Doug Faunt N6TQS
Oakland, California, USA
Welcome to my webpage, simple information, when I have some...
Enjoy your visit!
I'm an active amateur radio operator and go on "DXpeditions", to
operate from remote locations; mostly RTTY with some other modes, and
satellite operations.
I've been to the Isle of Man for a solo RTTY DXpedition as MD0BPI,
operated RTTY from Clipperton Island in 2000 as FO0AAA, and from
Conway Reef in the fall of 2001 as 3D2CI.
I won first place NA in the RTTY WPX contest from the Cayman Islands
as ZF2QS in February 2002, thanks to ZF2NT (many of the QSL's have
been sent, but I'm still working on the buro cards).
I made 3500 RTTY Q's from San Felix Island off
the coast of Chile as part of the XR0X DXpedition in March of 2002.
In April 2002 the K1B digital team (KW4DA, S56A and me) made 4708 RTTY
Q's, as well as 446 PSK31 Q's and 75 SSTV contacts from Baker Island,
KH1, on a DXpedition led by YT1AD. The entire team made the 3rd
largest number of contacts by a DXpedition, ever, and with minimal
support (no helicopter, no resort hotel).
In March, 2003, I went to Ducie Island as part of the VP6DIA
expedition, arranged by JA1BK and supported by Yaesu and the residents
of Pitcairn Island. I made 120 AO-40 QSO's using a FT-847 loaned from
Yaesu USA; and 1050 RTTY QSO's.
My trip to Western Sahara as part of the
S05X DXpedition was quite successful.
AO-40 was shutdown because of the sun angle during this trip, so
unfortunately there was no satellite operation.
I also went to Mali as part of the TZ6RD DXpedition, with several
Spanish amateurs from the S05X trip. We were again successful, and
made 120 or so AO-40 contacts, using a lighter weight antenna setup,
and a pair of IC-706's, one of which also did yeoman duty on RTTY at
100W for a couple of thousand contacts. XE1L did SSTV and PSK31 from
there.
Our trip to Banaba (Ocean Island), as part of the T33C trip was very
successful. We made 75000 contacts total, and 4??? RTTY and PSK
contacts. Bill, AK0A, made most of the RTTY contacts, and I filled in
on PSK and 40M and 30M RTTY.
The trips between Tarawa and Banaba on the deck of an inter-island
freighter were the highlight for me.
I went to Kiritimati (Christmas) Island in eastern Kiribati
in December 2004 with K6SRZ and wives for operating, and diving.
The diving was too good, so we made about 50 contacts in the ARRL 10M
Contest, K6SRZ made about a number of Q's on 30M and 40M CW, and I
made about 50 RTTY Q's.
And then to Antarctica, see comments about trip on EUROPA below.
-:-
XR0X website- choose "San Felix Island (Chile)"
There is no K1B website now
VP6DIA website
S05X website
TZ6RD website
T33C website
N6TQS-dressed for a DXpedition-Conway Reef
-:-
My satellite station-not great picture
The AO-40 antennas at VP6DIA, manually pointed
My satellite station presently consists of a FT-817 and an
IC-706MKIIG, connected by a a UniTRac satellite interface for coordinated
tuning. The 2.4GHz S-band downlink is received by a G3RUH 60cm dish
and patch feed into an modified AIDC-3731AA downconverter and then
through 50' of RG-59 to the FT-817. The uplink is a from the MKIIG
and a THP 70cm amp through 50 feet of flexible 9913-like cable to an old
KLM 40 element cross yagi.
For future use, I have another old KLM cross yagi, 14 elements on 2M,
on the boom, as well as a 10 turn WiMo helix for 23cm.
And I'll be putting up a larger dish soon, since I have a kit from
KG6IAL.
Teksharp dish kits, and other
AO-40 gear
My DXpedition AO-40 satellite station uses a G3RUH dish, which can be split in
two pieces for transportation, and a Arrow cross Yagi with a modified boom,
again for transportation, mounted on a photographic tripod.
I hope that we'll have a DX satellite available to us again, so I can
continue to put up new countries on the satellites.
When I was at that impressionable age, I read and enjoyed the "Carl
and Jerry" stories by John T Frye, W9EGV, in Popular Electronics.
I've been collecting them, and turning them into electronic media
form, and Jean de Bellefeuille has been making them available on the
internet, with permission of Ziff-Davis.
Carl & Jerry
Stories, so far
I also go sailing on what are sometimes called "tall ships".
For a while, I was a vounteer at San Francisco Maritime National
Historical Park and sailed on
ALMA regularly.
This is a loose replica of HMS
ROSE, a 18th century RN frigate. She's similar to SURPRISE from the
Patrick O'Brian books, and was used in the movie "Master and Commander".
Paleo and I sailed on her from New York to Bermuda and then to
Norfolk, Virginia in June of 1998.
N6TQS below decks on ROSE in 1998. This was
really my start on the HF digital modes.
This is
the museum-quality replica of Cook's ENDEAVOUR. I sailed aboard her as a
supernumerary from Sacramento to Eureka in 2000.
This is EUROPA a very modern
square-rigger . I traveled aboard her from Vancouver to Seattle in August
of 2002. and on a trip from Ushuaia to Capetown from 27 February to 17
April 2005. We stopped at South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha, and it
was a great experience.
This comic strip is for the
people who were on that trip
E-mail to: n6tqs@arrl.net
Last updated: 26 April 2005