XX9TFI Macau Expedition by W5FI

QSL card for the operation

Gary Jones, W5FI has completed his DXpedition to Macau (XX9). He was QRV from Aug 6 - 8. See the details of his activity below. QSL goes to Gary's home call.

Gary operating RTTY	Shot of the vertical on hotel roof
View of Macau towards North America	View of the city towards Europe
The Convention Center and Space Needle	Gary running CW via the keyboard

Updates:

08/06/01 Day One Summary:
I am finally operational, after a slow start. I have using a new radio (FT-100D), new software (MMRTTY), new antenna (Butternut), and new laptop computer...... which is a lot of "news". All of these were new within two weeks of me departing. Put them all together and I had a lot of things to figure out here before I could get the first QSO. Getting the license was a 4 hour process and the station had to be inspected before I could go on the air. The morning was devoted to the license, and the afternoon to erecting the antenna and getting it operational. I starting calling CQ on 20 and spent a good hour calling CQ and no one coming back before I concluded that I must have another antenna problem and it was not until around 1300 that I got it operational from a 1000 first attempt. However, it seems to be getting out very well now. I opened on 20 RTTY with a run primarily to JA. VU, HS, etc in SouthEast Asia. At around 1400, I heard my first Europeans, and the Europeans were there for about 19 minutes on 20 and the band just collapsed. Nothing. So QSY to 15 and after a while, 15 was open to Europe and I ran about 200 primarily European RTTY Qs on 15. A couple of guys (maybe 10 in total) made it through from North America, but very few. Then 15 died about 1630 so QSY back to 20 and it is open to Europe and I ran another 100 or more RTTY Qs until I am falling asleep at the keyboard at around 1900 I thought that I had the vertical mounted in a favorable position for north america but I am now concerned that the location may be shielded by part of the hotel from radiating toward North America. I will try to reposition the antenna to a higher location today... we shall see. Europe is essentially a few degrees west of north from here across a polar path. North America is a few degrees east of north and I thought the location was good for North American and my bad signals into NA may simply have been due to propagation. Talked to several local friends and they said that the bands were not much there last morning so that may be the problem.

08/07/01 Day Two Summary:
Well, the first operational day came to a close for me about 0300 am local Macau time... falling asleep at the radio and computer. Listened the bands when I got up and seemed to find nothing, so spent some time with XYL (Dee ) who is the reason for the Japan part of this trip)) and we had a nice dinner at lunch time. One of the real pluses of time in Macau is that being an ex-Portuguese holding, they have some excellent Portuguese wines. Then to get clothes washed at the laundry and back for a stint on the bands. Started the 7th with some SSB with Japanese and Chinese operators. Bands are slow during the daytime. There either is not much propagation here, or more accurately, propagation to parts of the world which don't have a lot of ham activity, or those that do have propagation have pretty much worked Macau. So it was slow. Did some more antenna work. By later afternoon 0600 I was ready to hit the bands harder, and started running 15 CW and 20 CW. Lots of JA QSOs with a few HL and other Pacific. Since I had heard virtually no NA stations on the previous night on RTTY, and quite a few guys need it on that mode, I decided to stay there on RTTY and give it a college try. Sat on either 14087 or 14083 for several hours beginning on 0930. Only JA and some other SouthEast Asia Qs in the log, but then at around 1030 I heard my first RTTY station from north America ... It was an 8 if I remember right. More CQs with nothing, and then there was N3SL, who was really hot to trot in landing this ! one in the log and he made a ver y watery but solid Q with me as the second one in the log. Then more 8s and a couple of 0s and then seemed to fade out. Then about 15 minutes later, more 8s were there, more 0s, and then more 4s and finally some 5s. The 5s were fun because virtually all of the members of the Magnolia DX club that needed it on RTTY were there to work me over a span of about 15 minutes. First one through was K5JZ (got the really big antenna) followed by N5FG and then the masses. This is exactly the pattern that I saw a few years ago from Ogasawara (JD1/7J1AYK) and earlier than that from Thailand (Bangkok HS0AC). On the North American opening, each time (this time less noticeable), but before this very strongly, the path opens to 8s and 0s (northern midwest) and then seems to spread to the east (1s and 2s) and then sags lower into mid mid-west (8s and 0s) and the mid-east coast (northern 4s), and then lengthes further into 5 and southern 4 land. I don't think I heard much from west of Mississippi this morning. Shortly after the 20 RTTY run died out (and it died without putting a single 6 in the log.... where is the propagation to 6 land??) it was off to 20 CW and then 15 CW. Again, I must still be jet-lagged because I was falling asleep at the keyboard. Some of you guys that heard me sound really poor at the keyboard, keep in mind that I was half asleep on some of those Qs. So, decided I was doing more damage than I was helping and off to bed. at around 1500z. Awake this morning fresh and ready to run, but little happening. Decide to see if anyone was on WARC so opened on 17 to a long run of CQs with nothing heard. Then started mining JAs and Northern Asian parts of Russia. 17 is a fascinating band. When it got going, I was working Europeans, North Americans, South Americans, Asians, Japanese, and South Pacific rim stations all at the time. No one was strong.... everyone was 559 at the best, but it was one solid Q after another. When 17 finally died, I decided to try 15 although it sounded largely dead with only a few JA stations. And much to my surprise, the neatest weak signal pile up I have ever encountered developed. It was a lot like 17, but there was not a station with a signal stronger than 569 or so, and most 549 or a good deal less (and me running 100 watts) , but there were ton of North Americans there for a 15 meter evening weak signal opening (N.A. evening hours) short path. Again, virtually the whole U.S. was coming in, from east coast out to the west coast, but with the exception of northern-west coast or maybe dessert west coast, I heard nothing from California... Strange conditions. But worked a bunch of friends and strangers on 15 CW as the pile ran for a good 3 hours before dying. I would guess some of those QSOs were honest 529 QSOs. For most of the run, there was not a signal that kicked my digital S meter one flicker... with the exception of occasional JAs calling, there was not! a signal that moved the S-meter I had to run the receiver filter wide open because the little bit of attenuation with the 500 Hz filter in, knocked most of the stations out. That was fun. One of the last signals heard was my buddy Stan Burks (N5UE). Way to go Stan... So one more day before we tear down, drop the equipment in Hong Kong, and head off to Korean and Japan for the next two weeks of this adventure. No radio during the Korea and Japan legs of the trip. Although I will be close to North Korea, I made no attempt to waste telephone calls and try to put anything together. So, give you a quick final report from Seoul after tearing down in Macau

08/08/01 Final Wrapup:
Operation concluded tonight at around 1400z after a nice run on 40 CW. Worked lots of 7s and 6s tonight on 40... I had not heard them before this. Spent about 45 minutes on 20 RTTY tonight and only worked two stations... one MDXA member George N5GH and another station. Almost seemed like I called on 20 only to work George... I have been surprised at the lack of interest in RTTY.... Even though I have early 300 worked on RTTY and didn't have this one, (nor did most of my friends), there seemed either to be really poor band conditions or a noticeable lack of interest in RTTY QSOs with XX9 from the States... Oh well....

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