Report From MOP Radio

[flintstone mop]

We made it to the Pilipines and the flight was long. VERY hot and it's taking a while to get "tuned in" It's hard to remember with a heat index of 110 to drink lotssa water.
The Ham station (DU7) is not up yet. Waiting to get the radio and portable vert up the big hill of mama and papa and use their air conditoned living room to operate coz it's too DAM hot to sit outside and do this Field day style. I'll let yous guys know what it's like in the radio world in the tropics on the low bands.

Fred

[W3SLK]

Phred, it would be interesting to hear of any AM activity over on that side of the globe.

[w1vtp]

Phred, it would be interesting to hear of any AM activity over on that side of the globe.

Pictures?

[kb3ouk]

yea some pictures would be nice, also what's going on as far as your show on wbcq while you are over there?

[ka3zlr]

Fled,

Any American Heavy Iron in the Bay out there or can you see that part...?

[K5UJ]

Fred i hope this is the hottest time of the year so you have only to get cooler.

[w3jn]

Actually March/April is by far the worst time of the year in the PI.

Best of luck, Fred, eat some lechon for me 

[w3jn]

^^ The only time the temp is bearable, other than perhaps January.

Unfortunately the typhoons bring their own problems - flooding, no electricity, downed trees, etc.  A bad one in '94 left us with no power or water for a couple of weeks.  My wife remembers one in the mid-1960s that left ships stranded on Roxas Boulevard, and her apt about 2 miles inland was 8 feet deep in water. 

There was also the time when she was 6 or 7 the family took a ship from Manila to Cebu and got caught by a typhoon and the ship sank.  The captain had hauled ass towards land when things started going awry and they weren't too far from shore when it sank.  Her father swam to shore with one kid under each arm.  That dude's my hero 

Needless to say she's not too fond of ships or boats to this day.

[flintstone mop]

Pics will be coming. The station will be hauled up possibly today. REALLY hot today.
I am also anxious to listen to the bands for typical activity in this part of the whirl.
A.M. activity on the top of the list.

Shelby, I was working like a slave before we left to prepare Flintstone shows while we're away. They are at the station on a CD in MP3
The streaming audio is good here. Listened to 7415 for my noise and it was great to hear real rock. It was 7AM Sat morning our time.

Bcast here is dismal. Well I should say our little area in Cebu. 5 A.M. stations mostly talk and wimpy programming. And 6 F.M's One soounds like corporate FM in the USA.  The rest are the typical slimy love songs and OPM...original Philippine Music.
Phils style RAP and that heavy beat music. No oldies or "classic rock"

I almost think that the WX is worse in the USA right now!!!!
OK John. The WX is like you say. Manila gets the nasty typhoons. Cebu can get into heavy rains, though.
Fred

 
 

[flintstone mop]

Another report from the battle lines. Looks like I'll try to operate more from my in-laws. A lot less QRM. The electrical noise from our apartment location is S-9 over on all bands. And worse on the lower bands.
There's a typhoon around the Island of Luzon, or Manila.

At least on our property the QRM was S-6. MaNature is pretty stirred up right now. You guys complain about the Summer condx..........I'll never complain again..........Some eves 20 over crashes. This is probably a year round ordeal.
Any contact will be by luck as, access to the radio will be mid morning or early evening. The "shack" is out doors and the skeetoes and me sweating is not goodness...............hi
The antenna should do something, but may be for the digital modes. (VENTENNA HFp,,,,,portable vertical.)  Anywhere nearby is a 1000 or so miles. There was a contest Sunday morning your time and only one station with any clarity on 15M, and he would never answer me. Looks like big gun type antenna, like a Yagi about 60 FT in the air and 2KW PEP might scare up some contacts.
I'll give a better report for the lower bands as the dayz go by and some pics. I'll drag everything back to my in-laws and focus on some operating there.
Amateur radio  might take a serious back seat in a low sunspot cycle, if we decide to move the Pilipines. It's  ways off.

Fred

[flintstone mop]

Persistence pays off. 40M is the hot band here, till the sunspots come back.
Many contacts into Indonesia and getting around the Philippine Islands as the DU net signs on at 7PM here. 7095
NO A.M. at all..............160M dead. 80 has B'cast above 3.800.
Got into JApan, lottsa fun. Very windy night here, which made sitting in the tropic heat bearable. OK FB

ALMOST hooked K8XS, Tim, FLA. USA. 7:50PM here and 7:50AM in FLA. Must have been riding on the GreyLine express...............7130. He had long contacts with other DX, and when the spotter told him there was a DU7 in there, we tried and tried and no luck. He faded awaaay............as Timtron would say.
Too little time left to add 20M to the ANT. Not all eves are great to sit in front of the rig.

