Timor-Leste DXpedition 2023

News #15 - 30 August 2023

Highlighting today: Working North America and South America
During our 4W1A scouting trip in April we experienced how easy it is to work into Europe and Asia, but how difficult it is to reach North America and South America. Signals from/to to the Northern US/Canada East Coast and a large part of South America must pass through the respective polar regions. It is very challenging to reach W1, W2, VE1, VE2, VE9, VO1, VO2, VY2, other countries in the Arctic and a large part of South America. South America is even more challenging: the terrain is rising in that direction, with mountains as high as almost 3000m.

4W8X will have the right antennas and operating concept to be heard well in the Americas – on all bands and at the right times. We'll pay special attention to "difficult areas" and – rest assured – we'll work hard to get as many NA and SA stations in our log as possible.

We have one request: At 4W1A in April, we only had Vertical Dipoles => not any directional antennas. It was difficult to say, from which direction signals were really coming in... Short Path, Long Path or Skewed Path? If you are an active DX guy and you can remember for the month of November, on what bands and and what times to expect Long Path propagation between 4W and W/VE (at best compared with YB/Indonesia or VK8), please send us your hints through the contact form on our website. (Same for South America!)

[REMINDER]: 4W8X, Timor-Leste will be activated in November 2023 by a team of 20+ skillful and highly experienced DXers and Contesters from Germany, Austria, Poland and Hungary under leadership of Lagunaria DX Group.
100% QSL !! – Club Log OQRS will bring you a printed QSL card and immediate LotW uploads right after our activity. Free LotW uploads for everybody else within 1 year. If you want to support 4W8X with a donation, please use this Donate link on Club Log (same as 4W1A).

73 de DL6FBL for the team

News #14 - 18 August 2023

Highlighting today: Cables and Electricity at 4W8X
"Amateur Radio is a wireless hobby" - but for 4W8X we'll have to roll out several kilometers of Coax, Rotor and Control cable. Big Thanks go to Messi & Paoloni for sponsoring their Airborne-10 coax cable.

To improve reliable log synchronization over the exciting Club Log Livestream feature, all Computers in the 4W8X DXLog Logging Network will be hard wired to network switches, and the two operating sites are connected with a >500m long Fiber Optics cable, sponsored by Lemka GmbH. WiFi is only available for personal use in the leisure areas - in a different VLAN, keeping the WiFi traffic away from the Logging Network.

During our 4W1A scouting trip in April we experienced unstable electricity mains, jumping from 150V to 300V during working hours on weekdays. So we better bring our own Diesel Generators - to protect our OM Power amplifiers and other sensitive devices: "Peace of mind" for a reliable 24/7 operation.

73 de DL6FBL for the team

News #13 - 04 August 2023

Highlighting today: The 4W8X High Band Antennas
10/15/20m will have two antennas each: One 3-ele resp. 4-ele Monoband Yagi (sponsored by Momobeam, many thanks) – and one Spiderbeam (monoband versions). The Momobeam Yagis are on robust 12m high plug-in masts (75mm / 3" diameter) which can be rotated from the shack. The lightweight Spiderbeams are on regular 14m HD telescopic masts and can be rotated by hand. For each band 10/15/20m, Momobeam and Spiderbeam are connected to a StackMatch, controllable from the shack. This allows us to cover one or two directions at the same time – with antenna gain.

12m/17m will use Spiderbeams or WILMA VDAs or a combination of both.
Momobeam has also provided two Penta10 Yagis, which have two active elements on 5 bands: 10/12/15/17/20m. We plan to use them together with Triplexers and High Power Band Pass Filters from VA6AM and 4O3A.

73 de DL6FBL for the team

News #12 - 28 July 2023

Highlighting today: The 4W8X Low Band Antennas
4W8X will have a 80m 4-Square (controller and cables sponsored by DXEngineering, many thanks). 160m will use a well-proven Titanex V160 Vertical with extensive Radials. Both antennas as close to the ocean as possible.
For Receiving, we’ll have two Beverages (~250m long) plus filtering/switching network to listen in four directions, independently on 160m and 80m:

Europe (short path)
North America (short path)
Africa, same as North America (long path)
South America, same as Europe (long path)

4W8X will also have two 40m 4-Squares and two 30m 4-Squares, TNX to DXEngineering.
We'll not only have the equipment, we'll also have the right operators to make the best out of it. Low Band captain is Dietmar, DL3DXX. And we have quite some other Low Band freaks in the team.

73 de DL6FBL for the team

News #11 - 21 July 2023

Highlighting today: The 4W8X Location Setup
4W8X will have two operating sites which are 500m apart. The main location, which we have also used for our 4W1A scouting trip in April, will serve all eleven bands from 160m thru 6m. The second location will serve seven bands from 40m thru 10m. The physical separation will enable us to provide two signals on the same band at the same time – one CW and one SSB. Please note that CW and SSB are our preferred modes, followed by RTTY. We’ll give FT8 a chance, but – again – we definitely prefer the man-made operating modes.
Why all this? We want to offer the strongest possible signals to the worldwide DX community as well as exceptional receiving capabilities, paired with our highly motivated operators willing to give their best to have a personal contact with you and put your callsign in our log.

