Amateurfunk von Scarborough Reef

Die vierte Aktivierung

29. April - 6. Mai 2007

Offizielle Ausrichter waren vor allem die CRSA; diesmal war aber auch die CTARL aus Taiwan vertreten. – Das Team wurde gebildet von: BA1HAM, Chen Peng, BA1HAM; Fan Bin, BA1RB;, David Chen, BA4RF; Chen Fang, BA4RC; Wang Dongping, BA1AAX; Ko Chih-Ta, BV6HJ; Bob Vallio, W6RGG; Tom Berson, ND2T; Joe Blackwell, AA4NN; Paul Pescitelli, K4UJ; Mike Mraz, N6MZ; Dr. Mike McGirr, K9AJ; James Brooks, 9V1YC; Martti Laine, OH2BH; Max Mucci, I8NHJ und Christian Entsfellner, DL3MBG. Als Unterstützer („Off Island Support Team”) wirkten: Tom Harrell, N4XP, Director of Off Island Support Team; Paul Pai, BV4FH, Asian procurement; Jose Mari Gonzalez, DU1JMG, Director of Coastal Operations, PARA; Brett Graham, VR2BG, Hong Kong procurement and facilitator; San Hutson, K5YY, Team Advisor; Paul Hansen, W6XA, Radio configuration and pre testing; Johnson Wong, BV4DP, platform design; Christine Chiang, BM4HSG, Team advisor, und Don Greenbaum, N1DG, Webmaster.
Die Ausbeute: 45.820 Verbindungen mit 17.884 Funkamateuren (19.600 SSB, 25.898 CW, 322 RTTY).
Nach Kontinenten: Asien 21.112, Europa 16.329, Nordamerika 6.918, Ozeanien 948, Südamerika 301, Afrika 212.
Nach Bändern und Betriebsarten: 54 auf 160m (alle CW); 338 auf 80m (212 SSB, 217 CW); 3.548 auf 40m (509 SSB, 3.039 CW); auf 30m 4.226 (CW); auf 20m 21.880 (10.391 SSB, 11.435 CW, 54 RTTY); auf 17m 7.069 (3.325 SSB, 3.744 CW); auf 15m 6.264 (4.011 SSB, 1.985 CW, 268 RTTY); auf 12m 876 (402 SSB, 474 CW); auf 10m 1.565 (841 SSB, 724 CW).

Press releases from N4XP and N1DG
27 April, 2315 UTC
The team now estimates its arrival to the reef area on Saturday evening their time. The seas are not as rough as they have been and they are proceeding with less difficulty.
29 April, 0300 UTC
Local time at Scarborough Reef 1100a.m. The team has made entry into the lagoon area and are starting to build the operating positions.They are proceeding as quickly as possible under the conditions that are present.The weather is now perfect and for the time being should not hinder work activities as the day moves on.The team plans to provide an update to us sometime during the day as to progress on station work. We will forward that information as soon as it is received.
29 April, 14:00 UTC
The BS7H team worked throughout the day in setting up the stations and managed to get one station operational as darkness fell. The first QSO was made at 13:47 UTC. The dangerous environment prohibits any work in darkness and they were unable to fully provision the one station that is operating. As a result, the CW station now on 14024 does not have enough gas to last the evening so when you hear them qrt do not panic. At daybreak they will resupply the station as well as complete adding the other stations. We expect the team to be fully operation with all stations by darkness tomorrow.
30 April, 11:00 UTC
As the day sets on Scarborough Reef they finished operating position 2 and made good progress on the third operating position. As a result they are now able to man two stations during the darkness. AND, it is pitch black out there. After daybreak tomorrow they can finish a third station and increase operations further. Both stations have SteppIR verticals and no 80 or 160 mtr antennas have been erected yet. The reef is extremely hazardous making the setup slow and the heat is oppressive further tiring the team. At low tide the rocks are unreachable by the skiffs. We get a daily update and are not in constant contact with the team. If we don't answer your emails it is because we know nothing further than what we publish.
30 April, 10:24 (This one from Bernie McClenny, W3UR)
The guys have now been QRV for about 24 hours. They currently have two stations on two different rocks. James and Mike were on Rock # 4 today operating 20 SSB. It is believed that the 20 meter CW station is on Rock #2. Plans are to get the third station up on one of the other rocks (1 or 3)sometime tomorrow. One of the problems the team is having is low tide. When they go through low tide they can not put people on or off the rocks because the dingy boat can not get to the rocks! So carefully planning for transporting meals, water, fuel and most importantly the ops is needed. As of this time no decision has been made as to when they will shut down. Conditions here seemed to be down in comparison to yesterday
1 May
It is now day 3 on Scarborough with operations going for 48 hours. All 4 operating positions are built and the team has gone from survival in route, to survival while building, to survival while in QSO mode. Everyone on the team has cuts from the coral. The closest access to any of the rocks is over coral and no one has been spared coral scrapes and cuts. Add to that over 100 degree heat and sunburn and you have a dangerous environment for all. During the day each shift is 6 hours in heat and a dry wind under a small umbrella. If you are lucky enough you get to operate at night. You are left on a rock for 13 hours barely 4 feet above the water in pitch black sitting in a folding chair, no where to walk and stretch and getting a constant salt spray. You can't see the other rocks nor the ship and if something goes wrong there is no chance of rescue. The SteppIR verticals and one Yagi are up. Two stations will stay on 20 mtrs while the other two will search 15, 17, 30 and 40 for openings. So as you sit there in your comfy shack complaining on the cluster and sending us emails about your lack of a QSO and the do's and don'ts'', think what our team is going through to bring you "the chance of a QSO".
2 May, 14:00 UTC
All 4 stations on 4 separate rocks are in full operating mode. Two stations remain dedicated to 20 meters and will stay there for the duration to ensure everyone has a shot of at least one Q. The weather has gone downhill a bit with occasional showers and constant 30 mph winds. QRN on 40 and 30 is bad and preventing us from hearing most of the stateside signals on 30 and 40.The winds are also preventing the launching of the helium filled weather balloon with the 80/160 antenna. We will try again tomorrow.It is now taking almost 1 1/2 hours to do the crew shift changes because of the wind induced spray and slippery conditions (not to mention there are now 4 operating sites around the reef).
June 9, 2007
Today the BS7H team uploaded to the ARRL LOTW website a partial log containing QSOs for those DXers who supported BS7H with donations sent either via the website credit card procedure or thorough the mail in form off the website.