TN8K Team will be active from Congo Republic, 6 - 20 January 2023.
Team - Petr OK1BOA, Petr OK1FCJ, Palo OK1CRM, Pavel OK1GK , Ruda OK2ZA, Ludek OK2ZC, Karel OK2ZI, David OK6DJ.
They will operate on 160 - 6m, plus QO-100, CW, SSB, RTTY, FT8, PSK .
QSL via OK6DJ, LOTW, ClubLog OQRS.
Dates: Arrival: January 6th , Departure : January 21th 2023.
TN8K Congo News 20 July 2023
Now all qso TN8K upload to LOTW.
73s OK6DJ/TN8K.
TN8K Congo News 20 May 2023
The Southwest Ohio DX Association is proud to announce that the 2023 DXpedition of the Year award goes to TN8K, Republic of the Congo. We congratulate the team on a well-organized and executed DXpedition in a very challenging environment.
TN8K Congo News 20 January 2023
TN8K expedition is QRT now. All antennas and equipments are packed and we are going to the airport. In the log is over 164.900 QSOs. Thanks to all who called us. Also thanks to all supporters.
TN8K.
TN8K Congo News 19 January 2023
160000 QSOs in Log. Time to work, time to celebrate
73s TN8K.
TN8K Congo News 17 January 2023 Part 3
What an exceptional evening it was yesterday. On 160m logged 286 QSOs with 41 JAs, bunch of USA and finally during the sunrise AH6HY from Hawaii. We also enjoy short 6m opening to Caribbean. Wkd FG, V2, PJ4 and J7.
This evening will be the last serious operation on 160m and 80m CW. Tomorrow will be 80m vertical returned for 80m SSB and beverages will be used for 80, 40 and 60m SSB traffic.
Today is the last day of QO-100 operation. Tomorrow morning will be whole setup dismounted and satellite dish returned to the villa's wall. Don't lost your chance to work us there.
TN8K Congo.
TN8K Congo News 17 January 2023 Part 2
140000 QSOs in the Log. TN8K.
TN8K Congo News 17 January 2023
Slowly approaching our second goal. 140.000 QSOs in the log. TN8K.
TN8K Congo News 14 January 2023
Over 100000 QSOs in the log.
TN8K Congo News 12 January 2023 Part 2
Generator repaired. Back to the business. TN8K.
TN8K Congo News 12 January 2023
From 3 o'clock there was a big storm with a lot of rain. The generator is broken. Alternator v-belt broke. We are waiting for a fix. TN8K.
TN8K Congo News 11 January 2023
After 5 days 60.000 QSOs in the log and the pileups are still huge. Thanks for your support and nice words. The game is not over yet. TN8K.
TN8K Congo News 10 January 2023
TN8K Congo DX Pedition start activity on 60m Band.
TN8K Congo News 8 January 2023
Team have problem with internet connection time to time.
All RX beverage antennas installed.
They not active on 60m and QO - 100 today.
73 TN8K Team.
TN8K Congo News 6 January 2023 Part 3
TN8K Congo DX Pedition start activity.
On 14025 and 1832 now.
TN8K Congo News 6 January 2023 Part 2
First spiderbeam up, 160m vertical up, 40 and 30m verticals up.
FT8 operation pirate.
73 TN8K.
TN8K Congo News 6 January 2023
The TN8K team arrived in the Congo.
They are currently working on installing the antennas.
The first antenna will be installed 160m and the second 40m.
The team passed border and custom control well. One suitcase with at least 300m coax cable is missing. We are on the way to the QTH. TN8K.
TN8K Congo News 5 January 2023
TN8K DX Pedition Team in Paris waiting for their flight to Congo.
TN8K Congo DX Pedition FT8/FT4 operation guide
We plan to use FT8 as the primary data mode. We will use multi-slot FT8/FT4 in normal mode.
No F/H is expected, do not ask us for that please.
Our main FT8/FT4 software will be MSHV. You can use your favorite software without any problem.
Our principal operating frequencies (+-QRM):
Band
kHz
160m 1840*
80m
3580
60m
5357
40m
7056
30m
10144
20m
14084
17m
18096
15m
21091
12m
24923
10m
28091
6m 50313* * Single slot mode and/or FT8 only
Here is the guide on how to work TN8K on FT8/FT4:
If you hear us on the normal FT8/FT4 frequencies, we will not be in the multi-slot mode and working only one station at a time.
If the number of the callers will be high, we will QSY to our DX-pedition frequencies.
Ensure that your computer clock is accurate. Use any NTP synchronization tool for example
meinbergglobal.com/english/sw/ntp.htm
We will always transmit in the first period. Call us only if you decode our CQ message.
