CT3/DL1YMK EME DX - pedition

Monika and Michael 

with their HF colleague Peter CT3/DL7YS

Stretching dish

Their accommodation

Dish pointing to the Moon

OK1DFC

 02/06/2006 - Hi gang, the eagle has landed, at least in the second trial for touch down of the airplane (sweating a bit...I have to admit, very bumpy landing) All gear unloaded from the airplane, nothing got lost so far. Location should be ok, as far as I could judge from first inspection. 220V on mains could be a bit soft, but let's see. Doug: window will be definitely marginal to 85° (mountain ridge, as expected), but all depends on EL; will need abt 8° here roughly, which means ground noise for you - just let's try ...Have high speed www. access by WLAN. Building up dish Friday morning.  73's de Michael, CT3/DL1YMK

03/06/2006 - Hi gang, on Friday, June 2nd, we worked the following stations off the moon: DL0SHF, LX1DB, G4CCH, HB9Q, OE9ERC, DF3RU, OK1DFC, DJ9YW, PA3CSG, OK1CA, ON7UN, OZ4MM, F2TU, G3LTF, OZ6OL, K2UYH. Skeds with LA8LF and N2UO failed unfortunately. Because of high noise problems to our East at low elevations (hill ridge with many buildings), 2day we did not copy (so far) JA4BLC and VK3UM. Doug, PSE hang on 2morrow at any rate!!!.SM5LE in JT65C: PSE 04.06. 15.30UT CT3 1st. LA8LF: we'll try through a big tree (!!), which gives noise as well. Did change f/D of dish a bit, have improved our sun noise a bit. Could not get echoes so far. Please be patient with us, we seem to be have problems on RXing. If you hear YYY??? from us, PSE many times ONLY YOUR callsign. Tnx a lot, try to work as many of you as possible, PSE hang on, it's hard to play EME on an island with soft mains supply, hi!!. All skeds to the US are okay this evening (03.06.06).  73's de Monika & Michael (sweating, not from the heat...)

04/06/2006 - Hi gang, still having problems to find the moon. I need the strong signals from Carsten DL0SHF and Stig, OZ4MM as a beacon and path-finder. Thanks both for a great job!! To our East we have a big tree blocking us from 90 to 125 degrees. So maybe we need to reallocate sked times in the next days to ensure free Moon sight. Yesterday we worked RW1AW, OH2DG, K5JL, OE9ERC, OK1KIR, W5ORH, F2TU, W5LUA, VE6TA, WW2R, KL6M. Thanks to all for their patience as we seem to be a bit deaf. So if you call us, give long periods of only your call. Vy 73, Monika and Michael 

05/06/2006 - Hi gang, still struggling endlessly with moon finding (again big tnx to OZ4MM and DL0SHF, who served reliably as beacons for us). We worked on 04.06.06 the following stations:LA8LF, ES5PC, SM2CEW, DF3RU (dupe), IK3COJ, IW2FZR, G4CCH (dupe), SM6CKU, K5GW, ON7UN (dupe), DF9QX, W2UHI, K0YW (tnx for hanging on Bruce...), K5PJR. Went to bed at around 0300 local time. Counted so far 37 different stations. WX forecast for Tuesday: upcoming wind, hopefully tolerable, so we may not be in a need to remove mesh panels. So keep your fingers crossed, please, we've got enough practice from EI, though. Whenever possible, we will keep to all schedules - again WX permitting......With the exception of 4 stations, we have worked all skeds, partly on random, when we were called before sked slots. 73's & 88's, Monika & Michael 

07/06/2006 - Hi lunatics, on 23 cm we worked on 05.06.06 the following stations: OZ4MM (dupe, beacon, Stig TNX), SM3AKW, IK2MMB, G3LQR, G4DDK (my first JT65c ever), K5JL (dupe, 569/559, not too bad...). On 06.06.06 we worked ES6RQ as #42 on 23cm. On 07.06.06 we changed the feed to 70 cm and managed to contact: SM2CEW, OK1DFC, DK3WG, DL9KR (Jan: congrats to DXCC #93!), OZ4MM, G4RGK, F2TU and OE9ERC ( just some minutes ago, very loud, vertical polarization, random) - so far. Further skeds this night - qrv until 2.15 UT.  Heard were VK3UM (Doug hang on to us please...), DL7APV not complete in sked slot (Bernd try again please).  A big thanks to all!!! Michael & Monika 

