Comments on: TX3D – Raivavae, Austral Islands (OC-114)

By: DX_World

DX_World — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:05:48 +0000

Team TX3D under the Tropical Storm: http://fr.allmetsat.com/images/goes_poly_mf.php

Latest news from TX3D website mentions the team are safe, but all flights cancelled:

http://dl9awi.de/News.htm

By: Jack

Jack — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:42:52 +0000

You are doing a great job. Have fun and be safe.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:29:26 +0000

If I was able to work them on 40m rtty with a vy low hanging dipole, then everyone should be able to get into the log.

Your doing a great job guys!

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:19:47 +0000

One more thought on lowband propagation. Just because one can hear a loud station on the low bands does not mean that your signal will be equally as loud on the other end–especially with these island DXpeditions. Vertical antennas erected over or in salt water have an extremely low angle of radiation, close to zero degrees actuallly, and will have a minimum number of ionispheric and land hops to get to your receiver. Those of us on land typically have higher radiation angles and more hops and signal loss to get to the DX, wiith the result that the DX signal can be many S-units stronger than yours, especially if you are a low dipole DXer in the eastern US. The return path to TX3D probably involves more hops, the first one or two being lossier lland hops, with the result that your signal can be down 50 dB from the signal that you are receiving. Do not be surprised if US signals were at or below the noise floor, while the JA’s, being much closer and often with the salt water advantage as well, would have been very numerous and extremely loud. Keeping the rate up is the name of the game for a DXpedition and I am not about to second guess the fine ops at TX3D. As for me, I was patient and worked TX3D on 40M and 160M CW, after the propagation improved a bit. I have no complaints.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:34:10 +0000

I have to say that this is one fabulous DXpedition and I give them marks of the highest order–easily among the best that I have ever heard. As to the above criticism I can say that those who have never been on the receiving end of a huge pile-up do not understand what it is like to have thousands of stations calling, with many of them S9+40 dB or even more. The front-end of most rigs turns to mush under those conditions and all you can do is to work the pile down. I understand that completely and what that experience is like and I have to say that these fine ops are doing a superbly. The job that they are doing on 160-meters is just amazing and I know excellence when I hear it and these guys are world class. Nicely done, gentlemen.
73,
Steve

By: Art

Art — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 18:17:52 +0000

One thing we can depend on is impolite criticism. Probably from folks who weren’t able to work TX3D. What the critics should do is mount their own expedition, show us how much better they can do. Maybe the JA’s were 599+40, making Asia the right choice! So far this has been a first rate expedition.
73 Art

By: K1DFT

K1DFT — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:20:13 +0000

You had half of the USA and North America plus all of Europe calling you and all you could do is work JA’s. Something is wrong with your system there fellas you were 10 over 9 on 40 meters in Eastern USA.