Update November 28, 2024:  We are back home now. I was hoping to post another update from the island but our schedule was full with work until minutes before the contest started. The contest finished here Monday afternoon and we only had a few hours to disassemble and pack the station plus a short night of sleep before we flew out of Chatham early morning the next day.

The second lattice tower made some trouble again and we did not manage to get it assmbled with all three segments. The backup plan was to use two segment (no rotor) and fix the hexbeam pointing to the East. This allowed us to cover NA to SA and EU long path. The second hexbeam has a rotor and was mostly pointing towards AS and EU short path. It was only 30 min before the contest start that we had it up in the air.

 The contest was great fun. Constant pile ups at great conditions. We decided to operate in the category "Multi Operator Two Radios". This would allow for a maximum QSO number but also be very exhausting since any break time meant the station would be offline.

A concern was the power supply. We are offgrid on Solar power with a 20 kWh battery and while we had a back up generator we wanted it to be the last reserve. Whenever possible we reduced the output power to safe energy. It was to our own surprise that we not once had to use the generator. We managed the to run two stations during the whole contest on battery/solar power only. Only on 80/160 m we were always using the KPA500.  There were a few unplanned breaks due to propagation issues from down here but we met our target of 6 kQ's and 10+ million points.

After the contest tower two went down again and the hexbeam was disassembled and packed away. The top segment is almost ready to be installed with rotor, trust bearing and a 7 element yagi for 6 m. It is likely going up next week (first week of Dec. 2024). Expect ZL7DX on 6 m via tropo and EME soon!

I'm still waiting for LoTW account data from the ARRL for ZL7YL. Once received we will upload the QSO data. QSL cards are in the making and will be shipped in late December to DK7AO. We have no cards in New Zealand and can't answer anything from here. OQRS is open as well.

A big Thank You to our hosts Catherine (ZL7QT) and Chris (ZL7DX) and Thank You for the QSO's. We had a great time.

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QSL via DK7AO only (Clublog's OQRS preferred), we don't want your paper card.
LoTW: Xenia said she applied for the ZL7YL account with ARRL a month ago, but still waitong for account data. Once received from the ARRL, logs will be uploaded immediately.

Update November 15, 2024: Holger, ZL7IO  (ZL3IO)  will be back to  Waitangi,  Chatham Islands  (OC-038) on November 19-26, 2024. He will be joined by his daughter Xenia (ZL4YL), who will be QRV as  ZL7YL.  This will be also the callsign used during the  CQ WW DX CW Contest as a Multi-2 entry.  

QSL ZL7IO and ZL7YL via LoTW, Club Log's OQRS, or via DK7AO.

Update November 2, 2024: I'm back home to sunny Hawkes Bay which welcomed me with 23C/73F temperature and sun. What a difference to 10-15 C or 50-60 F average temps on Chatham. Except for the 12 hours delay of my flight from Chatham all went well on the way back. It was actually very nice to have a few hours with Saskia and family, expecially little Mila of course.

Another 13.8 kQ's were made during this trip. Oct'24 logs are uploaded to LoTW and sent to our QSLmanager DK7AO to allow paper QSL processing.

I will be back Nov 19th together with our other daughter Xenia (ZL4YL/ZL7YL) for more antenna work and the WWDX CW contest. Then the towers will go up with hexbeams on each and we will operate the contest under Xenia's call ZL7YL as a M/2 entry with two OPs. Fingers crossed we have similar conditions like for the SSB part.

Fun fact: Xenia is going to run her third Marathon in 2024 tomorrow in Auckland, NZ. If you ever wondered why we all are so skinny...

Thanks again for the QSO's and the mainly positive feedback we received.
We're looking forward to hear/log you again in November!!!

73 Holger, ZL3IO/ZL7IO, "ONE OF FIVE" of the ZM4T team

Update October 29, 2024: Wow, the contest was fun again. Amazing high band conditions except for those likely CME related periods of no propagation from my part of the world. Remember, I need 3-5 hops to take part in the party. The low bands were a no show on day one but a little better on day two. No QSO on 160m, not even ZL or VK. The weather was hell here with rain and very gusty winds. I did a SOAB low power again but assisted this year. All the time I was eyeing the battery status. With no sun at all the battery would not fully rechage. Together with those CME related noise only periods I did not manage to repeat last years result. I ended up with 400+ Q’s less. The contest was great fun nevertheless. 

Update October 25, 2024: Spent a bit more time to tune the 160 m antenna at 1835 kHz. I was CQing during my greyline but only two ZL’s were calling. I could see EI4KF CQing  in FT8.

We erected the first lattice tower. It first a first for me to erect a tower with a tractor. We have a hindge on the ground and can lay the tower down. This was done without antenna as we first had to attach and adjust the guy wires. It was very windy again and we were a bit nervous until we had the guys attached.

The posts for the guy wires for tower two were concreted into the ground.The tower base comes next. The local pub only opens a few days per week and we had a pre-contest dinner planned.

Some folks asked me about living costs on Chatham. It is very expensive here since climate is harsh. Average temperatures are around 12-15 C during the day, constant wind and it rains horizontally. So fresh food is difficult to grow and most is brought in via airplanes –> $$$. But see for yourself the prices in one of the two grocery stores on Chatham.

Otherwise I’m getting ready for the CQWW SSB contest were I will be SOAB LP.

Update October 21, 2024: 
– We run into problems with the welding lugs on the tower segments not fitting. We have to redo them or the towers wont be straight.
– We removed the anker post for guy wires of the tube towers that we took down. They were in the way to erect the lattice tower.
– Built a base pole for the 160m vertical. Assembled the vertical and guy wires. It was too windy in the evening to erect the vertical alone. I will have another pair of hands tomorrow. Look out for me on 160m around my greyline (06:20z & 16:45z).

Update October 17, 2024: 
– The hexbeam is working again. It wasn’t the coax run.
– The 80m vertical is back in business and working as well. I made 90 EU’s on 80 during my sunset.
– We also worked on the lattice tower segments. They are used ones and we cut out dodgy/rusty areas and welded them back together. The first tower is ready. The second one will be welded tomorrow. The tower bases are prepared and painted. If weather plays game we do the foundations tomorrow.
– Radio activity is on the side and therefore mostly in FT8.

Update October 16, 2024:
– The hexbeam installed in 2023 has bad SWR. It has to come down for inspection. I hope it’s not the long coax run.
– The lawn moving around the 80m vertical cut of a lot of the radials at the vertical base.
– We started preparing lattice tower segments but more welding work has to be done to remove rusted parts.We found a pre-loved NUC which I got set up this late evening so I can do FT8 on the side when doing other jobs.

Holger, ZL3IO will be QRV on HF Bands from ZL7DX station in Chatham Islands on October 15-31, 2024.
He will participate in the CQ WW DX SSB Contest as ZL7IO.

QSL via M0OXO.