Amateur Radio VHF DXpedition to D4, Cabo Verde july 2019

Latest update: 2019-10-23 09:35 UTC

Callsign: D44KZ Locator: HK85FD

Latest News

2019-10-23

The QSL was sent by mail today.

2019-10-14

We have received our D44KZ QSL cards from the printer. We will answer the direct received QSL next week (21-25 October). On this basis you can calculate when you can expect the letter by post.

2019-07-24

The D44KZ VHF DXpedition is finished and then it's time for the evaluation. To start with the statistics of the QSO's and FM broadcast stations heard. In total we worked 157 stations on VHF:

2m: 55 QSO's. 45 Tropo QSO's, BestDX G4LOH IO70JC 4230km and 10 EME QSO's.
3m: 117 Stations identified and logged. BestDX Rock FM Vigo from Spain on 106.7 MHz 3340km.
4m: 1 QSO. BestDX EA8DBM IL18OH 1615km.
6m: 101 QSO's. BestDX XE2OR DL98OK 7999km.


QSO map 144 MHz	QSO map 50 MHz

2019-07-23

In the morning still tropo conditions to CT1 and EA1 on 2m. I called CQ and saw my signal received on PSKreporter. At night I called also CQ for some hours and between 00:49 - 1:26 a solid copy by G4LOH on his receiver. At G7RAU and EI3KD nil. G4LOH, G7RAU and EI3KD left thaire receiver on so we could see propagation. This seems to corresponds with the F5LEN tropomaps. The end of this dxpedition. Around 13:00UTC started to dismantel the station. Plane back is leaving tonight. We are now QRT.
We saw on internet the fantastic opening to Europe and the QSO between D41CV and DK5AI at 15:10 UTC. Unfortunately we could not enjoy this opening because our station was stored in the suitcases. In retrospect, we should have stayed one day longer .. :-)
This dxpedition has now ended. We had a great time. The goals for which we had come to Cabo Verde were amply achieved. Plans are already being made for the next VHF Dx pedition not focussing on EME. Thanks to everyone for the QSO's and the interest. In the next post a short evaluation, but now first a safe journey home.

No QSO where made this day. But below pictures of the highlights of the night. I wish we could stay longer ....


We received three CQ's from EI3KD. Screenshot showing 2 of them. 4316 km!!!	Our CQ signal at G4LOH. 4230km!!	F5LEN Tropo Map around that time.

2019-07-22

We have a new DX on FM. Rock FM Vigo from Spain on 106.7 MHz 3340 km!. See screenshot with map below
On 144 MHz we worked 21 stations. Some of them in SSB/CW. It was great to see the signals of G4LOH (4230 km ) and EI3KD (4316 km) but no QSO. We found a nice movie from EB1DJ on youtube of our 2m SSB signal.
The EME QSO on 6m was not completed.

Wkd 144 MHz tropo: CT1HMN (SSB), EA8CXN, EA8CSB, EA8RH, EA8CZK, EA1CCM, EA1NL, EA1FBU (SSB), D4Z (SSB), EA1YV, EA8EY (CW), EB1DJ (SSB), EA8AQV, EA8BMG (SSB), EA7YB, CT1END, CT1PT, EA8AC, EA8BUE, EA8NE, CT7ABA, CT7AQS.

Wkd 50 MHz tropo: 6W1TA

88 - 108 MHz results 2019-07-22. Best DX: Rock FM Vigo from Spain on 106.7 MHz 3340 km!

2019-07-21

Update on the FM-DX part of this DXpedition. Nearly every day we hear Radio Europa Tenerife on 106.8MHz in the german language. This is 1611 km!!. Below a map of the received FM Broadcast Stations. Best DX until now is Canal Sur Radio, Mijas on 104.6 MHz, distance 3035 km via tropo propagation. The complete log is on the Visual Logbook of fmlist.org.

Wkd 50 MHz: GM6NX, GM4UYE, VE9HF, W7JW, WA2VNV, WZ1V, W7JW, W3PN, W8PAT, KF8MY, K3EL, K1HTV, K3TC, WU1ITU, KV1J, N2JJ.
Wkd 144 MHz EME: VK5APN.