Fred..................AUG 23rd "homeward bound"

[K5UJ]

Fred, try cw.  probably better chance of making it back to USA on CW.

rob

[flintstone mop]

A pic from the Pilipines.
The Dipole, The OP, The possible future QTH.

Geday

Fred in DU7 land

[w3jn]

Speaking for myself, I've banned any and all Santo Nino statues from our house 

Nice property, Fred!

[K5UJ]

Fred,

Nice radio horizon.   If you are having some success with the dipole you may as well take it down and put up a 75 m. dipole, get rid of the skinny coax and feed it with OWL and a matchbox.   You can probably get a little 275 w. model somewhere when you come back to the U.S.  Then one antenna gets u on 75, 40 and 20.

Rob

[Opcom]

Speaking for myself, I've banned any and all Santo Nino statues from our house 

Nice property, Fred!

The "Infant Jesus of Prague" statue is more common in the United States.

[flintstone mop]

Interesting comment, Rob.
Now that we have been here, I have taken real paper notes about Ham radio. And I saw a few high towers mounted on top of houses here. There are a number of Hams who either have dipoles mounted pretty high and look like cut for 40M, or tribanders. Many 2M beams on rotators. Typical disease for some Hams and the ease of VHF,UHF.
Tyically it's a climbable guyed pole that may extend 50 feet above the house. (I'll try to upload a pic of this typical tower)I would have to consult with the locals for something similar to support a tribander and one end of a OWL type dipole, one end on the pole and the other could go up even higher behind our proposed house to another coconut tree. I might push the limits for a rotateable dipole. It does have advantages to be able to rotate when 40M is up about 60 feet. I would not totally abandon 160M. Probably look more towards an 'L', coz they're not so noisy and DX is possible.
Thanks for keeping in touch. AUG 23rd is approaching.
Fred

[flintstone mop]

Catching up on some Sun worship before we return to the USA.
We visited a neghboring island, Bohol, and we saw the "Chocolate Hills". Took a pic of a typical radio tower and lots of these limstone hills that look like chocolate during the dry season.

Try to zoom on the tower pics to see what they use here.
Fred

[K5UJ]

tower looks like a rohn H50 push up pole but painted.   I don't see how anyone could climb that thing.

Okay on using the coconut tree--if they whip around a lot in high wind be sure to keep that in mind when constructing the antenna.

[flintstone mop]

Yea Rob
I was made aware of the swaying by my brother-in-law, so we let it hang a little lower. It put the store-bought vertical to shame.
The "towers" look like 2-3 inch material and because I didn't just zoom on the foot steps, made the pics I posted useless.
They seem to weld triangle shaped steps onto the structure for climbing. I don't know if they are push-up. I'll try to zoom in on one again later....................Final days are clicking by.
Very enjoyable time. Please disregard the whining or negatives but it is a third world country and I'm too locked into my technical world and spoiled by the reliable infrastructure of the USA, that possible took away from the human aspect of the Philippines.
Fred

[K5UJ]

Fred,

yes, people make a big difference and make up for a lot of inefficiencies in other areas.

if steps welded on, poles can't be telescoping.

Coconut trees need counterweights and pulleys. 

Rob

[KC2YOI]

Fred, local coconut pickers would make easy work climbing those guyed toothpicks!
I'm guessing that's Dacron not steel, etc. for guys ??


About 10 years ago, a couple from Queens NY moved into a house a few blocks down from my parents on Long Island in Oyster Bay.
Their first order of business was to cut down 3 of the mature, healthy Elm trees that were planted up and down the road in the 1940's.
The police had to escort the bone heads out of their driveway and out of the neighborhood once people realized what was done. It was all over the paper and they sold the house in short order. You now need a permit to cut anything over 8" wide.
If you like a concrete landscape and don't like leaves, stay in the city.
  

[flintstone mop]

Fred, local coconut pickers would make easy work climbing those guyed toothpicks!
I'm guessing that's Dacron not steel, etc. for guys ??
 

They look like steel. They'll use the cheapest thing they can get a hold of here. I've seen bad things happen to these towers when the tension is too much on one side. Most things like towers, and infrastructure type stuff ,that we are used to seeing in perfect order in the USA is total mayham here. I'll be posting pics on a link soon of infrastructure pics of the Philippines.
The coconut trees have been notched out with foot holds so some one can climb. I had some experts here to just do the old fashioned swing the rope with a small rock on one end to get my pull line up for each end of the dipole.
Pulled it all down today and started packing for our return.

fred 

[flintstone mop]

It wasn't bad lighting that makes the traffic signal appear to be not operating!!!

It's operated manually by a 'traffic enforcer' (you can see part of a yellow enclosure in the pic) at 4PM during 'rush hour'................ha!

[KB2WIG]

don't need no stinkin trafic enforcer here in sorycuse


klc