20022002

Our group of Radioamateurs organises a special event station to commemorate the anniversary of the landing in Ranville Normandy! This World War 2 event started the liberation of Europe (D-Day second World War 1940-45).
Our special call is F/ON6JUN/P what means "France On the 6th of June at Pegasus".

F/ON6JUN/P EXPEDITION, RANVILLE 2002

• Day 1: The journey to Normandy
  • We arived at Ranville(Normandy/France) in the late morning on 31th of May and could set up our station before dark!
  • At around at 18:00h UTC the Crew had made it possible to put this special event station "on air" already! Yes, they are active right now and the first contacts are in the log!
    
  • Due to a broken part of the tower boom, the stacked Yagi experiment of ON4CLC had to be canceled. So he is operating the VHF-station only with the 11-element Tonna.
    
  • Already the first spots on VHF and HF in the DX-cluster:
    144395.0 F/ON6JUN/P 31-May-2002 1806Z spec event station, via ON6BV<ON1VS>
    18073.0 .F/ON6JUN/P 31-May-2002 1651Z <UA3AP>
    144395.0 F/ON6JUN/P 31-May-2002 2042Z special event station D-day <ON1DHT>
    
  • Steven, ON4CLC reported he could receive in Normandy the Belgian VHF beacon ON4VHF/B on 144,418.0 MHz. Several French stations reported a improved reception of the ON4VHF/B to. Tropo conditions.
    At around 21:00h UTC he made already several contacts with Belgium and France on VHF 144.395MHz USB
    
  • Spotted on HF in the DX-cluster at 21:19h:
    10104.0 .F/ON6JUN/P 31-May-2002 2119Z via ON6BV D-day activity <F5PHW>
    Total summary:
    F5PHW .10104.0 .F/ON6JUN/P via ON6BV D-day activity 21:19Z 31-May-02
    W7BX ..18073.7 .F/ON6JUN/P 20:47Z 31-May-02
    ON1DHT 144395.0 F/ON6JUN/P special event station D-day 20:42Z 31-May-02
    ON1VS .144300.0 F/ON6JUN/P active since today (IN99UF) sp 18:50Z 31-May-02
    ON1VS .144395.0 F/ON6JUN/P spec event station, via ON6BV 18:06Z 31-May-02
    UA3AP .18073.0 .F/ON6JUN/P 16:51Z 31-May-02
    ON1NS .144000.0 F/ON6JUN/P PSE SPOT when QRV 15:13Z 31-May-02
    
  • Mail from F4ALP: merci pour le qso de ce samedi 31 mai 2002 5.20 tu bonne continuation à bientot F4ALP  JO10OP  DEPT 59
    
  • WWV: 31-May-02 18:00Z SFI=180 A=8 K=0
    

• Day 2: 1st of June
  • WWV: 01-Jun-02 06:00Z SFI=182 A=5 K=1
  • Crew activity in SSTV on the 20m band, CW on 17m, usb 144.395 on VHF
  • Many spots has been made on several bands:
    ON1DHT 144395.0 F/ON6JUN/P D-Day Memorial Special Event 14:42Z 1-Jun-02
    ON1NS .144000.0 F/ON6JUN/P PSE SPOT!! 10:38Z 1-Jun-02
    DO3VG .144395.0 F/ON6JUN/P pse ant to JN39 08:56Z 1-Jun-02
    ON4CLQ 144395.0 F/ON6JUN/P normandie 06:46Z 1-Jun-02
    ON4CLQ 144300.0 F/ON6JUN/P SPECIAL EVENT STN 06:36Z 1-Jun-02
    W7BX ..18071.8 .F/ON6JUN/P - Normandy 06:24Z 1-Jun-02
    ON6ZH .14252.0 .F/ON6JUN/P 5/9 D-DAY 06:10Z 1-Jun-02
    VE7SMP 14252.0 .F/ON6JUN/P D-DAY SPECIAL EVENT ON6BV 05:47Z 1-Jun-02
    HP2CWB-10 18072 F/ON6JUN/P CQ 05:36Z 1-Jun-02
    N9AOL .18072.0 .F/ON6JUN/P 05:33Z 1-Jun-02
    WA5YNE 21257.6 .F/ON6JUN/P Qsl information,pse. 04:21Z 1-Jun-02
    KA8ZPE 10107.7 .F/ON6JUN/P d-day sp. evt 04:20Z 1-Jun-02
    WQ5W ..21257.6 .F/ON6JUN/P D-DAY MEMORIAL SPECIAL EVENT 03:53Z 1-Jun-02
    N4HPL .21258.0 .F/ON6JUN/P 03:44Z 1-Jun-02
    K8SIX .10107.8 .F/ON6JUN/P 03:39Z 1-Jun-02
    W1YY ..10108.2 .F/ON6JUN/P Normandy 03:33Z 1-Jun-02
    
