Fw: [The Daily DX] FT5GA - news October 1st

From: J A Sheffield (n4owg@msn.com)
Date: Thu Oct 01 2009 - 10:20:53 CDT

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    For those DXers out there that are upset with the FT5GA DXpedition, here are some notes that hopefully will temper your opinion of the operation and the operators. As on old retired military guy, I know what it's like when the mission comes first. Just be glad they are on the air at all. The good news is that it appears they will be there an extra 3 days.

    Good luck and Good DX.

    73 de John, N4OWG

    Forwarded with permission from W3UR.

    ----- Original Message -----
    From: Bernie McClenny, W3UR<mailto:bernie@dailydx.com>
    To: The Daily DX mailing list<mailto:dailydx@kkn.net> ; Weekly DX mailing List<mailto:weeklydx@kkn.net>
    Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 7:22 AM
    Subject: [The Daily DX] FT5GA - news October 1st

    The following FT5GA news was received via F5NQL. The first part is from the
    European pilot station F6AOJ, Jeff. Obviously some of it has his opinions
    about the DXCC program inserted. The second part of the email has details
    from the team about QSLing.
    73
    Bernie, W3UR

    Hi friends

    FT5GA news
    Even if we said that the worrying and crying bureau was shut down, a lot of
    op’s continue to inundate our Team leader, Webmaster and pilots with
    complaints about their own QSO’s made or no, traffic and QSL’ing inquiries,
    interrogation on why or why not on this band or this other mode, and so on

    Jeff/F6AOJ, EU pilot, has accepted to write some words.

    FT5GA team is only 5 young completely inexperienced op's in low-band
    traffic, even not DXers, they are only pileuppers, on the wrong side of the
    island and with antennas away from sea coast, which means 10 to 20 db signal
    loss.

    Beach access is prohibited for it’s a Turtles reproduction area.

    But FT5GA is on the air! It was this or nothing after 5 years of lobbying,
    so?

    We are not responsible for:
    - SFI = 70
    - poor S/N ratio in the evening
    - and legions of QRMers
    - low band peak from 2 to 5 in the morning EU local time
    - power availability
    - operator availability

    Radio is only 2/3 of time. 1/3 is job as military. We don't have control
    of the time table and their local organisation makes number of activities on
    the island for all residents (100%) at the same time. It is a compromise.

    In balance it is
    - a long expedition
    - low cost operation for a very isolated place and nobody complains about.

    In the evening the propagation is quite poor, because this time it is very
    early in the season and the noise level reduces the signal to noise ratio
    and so many people who are hearing nothing are permanently making deliberate
    QRM and it is just time lost.

    So it is up to you, you have until October 8th to try again.

    Pilots receive about 500 requests a day, for special selective activities.
    We can’t and we don’t want to manage in that way (planning such a program
    would require a Cray computer us in back office, and operators. We are sure
    to be in line with DXCC concept. Remember, DXCC is a competition, and
    expeditions not a minimum public service for every one. DXpeditions working
    via list operation or equivalent selective mode should not be accepted by
    DXCC desk. If a red carpet is spread between DX and DXers what is a QSO
    value? It is nothing more than contact via MSN.

    Today we hope to have caused 35,000 smiles with 35,000 QSOs, a figure which
    we hope to reach this evening.

    73 Jeff F6AOJ Eu-Pilot

    http://f6aoj.ao-journal.com/>

    About QSLing

    All the information is available online at:
    http://glorieuses2008.free.fr/index-f.htm>; The good bulletins have
    translated and spread it.

    The FT5GA crew has no responsibility, about your own National Society
    membership or no, which could make the bureau way unusable for you. As for
    the other expeditions, if your country has no bureau, the only one way for
    the moment is direct.

    For those who will use the direct way, please learn about the ham customs.
    Check your QSOs with the online log, put a little sticker on your card if
    you are sure about a mistake, sort your QSO by date.

    Know that 1 US$ is not enough to send a card outside of Europe, don’t ask
    the manager to supply envelopes and to write addresses on them. Send also
    an SAE.

    Until 20g, 1 IRC is usefull, but be careful that those you’ll send will be
    usable after Dec 2009 31st.

    LOTW uploading is not on the agenda today, but we never said the log will
    not be uploaded in the future. We will have a lot of things to do before,
    for a long long time.

    FT5GA crew through F5NQL's mailbox, Maurice, Internet communication for the
    expedition.

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