88 - 108 MHz results from 10/7 - 20/7	Gerard, The FM-DXer in front of the ropeyagi. In the right top the 8el antenneland FM yagi.	Rob and Frans installing the 2m yagi

2019-07-20

Wkd 70 MHz: EA8DBM.

Wkd 50 MHz: DK8NE, EA8WU, CT1EUB, CT1GVN, CS7AOL, G0JHC, CT2IWW, EA1AFP, GM3POI, CT1HMN, EA1VIL, EA8JK, CT1BWU, CT1APE, EA8BEV, EA4BDL, K3OO, N3DGE, W3KX, W2WI, N2LD, K3JGJ, NZ3M, K1RZ, K1HTV, KE4FW, EA8RH, K4ESE, N3BBI, W3LPL, KN4KL, K3AJ, AG2J, N2QT, W3KWH, W2HRO, WA2BTR, K1BZ, W3VRD, K2ZD, K8RRT, K4JJW, AI4WL, N4QWZ, K7BV, XE2OR, W5ADD, K0TPP, N5WS, K4RX, K5RK, KD3CQ, K5WBM, K4PI, N3XX, W9TB, N4HU, KP2L, W4DXX, K5DU, W3UUM, N0FW, N4TB, CU3EQ, KV3T, KS4YT, W9VHF, WD4LBR, K4WNW, W3XY, NS4C, WB4JWM, N4RJ.

Wkd 144 MHz: EA8RH, EA8AR.


6m yagi: 5 element DK7ZB yagi. 12.5Ohm impedance.	6m yagi pointing to sea on 4m pole.

2019-07-19

We have installed Gerard's rope yagi. This does not yet work as it should and is being further investigated. There was a strong wind and the mast of the FM yagi broke off. This is solved. At 6m called al day but no qso made. The 4m station is now also operational. The SSPA reserve connected at 2m. Surprise was that at 2m we saw CT1HZE with strong signals, +10 db in FT8. He called us just when we went to get a cup of coffee. So missed QSO.... Moonbounce went a lot better than yesterday.

Wkd 144 MHz EME: PA5Y, PA7MM/A, SM6NOC, IK4WLV


The Crew Left to Right: Gerard D44KZ, Frans D44LD and Rob D44LA	FM-DX 44 elements ropeyagi of Gerard	FM-DX 44 elements ropeyagi of Gerard

2019-07-18

Today was our tourist day. We went to Praia with the local bus in the morning. We have visited the highlights in the city. We also went to the government office for Telecom because we were not sure whether our license included 4m. We were welcomed and also confirmed that our license included 70MHz. That was nice to hear and from now on we are on 4m qrv. When we got home we called CQ for a while at 6m but without result. After that EME on 2m was on the program. When the moon was just above the horizon, we saw stations calling and worked 1 with good signals. We have called CQ to 22 degrees elevation, but from 4 degrees elevation we could not see anything further. It was as if our signals were blocked.

Wkd 144 MHz EME: PA9RX

2019-07-17

We actually planned to go to town a little before noon, but the day turned out differently. The tropomap predictions indicated poor propagation. In the morning we where qrv at 6m and a swedish station was worked. We heard the multiple Swedish stations, but it turned out that they didn't hear us or heard us weak. Our reception is probably very good due to the low noise level.

At a time CU3EQ came on the kst chat and then we made a sked on 2m. The QSO was made quickly. We also saw that EA8 made continuous QSO with G / GW and reported stromg signals. So we monitored the band. To our surprise, G4LOH came out of the noise, sometimes even very strong. Propagation was unstable and signal came up in a few seconds, stayed there 20 seconds and disappeared. This pattern repeated. It took some time before we had a QSO, but we finally succeeded. We were so happy, 4230km on 2m via Tropo!! Wow!! This was one of the goals of this VHF DXpedition.

It had become to late and we abandoned the plan to go to the city. To celebrate the success we went to the village nearby for diner. We could not be back in time for EME on moonrise and cancelled EME for this day.

