Thanks to the active encouragement by Lance W7GJ, A35JT will be taking 6m EME equipment with us! This has been made possible thanks to the very generous support from the global 6m EME community!

Operating Frequency

 

A35JT will operate on: 50.203MHz

Operating Procedure

The following notes, (an extract of Lance W7GJ’s DXpedition procedures) should guide you to making a successful 6m EME contact with us.

• Please add A35JT to your CALLS3.TXT file and set your computer to decode in the “Include average in deep search” mode so you will be able to copy me quickly when we reply to you. If you are new to 6m EME and you have never worked a DXpedition before, but you want to try to contact us at A35JT, please provide us with your call-sign and grid locator before September 10th, so we can manually insert you into our CALLS3.TXT file, and hence speed up decoding if we receive your call.
• JT65A mode will be used for all 6m EME operation, and the DXpedition will always transmit in the FIRST SEQUENCE.
• If you ARE seeing a signal from us IN THE IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING SEQUENCE (even if it is only a trace in the waterfall, without any decode), we ask that you call us with both calls and OOO reports (JT65 standard message #2). When A35JT answers you, you should be able to decode us if you saw our signal trace. Of course this is not standard EME protocol, since a station cannot send reports before they have copied complete calls from someone. However, in this case, it simply tells us we are being received.
• If we can tell which station(s) are copying us at that moment, we should be able to complete the contact with them very quickly and move on to the next station. If you are no longer copying us at that time, it is ESSENTIAL TO REMEMBER TO CHANGE THE MESSAGE BACK TO CALLS ONLY (JT65 standard message #1)!  We will still always reply with a stations call-sign and OOO to such a caller, indicating which station is being called, and that complete calls have been copied (per the standard EME QSO procedure). The advantage is that a station will be chosen who can be worked quickly – important in this case because some of the windows are rather short.
• Remember that the polarization will probably not be correct for both stations at the same time, so we very well may not be copying each other at the same time. Therefore, we will keep trying to answer you even if you do not seem to be copying us, at least until we see someone calling who IS COPYING us right at that time (someone who is calling us with OOO). As usual, the contact is complete when one station receives final RRR.
• We urge home stations to send us 73 when they receive final RRR from us, so we will know we are free to move on to the next station. We will only call CQ when we are not decoding anybody.
• Please do NOT stop calling me when I am in QSO with someone else! That allows me to decode all the callers and select the next station to work while I am transmitting to the first station. And please, PLEASE DO NOT CHANGE your frequency after you have started to call me – I make a list of the DF frequencies of the various callers and use that to “hone in” on them with a narrow FREEZE filter! If you move you will disappear for me!
• We will be moving the antenna by hand to track the moon, so we will have to stop transmitting during these periods for EMR management reasons. Please, do NOT stop calling if you see our signal stop! We can still see what was received when we complete the antenna adjustments and get back to the operating position.

As the DX station, we expect only to be doing one of the following:

1. Calling CQ with my call-sign and grid (JT65 standard message #6). This will be sent only if we have not yet identified a caller.
2. Replying to someone by sending calls and OOO reports (JT65 standard message #2). This is very easily copied by the person involved in the contact, although other listeners may not decode the transmission unless signals are stronger than -24 or -25 dB. If my signal is weaker than that, other listeners will only see the trace on SpecJT, without any decode.
3. Sending final RRR (JT65 standard message #4) to the person with whom I am completing a contact. Please send 73 (JT65 standard message #5) after you receive my RRR so I know the contact is complete. As soon as I receive 73, I will either call the next station on the list or go back to CQ (if I don’t see any callers).

Below is an example of how this works in an EME pileup, using E51SIX as the DXpedition station:

EME Operating Schedule

We have run the predictions from Tonga and have determined that the best windows are outlined below for contacting us. We may be operating at other times but they are not guaranteed. We hope to be able to elevate our antenna as high as 40 degrees in order to extend the QSO windows. Note that the EME window only covers the first week of the expedition. We will pack up the EME gear on Monday the 2th and it will be flying out of Tonga on the 3rd when one of our team members departs for Australia. During the second week the sky noise exceeds 10,000K for much of the time too, and so the likelihood of EME working in the second week appears very slim anyway.