Almost Secret Mission to Mt Athos SV/A

Simon Lewis

KY6LA_Howard

Sounds like I need to try remoting from P5 next or would that upset the powers that be there too much too so that they never let anyone actually DX from there? Oops. I forgot,,,they already don't let people DX from P5 or SV/A.

Walt - KZ1F

That was somewhere between sarcasm and facetiousness. It's actually more and less than a phone call to La Jolla, its testing internet connectivity from points around the globe to La Jolla. It has virtually nothing to do with ham radio, IMHO. Frankly, I feel the same way about RHR. If I rent their La Jolla contest station with 120' stacked monobanders and log contacts as kz1f, that is just incredibly unethical. IMHO. I am surprised ARRL doesn't call that what it is.

However, having said that, Howard knows he's making an internet connection from interesting places around the globe to his home in CA. Just like when Amir calls cq as 4X-whatever and in the course of the qso says, "I'm actually not in Israel right now, I'm in my New Mexico office".

I wish I could afford to do that too. It sounds like a fun thing to do.

Joe - KC2TN

It has everything to do with ham radio! He made an RF contact between La Jolla and Alaska!No different than if I was sitting on my back deck using my Maestro to talk to Alaska! HIS back deck just happens to be Mt Altos! Nice job Howard, I just wish it was I that worked you via my iPad from NJ again! Lol

Walt - KZ1F

Yep, as you worded it, yes, you're correct. I was referring to the internet connection from Mt Olympus. I would have said no different than had he been sitting at his operating position at his home with yes, be it Maestro or RDP you are no longer tethered to you stations desk. You are, however, tethered to you stations radio, and antenna. The 'virtually nothing to do with ham radio' is the form the tether to your radio takes.

The issue with RHR is if you connect to one of their contest stations and use their station call sign, great. If you start using your own, not so great...IMHO. In Howard's case and yours, the 'distant' station call is yours. If I use my Maestro to connect to your station I should use your call. So the entire issue with remoting, as I see it, is what callsign should be used.

Ernest - W4EG

Howard,
I could just imaging seeing you running. LOL
Fantastic accomplishment!
Congratulation, will see you at your next conquest...

Ross - K9COX

https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/SEADREAM-1-IMO-8203438-MMSI-308908000

KY6LA_Howard

Thanks. That's cool actually sitting at a bar in the port of Myrena now using adult beverages to calm down post adventure

k0eoo

What a story Howard....  Would make a great cartoon in QST, your running to the Zodiac iPad in hand making Q's with the monk police in hot pursuit....

Walt

#Howard,

Shipfinder.com
marinetraffic.com (the one I used)

There are others  -   Easiest is just google the ship name with the word location and one of the above sites will pop up.  All ships in the world above a certain size (depends on country) are required to have the AIS tracking system - military and government / public safety vessels may turn theirs off ( of course).

Some tracking sites use volunteer radios to listen - if you pay big bucks you can use the commercial tracking that includes sat. tracking that is available to see where ships are far at sea.

Have a safe continuation of your voyage.

Cheers

KY6LA_Howard

Next big Stop. Istanbul Turkey. Yes I have Turkish Visa.

Ken - NM9P

Too bad the weather was bad.  I was up listening until about 05:40Z, and worked several ZL's & VK's on 20 while watching for your signals.  I had to get to bed before you landed.  The 20 Meter band was still very good to places "down under" when I quit.  There was even a VK DX net on 14.185 that had several stations booming in to my location at S7-9 levels. Several other VK & ZL stations at 14.163, 14.193, 14.200. 14.205,  14.225, and others.  Also a big W6 near 14.220 who was S9 +20 dB.  The band must have died quickly after I went to bed.

Please post time and frequency you will be on from Turkey.

Ken - NM9P

Ross - K9COX

Indiana Jones had nothing on you.

KY6LA_Howard

@Joe Thanks for the original remoting inspiration. I will always remember our first attempt at remoting coast to coast frommDayton in 2011.

KY6LA_Howard

I already operated as 3W8/KY6LA. Remoting is more fun

KY6LA_Howard

Sorry David. I have already done the radio to radio thing 40+ year s ago. Nth is. Is more fun

KY6LA_Howard

Beam was at 30 degrees.

KY6LA_Howard

What is My Thrill,at remoting As you may not know, I already have DXCC for multiple bands and modes from multiple countries and with multiple local call signs using the traditional process of schlepping radios with me. I have a Ic706 go kit to schlep but I have been doing foreign DXpeditions since 1965 when I built a 40M rig into my motor cycle and drove from London to Mysore India. During my professional career I worked and/or lived in over 40 countries. And played ham radio in my spare time. So clearly regular DXpeditions are not much of a challenge for me anymore. BEEN THERE DONE THAT. BORING. So in 2011 I was looking for a new challenge. I was inspired by my Flex 5000 and Joe KC2TN to try a transcontinental remote from Dayton...we failed the first year. So it clearly was a challenge that needed to be solved. With much experimentation we worked out mechanisms that finally worked reliably. Since as you may not know XYL and I travel as much as we physically can I was inspired to try to collect Remoting DXCC FROM 100 countries. I now have 26 countries with #27 Turkey likely Thursday/Friday. FYI. Except for Vietnam and Bali I have already previously done regular.Dxing From the other 24 counties on my current list Surprisingly this quest has been much more technically challenging than my old style DXPeditions. For example here were some of the challenges at Mt Athos What could go wrong? 1. Weather may not cooperate. It's supposed to be windy and raining tomorrow and we are in a small tropical storm right now. The captain already told us we will be at Mt Athos at 0500z instead of 0700z as planned The weather did not cooperate 2. The Zodiac could miss the rendezvous - very possible especially with the weather and the change of schedule. They were late 3. The local authorities could be waiting for us to prevent a landing - unlikely We got luckily long enough. 4. The wifi hotspot could be out of range of a 3G or 4G signal. (Most likely) albeit I have had very good results with the outside gain antenna. Or the 3G connection could be just too slow or unrealizable. It worked as a slow 3G. But with Stu's new slow speed data mode I still made a Q 5. A myriad of technical glitches either at my end or in La Jolla...not likely as it worked 100% from Skiathos today. There were major technical glitches. My audio was over processed. So I had fix things 7,000 miles away which was very hard over slow connections 6. 20M propagation from La Jola will ****. probably great to VK at that time. 20M was dead. Nobody heard me on 40m until I saw on my panadapter somebody tuning up Perhaps the best thing about this new quest is that I am having fun again.