22/08/2024
Although getting a late start, the last week was spent working the Jarvis Island DXpedition. They were set up using verticals and the "radio in a box" concept with both remote and on-island operators. In addition, they were using the experimental FT8 Super Fox mode experimental software.
You would think that being in North America would make this a slam dunk but no so.
* Several times during the DXpedition they were experiencing total or partial blackouts due to solar activity. Bad luck!
* The mid and lower bands (20m - 80m) came in just fine except don't forget on the east coast these are only available in the dead of night and just before dawn. (still need to catch up on sleep)
* The higher bands (15, 12, 10) were dismal up here. 17 slightly better. Most times I could only decode on FT8 several timeslots a day! Luckily they had no problem hearing me when I put power into the doublet. I could have gotten 80 meter but late in the expedition when I stayed up they were focused in on 160m and volume QSO rather that running grey lines.
* And then there was FT8 Super Fox. Generally I like it. Simple: call in one timeslot, get up to 12 replies in the next. Problem is that I never saw enough of a pileup due to antenna/power/propagation to see it achieve its potential. And then there were the high bands! The belief that FT8 SF is equivalent to a single stream FT8 Fox is just not true. The SF transmissions were just no making to my location and when they did I couldn't get decoding for more than 2-3 time slots. 1-2 FT8 Fox stream did better. Hopefully this will get addressed the next time it is used either with software or stronger transmit/antenna gain.
All in all I thank the team for all the contacts and the chance to learn a few things. Remember this is only on a 140 Foot Doublet, as minimal as one can get, and still logged new ones on the Club call due to their effort.