Wkd 144 MHz tropo: CU3EQ, G4LOH
Wkd 50 MHz: SM4EMO


QSO G4LOH	Our 2m Yagi: 9el DK7ZB	Homemade SSPA and Preamp Box

2019-07-16

Today tropo propagation was not as good as yesterday. In the early morning we did some Tropo + Meteorscatter test in FSK441 with PA3BIY and G4SWX. Nothing was heard. Best dx today on 2m CT1HZE. Just after dinner we made some EME qso's with the 9el yagi. It seems the ground gain lobs are at 9 and 18 degrees elevation.
We have planned to be qrv with EME on 2m at Moonrise 18/7 and 19/7. EME on 6m at moonrise is planned on 20/7. Today we also put up our 6m station and made the first qso's.

Wkd 144 MHz tropo: EA8RH, EA8CXN, CT1HZE. EME 144MHz: RX1AS, I2FAK, S52LM, G4SWX
Wkd 50 MHz: CT1HZE, F8DBF, EA8SG, EI3KD, CT/DL6IAK, EA8AQV, K1TOL, EA8DBM, FG4NN, VY2ZM.

2019-07-15

Yesterday PE1ITR travelled to Cabo Verde with the 2m station and all antennes. All arrived savely. Yesterday on Tropo we received a FM Broadcast station from Cadiz on 97.4 MHz Today the 2m station was build up and at the start we had nice FT8 signals. We could mount the 2m antenna on the roof of our appartment. We saw the tropo was building up. Below the list of worked station in Tropo propagation. Highlight was working EA7JLM and EA7KR in SSB on 2m. Best DX CT7ABA 3180km!
Some words on the tropo propagation: We notice a very slow deep QSB on the signals. So have patience when working us. Also signal strenght can come up in a few seconds and stay for 1 minute or so before going into the noise.
The predictions are that tomorrow we will have also good tropo propagation. Then its going down. It will be good again Sunday.

Wkd 144 MHz tropo: EA8DBM, D41CV, EA7HLB, EA7JLM, EA7ITL, EA7KR, CT7ABA, EA7SL
Hrd 144 MHz tropo: EA1FBU, EA7LZ, EA7DUD sri NC.


Rob PE1ITR / D44LA and 2m yagi	FM-DX on 97.4 MHz

2019-07-13

To improve the AIS reception in a local shop a nice LPD antenna was bought. This worked and vessels at a distance of 800km could be seen on the map. We use AIS to detect tropo propagation.
12 and 13 Augustus there was tropo propagation to EA8 en CN and FM breadcast stations could be heard.


LPD Antenna used fr AIS	AIS reception	FM-DX from EA8 and CN

2019-07-10

Today Frans D44LD and Gerard D44KZ, 2/3 of the crew, arrived save at our location in D4. The location seems good. We can put the antennas on the roof of the appartment with a clear view to the north. Gerard, our FM-DXer reports a low noise level on his FM receiver. We have internet. On sunday I will be departing to D4 with the 2 and 6m equipment. We have also 4m with us. If all go as planned we will be qrv on all bands from monday 15/7.

Our FM-DX log is online at fmlist.org: FM-DX log

VHF DXpedition to D4

From 14 july 2019 until 24 july 2019 we will be QRV from Cabo Verde (D4) on VHF. Our location will be maidenhead locator: HK85FD (IOTA: AF-005). This is on the east of the Island of Santiago near Pedra Badejo.

Our main dxpedition callsign is D44KZ. We will be active on 50MHz and 144MHz. Maybe also on 70MHz but that is pending. We are mainly a VHF Tropo, Meteorscatter and Ionospheric radio propagation DXpedition. Another main activity will be FM-DX listening on 88 - 108MHz.
Our station is EME capable so in between we are doing some moonbounce on 2m and 6m at moonrise and moonset when the moon is in our groundgain antennalobs. But moonbounce is not our main activity. And I note that the moon degradation is not in our favor.

This expedition is a major challenge because increased radio propagation conditions are needed to make QSO's. Of course we hope for that, but it is not certain whether those conditions will also be there during the period that we are QRV.
In general we have the following operation plan. For 2m we are open to skeds in whatever mode or propagation including experiments like TRAMS (tropo assisted meteorscatter. Info: link1, link2). Outside the skeds we will call CQ on 144.174 in FT8 in the 1st sequence. For 6m we watch or call CQ and see what happens. 2m and 6m can be active next to each other. We also keep an eye on the propagation conditions for Tropo or Es and will act accordingly. We have internet and will be on the KST chat. The Operation Schedule on this website will be updated regularly and is an indication what we are doing.

