NEWS UPDATE – 3DA0WW will not be on 160m band anymore, Inv-L performance is not satisfactory. Reminder they are QRV until Monday.
NEWS UPDATE & VIDEOS (OCTOBER 22)
For 160m InvL is installed as a workaround for match-box problem. Beverage towards EU is installed from each sub-QTH. Hopefully this will improve low-bands reception. 3DA0WW will be on the air full-strength until Sunday including. On Monday they will do Covid tests and pack the gear. On Tuesday they fly home. Political situation in the country is tense. Hopefully the team will not face any issues.
OCTOBER 18
This morning +9 C outside and raining constantly. Noisy low-bands and probably nothing better to expect. Seems like this will be mostly FT8 DXpedition.
OCTOBER 17
Occasionally the team suffer from power cuts, but all is going well. The 160m antenna is now installed but SWR jumps heavily due to weather / terrain. They may appear on top band tonight (their evening). Last log updated shows just over 7000 QSOs made (not 70,000 as reported elsewhere 😀 ). Pictures courtesy 3DA0WW website & NT2X.
OCTOBER 16 – [SOURCE]
Transmit antenna setup is finished. This morning the infamous dog escaped his fencing and collapsed one Spiderbeam. It will be repaired. As the setup is mostly finished team plans to be on the air more. Local LED lights are kept off to reduce the band noise. Beverage antenna is not yet installed. First 3368 QSOs were uploaded to Club Log. The team is located in 2 different houses in some distance from each other. One sub-QTH has a Spiderbeam (20-10m), vertical for 80m, another vertical for 40m. Other sub-QTH has Spiderbeam (20-10m), DX-Commander vertical (40m-10m), 18m Spiderpole based top-loaded vertical for 160-30m. Up to 4 transceivers are in use.
OCTOBER 13 – Team arrive in Eswatini
OCTOBER 12 – The team has started the trip. The plan is to reach the QTH by October 13 evening. But it will be dark already. So the first QSOs could happen on October 14th, unless something unplanned happens and delays the arrival. [Source]
OCTOBER 10 – The operation was planned for some time. The team consists of Yuris YL2GM (Team leader), Pavel UU0JR, Alex UT7UV, Jack YL2KA, Wlad US7IGN, Vlad UW7RV.
Members of the gang have previously operated from some rare places in Asia, Africa, Pacific and the Carribean. They possess ample DX and contesting experience.
Non-withstanding current operating by another DX group from the same location, 3DA0WW group plans its own extensive operation during their stay. All HF bands and modes.
Will try to post progress reports, happenings and images from 3DA0. They will attempt to upload the logs directly from Eswatini, so contacts can be verified, but that depends on the quality of available Internet. Poor connection = no logs, as partial loads confuse DXers into thinking they are not in the log. We will address this later.
OCTOBER 5, 2021 – Yuris, YL2GM and team plan an DXpedition to the Kingdom of Eswatini and to be on the air as 3DA0WW from October 12 to 26, 2021. Click image for full details:
FT8 contact on 30m from North Texas, at 04:15 Zulu Time. Many TNX for the OSQ and 73 de K5IFA!
Looking forward to this one too. Don’t know the location of 3DA0RU, but so far, I do not have a good experience with making QSO’s with them.
..and then we have LoTW !
Capitalization: Eswatini or eSwatini?
Journalists reporting on the name change when it first happened in April spelled the new country name “eSwatini”, with a lowercase “e” and capital “S”. That’s the way the country’s name is properly written in the Swazi language, and it was also spelled that way in the government’s official transcript of King Mswati’s September 2017 speech to the United Nations (which was delivered in English). Capitalizing only the second letter of a name is unusual in English, but then, that doesn’t stop you from shopping on eBay with your iPhone.
Looking forward to get in contact.
Vy 73 OZ 1 T Peter