My VP9 Story

My RTTY DXpedition to VP9
By Dick Stevens, N1RCT

    The Beginning

     We have all read those articles in CQ and QST about epic trips to exotic lands and placing a new one into the logs of lots of the deserving. Today, the standard has become very high with 10 plus members, budgets way over $100,000 and logistics and support of a shuttle launch. But most of us find ourselves lacking in time, money, experience, special skills, or contacts to be part of these mega-efforts. Still, for every big DXpedition, there are several of much more modest goals that are carried out without a lot of publicity. For me, it all started a few years ago when there was a reflector discussion of why DXpeditions were having such seemingly bad luck with their RTTY equipment, resulting in many missed opportunities. This led to a discussion of the "the best DXpedition Rig" and I started thinking about what was possible for RTTY. From the start, I could see all of it in a carry-on backpack (contents unknown). First, I bought the backpack! I must confess immediately that in the end a good part of my final rig went in regular, checked luggage but I did have a basic setup that fit in the backpack. What follows is the story of how I got to Bermuda and had a successful RTTY operation.

      Bermuda is a special place for me, at least partially because it took an effort to get there .. the first time was the 1990 Newport to Bermuda Yacht Race as the navigator and the second time as one of three crew in a 1993 pleasure cruise. Both were in the Sigma 41' "Black Pearl" (for the best bar in Newport) of fellow IBM engineer and skipper, Gordy Robbins. The race in 1990 was very slow with light wind alternating with thunderstorms in the face and a very long trip. After 6 days at sea, I, Navigator, at 6:30 AM pronounced Bermuda, St. David's lighthouse and the finish line 5 miles dead ahead. As there was absolutely nothing to be seen but water, a bright sun, and only a faint mist dead ahead, the crew's morale reached bottom. I went to the foredeck so I wouldn't have to look at them and kept a lookout. In about 15 minutes, I saw a ghostly image of a light house high in the air, for just a moment. I walked back to the cockpit and said "Almost there" to a highly skeptical audience. In a few more minutes, a ground fog over just the Bermuda land magically lifted and instantly there were all the pink houses, hotels, beaches, breakers, the light house, and the finish line buoy, a memorable sight. The only crew words were from the skipper .. "Which end of the line is favored?", which only a racing sailor or a navigator will appreciate ..

So I looked forward to my first RTTY contact with VP9 when I became a Ham in 1994. After a few years, I realized that VP9 was not common on RTTY. I did some research and it seemed the last operation from VP9 was none other than my good friend Eddie VP9/G0AZT in the early '90's and there did not appear to be any local operators currently. It was such an obvious locale (semi-rare on RTTY, 2 hours away, good path for low power, etc ) and personally significant to me, so I kept quiet about it and started making my plans.

Getting Ready ...

"The Best RTTY Rig ?"
It's 1997. I have decided on RITTY by K6STI as the modem. The problem was finding a laptop computer with the right sound card (and the right price). After 4 months of looking, I won an online auction for a "re-conditioned" AST 950N which had the Vibra 16 chipset built in, the laptop equivalent of a "true" SB16. For software, RTTY by WF1B was the choice as it had a DXpedition mode and simple operation. I had made several thousand contest contacts with this WF1B/K6STI combo. At this time, I was also starting to think out how to do 2-rig RTTY contesting. For money reasons, I decided to make the DXpedition radio and the 2nd rig radio the same ... which led me quickly to the Icom 706/2, about half the size of the laptop computer. I also found a use for the laptop for Inet when living in a motel during the famous ice storm and also as a GPS terminal with the Delorme Tripmate software 4-wheeling in my Cherokee. I purchased the automatic tuner for the IC 706/2 as it is not built-in. It turned out to be as big and heavy as the radio itself and only tuned SWR < 2.0 . Eventually, I went with a plain MFJ Versa Tuner 949E as it was lighter (although bigger) and could handle any antenna I might need to (mis)use. The problem was it was too big for the carry-on backpack but it was too important to worry about style points. So I also threw in the big RadioWorks 4K-LI RF isolator to attach to the output of the tuner and keep any common-mode current on the outside of the coax braid from getting back into the radio.

A regular power supply for the IC 706/2 is much larger and heavier than the rig itself, but there was an easy solution .. an Astron 30M Switching Power Supply which weighs only 5 pounds, using semiconductors rather than a large transformer. Later, MFJ came out with two models that were tempting. As the time got closer, I set up the rig in my shack and did some operating on it. Gradually, I abandoned my carry-on concept for additions to make operating more sure. I decided to add my Timewave 599zx ( a life saver, it turned out), a separate speaker rather than the poor sound of the laptop speaker, and a PCM/CIA card to handle another RS 232 port (rig control for accurate logging). Lastly, I decided to take a MFJ -931 Artificial Ground with 1/4 wave stub for 20M due to the thin soil over limestone terrain. I made up new cables for the PTT/FSK circuit and got just the right cables to eliminate adapters.

