[QRT] E44CC – Palestine DXpedition

FEBRUARY 16 @ 13:50 UTC – E44CC DXpedition is now finished. The team did, in the end, make over 50K QSOs.

FEBRUARY 16 @ 11:00 UTC – The 5th station could be repaired. We’re still running for a few hours before dismantling our antennas. 50,000 contacts are approaching.

FEBRUARY 15 – As the days go by, each day seems different from the previous one. The rather good propagation we had for the first two days didn’t last. At night the lower bands were very noisy whereas the higher bands were systematically closed by day. This is reflected by the lower daily rate achieved this last days.

Since yesterday (14th Feb.) we’re one transceiver short, only 4 stations are remaining. We wanted to take advantage of the ARRL DX CW to increase the number of QSOs with our US friends. Unfortunately it’s very difficult to come through the European wall.

Up to now we’ve made 46.000 QSOs. The 50.000 QSOs goal seems hard to achieve since we’ll have to dismantle antennas tomorrow afternoon (Sunday 16th Feb.)

FEBRUARY 12 – A delegation from the E44CC team invited today at the Tecommunications Ministry, Ramallah. The aim was especially to exchange views on the creation of a Radio Club in order to promote Ham Radio in Palestine. The team wish to express gratitude to the Minister and his staff for their time and the warm welcome.

FEBRUARY 11 – Half of the DXpedition is over, it’s time to make a first review. On the higher bands (except 10 and 12m), conditions are not that bad but don’t behave like the simulations we did. It’s particularly the case for regions like west coast US and South America. On the lower bands, we suffer from high noise level coming from our urban location. More receiving antennas were tested despite the small space available, such as a loop on the hotel roof and a BOG (Beverage On Ground) in the small hotel garden (picture below). Working 160m in a city environment is a challenge because the noise level is permanently above S9. Our biggest frustration is that we are heard without being able to hear you. Today, we lengthened the BOG again, but we won’t be able to do more.

FEBRUARY 8 – Some antenna repairs in cold weather today.

FEBRUARY 7 @ 18:50Z – After the first 24 hours, the team total 8,400 QSOs. However, they have to improve 160m reception because they’re experiencing significant local QRM and the band is really noisy. They say it will be better soon.

FEBRUARY 6 – Pictures & video courtesy E44CC team + Pilot F8FKI.

CREDIT E44CC TEAM

We arrived in Palestine early in the evening with all our equipment and antennas. We were able to climb on the hotel roof (photo ABOVE). Antennas installation will start tomorrow morning (February 6).

Full info found here