Update April 22, 2023: The team is on the way back home on three different flights from Singapore. Our QSL Manager Sven DJ4MX wants to point out that using OQRS through Club Log will automatically bring a LotW confirmation as well.

Looking back, everything went as expected, although some things took a little longer in the beginning. Nothing went broken, and everything we needed was there (based on a 250 lines long Excel sheet) following the PPPPPP principle ("Proper preparation prevents piss-poor performance"). The Excel sheet for the upcoming November activity will be somewhat longer, as we'll probably send a sea freight container in August.

73 de DL6FBL for the 4W1A team

Update April 22, 2023: We shut down operation around 03:00z, which is local noon here. In a short while we'll begin to take down our antennas and clean up the outside space, which will not take long. Then we'll go out for some final negotiations in our prospected second location. After dark we'll pack our suitcases with the stuff that goes back home, while some other stuff will be securely stored away onsite to wait for us coming back in November 2023. When all is done, we'll have a nice fish dinner and finish up the rest of cans/bottles around. Flight back home starts tomorrow in the early local morning, with a stopover in Singapore.

Thanks for over 43.000 QSOs with 13.500 unique callsigns: 21.640 x CW, 19.760 x SSB and 1.870 x RTTY. We hope you've enjoyed our operation as much as we did. If you didn't make it in the log, watch out for us coming back in November.

OQRS service goes through Club Log, and - if you want - please consider a donation for the next activity.

73 de DL6FBL for the team

Update April 20, 2023: Internet connectivity over LTE doesn't get better. There is only one cell for the whole area, and the number of users in the network has dramatically increased over the past three years. Especially in the local evening hours we experience a packet loss of >50%, which is the cause for frequent upload errors in the Club Log Live Stream. We noted that once a QSO upload is busted for a callsign, subsequent QSOs with the same callsign are somehow ignored, too. This creates extra confusion, because the same guys try over and over again, although they are perfectly fine in our (local) log. The only way to get over it are full log uploads every few hours, which will make all the missing contacts show up in Club Log.

Still struggling to increase the number of North American and South American stations in the log. Signals are very low compared to all the Europeans booming in. We started to listen explicitly for North America and South America for a couple of minutes every now and then when the bands let also come Europe in. It's better in the hours when there is no propagation to Europe. Some guys are complaining that we were "always beaming to Europe". Please read our website again. We only have Vertical Dipoles. There is nothing to beam with... ;-)

Yesterday we had several meetings with the License Agency, the Customs Office, customs brokers, transport companies and the local airline to pre-arrange more things for the upcoming larger activity in November 2023.

Today we'll have a very special moment here: around local noon we'll have a full solar eclipse, and there is a big party going on here in the Beach Resort. Since DX propagation is down during the daylight hours anyway, we'll join the party and have some fun and relax.

We have also made up our schedule for dismantling the station. We'll stop operating on Saturday, 22-April-2023 around 06:00z.

73 de DL6FBL for the 4W1A team

Update April 19, 2023: 32000 QSOs logged by this morning. Pileups are still huge. We are working on November preparation. That’s why our activity could be a bit less in next 2 days. Tell us how you feel about our activity.

Update April 17, 2023: Internet connectivity at 4W1A is unstable at times. It appears that some contacts are lost in the permanent Live Log upload stream to Club Log. This can be fixed/synchronized by a later full upload of the ADIF file. If you wondered about missing contacts on Club Log, please check back again, and if necessary, send us a message through the Contact Form on our website.

Last night a thunderstorm and heavy rain came by, and we shut down operation for a while. Sorry for the abrupt disappearance. Same can happen, when public electricity or the on-site generator is lost, and doesn't come back for a while. After 5 days, our small team has made 23.600 QSOs, from 8.400 unique stations. We're still struggling to get more North and South America in the log. When the medium bands (20m, 17m, 15m) are open to America, there is also propagation to Europe. As we don't have directional antennas, and European signals are always stronger here, it is extra stressful to pull out the weaker signals from America. Please bear with us, when we try to work only America for a couple of minutes every now and then. However on the lower bands (40m, 30m) and the higher bands (12m, 10m) it seems to get easier now as the loud Asian stations have already made it in the log.

