means up 1 and more.
Please check our online log which will be actualized once daily. The team is disappointed about so many dupes. Please wait and check the log first! Of course the log will still include some mistakes.
Don’t call again some minutes later when you already sent a report. Mostly we are hearing rather well. We are also disappointed about no respect from some guys when we operate the difficult path to Europe.
We get several dozens of emails each day. It’s impossible to answer each. Remember also our slow internet connection. Requests for log entries will be checked after the expedition by our manager.
News #3 March 4, 2018
The XR0YD team is now nearly 2 days on the air. We now have all planned antennas up (18 m high vertical for 160 m, 18 m high vertical for 80 m, 15 m high vertical for 40 m, 10 m high loop for 30 m and a 5-band-spiderbeam, so we have three stations with 500 watts to 1 kW running. We are using a Pentaplexer and several band filters to avoid interferences. The team is really happy to have enough stable main power for all stations around the clock. There is also enough space for antennas, but it is not ideal for a good the take-off to the North. The fourth backup amplifier was damaged during transport.
The weather is hot during daytime with 28 °C. Andy, DH8WR, is the only Spanish speaking team member. Together with the ham radio friendly owner of our QTH Cabanas Honu Nui he is a great help for us. WiFi is available but slow. Some FT8-QSOs were done with only 100 watts.
The result of bad ham-spirit is quite a number of dupes in this early stage of this expedition. Why do some need second and third QSOs on the same band ? These dupe- making stations will get a delayed confirmation by our QSL- manager. So, think about ham spirit and give the other stations their chance to work us for the first time.
News #2 February 15, 2018
The preparation of our next serious low cost dxpedition to Easter Island is well in time. On March 1st we will have a visit with friends of the Radio Club de Chile.
Main equipment is private property of the team members. Thanks to our sponsors we were able to order a Pentaplexer 1500 watts which allows to work with three stations on three different bands of our 5 band spider beam at the same time. For 160 to 30 m we will have single band vertical antennas. Besides CW, SSB and RTTY also FT8 in a faster dxpedition mode is planned.
We are not sure about the main power situation - there could be only one generator for the whole island.
News #1 October 30, 2017
After our successful operation from Macau (XX9D) we were looking for destinations which could give us the chance for similar results under the actual sunspot-situation. We came to the conclusion that the southern hemisphere would match our expectations best. So we decided for the Easter Islands. With good information from JA3AVO, DL8LR, DK7ZB and others we fixed our plans and can now announce that we will be active from the Easter Islands with the special call-sign XR0YD the first two weeks in March 2018. Thanks to the guys of the Radio Club de Chile for helping us. The 10 man team will use three well equipped stations 24/7 from 160 to 10 m in CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8.
