PA0O ham radio

Every HAM knows that the CQWW Phone weekend in topband is not exactly a pleasure for CW DX  friends..
Hard to believe but  this is no obstacle for  FT8
In a crowded CQWW SSB 160m band I was  having a pile up of Japanese stations  running CQ barefoot
Receive 1908kHz dial   Transmit 1840kHz dial
JA with the typical deep QSB  but  most callers in the log  19 Japanese HAMS thanks for calling
also seen HL3GOB and another HL forgot the callsign  HL3GOB  was worked 6M in summer
real magic    !

NextCall signWorkedDate/TimeBandModeFreqQSLDetailsPA0OJA2WYN2018-10-28 21:08:15160MFT81.90852DetailsPA0OJA3PIS2018-10-28 20:53:00160MFT81.90852DetailsPA0OJA2NDQ2018-10-28 20:51:45160MFT81.90852JAPANDetailsPA0OJA2BDR

My 23cm dish plus transverter  is now down  for revision

                                                              this XVTR box is at the dish the feeder tube enters top left to                                                                  connect the relay as direct as possible
                                                          The new SKY67151 LNA just fits in next to the relay
replacing the SPF5189z

                the SWR d-coupler say 1:1  with this combination
                                         these Chinese eBay connectors  can not be used for 23cm 1300MHz
                                    it will result in high SWR and lower output and possible instability


My transverter is a modified DB6NT  + 30W PA
And SPF5189z preamp 0.73db nf this worked very well
F.i.  in oktober  test OM3KII was worked 916km  in mostly flat propagation!
But  some issues self oscillating reduced total gain bad TX matching, interfering 900MHz 4G
Cooling is insufficient for long tx-ing…

In Japan digimode is allowed 1907.5  to 1912.5 kHz only FUNK FA 11/18 1087
( posible in future i am thinking of writing in German language since the Brexit  why should we use Englisch ?)
JA TX  USB dial  1909kHz or 1907kHz   rx dial 1840kHz
EU send 1840kHz  RX  dial 1907 or 1909kHz where ever signals are seen.

Tonight i tried with succes for the first time with several JA stations 2-way FT8  heard HL  HL3GOB dial 1907
must say it is some time ago i have seen JA in CW at 160m
JA CW is only in the JA -window 1810 to 1825kHz  and that part is mostly occupied for us
In contest the only chance is calling S&P normaly and only the big guns can be worked
But in FT8 it is easy 100W!


i just set my K3 VFO A to   dial 1907kHz   mode DATA A
and VFO B to the usual 1840kHz

WSJT-x  setup   radio split operation must be none

but the K3 must be set to split  TX 1840 rx 1907 kHz thats all



 btw  this morning VP6D  was on topband weak but some QSB   1826.5 up
many EU heard calling  i had to wait a go…

1-3W power in WSPR is enough to be received at DP0GVN ANTARTICA almost daily
at 60m and also 160M 
  excellent receiving  there!

also seen at 12m  RI1ANL JB59 (i think this call it was)   Antartica