We will send a CQ message from time to time so that you should not have to wait long to select the callsign. We will transmit at the center of the audio channel e.g., 1500Hz. You can call us wherever you want but spread out in the whole audio channel. We will listen approx. from 200Hz up to 3000Hz from the center of the audio channel.
Call us if you need to work with us. We will often be operating with multi-slot, and maybe conducting several QSOs simultaneously (from 1 to 5). Call us with the locator! MSHV will be configured that the distant station will have the priority in the queue (sorry, but the distant stations have it harder ...).
Once you decode the message ‘<Your Call> TN8K ... RR73' (also called the TX4 message) from us, you should log the QSO. This message is transmitted only once as defined in FT8 Fox/Hound protocol (even multi-slot approach is not F/H mode, it keeps the F/H protocol rules). So if you did not get it from us for 2 minutes from the last message addressed to your station, do not call us again and again with R+report message. You will not get the answer. Start the QSO again from the begin.
Do not make duplicate QSOs on the same band. If your callsign does not appear in the log at the Clublog, feel free to repeat the QSO.
If the internet connections will be fast and stable, the QSO will posted in the real-time to the Clublog live stream.
clublog.org/livestream/TN8K
Sometimes we will use directional CQs like CQ JA, CQ NA etc. Please respect it and follow our instructions.
If demand for FT8 QSOs is low or band conditions are poor, we will operate in normal FT8 mode on the standard FT8 frequencies, or we will switch to FT4 on the expedition frequencies.
Check regularly our WEB page
cdxp.cz
or Facebook
facebook.com/groups/1472348776313779
for the last updates.
We wish you many QSO and the fun with TN8K expedition by www.cdxp.cz .
And finally, if you can, please support us!
TN8K Congo News 15 December 2022
TN8K Press release #1
Today we received passports back from France with visas for 15 days to enter the Congo. The preparation for obtaining the documents took almost 12 months. We missed the initially scheduled September 2022, and the tickets had to book for January 2023. Fortunately, in October, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of the Congo cancelled the obligation to test for covid with an RT-PCR test before leaving the country, after arriving in the country and before flying home from the Congo. Thus, after long months of preparations, all the legislative requirements for the start of the expedition were finally met.
We managed to secure the QTH in the flat terrain within sight of the ocean. We will have an area of approx. 6000m2 at our disposal, which is fenced, so we should feel safe. The view in all directions is unobstructed so we can point our antennas without problems to all continents. There is also enough space around for installing beverage antennas; the only complication can be grazing herds of cows.
QTH is not connected to public electricity. A diesel generator must power the entire QTH on a 24/7 basis. We have managed to secure two diesel generators that regularly alternate in operation, so we can expect minor outages needed to switch the entire local network to the second generator. In addition to the expedition's equipment, the entire house, including all its electrical appliances, is powered from the generator. Estimated consumption is approximately 4 l per hour, which is about 1400 l of diesel in a 14-day operation. The price of one liter of diesel is roughly +0.8USD per liter plus delivery costs to the QTH.
Based on the comments, we have modified the planned frequency table, which we will try to respect as much as possible.
Currently, the finalization of the material list and the packing and weighing of individual items are underway. We bought extra checked baggage to take more antennas with us. In total, we will carry 17 pieces of checked baggage of 23 kg and eight pieces of cabin baggage of 12 kg. That's a total of 487 kilograms of material.
To make the operation of the TN8K expedition more attractive, we decided to announce a competition for the official expedition T-Shirt.
The first station with the most slots with TN8K on Clublog will receive a free official expedition T-shirt from us as a thank-you. We will evaluate stations from EU, NA+SA, Asia and VK/ZL+Oceania. So there are four pieces of official TN8K T-shirts in the game. Only the first station from a given area with the maximum number of slots can win. It is not only the number of places that matters but also the speed of who reaches this number first.
If you like our expedition, please support us. It is the most expensive project implemented by the CDXP team to date.
How you can support us is shown on the website cdxp.cz
14.12.2022 CDXP Team
TN8K Congo News 30 November 2022
The team has secured a fenced QTH with dimensions of approx. 6000m2, on a peninsula, in flat terrain approx. 500m from the sea". This location does not have public electricity and therefore will be "powered entirely by generators only". The estimate of diesel fuel needed for their operation is 1,400 liters, at a cost of approximately
1 Euro or 1 US $ per liter.
TN8K Congo Team.
TN8K Congo DX Pedition Team Meeting 4 November 2022
Images received from David, OK6DJ.