VK to ZS contacts - past history

[VK6OX]

As the topic suggests, I'm after some 1st hand details of any/all VK to ZS contacts over the past 30 yrs or so. It's long past time that we made the effort to bridge this difficult path again.

If any of you have details, please post them here.

Thanks

[VK4WDM]

I know that John VK4FNQ contacted ZS during the last SS peak. You could drop him and email to get details.

Wayne VK4WDM

[VK3ZAZ]

Hi Andy
Africa a dead duck for me here are the only qso's
Hope this doesn't turn into an inquisition.
9/04/ The 9Q5 Zaire into VK3/2/4
7/04/ The TL8 into VK6
But they were long path over USA.

Short path over VK0.

19/04/1991 ZS6XL RSA
19/04/1991 ZS6AXT
19/04/1991 ZS6LN
20/04/1991 ZS6AXT
20/04/1991 ZS4S
21/04/1991 ZS6HS

You might be able to reverse assemble a lost using the old 1st worked.

VK6RO will have heaps of info as will KXW.

RSA has nil records with VK

http://www.sarl.org.za/public/local/VHF ... 202006.pdf

[VK4KSY]

Hi Andy.
When I lived in Townsville NQ VK4RO said the best path was over the north pole. For what is't worth. That was in the 80's
David VK4KSY

[ZS6NK]

VK4FNQ and another VK4 ( I don't recall his call) were worked during a roughly 10 minute opening on 13 April 2000 around 0713Z. I managed to work vk4fnq only and this is the time on his card.The guys further south in KG33/44 heard them a lot better than I did.
73 de Paul

[ZS6NK]

For a list of ZS "1sts" , take a look at
http://zs6ez.org.za/lists/50zs1st.txt

[VK2TS]

Of more interest, and much more of a challenge, has ZS been worked on 2Metres or 70Cms???? Cheers and merry Xmas

[VK4WDM]

I came into the shack only a few minutes after Vk4FNQ's ZS contact . I believe it was short path. If I catch him on the air today I will ask him. VK4ABW and I heard some west Africans (a Tu and something else) during a long-path opening into South America during the last cycle. They were chatting among themselves and we could not break in.

Re 2m. If you look at some of the paths being worked in the northern hemisphere, Reunion Island at least, should be workable on 2m from VK6 and there are some likely paths out into the eastern and northern Pacific from the eastern states, VK4 to KH6 for instance.

Its the old story - you have to have well equipped and skilled operators at both ends when conditions are right.

73

Wayne VK4WDM

[VK4ABW]

Re Wayne's comments, it was a TU6 station calling a 9L3. They were weak and fluttery and i called and called but could not break in. This skewed path occurred in the 1452z - 1502z window on the 26th of April 2001 after working long path to South America from 1205z - 1452z directly over HongKong (325degrees). The path shortened up and somehow 'skewed' into the west coast of Africa. The path then changed again and dropped into the Ukraine (worked UU2RM) at 1505z.
I had been working South America via long path for the past 5 nights around these times.

The path to South Africa occurred when the KH6's were working them over Townsville (only the KH6's could be heard here), and then it shortened up and the ZS's dropped into NQ.

So there you have it....Africa has be worked at 240degrees and heard at 325 degrees from NQ.

[VK6OX]

Thanks everyone for inputs so far...much appreciated. Keep 'em coming!

[VK4WDM]

We should not forget VK3OE et al and their work on "amateur back-scatter radar. They identified a VK ZS path in one of their experiments. I am not sure how difficult the technology is to set up but if more stations were equipped with it more openings should be detected.

Wayne VK4WDM

[VK3AUU]

Wayne et al,
The back scatter radar is easy to set up. All you need is a couple of stations with reasonable antennas and the latest version of Spectrum Lab V2.76 b8. The two stations need to be pointing in the same direction and be not too close otherwise the direct signal will overload the RX.

In Speclab, go to Quick Settings, Other amateur radio Modes, Chirp Radar Experiment.
You will get two screens, the more normal looking one for the Tx Station and the other a time domain scope which needs to be adjusted initially so that the Time scale goes from 0 to 1 second.

The tx station presses the "Radar Receiving " tab to send the chirps for about 20 seconds and the Rx station should get a couple of peaks if there is propagation, one the direct signal and the other, often stronger, reflected signal. You can then draw a box around the two peaks and zoom in. Make sure you get the scale at the bottom in the box. When you think it looks OK, hit the computer "Save screen" button and paste the image into something like Irfanview. You can calculate the distance from the time.
Distance in Kilometres = Milliseconds X 150

I have probably missed a bit of the setting up process, but Andrew VK3OE will put you straight.

David

[VK4DDC]

I have made only 2 contacts into ZS. They were also beaming over the US.
19/4/1991 ZS4S at 0832Z
ZS6WB at 0833Z.
I remember also on that evening that VK4DDG and VK4KJL also worked these 2 stations.
The most interesting contact was 9L1US, which was at 2340Z on 17/10/1990, also long path over the US.
It took a phone call by Tom, VK4DDG to 9L1US in the early hours of their morning to get him on air !!
The 9L1/B was able to be heard on numerous occasions from 9/10/1990 to 23/9/1991 usually around 2400 Z and always long path.
Hope this maybe of interest.
Brian............VK4DDC