News

July 24th to August 9th 2011

WLOTA

The WLOTA HQ has confirmed the validity of our expedition.

(DJ9KH - November, 2th 2011)

QSL status

All ZD8D direct QSL cards (Online QSL request system with donations and direct QSL senders with SAE and sufficient return postage) was mailed 28.10.2011.

First batch of bureau cards (OQRS without donations) will be send to the German QSL bureau this week.

(DL9HO - October 30th 2011)

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QSL cards arrived from print shop.

(DL9HO -  October 10th 2011)

QSL status

Still waiting for the cards. The Printer shop hasn't delivered yet. Please patient.

(DL9HO -  September 14th 2011)

Bulletin #14

ZD8D Online QSL request system available now.

Complete log uploaded to LotW

(DL9HO -  August 12th 2011)

Bulletin #13

We are heading home now and would like to express our thank to the dx-community worldwide for the cooperation and understanding we were able to notice during the last 16 days.

You were one part of the success this expedition had. Thank you also for the nice comments you made in our guestbook, which showed us that we were on the right way.

As we stated earlier 160 m and 6m activities had to be reduced resp. cancelled because we had to change the location here. Although we did our best....that's what we promissed. The operators were hams, not machines, so we ask you to understand, that we were not faultless, as well as you aren't.

Please understand that we only logged complete QSOs. That means that we were waiting for a confirmation. On the other hand it was not enough that you felt to be confirmed.

This expedition was planned as a low-budget operation with a minimum of sponsoring. So we havn't got money from anywhere... so far.

Thank You all in the name of the crew.

(DJ9KH - August 09th 2011)

Bulletin #12

Our plans for Monday and Tuesday are as follows:

Monday 11.00Z we remove the Spiderbeam from the 10m mast and mount instead a 30m loop.

Activities on Monday will be then on 12-17-20 and 30m with loop-antennas, 40 and 80m with vertical resp. L-antenna.

Tuesday from 08.00 to 16.00 Z only 12-17-20m as usual with single loop and 100w.

Takeoff will be 22.00 Z.

(DJ9KH - August 7th 2011)

Bulletin #11

ZD8D Online QSL request system will be available after the end of the DXpedition

(DL9HO -  August 7th 2011)

Bulletin #10

B i n g o !!!

Today we completed 20.000 QSOs and are very happy about this. More than 50% of the contacts were made with 100 watts.

160m was a great experience yesterday night. We had 100 good contacts, QRN and QRM-level were quite low, so DL1CW had a lot of fun. We will be on 160m again tonight, starting around 22.00Z around 1830 kHz. We will do again our best.

(DJ9KH - August 6th 2011)

Bulletin #9

We completed the 160m antenna and will start activities there today around midnight.

Because we have not too much space for antennas we had to take down the 80m antenna.

We hope to have good contacts on 160.

(DJ9KH - August 5th 2011)

Bulletin #8

The second half of our activities here is beginning.

We just finished the IOTA-contest, which ended for aus with good over 1 million points and 1622 qsos.

Now we can concentrate our resources on the bands which are a little bit underrepresented. That means 40 and 80m phone. We are working for an antenna on 160m, but the space here is limited. By the way...so far we cannot complain about the discipline on the bands during our activity.

(DJ9KH - July 31th 2011)

Bulletin #7

Team ZD8D landed July 25th safely on Ascension Island. All members on board, all equipment undamaged. After being on the trip more than 24 hours we needed some recreation-time, but were able to mount a vertical (40-30-20m) and quad-loops for 20-17-12m.

We began activities in CW, condx will hopefully improve. Today we are working on the spiderbeam and think we`ll have it up tonight. Temperature approximately 28°C. Strong winds makes working outside slow.

Have a look on the photos in our photo-gallery.

(DJ9KH - July 27th 2011)

Bulletin #6

Online log available now.

(DL9HO -  July 27th 2011)

Bulletin #5

ZD8D Group is on the way to Ascension Island. 

(DL9HO - July 24th 2011)

Bulletin #4

Bad news from Ascension-Island. They have had heavy rainfalls in late April. The street to Garden Cottage (our planned operating site) up in the Green Mountain area was damaged, so there is no chance to reach that area until October.

We changed our plans and will now have a guesthouse in Georgetown, which is not ideal. We have to rely on our fiberglass-poles, as there are no trees etc. We are afraid, that we will be handicapped on 160 and 80m, but we will do our best, of course.

Good news on the amplifier-front. Thanks Elecraft Inc..Wolf (DK1IP) ran already tests with the brandnew KPA-500. It looks perfect!

(DJ9KH - June 27th 2011)

Bulletin #3

Antennas are constructed and tested. The last tests will be during the CW-fieldday. Beside the Spiderbeam we will have a 4-band fullsize groundplane (40-30-20-15) with elevated radials and full-wave loop-antennas for 4 bands (20-17-15-12). We will have more antennas for 160, 80 and 40m depending on the local situation.

I have got several e-mails regarding activities on 6 meters, including EME. We are still discussing that subject. Thanks to DK7ZB for his support. At the end it's a question of the enormous costs for extra luggage.

Our friends in VK and ZL are hoping that we find a way to work them on 160m and 80m shortpath. The local situation behind a mountain (110° to 170°) does not allow us to work short path. We have to find a remote location near the beach. Studying the satellite pictures we are still in doupt to find such a location, which can be reached by car.

(DJ9KH - May 22th 2011)

Bulletin #2

Time is running   -  things are developing …...

The crew is still in a good mood. In the meantime we got the entry-permits for Ascension-Island as well as the necessary amateur-radio-license for ZD8D. The flights and the accommodation are booked, so we can concentrate us on equipment and operating details. We have good news from Elecraft Inc. regarding the KPA 500 linear-amplifier. Let's hope, that we receive the PA in time. Would be a nice experience, to be the first dx-pedition operating with that amplifier.

Sorry to hear, that the German DX Foundation and the NCDXF found Ascension Island being not rare enough to help us to activate that island. Anyway, it will not bother our plans. The world-wide echoes on our plans encouraged us to follow the early plans to activate ZD8 mainly on 160m, 6m and the WARC-bands in RTTY, CW and SSB.

(DJ9KH - May 1th 2011)