There was a multi-band dipole at the VP9 QTH with coax. With a few weeks to go, I decided to take a back-up antenna and coax. At first, I designed a portable vertical using the guy ropes as elevated radials. It used small telescoping fiberglass tubing and looked very good on the antenna program AO by K6STI. But is was over 4 feet long and just the sort of thing to get lost by luggage handlers. In the end, I picked a Carolina Windom 40 with RG-8X from RadioWorks .. more on that later.

The Software Story ..
It was now 2 years since my experience using the WF1B/K6STI combo contesting on a DOS machine. The laptop is Windows 95 and I started running into problems with crashes and memory size, sometimes after an hour of use. To make a long story a little shorter, I switched to my current 2-rig Contest software, Writelog by W5XD. This was completely compatible with WIN95 and with my existing sound card / PTT/FSK arrangement (but did not require the search for the Vibra16 laptop needed for K6STI). I am sure that I could have gotten the combo fixed but ran out of time. Instead of the Writelog DXpedition "contest", I started with the RTTY Roundup contest and added an entry for "Name" with help from W5XD. So now I could record states and names , if given. Writelog will continually show me how many countries and states I have worked for interest. I spent a lot of time monitoring some DXpeditions that were working split and practicing tuning in the callers as if I was the DX. I also programmed the PF keys that Writelog does not use using Macro Express to get more functions as there is no numeric keypad on a laptop. I made labels for all the special keys.

Here's the Screen from the laptop:

Trip Planning
Backing up a few months, I first applied for my Passport, which took 6 weeks what with getting the required exactly sized pictures here in the woods. The ARRL has a fine page on their website on the licensing requirements. It appeared that I would have to specify an exact location for operating so I started looking for a QTH. With help from W6/G0AZT, I decided on a place on the North Shore ... located through the Internet and the help of Miriam, the manager of the VP9 QSL Buro. I remembered the area well from mopeding on my other trips. At this point, I had to decide on a date .. in between contests, in the winter as a break from shoveling, days to get cheap tickets, etc ... I picked Friday Jan 29, 1999 as the departure date to give some time for setting up for the sole weekend, which would be important for the QSO count. At 4 weeks to go, the ticket prices dropped suddenly and I grabbed it ... The best buys are in a narrow time range .. not too early and not too late .. Yahoo Travel is my favorite for this.

I contacted the QTH owner, Mr. Ed Kelly, VP9GE who became of great value in setting things up. Ed was even a RTTY operator back in the '70's. I sent for the VP9 license on Nov. 4 and there was no response by Dec. 10th so I faxed them another and then another on Dec 16th. No response. About Jan 5th, I contacted Ed and told him about the big problem .. the rule book says I had to have the license in hand to import the radio equipment. Ed immediately drove to Hamilton and the Telecommunications Bureau and spoke to the right people who immediately produced a license which Ed mailed to me. The problem was supposedly a mail delivery bureaucratic argument between the airlines and the VP9 post office that affected everyone there for some months. I think I would have had to cancel the trip if not for Ed's efforts. Ed has a big website for his many interests and the apartment information can be found on http://pwp.ibl.bm/~edkelly/guests01.htm
I can highly recommend using Ed's ham guest facilities and he is a super guy who will look out for you.

By this time, I made an "Official" announcement of my little DXpedition to the reflectors and the VK2SG report people. I started a little web page. I asked my buddy Eddie if I should try and find a QSL manager and he immediately volunteered for the job, to my great pleasure. I obtained the QSL cards from W4MPY, who went to extra effort to make the card just as I wanted it. I made up an inventory of all the equipment with cost, serial number, and date purchased with several copies of all and my license for customs.

Let's Go!

I packed a few clothes (to pad the equipment!) and left the night before for the distant airport. It started to snow and I spent the night listening to a pickup endlessly scrape off each snowflake as it landed in the parking lot. A quick trip to Newark and then on to Bermuda. I could see enormous waves breaking 6 miles below and was thankful not to be in the sailboat. The first sight of Bermuda was the offshore underwater reefs that make Bermuda a traditional mariner's hazard. In fact, I believe the first settlers were going to Virginia when they shipwrecked. Minutes later, we were in the terminal and met by a steel band. I breezed through immigration and at the customs area I was directed straight out the terminal door without stopping. So much for all my lists and authorizations ... Ed was waiting there in his mini-van and another few minutes took us to Tarrafal Apartments, which turned out to be on a long private driveway leading from the ocean up a small hill to the apartment, with Ed's home being on the 2nd floor. A unique thing about Bermuda is that visitors are not allowed to drive a car (only a moped) so help here is important.