P.S.: Please expect more news to come on a regular basis (every week), highlighting different aspects of our activity.

73 de DL6FBL for the team

News #10 - 22 June 2023

4W8X in November 2023 // A team of 20+ skillful and experienced operators from Germany, Poland, Austria and Hungary will be active from Timor Leste in November 2023.

Materials are sent by seafreight in July. The first pioneers will arrive in 4W on Sunday, 05-Nov-2023, and start with preparations. After two or three days the first signals may appear on the air, but only for a few hours, and after local sunset. Most members of the team will arrive on Sunday, 12-Nov-2023, to finish the setup and start the 24/7 shifts.

We will provide CW, SSB, RTTY and FT8. The plan is to have at least two signals per band at the same time (only one signal on 160m, 80m, 60m and 6m). We will also have equipment for EME on 144 MHz, 432 MHz and 1296 MHz. We will operate Multi/Multi in CQ WW DX Contest CW (25-26 November 2023). After the contest we will start dismantling the station.

BTW: All OQRS requests for the April pre-trip 4W1A have been fulfilled. Paper QSL cards are on the way. Sincere Thanks to our QSL manager Sven, DJ4MX. However we still accept OQRS requests.

73 de DL6FBL for the team

News #9 - 23 April 2023

The team is on the way back home on three different flights from Singapore. Our QSL Manager Sven DJ4MX wants to point out that using OQRS through Club Log will automatically bring a LotW confirmation as well.

Looking back, everything went as expected, although some things took a little longer in the beginning. Nothing went broken, and everything we needed was there (based on a 250 lines long Excel sheet) following the PPPPPP principle ("Proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance"). The Excel sheet for the upcoming November activity will be somewhat longer, as we'll probably send a seafreight container in August.

73 de DL6FBL for the team
(DL6FBL, E77DX, SP5XVY)

News #8 - 22 April 2023

We shut down operation around 03:00z, which is local noon here. In a short while we'll begin to take down our antennas and clean up the outside space, which will not take long. Then we'll go out for some final negotiations in the prospected second location for the upcoming activity in November 2023. After dark we'll pack our suitcases with the stuff that goes back home, while some other stuff will be securely stored away onsite to wait for us coming back in November. When all is done, we'll have a nice fish dinner and finish up the rest of cans/bottles around. Flight back home starts tomorrow in the early local morning, with a stopover in Singapore.

Thanks for over 43.000 QSOs with 13.500 unique callsigns: 21.640 x CW, 19.760 x SSB and 1.870 x RTTY. We hope you've enjoyed our operation as much as we did. If you didn't make it in the log, watch out for us coming back in November.

OQRS service goes through Club Log, and - if you want - please consider a donation for the next activity.

73 de DL6FBL for the team
(DL6FBL, E77DX, SP5XVY)

News #7 - 20 April 2023

Internet connectivity over LTE doesn't get better. There is only one cell for the whole area, and the number of users in the network has dramatically increased over the past three years. Especially in the local evening hours we experience a packet loss of >50%, which is the cause for frequent upload errors in the Club Log Live Stream. We noted that once a QSO upload is busted for a callsign, subsequent QSOs with the same callsign are somehow ignored, too. This creates extra confusion, because the same guys try over and over again, although they are perfectly fine in our (local) log. The only way to get over it are full log uploads every few hours, which will make all the missing contacts show up in Club Log.

Still struggling to increase the number of North American and South American stations in the log. Signals are very low compared to all the Europeans booming in. We started to listen explicitly for North America and South America for a couple of minutes every now and then when the bands let also come Europe in. It's better in the hours when there is no propagation to Europe. Some guys are complaining that we were "always beaming to Europe". Please read our website again. We only have Vertical Dipoles. There is nothing to beam with... ;-)

Yesterday we had several meetings with the License Agency, the Customs Office, customs brokers, transport companies and the local airline to pre-arrange more things for the upcoming larger activity in November 2023.

Today we'll have a very special moment here: around local noon we'll have a full solar eclipse, and there is a big party going on here in the Beach Resort. Since DX propagation is down during the daylight hours anyway, we'll join the party and have some fun and relax.

We have also made up our schedule for dismantling the station. We'll stop operating on Saturday, 22-April-2023 around 06:00z.

73 de DL6FBL for the team
(DL6FBL, E77DX, SP5XVY)

News #6 - 17 April 2023

Internet connectivity at 4W1A is unstable at times. It appears that some contacts are lost in the permanent Live Log upload stream to Club Log. This can be fixed/synchronized by a later full upload of the ADIF file. If you wondered about missing contacts on Club Log, please check back again, and if necessary, send us a message through the Contact Form on our website.