09/06/2006 - Hi gang,  worked on 70cm the following stations today: VK3UM (earth distance 18354 km!), HB9Q, OK1CA and DL9KR (dupe). Will stay on 70cm till Friday night, then change back to 23 cm. QSO with Doug took 3 attempts, thanks Doug for your persistence! Jan had a really smashing 559 easy loudspeaker copy signal into Madeira, fantastic!! Thanks all for their patience and skills to drag us out of the white noise. vy 73 / 88 de Monika & Michael

10/06/2006 - Hi gang, could not make it with Bernd, DL7APV, on 70 again, and also missed OK1KIR on 09.06.06, however completed with Al, K2UYH, in the 2nd trial on 70 cm. Coming back from a 15 km hike along one of the famous 'levadas' (freshwater channels in Madeira's highlands), we changed the feed back again to 23cm in the light of torches. Got to bed and fortunately heard the alarm clock ( chose a real nasty one - after having had Madeira wine for diner...), got up and worked Paul, WA6PY, at 0300UT on the 10th in an easy and quick QSO as # 43 on 23cm as CT3/DL1YMK. We will spend more time with touristy activities now, but are still available till 15th of June for 23 and 70cm tests. Will try with the boys of OK1KIR on 70 again, when they have suitable moon window. TNX to all, cu off the moon.. 73/88 de M&M

12/06/2006 - Hi gang, after nil in the first days' skeds with Doug, VK3UM, we at last succeeded on 10.06.06 at 20.14 to run an easy O/549 QSO on 23cm. With this, we completed Moon - bounce contacts on two bands. Doug made a marvelous wav.-copy of the QSO, I was really surprised about the signal, we were able to produce... WX forecasts for Tuesday puts us back to the 'EI-feeling': high winds most likely will force us to take the dish down and go QRT. Many thanks to all, who participated in this Moon - bounce DX-pedition by giving us their attention.   Vy 73! and 88! de Monika & Michael

Hi Joe, just made a run-down on the DX pedition log: so far 44 initials at a QSO-total of 52 on 23cm and 12 on 432 at a QSO-total of 13. We are very happy with that result, even more as 26 of the 23 cm-contacts were actually random. This proves our preloaded/stressed dish concept to be competitive on 23 in the rough DX pedition field. As expected, the ant gain on 70 cm is marginal, but still enough to work the big guns. Receiving capabilities on 70 were, let's say, sufficient, as we could adapt to Faraday by the switchable 1wl ring feed. We could copy by far more stations than we could actually work. Mains supply was a bit weak, so we couldn't run more than 500W; the mains fused tripped countless times, a real contribution to my slimming program, hi!  
We are very glad to have worked a number of stations on two bands, a highlight being VK3UM. We couldn't surpass the distance record on 70 with Doug (still held by K2UYH), anyhow just missed it be some 300 km. As we did the same on 1296 MHz, it is likely to be a VK distance record on 23cm. Doug has sent me  a wav-file with our signals in VK, indicating a surprising signal strength (O/549 exchanged).
Thanks again for all your great support, without soliciting people by skeds this kind of DXCC-activation on Moon - bounce would have very little efficiency!  
Soon will start thinking about where to go next...
Vy 73 and 88 de Monika & Michael

12/06/2006 - Hi lunatics, yesterday we finished our CT3 operation because of upcoming high winds and thunderstorms. We didn't want to run any risk with the dish, because we need it  for further DX-pedition. On Monday we worked HB9BBD on 23 cm (# 45, very loud signal, 559/559), than changed the feed in the dark within 15 minutes to 70 cm and managed to work DL7APV (#13). Thanks to all for their patience and their support. It was a fantastic experience for us. Vy 73, see you off the moon!
Monika&Michael

17/06/2006 - I got the last e-mail from Michael and Monika which including pictures and summarization of DX pedition to the Madeira Ins. I am very happy and was for me very appreciate to have possible present couple information and set up web with those pictures. Thanks to your trust!  Zdenek OK1DFC

Hi Zdenek, once again a real big 'thank you' for your support!! As I think the gang is eagerly waiting for the log, I made an Excel file from the paper log (real dinosaur, hi...), which is attached to this email. I hope you can convert it for an integration to the site. IT is interesting that 57% of all 23 cm QSO's were made on random, so not too bad, I think. We had a smooth flight back and arrived safely at home on 15th of June at 23.30. The four Alu-boxes also arrived as 'heavy bulk luggage', nothing is missing and the equipment is undamaged, so everything is ready for another DX-pedition, hi. So, after an DXpedition is again before another DXpedition...Monika claims, it has to be a place, where cacti grow....so let's see! I attached more photos as well.

73 and mni tnx,73/88 de M&M