A52SJ is called the «Gus Browning Memorial DXpedition.» Gus, W4BPD, was a famous DXpeditioner of some decades back. A52SJ will be October 12-19 and again October 26 for one night. The operation will be from Paro, interrupted by a week of hiking, with a final wrap-up night before departure. N6SJ, Steve, recalls as a teenager in 1965, living in Sacramento, California, when he worked Gus at AC2H. That was a callsign for Bhutan then. Steve was fascinated with the «exotic remoteness» of Bhutan and dreamed of going there himself someday. Now he has the chance, with the goal of working as many North American West Coast stations as possible on 160 meters. He notes that previous expeditions to Bhutan have been easy to work from the West Coast on 20, 17 and 15 but few have tried very hard to work the West Coast on 160. Bhutan is currently ranked number three most needed on 160 on the West Coast.
Steve’s station will be 500 watts from a K3 to KPA500, an inverted L with two elevated radials for transmit and a one wavelength Beverage for receive. The QTH will be on a north-facing slope looking toward the NA West Coast. Steve figures the optimal times will be 13-14Z, the hour before local sunrise in San Francisco, California. He notes he has been working Asia and the Pacific on 160 with similar antennas in California and that has been the best timeframe. He will plan on being on the air from Bhutan at 1230Z daily, an hour after local sunset there and will listen only for North America’s West Coast until 1400Z. After 1400 he will listen below 1825 kHz for JA, VK, ZL, VU, UA and others.
Steve plans to do a daily upload to Club Log if the hotel wi-fi works well enough. He will not be «live» on the internet; he will need to carry the laptop from the cottage op site to the hotel lobby nearby to connect to the wi-fi there. Look for him on 1826.5 kHz CW for transmit, listening up 3-5. On FT8, look for him on 1840 transmit.
He will go to FT8 only if 160 conditions are marginal on CW. If he does change modes he will first go to the hotel lobby, connect to the internet, and announce his mode and frequency change.
A5 – Bhutan
A5A will again be on the air, September 29-October 8. JH1AJT, Zorro, will go there with VR2KF, Kasu, and E21EIC, Champ. The main purpose of the trip is to support launch of the Paralympic Committee in Bhutan with the Bhutan Olympic Committee, the BOC. They plan to be on 160-6 CW, SSB and RTTY. Club Log will be available after Zorro’s return to Japan, or QSL to:
JH1AJT PO Box 8 Oiso Naka-gun KANAGAWA 259-0111 Japan.