The first task was to check out the existing multi-band dipole. I prefer my big MFJ 259B but packed the little Autek RF-1 for this trip. On the 20M RTTY freq, the SWR was 7:1 and there was a 3 dB loss in the coax. Plan B: I unwrapped the Radio Works Carolina Windom 40 and 89' of new RG-8X. Ed approved my choice of tree and house for hanging the antenna. Out came the Wrist-Rocket slingshot (which I was worried about getting through customs) and the first rope was in the top of a tall pine-ish tree. Ed went up on his roof and attached the other line to his floodlight. By now the wind had picked up quite a bit to perhaps 20 knots. The Carolina Windom is an elaborate antenna with a large transformer at the "dipole" center and a 15' length of coax down to a large isolation transformer which causes the short piece of coax to be a vertical supplementary antenna. The theory is great, but the wind gusting was causing the tree to bend and whip-lashing the whole assembly. I crossed my fingers, set up the rig, walked to the nearby "Swizzle Inn" Pub (Swizzle In-Swagger Out, the sign says) for my only dinner out, as it turned out. I stopped at a little grocery walking back and got cereal, sandwich stuff etc. That backpack finally came into its own!

On the Air ! Almost!

At 8 AM local, I fired up and immediately the laptop locked up. What with fooling with the Artificial Ground stub and other things trying to isolate the problem, I frittered away the morning quickly. I finally got a working system by disconnecting the mouse (I didn't bring any ferrites as it operated fine at home) .. and had to use the little stick doohickey on the keyboard for a mouse, a major pain. The first call was from HK4SAN and the next W4DKS. I was operating with a big split, up to 2-4, later up 2-3. I found it was slow to find stations with a big split as I wanted to work everyone fairly. At this point, I noticed that the 706 was only putting out 20 watts. On intuition, I removed the Line Isolator from the back of the tuner, and the power immediately went to 100 watts. (Back home, the isolator worked perfectly at 500 W; there was something very wrong in my grounding arrangement). Saturday afternoon had a good rate with Europe and the USA. Ed stopped by with his friend Aurora, who used to operate the commercial RTTY communications system in the Philippines using Model 15's, until shut down by martial law. She now handles the foreign inquiries for Trimingham's, the famous haberdashery of VP9.

Time for my first JA hour, 2200-2300 each day. I didn't know how the polar flutter would be .. and it turned out to be very bad. For the first 26 minutes, I was only able to copy 3 JA's (the strongest ones). I was using WinRTTY SB16 modem and had the "Wide View Decode" window on also. My experience has been that all SB modems get into trouble with polar flutter. In desperation, I turned on the Timewave 599zx "Remodulation" function. In this mode, the 599zx decides what character it heard and then issues the pure tones for that character to the modem or SB card. Great print instantly! The day was saved and abt 117 JA were in the log at the end of the trip. Working JA's was the highlight of the trip for me .. I work very few from my home QTH. I must agree with others that they are the most patient, skilled, and polite operators on the air. I quit for the day and made some linguini with clam sauce for dinner. By now the wind was blowing very hard and the antenna was bouncing in an extreme manner. I used some fishing line to try and restrain the worst of it and went to bed.

Sunday morning found a major storm lashing Bermuda. The spray from the ocean was going far into the air and getting some salt on the windows .. and I was nearly 1000' from the ocean. The antenna had dropped about 4 feet, possibly a broken branch. Tightened things up and got on the air. Finally got a weak signal from my buddy Charles KK5OQ, just printable. I know he runs 500-1500 watts out. No more comebacks to my CQing. Switched to Ed's antenna, no help. Switched to 15 meters, nothing heard. Back on 20M, made a few contacts mostly due to Writelog's Super Partial Check that really pulls out the callsigns. Atmospheric QRN is the problem. The rain is being driven into the walls so hard it sounds like hail. Decide to take a walk down to the beach later when it stops raining .. after taking a few pictures of the high surf, I see a squall coming and start back .. too late! It really was hailstones coming down. This is just like Ocean Racing except not having to go on the foredeck to reef. After, things quieted down and had a nice run of 150 before QRT for lunch and a ride into Hamilton with Ed. When we returned, the antenna had broken off at the building. I went up a ladder to the roof and re-threaded the wire in the insulator. 10 minutes later, it broke again. One end is now hanging down the pine tree, the center of the antenna is almost on the ground, and one whole half is in the wet grass. As the wind was now gusting to 70 MPH at the nearby airport, I decided to leave it there. I started operating (full power!) and managed to work quite a few stations, including C56TTY. The wind died a bit and I went back up the ladder to restring it. JA hour was a bust with no one heard.. My friend Bob W1XVX called from Maine where the temp was 0 F. At least it was 55F here ... Finally quit at 7:30 PM local, no takers. It is Super Bowl time .. and in Bermuda, the entire cable TV system went down. Then the power went out ... it had been off for much of the Island all day. Ed brought down another flashlight and extra batteries. Played Solitaire.

