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Sep 9, 20235 min read

ZL7IO - Chatham Isl.


ZL7IO Update (Nov 03)


I'm back home after another week on the island. The CQWW SSB is in the books and I'm very happy with the result. I operated SOAB LP and made 3615 QSO's for 4.8 million points. More details can be found on 3830scores.com.


Jacek ZL7/SP5EAQ was also there during this time and we met twice. While he stayed in Waitangi - the "vibrant" centre of Chatham with a population of 250, both shops and the only pub on the island - his place was no good for radioing and I felt sorry for him. He was only 100 m from the beach but behind a 20 m higher sand dune with limited antenna space. The dune blocked him to the North. Nevertheless, Jacek managed a few thousend SSB contacts during his two weeks stay



We installed a 6 m antenna and Chris, ZL7DX had a nice opening into NA. While I was still contesting he worked into the East coast and Central America and later also into Japan.


Below is a picture of the radio shack in the shed with my station to the left and the 6 m station (IC746 + KPA500) to the right.



I added another 7 kQ's to the ZL7IO log during this week. LoTW and Clublog are updated. We have not printed QSL cards yet and OQRS will only open after my November trip.


Below is an update of the continent statistic for the 21 kQ's made so far:



The biggest demand for ZL7 is surely from Europe and I've tried to be around for EU whenever possible. With 30% EU from down here using 100 W there should be no reasons for complaints.


I will be back on the 22nd November for another week and hope to see you in the CQWW CW contest .


73 Holger, ZL3IO / ZL7IO



ZL7IO Update (Oct 23)


Everything is packed and ready for my next trip to Chatham. The flight is on the 25th Sep and I will be there for one week. I have to work during the working days and we hopefully can improve on the antennas. The plan is to multiply the radials for both verticals. 6m showed some life the last week with openings to NA/CA & AS from ZL. May be we can get an antenna installed for a few QSO's. We assume there is a need for ZL7 on 6m. The focus is to operate the CQWW DX SSB Contest as SO AB (single Op all bands). I have a KPA500 available this time but haven't decided if I go low or high power. The solar flux was down the last few days. Conditions from ZL on hf were OKish but not as good as in September.

Jacek, SP5EAQ is already active from a beach house about 5 km away from our place. I look forward to meeting him soon. Below is a picture of his QTH and antenna.




ZL7IO Update (Sep 30)


I'm back home now. Thanks for the many QSO's (~14 k). LoTW is upload and Clublog is up to date. All QSO's were made with 10/100 W from here. I will be back on Wednesday before the CQWW SSB contest.


Here is a continent statistic of the first activity:





ZL7IO Update (Sep 26)


The amplifer is working fine if required/possible. I've not yet used it.


Weather turned from bad to terrible. The wind is blowing you away when going outside and of course it is raining. There is a storm front which moved up New Zealand and a about a day later (700 km) it is usually arriving in Chatham. This one is big enough to entertain all islands at the same time. This is a good test for the antennas we built before I'm leaving.


The CQ WWDX RTTY is over. I decided to go low power. Conditions were great and I could work the whole world with lp in CW & FTx. On Friday afternoon while preparing the set up for the contest I got trouble with the breaker in the K3 limiting my power to 10 W. The 100 W module disconnects immediatley after start. Thankfully I could get a Yaesu transceiver from my host Chris. As it is with RTTY it can be tricky to get all working as you like. It was not until 10 minutes before the contest start that I got everything working.


In the contest the conditions were amazing, as were the pile ups. Unfortunately the operation behaviour especially from our European friends limited the QSO rate. I was running twice the rate in RTTY with NA or AS compared to EU. What I did ewas runn QSO's for the time it worked and swap frequency to gain another few minutes until the non stop callers and QRMers would be back. In the end I made 1825 RTTY QSO's in the contest on all bands, 37% with EU. It was the first ever participation in the CQ WWDX RTTY from Chatham and will consequently be a Chatham record. It is also above the best low power result from Oceania but we better wait for the log checking... The margin is only 4% or so. Result details can be found on 3830scores.com. On Sunday the batteries were down to 20 % charge and we had to use the back up generator to recharge them. The outlook for the next few days says wind & rain.


My last few days before flying home are full with work. Whenever possible I try to run FT8 on the side. I use 10 W now.


73 Holger



ZL7IO Update (Sep 21)


Yesterday was a very calm day here and we managed to erect the 80 m vertical. We had to deviate from the original plan.The inner tube joiners we planed to use did not work as expected. The bend with the top weight. We used a lighter fishing road on the top now and managed to reach 15 m total height (11 m aluminium tube). The top guy ropes got three meters of wire attached as a capacitive head. The bad news is the noise level on 80 m. 80 sticks out from all other bands with an S7 noise level (otherwise it is whisper quiet here).



I really struggle to dig out the stations from the noise. Most CW QSO's on 80 were with AS/NA/OC. But, in FT8 I managed 50 EU's during their grey line. Our friends in HL/JA asked to call around 3547 kHz as they have limited access areas on 80 m. I'm happy to accomodate this and will be tonight on 3547 kHz FT8 FH mode. Again call above 1000 Hz in FT8 or I can't pick you!!!


I've reached 5.3 kQ's now with my small set up. Here is the continent breakdown.



The amplifier is repaired. We'll retune it today. Let's hope it agrees to being repaired. Then we'll see what power we can run/manage on the solar/battery system. The weather forecast for the weekend and next week is not good with rain for most of the time. That limits our power generation and recharging capability. As long as I can attract callers I will operate low power.


Expect me in the CQ WWDX RTTY as Single OP All Band entry.



ZL7IO (Sep 09)


Op: ZL3IO


Bands: 10M - 160M


Modes: CW, SSB, RTTY & FT8


Qsl Info: Qsl via DK7AO, LoTW or OQRS


Start Date - End Date: Sep 15 - Sep 29




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