EX/OH7O - DXexpedition 2 to Issyk Kul lake, Kyrgyzstan, 2024.May.1-5
Pre-history
This was my second visit to Issyk Kul with antennas. The previous one was in November 2023. Funnily, the yurt camp kept the last yurt for me in the camp and this time they opened the first yurt for me. Thanks 🙂
Route
The route from Almaty was exactly the same as the last time with a stopover in Bishkek. The distance is not long, but there is a border, and it is always full of surprises.
I brought a lot of equipment along, ranging from 40-50 kg of antennas and masts to a generator if I decided to work off-the-grid. Of course, I had a 12V battery as well, but I was used to operating with a PA now. Thus, I needed a more serious source of electricity than a basic 12V car battery.
It turned out that it is not allowed to cross the border with fuel in a canister. I spent an additional hour crossing the border back and forth getting rid of the fuel 🙂
Location and grid
Grid: MN82me
I came specifically to the yurt camp Bel Tam because they are very friendly, the location is wonderful, and it is very international.
Be a sole traveler, I enjoyed the Finnish style … – my yurt was 300 meters from other people 🙂
My camp was right on the shore as before and it wasn’t opened yet to other people. They assembled my yurt specially for me. Other yurts were assembled while I was playing with my antennas.
The main camp was packed with tourists from all over the world. A buzzing place.
During one of the dinners, I chatted with a couple next to me, and it turned out that they were from the US and he was a fellow radio amateur. Thus, I invited him, and he visited my yurt shack and we together enjoyed a pile up on 20 meters 🙂
Rig and antennas
– Moxon for the 20-meter band – about 15 meters above the ground
– 1/4-wave vertical with resonating radials for 80-meter band
– 1/4-wave vertical with resonating radials for 17-meter band made on the spot from spare tubes and wires
– Solid-state PA for 500W
The weather ranged from peaceful meditating days and star-bright skies and ravaging windy evenings that broke my 10-meter Moxon and the carbon masts (twice) and the next time the storm broke both antennas but spared the masts.
Eventually, spending hours fixing the antennas, I decided to put the 10-meter even lower than the 20-meter Moxon.
Operating in the evening in the yurt was pretty cold. But the sleep was perfect.
The propagation was very good, particularly, on 20 meters, and I experienced a pile-up nearly all the time. Occasionally, I managed to calm down the Europeans and enjoyed nice QSOs with Canada, Alaska and alikes.
There were a few very pleasant surprises with New Zealand and Australia long path coming with 57-59 on 20 meters on top of the European stations.
For stationary operations, long-boom Yagis are good. But Moxons are hard to beat for portable expeditions. Thus, I truly enjoyed them this time as well.
I brought two very beautiful carbon masts of 20 meter height. For 20-meter Moxon, the height was shortened to 16 meters to cope with the size and wind load of the 8-meter span of the 20-meter Moxon. For the 10-meter Moxon, since the antenna is lighter, I planned to use the full 20 meters of height. But I didn’t expect such a strong wind and the guying wasn’t appropriate. Thus, the mast broke.
The next day, when I was trying to erect it, I broke it for the second time because it is very time consuming to erect such long masts when you are alone. With 1-2 helpers, it would be a breath. Eventually, I decided to make the mast shorter and saved a lot of time. Ironically, other days the weather was super-calm until the next storm.
The previous time when I came to Issyk Kul, I really missed the PA. This time, I enjoyed it to the full extent. Moxons are great. But with Moxons and a 500W PA, you fill yourself even more comfortable in the air 🙂
I set the alarm clock to 6 am but woke up at 5 am and decided to check the north… It was a lucky decision 🙂
Pile up from North America with 59+ reports to both directions … Looking forward to the next morning 🙂
Then, I ran to the breakfast… and started calling for North America again despite the propagation for me was nearly over…
Lovely! 🙂
The 10-meter was still closed but VE3 was still booming on the 20-meter.
First ever QSOs on the 17-meter band
I somehow overlooked the WARC bands totally … I don’t exactly know why … perhaps, because I thought they were for CW and digital modes only or because they are very narrow … I don’t know exactly why… In any case, I overheard an SSB QSO on that band and quickly built a 1/4-wave vertical with resonating verticals and enjoyed quite a pile-up.
