I'll publish information here in diary form as I receive it from the team on St Brandon. The only means of communicating with the team (apart from radio of course!) is by a slow data link on an Iridium satellite phone, so please do not expect a large amount of detail. I'll tell you what I know!You can contact me at 3b7c@g3wgv.com. I will consolidate any feedback I receive into a daily e-mail for transmission to the team, which will necessarily also be brief.
This material is the copyright of FSDXA. You are welcome to republish short extracts of these reports provided that full credit is given and this web site is mentioned as the source. Please do not copy material wholesale! Point your audience to this web site instead.
73, John, G3WGV/N3GV
3B7C Pilot
News 15-Aug-2007 to 16-Sep-2007
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16-Sep-2007 @ 21:30 UTC |
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There is a bug in the on-line log zone 3/4 leaderboard display. It only displays W prefix calls, not K, N or A prefix calls. We are aware and working on a fix. Meanwhile, further work has significantly improved the efficiency of the search routinges, resulting in much lower server loads and improved search times. More information as it emerges. |
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16-Sep-2007 @ 15:00 UTC |
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OK, the log server is back up and running again and response times seem reasonable.
We've been slaving away over the software and we think it now gets the right zone for amateurs with the correct in-area number in USA/Canada/Australia. We've stopped short of implementing a Russian Oblast lookup at this stage! Please let us know how you get on with the new system. |
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16-Sep-2007 @ 11:30 UTC |
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We're still having trouble with the on-line log server. It seems to be related to the large number of entity/zone leaderboard requests, so for the time being we have disabled that facility. We are working on a solution, please bear with us. |
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16-Sep-2007 @ 10:00 UTC |
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The web site has been running very slowly this morning, probably just due to volume of traffic. The on-line log section is particularly badly affected. I can't really offer any advice other than to try later. |
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16-Sep-2007 @ 08:00 UTC |
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The on-line log has now been updated to include all QSOs up to 00:00Z this morning. There are now 72,077 QSOs in the log. I have not yet received any feedback from the team today.
Leaderboard zones: I am getting quite a few grumbles that the leaderboards do not locate North America stations in their correct zone. The same will be true for stations in Asiatic Russia, Australia, etc. although I've received no adverse comments yet from those regions.
I think you guys are expecting a level of cleverness that we're not quite up to yet! Leaving aside the fact that it's now impossible to tell what zone (indeed, even what country!) a USA call is in, we haven't attempted to sort out the various call areas to any great detail. Now that we know the idea is successful, it will be developed some more when we get time. Meanwhile, if you enter a W6 call (ANY W6 will do) then you'll get Z3, though for the reasons already noted, the results will be of doubtful value if it actually matters what the zone is. |
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15-Sep-2007 @ 10:45 UTC |
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We have a nice new feature on the log search engine. After you enter your callsign, you can now request a top 100 listing for your DXCC Entity or CQ zone. We hope you find the new feature interesting and useful.
We'd like to remind you that you can also see actual propagation graphs for your Entity or CQ zone by clicking on the Best time to work 3B7C links. With 63k QSOs in the log this is now becoming a very useful feature! |
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15-Sep-2007 @ 10:00 UTC |
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3B7C has been spotted operating RTTY on 20m. |
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15-Sep-2007 @ 08:00 UTC |
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The on-line log has now been updated to include all QSOs up to 04:00Z this morning. There are now 63,438 QSOs in the log.
From the team:
- 6m: We heard a few call fragments yesterday but nothing close to a full callsign. We're still listening and hopeful of some QSOs on 6m.
- The 160m antenna has been repaired.
- Conditions on top band last night were marginal, with all signals substantially lower. A few attempts were made to work SSB during the European opening, but there were no replies [see below -WGV]. We will try again on a night with better propagation. Of course, a night with strong signals is also the night when stations with lower power or less effective antennas will have their best chance of a 160m QSO on CW. As a result, we will probably alternate CW and SSB during good nights with preference for giving stations their first QSO on 160m CW. If no callers on CW, then we'll spend some time on SSB, but will keep checking CW regularly.
- Listening up for Generals. Many operators have been doing this for quite a few days. It would be helpful if those complaining would provide a band, mode, date and time so that appropriate guidance can be provided (or the complaint shown to be unfounded).
160m: I see that there are in fact 15 160m SSB QSOs with EU in the log from yesterday evening around 19:00Z. |
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