14.11.02, 17UTC: The EI-Crew (Nico, DK5DQ and Volker, DL5DAW) are on their way to the ferry in PA. The car is packed and the rig is on board.
14.11.02, 19UTC: The EI-Crew is 1 hour before Rotterdamm, where the ferry starts. Also Harry`s DL2DAO baggage is ready and his airplane to VO1 starts on the 15th Nov. in the evening.
15.11.02, 14UTC: Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have made a change in the location for the VHF transatlantic experiment in St. John’s. As there were too many factors arising late in the preparation stage, we have switched location to Admiralty House Museum and Archive in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, approximately 8 miles west of St. John’s. The call we will be using for the experiment will now be VO1BZM. For more information on the new site or this project, check out the SONRA web pages http://sonra.ca or http://www.nfld.com/~sirjames/ or contact Paul VO1HE at vo1he@rac.ca or Graham VO1DZA at vo1dza@rac.ca.
15.11.02, 16UTC: The EI-guys checked
in the ferry and are on its way. Also Harry is waiting in the check in counter
of Frankfurt Airport for his flight. Boths teams are informed about the new
location and callsign in VO1.
16.11.02, 1330UTC: Nico and Volker
arrived at the EI location, all fine and take off very good. 1st rig test
maybe this night around 0z with QTF east. Also Harry and equipment arrived OK.
They will be starting the set up in the morning local time.
18.11.02, 1330UTC: The EI`s crew got
the official licence for the callsign EI2TAA (Transatlantic Attempt) and the
permission for a limited output during the test for 750W. The VO1 crew went
back to the 1st QTH, Carbet Tower in St. Johns, because the other location had
a bad take off.
18.11.02, 2200UTC: EI2TAA starts
with operating from IO41TU, the Transatlantic Test starts around 2UTC.
18.11.02, 2259UTC: QSO between
DL6YEH and EI2TAA on Random SSB on 144345, completed in 3 minutes.
19.11.02, 0200UTC: The tests starts.
Due to heavy storms in IO41 the crew build up the light Flexayagis with less
gain than the M-Squares. Because of a defect in the antenna coupler, the light
two antenna system could not be used also, so finally EI2TAA uses a single
11ele Flexayagi.
In Newfoundland, extremely bad weather conditions also damaged the antenna system, so finally only a single yagi could be used.
The transatlantic test in the 1st peak failed.
19.11.02, 1000UTC: Starting the sked
in the avoidable 2nd peak. But during the transmission from the VO1-crew the
HV-Trafo from the amplifier failed and no reserve was available. So the
Transatlantic Attempt failed.
19.11.02, 1000UTC: After talking
back with the crews they came to the conclusion, that even with using the
optimum scale the conditions were no good enough for such an event.
19.11.02, 1517UTC: Now I stop the
ongoing reporting. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for detailed Infos
with pictures, when the crews came back. 73s Andy DL6YEH
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