Last night a thunderstorm and heavy rain came by, and we shut down operation for a while. Sorry for the abrupt disappearance. Same can happen, when public electricity or the on-site generator is lost, and doesn't come back for a while. After 5 days, our small "Three men and Dipoles only" team has made 23.600 QSOs in CW/SSB/RTTY, from 8.400 unique stations. We're still struggling to get more North and South America in the log. When the medium bands (20m, 17m, 15m) are open to America, there is also propagation to Europe. As we don't have directional antennas, and European signals are always stronger here, it is extra stressful to pull out the weaker signals from America. Please bear with us, when we try to work only America for a couple of minutes every now and then. On the lower bands (40m, 30m) and the higher bands (12m, 10m) it's getting easier now as the loud Asian stations have already made it in the log.

Please note that we concentrated on operating so far. Now, after the weekend, we'll take more care about preparations for the larger 4W Timor-Leste DXpedition coming up in November 2023. It means that we'll be operating less hours per day as in the past days. If you don't make it in our log now in April, stay tuned for November.

73 de DL6FBL for the team
(DL6FBL, E77DX, SP5XVY)

News #5 - 14 April 2023

After two days of operating (we'd better say "two nights of operating") there are over 8.800 QSOs in the log. You can always see the current statistics here: https://clublog.org/charts/?c=4W1A#r. We have touched all bands from 40-10m, but haven't spent equal time for SSB/CW there yet. Also the coverage on continents is not yet equal. Working Europe is easy on all bands, and also Asia, of course, but North and South America is still under-represented. We are aware of that and try to focus on those regions in the coming days. As we are only using omni-directional antennas here, it's not a matter of (our) antenna direction, but rather a matter of selecting the right bands for the Americas, which may offer the best propagation. You may also want to check out K6TU's propagation tool on our website to find the best times for each band. We'll use the same charts to identify and select the bands on our side.

You may also want to follow us on Facebook.

73 de DL6FBL for the team
(DL6FBL, E77DX, SP5XVY)

News #4 - 13 April 2023

First hours of operation went fine. We started on 10/SSB, 12/CW and 20/RTTY, moving to some lower bands later. More than 3.300 QSOs in the log already. You can use Club Log logsearch here: https://clublog.org/logsearch/4W1A. We had some upload issues in the beginning, which caused quite some dupes, however it should be working stable now. Club Log is providing some really exciting statistics, and you should really check out the 4W1A page there: https://clublog.org/charts/?c=4W1A. You can also follow us on the Log Live Stream: https://clublog.org/livestream/4W1A.

Daylight hours down here are not very productive. That’s the time we use for sleeping, relaxing and doing other things. In the late afternoon propagation will pick up again.

There are some first pictures in the gallery: http://www.timor-leste-dx.de/gallery/gallery.php

73 de DL6FBL for the team
(DL6FBL, E77DX, SP5XVY)

News #3 - 12 April 2023

We have a valid license! Our callsign is 4W1A. We're on the way back to our location and start operating soon. We'll try to have three signals on three bands at the same time, however we may run into some initial RFI phenomena which eventually must be solved, while one or two stations may still keep on operating.

See you all in the pile-ups!

P.S.: We'll also have to set up Club Log and Live Streaming when back. We couldn't prepare that, because you must know your callsign first... Be a little patient on that. This service might only start tomorrow... ;-)

73 de DL6FBL for the team
(DL6FBL, E77DX, SP5XVY)

News #2 - 11 April 2023

We are on-site, antennas are up. We are ready to go, but we still have to wait for the license. We were told that we may pick it up tomorrow.

So far our location sounds to have low noise, and signals on 10m and 12m coming in at 11 p.m. local time (14:00z) are 59+, and on 50 MHz we decode FT8 signals from "easy" spots like JA, BY, HL, HS, YB, 9M...

It's very hard to listen and still have to be "stand-by"... ;-)"

73 de DL6FBL for the team
(DL6FBL, E77DX, SP5XVY)

News #1 - 31 March 2023

4W - Timor-Leste

DL6FBL Ben, E77DX Braco and SP5XVY Robert will be active from Timor-Leste, Monday, 10-Apr-2023 through Saturday, 22-Apr-2023. The callsign is still unknown.

Ben writes: "This activity is meant as a Scouting Trip for a larger activity by Lagunaria DX group in November 2023. Now in April we'll have two or three radios/amps and wire antennas only, but we'll use the same beachfront location planned for November. We'll try to be on the air as much as possible, but we'll also need time for on-site negotiations etc. Now in April: CW, SSB and classic RTTY on 40m-10m only. We'll reserve all other bands and modes for the November activity. However we’ll keep an eye on 6m. When local Internet access is working well, we'll use Club Log‘s Live Stream logging as well as their OQRS services."

For more information check out http://timor-leste-dx.de/, which has propagation prediction charts and other details in the "Operating" section.

QRZ.COM and Facebook page will be published after our callsign has been issued.

Learn more about the Lagunaria DX Group and visit our website http://lagunaria-dx-group.org/.

73 de DL6FBL for the team
(DL6FBL, E77DX, SP5XVY)