Settling Down ... Anytime Now ...

Monday Morning .. the weekend had been a disaster of many types and the prime time for making lots of QSO's was lost. The wind gusts have dropped to about 30 knots, much better. However, the entire coax was now laying on the ground as it had broken off at the dipole center. I had one PL-259 with me and borrowed Ed's big soldering gun to replace it when my little one was not up to the job. I took down the antenna and reversed the asymmetrical Windom it so that the bouncing isolator was no longer a hazard to anyone on the lawn. I put lengths of cord between the dipole and the isolator and also from the isolator to a fence to remove the strain from the coax. In retrospect, I should have lowered the antenna to a point in the pine tree which was steadier but performance is everything to me. Fired up by 9 AM local but a very slow morning, most contacts on 15 meters. Rode into Hamilton again with Ed and purchased a heavy sweater and a six-pack of "Dark & Stormy", a local concoction of Ginger Beer and Rum and the official poison on the good ship "Black Pearl" for my dinner treat. Tried 40M Monday night, but no takers.

And so on ...
    The rest of the week went quickly with modest QSO rates. Working Simplex was far easier and more effective when there are three or less stations calling; just another contest. Took time for walks to North Shore sights each noon with a little picture taking. The weather is getting slowly better and it has been pretty nice at times. The storm was apparently one of the worse winter ones in years. I found out they call them "Maine Clippers" .. but I corrected them as we Mainers call them "Alberta Clippers" (who call them Siberian Clippers). Several callers asked to be reminded to Ed as they remembered him from the old days. Ed is getting the bug to go back on RTTY and we go over several options. I think you will hear him on the air soon. He has a tri-bander which he is thinking of routing to the rental apartment if there is interest. We also did some work on the multiband dipole and got it back into good shape.

    I am amusing myself by keeping score for "Biggest Idiot", "Biggest Splatter" (no COntest), "Most Confusing Callsign" (SP1PLA who called right after SP1PEA, tied with JA3JA in polar flutter), "Biggest Nuisance" (unbelievably, a VE), and my favorite who would send "this band is dead", wait for me to work someone, then send "this band is dead", over and over. At least we kept each other motivated.

    THE END: Friday morning, and I've reached my 1000 QSO's and declared Victory. Finished by calling auto-CQ on 15M for 1 hour for 3 QSO's. Time to go to the airport, where there was one last strange occurrence. I'm sitting in my seat in the rear of the plane, still at the gate, when I glance out the window and see, under the wing, in the rain, in a puddle, one of my slippers! A ground worker walks over to it, picks it up with two fingers, inspects it at arm's length, laughs, and carries it to the rear of the plane. A spectacular low altitude night fly-by of Manhattan in our puddle jumper from Newark. When I get home, I open the suitcase and one of my slippers is wet. And I am already cold again. QRT.

Any Lessons?
I think the best experience for operating DX is to get into a RTTY contest and call CQ for a few hours. The only difference is working simplex but I think that small DX stations will find simplex to be best much of the time. I don't recall ever having a pileup-turned-bad, which was partially due to my contest experience in quickly logging anyone. Very few stations were turned away because I couldn't print them although a few needed advice on how to fix their signal to make it printable. I would go a day earlier next time in order to have at least a full weekday on-the-air to debug everything and be totally ready for the weekend when the working person is on. According to Writelog, I was only logging for 37 hours, and I missed several primetime weekend hours with problems. This is a QSO rate of 29/hr, which is quite low. Quality time on the air will be my next goal. I counted 72 posts of VP9/N1RCT on the Inet cluster, so the word was out.

My heartfelt thanks to all who helped me on this trip .. especially Eddie W6/G0AZT and my most excellent host, Ed Kelly VP9GE. Also to the Icom 706/2 which operated at full power for a week without a hiccup; Wayne W5XD for the super program Writelog; Timewave; Continental for on-time flights, no lost baggage, and cheap tickets; and all who called with encouragement. I hope to return someday, perhaps for a summer contest that will let me get in some Moped time. 73 de Dick, N1RCT