N6QEK "DXpedition" to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory for the ARRL RTTY Roundup in 2011

Thank you for visiting my web site and the primary purpose of this web site is to provide some information about my DXpeditions to the beautiful (and I do mean beautiful) Canadian Yukon Territory. The call sign prefix for the Yukon is (VY1). My call sign when I operate from Whitehorse is N6QEK/VY1 and I have made two treks to Whitehorse thus far. Those trips were in January 2010 and in January 2011 for the American Radio Relay League RTTY Round Up.

I thought I would do something a little different in 2012 since this will sadly be my last trip for a few years due to the financial cost. My wife has graciously allowed me to make this last trip up north. I would like to add that I do welcome contributions if you would like to help offset the cost of this trip and my previous DXpeditions to Whitehorse. So, all that being said, I am excited to announce that I will be in Whitehorse in 2012 for the CQ WPX RTTY Contest! Since it is a longer contest in terms of operating time, I am looking forward to participating.

My first DXpedition to Whitehorse in 2010, I used with great success a 43 foot vertical (DXE-MBVE-1) from DX Engineering and a remote antenna tuner (DXE-MBV-ATU-1) and a few other parts here and there. That was an outstanding setup! But, a lot of stuff had to be shipped ahead of me.

My second trip in 2011, I used a dipole fed with ladder line and a 1:1 BALUN. My thinking was that a wire antenna strung up in the pine trees would be a lot less weight and I could take everything with me on the plane. The apex of the antenna was about 55 feet and the ends were probably 50 feet up. It was oriented in an east/west direction, with the intent of maximizing my signal to the south and north. Alas, that dipole did not perform at all like I expected. To get the antenna up into the trees, I used a tennis ball launcher (CSV19) that I bought as a kit from AKBiocca Engineering and details about the launcher can be found at http://www.antennalaunchers.com/csv19/index.html

Let me tell you that I was extremely impressed how well that antenna launcher worked! There was absolutely no problem shooting a tennis ball towing a line up and over the pine trees. Wow! The antenna launcher has been sold and the proceeds from the sale have been set aside to help offset the cost of the 2012 DXpedition.

My plan is to return to using the vertical, the remote antenna tuner and the DX Engineering radial plate (DXE-RADP-1P) again. I am planning to deploy fifty, fifty foot radials. I used thirty-two, fifty foot radials on my first trip. All the hardware will be shipped a few weeks ahead of me to ensure everything arrives before I do. For a complete list of the hardware, please click here or on the equipment tab in the upper left of this page.

Now for a word from my soapbox:

Thank you to those of you that took the time to listen for someone rather than constantly calling CQ during the ARRL RTTY Round Up in 2011. My signal was not that strong, despite running 200 watts and it was very aggravating to call someone, only to unkey and hear them calling CQ again. Please listen!

Many thanks to DX Engineering and HAL Communications.

73 and good DX!