Please note that we concentrated on operating so far. Now, after the weekend, we'll take more care about preparations for the larger 4W Timor-Leste DXpedition coming up in November 2023. It means that we'll be operating less hours per day as in the past days. If you don't make it in our log now in April, stay tuned for November.

73 de DL6FBL for the 4W1A team

Update April 15, 2023: So far everything is getting better and better. We are now in charge of electricity and can operate without any major problems.

Today, first tropical storm went over us. It was short with heavy rain, but no big issues or any damage. Except we were very surprised and scared by that rain and wind noise!

Internet connection is very slow sometimes, but logstream works ok. Close to 10000 QSOs now in the log.

We are checking everyday 6m but at the moment nothing seen on scope. As soon we see some FT8 signals we will QSY to CW or SSB. Don’t hesitate to send us a message if you see there is a opening close to Grid PI21QK.

At the moment we’re still operating together and sleeping at same time. We have some plans to change that.

There is also still some preparation work for the big November DXpedition. So we simply can’t be every hour on the radio.

Yesterday we noticed DQRM on our frequencies, especially on 20m and 30m. We are aware about that and we have patience. This is a case only with good opening to EU so far..

Please try to be fair and don’t call if you don’t hear at least part of your call. We still have situation that people just keep calling calling. This just slows down operating.

We notice also some remote callers. At the moment we are still thinking about what we are going to do about those fake QSOs.
4W1A Team.

Update April 14, 2023: After two days of operating (we’d better say “two nights of operating”) there are over 8800 QSOs in the log. You can always see the current statistics here: We have touched all bands from 40-10m, but haven’t spent equal time for SSB/CW there yet. Also the coverage on continents is not yet equal. Working Europe is easy on all bands, and also Asia, of course, but North and South America is still under-represented. We are aware of that and try to focus on those regions in the coming days. As we are only using omni-directional antennas here, it’s not a matter of (our) antenna direction, but rather a matter of selecting the right bands for the Americas, which may offer the best propagation. You may also want to check out K6TU’s propagation tool on our website to find the best times for each band. We’ll use the same charts to identify and select the bands on our side.

Update April 13, 2023: Last morning we had very big issues with voltage on public network. Voltage was collapsing. And we were in range between 130-285v. Operating with amps was not possible any more. Finally, we discovered that it was factory close by. Their working hours are 7-17 local time. Now we are forced to run generator at least during this period.  Also one possible problem with audio on K3 transceiver. We are about to try to see what we can do regarding that. 

Update April 10, 2023: Operation from 4W may start tomorrow (Tuesday) around 1000-1200z. We have to finalize customs clearance for some boxes in the morning, then pick up our licence from the agency, go back to our place and put up our antennas. We couldn’t do that yet, because some important parts are not in our hands yet. However, today we walked along the beach and found a second QTH for the November activity, inside the 500m circle, which is important for CQWW contest.

73 Ben DL6FBL in 4W.

DL6FBL Ben, E77DX Braco and SP5XVY Robert will be QRV from Timor-Leste, on April 10-22, 2023. Callsign is still not confirmed.

Ben says: “This activity is meant as a Scouting Trip for a larger activity by Lagunaria DX group in November 2023. Now in April we’ll have two or three radios/amps and wire antennas only, but we’ll use the same beachfront location planned for November. We’ll try to be on the air as much as possible, but we’ll also need time for on-site negotiations etc. Now in April: CW, SSB and classic RTTY on 40m-10m only. We’ll reserve all other bands and modes for the November activity. However we’ll keep an eye on 6m. When local Internet access is working well, we’ll use Club Log‘s Live Stream logging as well as their OQRS services.”