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The expedition
The expedition
73 from the J5C Team
Topband antenna
overlooking the ocean
21st January 2008

Here we are ! This is our last day of an exhausting operation, but we really had a lot of fun.
We hope you had as much pleasure as we did.

We had 60,306 QSO in the log at 1500z when we stopped transmitting to pack all the spiderbeam antennas. This was an easy work and we resumed operating in late aftertnoon.

Tonight we will be QRV as follows for one last night:

SSB Station :   until 2000z    > 40m
                        2000-2200z  > 80m
                        2200-0715z  > 40m

CW Station :     until 2000z  >  80m
                        2000-2200z >  30m
                        2200-0715z >  80m

DIGI Station :  until 2000z  >  30m
                        2000-2200z >  40m
                        2200-0715z >  30m

FLEX Station :   2000-0715z >  160m

We hope you can get into the log during these slots.
See you all in the pile-up !
30th December 2007

12 days to departure !

Although it has been a long time since we last posted an update on this web site, the entire team has been very busy preparing the nearly 400kg of equipment that we will bring with us to Bubaque. All logistics aspects and authorizations have been cleared. We are currently busy with the last minutes fine tuning to ensure we do not exceed the limited luggage allowance and avoid any extra charge from the airline. We also spent time testing all stations and modifying the spiderbeams to make their assembly much faster.






















Our plan is to install all equipment upon arrival and start operating all stations simulataneously. The first signals should be expected around early evening in J5 on 11th of January.

If our Internet connection is as expected, we will post daily updates on this web site and upload online log.
We will definitely pay particular attention to areas with tiny propagation windows and will make selective calls to these stations. Please have a look at the propagation page forecasts.

We look forward to contacting you.


Stay tuned and Happy New Year !


26th October 2007

The F6KOP Team is pleased to announce that our 2008 DXpedition will take place in Guinea-Bissau on Bubaque Island with the largest team we have ever brought together. Using our XT2C experience, we aim to be active on all open bands simultaneously. Our key objective is to take advantage of the minimum of the solar cycle to emphasize our activity on the low bands (40-160m). Among others, we will shoot for a first ever
JA-J5 QSO on the Topband.

We wish to dedicate this activity to our friend F5PVF - Gilles Simeon, former president of F6KOP who unexpectidly went Silent Key in September 2007. Gilles took part in several of our previous expeditions and was always helpful in preparing antennas prior to our departure.









We already miss you badly Gilles...
F4AJQ packing
antennas
ACOM 1010
packed for travel
Sky bags for J5 ?
Sure... full of antennas !
80 and 160m antennas
One of the 5 stations
during final test
K9AY relay box
and assembly instructions
10th January 2008

Here we are ! Today is departure to Guinea Bissau.
It is 0420z as we post this update ready to go to the airport where our flight is leaving at 0840z. Our expected arrival on Bubaque island is scheduled around 2100z.

Yesterday evening 80% of the team met near Paris together with our pilots for a nice celebration and final load sharing accross all luggage.











Next update will be from J5, probably tomorrow in the early evening hours after we opened-up traffic.

See you all in the pile-up !
11th January 2008

We have well arrived on Bubaque yesterday evening around 2230z after a long trip with no significant event.
Today we have installed all antennas including low bands and started operating with 4 stations around 1800z.
The electrical power supply is good and all stations are running with about 700W.

1,000 QSO are in the log as we update this site at 2200z.

We will operate tonight on 20/30/40/80 and 160m.
A longer update will be posted tomorrow afternoon and we will try to upload the first log online.

Thanks for your kind messages on our guestbook.

See you all on the air.
12th January 2008

Everything went as expected during the first 24h of operation where we loggued 6,500 QSO.
The chart below summarizes the QSO split by band/mode as of 1042z when we uploaded the log on the web page. The Internet connexion is intermitent and web/log updates may not be regular.

Conditions on low bands were exceptional last night, with Kp=0 band noise was only S3 on 160m with signals over S9 from EU and NA.

Tonight we will run 20 & 30/DIGI, 40 SSB/CW, 80/SSB and 160/CW
14th January 2008

We had 18,051 QSO in our log this morning at 1020z, which is a rate of +/- 7,000 QSO per day.

We have not had any equipment failure, everything is working as expected. Everybody is in good shape.

Low bands conditions got slightly worse with Kp, fluctuating between 2 and 4, our late night hours are more noisy than the early evening hours. 80 and 160m signals reports are good and we managed to do the first JA-J5 contact (QSO JH4UYB) on topband during our first night with a big JA pile-up.

We are paying attention to areas with short propagation openings, we thank you for your patience for standing-by when we are making selective calls to these regions.

Tonight we will operate on 160/CW, 80/SSB, 40/RTTY, 30/CW

Thank you for your feedbacks and messages on our guestbook.
17th January 2008

We had 30,123 QSO in our log this morning at 1009z

Everything is still going well, we have no hardware failure at this point. We only found out through reports that the relay of the K9AY on one of the low band stations is cutting the first dot in CW, hence making us QSD.  We are working to fix this.

Conditions are better than expected on the low bands and not a real surprise on 10/12 and 15m.
The very difficult paths we have are ZL, VK, JA, NA West coast. If Kp is above 2, these are nearly impossible.
Long path openings with these regions are short but reliable.

For digimode, we will start PSK on 19/01 and will make a full night on 30/PSK next week-end
We will make a short SSTV operation on Sunday, working by list.
We will distribute the exact time and frequency on Friday.

We operate 24/24h with four high power stations and currently use the backup station barefoot to operate 20m when 10 and 12m are open.
19th January 2008

Our Internet connection is finally back ! We have 50,000 QSO in the log today at 1800z

We will close down on Tuesday 22/01 immediately after sunrise.
On Monday 21/01, we will stop all traffic around 1400z to pack all spiderbeam antennas and will restart at sunset on low bands. 30/40/80 and 160m will be active for one last night on 21/01.


Tomorrow on Sunday, we will operate SSTV from 1100-1200z and 1500-1600z on 21,340 MHz
The operator will take lists of callsigns in SSB before switching to SSTV in mode Scottie 2


Yesterday, John F5VHQ returned to France due to professional reasons. We thank him for his outstanding support to this expedition.
8th April 2008

We are now all back home safe with 61,939 QSO in our log with 19,213 stations in 178 DXCC entities around the world. Thank you all for calling us and giving us so much fun.

The expedition is not completely over though...

We started replying to QSL card requests and the log will be uploaded on LOTW soon.
We have also cleaned, checked and repacked all the equipment for our next trip.

You can visit our photo gallery by clicking here (broadband access preffered)

73 from the J5C Team
QSO breakdown by band and mode
QSO breakdown by band/mode
(click to zoom)