We will post more info, such as the operation schedule, and updates on this webpage.

The Team

Callsign	Member	Info
D44KZ	Gerard, PE1BBI	Operator at PI4GN. FM-DXer. Previous dxpeditions: C31QO
D44LA	Rob, PE1ITR	Previous dxpeditions: PE1ITR/OE, LA/PE1ITR, IG9Y, IH9/PE1ITR...
D44LD	Frans, PA3CQE	Moonbouncer and satellites, CW Operator

Distances

QRB and QTF table. To give an idea of the distances.

QTH	Target	QRB (km)	QTF (degr.)
HK85FD	Dakar (Senegal)	656	95
HK85FD	Las Palmas	1648	32
HK85FD	Azoren	2637	348
HK85FD	Portugal	3500	35
HK85FD	Ierland	4359	25
HK85FD	Cornwall	4241	30
HK85FD	Nederland	4877	43
HK85FD	Sint Maarten (FK88LC)	4219	280
HK85FD	Montserrat (FK96BR)	4101	277
HK85FD	Barbados (GK03FD)	3888	271
HK85FD	Martinique (FK94MO)	4010	264
HK85FD	Trinidad (FK90HN)	4132	267
HK85FD	Paramaribo	3606	251
HK85FD	Natal (Brazilie)	2662	209
HK85FD	Noronha (PY0F)	2330	205
HK85FD	Ascension Island (ZD)	2754	159
HK85FD	Namibia	6045	131
HK85FD	HK76MU (D4C/B 144.436 / 50.034)	242	321

Equipment

Band	Equipment
50 MHz	FT817ND + 1wl 5el Yagi, pre-amp and BLF188XR SSPA
70 MHz	FT817ND + trv + 0.8 wl 5 el Yagi. It is qrv on 4m or 6m.
88 - 108 MHz	FM-DX SWL Operations. Pre-amp + korner yagi or 42m ropeyagi
144 MHz	FT818ND + 2.5wl 9el Yagi, pre-amp and BLF188XR SSPA. We have spare equipment with us.

We will be using SSB/CW and Digital modes like FSK441, MSK144, JT65, FT8 etc..

Operation schedule

This schedule will be updated every day.

Date	00-01	01-02	02-03	03-04	04-05	05-06	06-07	07-08	08-09	09-10	10-11	11-12	12-13	13-14	14-15	15-16	16-17	17-18	18-19	19-20	20-21	21-22	22-23	23-24
2019-07-14 sun	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	MR NOT QRV	MR NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV
2019-07-15 mon	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	MS NOT QRV	MS NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	NOT QRV	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	sked	sked	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m
2019-07-16 tue	-	-	-	-	-		FSK441 2m	FSK441 2m	FSK441 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m	MR - EME 2m	MR - EME 2m	FT8 2m	FT8 2m
2019-07-17 wed	-	-	-	-	-	-			-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2019-07-18 thu	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	MR - EME 2m	-
2019-07-19 fri	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-		-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	MR - EME 2m	MR - EME 2m
2019-07-20 sat	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-			-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	MR. 6M EME
2019-07-21 sun	MR. 6M EME	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	MS	MS	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2019-07-22 mon	MR 2m EME	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	MS 6m EME	MS 6m EME	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2019-07-23	MR 6m EME	MR 6m EME	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	QRT	QRT	QRT	QRT	QRT	QRT	QRT	QRT	QRT	QRT	QRT

= QRV

= NOT QRV

MR	= Moon Rise

MS	= Moon Set

FT8 144

144.174 MHz 1st FT8

EME 2m

144.121 MHz 1st JT65b

EME 6m

50.195 MHz 1st JT65a

Radio Propagation

F5LEN Atlantic D4-EI
F5LEN Atlantic D4-FY
Worldwide refractive index forecasts
E-skip Map
AIS Africa

Contact info and QSL

Email: rob(at)pe1itr.com

QSL cards can be sent via the QSL bureau or directly. Via the QSL bureau is via callsign PE1ITR. Direct QSL to the address of PE1ITR showing on qrz.com.

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