I loved that discovery and will certainly build antennas for it, particularly, to escape during the competitions that over-occupy the bands on too many weekends.
First ever CW QSOs with OH7O and EX/OH70
It is terrifying to return to CW after 25 years of absence 😉
LZ1FH – thank you for your patience. It was the first ever CW QSO for me with EX/OH70 and OH70. The last time I was in the air using CW more than 25 years ago. It was another life.
I made all possible mistakes during the QSO including multiple mistakes in my own call sign, which was extremely embarrassing, obviously. But I have opened the Pandora box and plan to bother people with CW further until I polish my Morse skills. Bear with me, fellows 🙂
I certainly overshoot with my alarm clock… I set it to 4am, whereas the sunrise was 5.39am. I wanted to check the propagation on different bands before the sunrise at this location… Well:
- I woke up at 3am 🙂
- I made a few QSOs on 20-meter with side lopes of my antenna … Particularly unusual was the Australian call. The operator wrote to me an email saying that I don’t listen the air well enough, and I stepped out from the yurt and turned the antenna manually towards Australia, and then I started hearing him, and we made the QSO 🙂
- 80-meter was still extremely noisy because of technological noise (chargers, etc. I guess)
- 17-meter – a few QSOs, but not super-active
- I am still waiting the 20-meter to open as I am writing this (5:20 am)
Waiting for the propagation to open ...
… And the propagation came … 😉
It wasn’t as spectacular as yesterday when I simply couldn’t handle the pile-up anymore and went to have breakfast to calm down a bit. This time, it was far more manageable and broad in terms of the areas that called me with nice and loud QSOs to Cuba, Bolivia, and Puerto Rico.
It is not yet even 10am and I have been nearly 7 hours awake … time for a nap?… 🙂
oh! Yes, two more CW QSOs… a lot of mistakes in transmission… barely having idea of what I am receiving … but pushing forward with CW.
My CW band so far has been freshly met 18MHz band.
The last evening ended up with a new storm …:
- Both antennas were broken but the mast survived
- I decided not to re-erect the 10-meter antenna because it was time to check out tomorrow anyway
- I woke up in the morning and spent 1.5 hours to fix the 20-meter Moxon just to learn that there was a solar flare recently and there was no propagation on 20 meters to the US. But I enjoyed lovely CW QSOs and practiced my skills before assembling everything and going home
The weather changes in minutes and becomes dramatic
Broken antennas after the storm
The morning brought a dismal view to the 20-meter Moxon on the ground … But the masts were rescued which was more important.
I just spent 1.5 hour or so to fix the 20-meter band antenna and raise it … to learn that there was no propagation today 🙂
The road from the yurt camp to Bishkek takes about 4.5 hours. I planned to stay overnight in Bishkek and toke a shower that I had been dreaming of for a week and to sleep in a regular bed with white linens without my two sweaters and a jacket on me … for a change 😉
The border on the way back wasn’t without a small adventure:
- Kyrgyzstan: super-fast and easy
- Kazakhstan: they sent me and a few other cars to an additional Rontgen inspection. I lost about a half an hour. But overall, everything was faster than feared because the queue could have been for hours
Lovely springtime in Kazakhstan. Everything is green and fresh
- I love DXexpeditions! Thinking about the next ones
- Doing things alone can be very tiresome, particularly raising 15-20-meter telescoping masts with a 20-meter Moxon on top of it in a hot weather balancing on 3 bricks on top of each other because the mast is too high for you. You need to walk a lot to keep the mast straight while erecting by releasing just 0.5 meter pf rope or so each time for each of the 6 guys. If you release more rope at once, then the mast bends and breaks … oops. Not only you break an expensive carbon mast, you force yourself to spend, at least, 1-2 hours to fix it, to fix partially. Thus, to raise a 15-20 meter mast, you walk = 10/0.5*15*6*2 = 3.6 km! Assumptions: the last 10 meters you raise the mast 0.5 meter at a time, walk 15 meters and back for each of the 6 guys. But the efforts don’t stop you. I do love DXexpeditions, particularly, sole DXexpeditions. Very meditating! 🙂
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