  • Some comments from people who contacted the crew in our guestbook
  • 10:45h UTC: currently in an interview with the town mayor
  • 12:00h UTC: Active again on 144.395, 14.267 and 10.108!
  • 15:00h UTC: Super propagation on 50mc
  • 17:25h UTC: Steven made contact with YO on 2-meters!
    

• Day 3: 2nd of June
  • WWV: 02-Jun-02 06:00Z SFI=179 A=5 K=3
  • 7:25h UTC active in voice on 7.053 LSB, 10.105cw.
  • DX-cluster log:
    SK0TM .18078.0 F/ON6JUN/P 10:14Z 2-Jun-02
    OK1DXF 18078.0 F/ON6JUN/P "D" day 10:05Z 2-Jun-02
    OZ1LQH 18078.0 F/ON6JUN/P 10:03Z 2-Jun-02
    DL8AAM 14243.5 F/ON6JUN/P D-Day special event, Normandy 09:49Z 2-Jun-02
    F5UOW .24894.0 F/ON6JUN/P PEGASUS MEMORIAL 09:36Z 2-Jun-02
    LX2UN-2 7049.0 F/ON6JUN/P Spécial event for D Day 09:33Z 2-Jun-02
    G3YVH .7053.0 .F/ON6JUN/P Pegasus Bridge.. 07:25Z 2-Jun-02
    IK2ILH 10105.0 F/ON6JUN/P 06:40Z 2-Jun-02
    DJ9HQ .10105.8 F/ON6JUN/P D-Day 06:08Z 2-Jun-02
    
  • 8:30h UTC: still in voice on 7.053 LSB RS59, many stations calling!
  • 12:00h UTC: Some stats at this time:
    VHF (2meters and 6-meters) 90 QSO's.
    HF phone 450 QSO's, HF cw 600 QSO's.
  • 12:00h utc: Steven, ON4CLC reported that conditions are very poor on 2meters at this time
    very good conditions on the Magic Band however
  • Very good conditions reported on 50mc. Making many contacts with only 10watt and a homebrew dipole (inverted-V) made by ON4CLC, mounted only 3 meters above the ground.
  • 20:30h utc: due to heavy thunderstorms in Ranville the crew had to stop transmissions temporary and are enjoying a well deserved brake... Have one (or more) on me guys hi hi!
  • Worked all of Europe on the Magic Band!! And all on a simple dipole only 3 meters from the ground! It's magic...
    .
    
• Day 4: 3th of June
  • WWV: 03-Jun-02 06:00Z SFI=175 A=13 K=2
  • DX-cluster:
    F6FGZ 7008.1 F/ON6JUN/P D day event 05:21Z 3-Jun-02
    SQ5TA 14267.0 F/ON6JUN/P D-Day special event station 04:56Z 3-Jun-02
    KI8IK 14223.3 F/ON6JUN/P D-Day Special Event 03:41Z 3-Jun-02
  • 07:17h UTC: station status qrv on 144.303MHz, 50.200MHz and 14.270Mhz voice
    2-meter station QRV until 11:00h UTC, 50mc station remains QRV until the very last moment.
  • They mounted the 50mc dipole now at 9-meters high. QRV around 50.200MHz
  • WX Normandy: clowded but no rain, 15° C
  • Solar Geomagnetic Indicies and Forecast
    Issued: 2002 Jun 03 0900 UTC
    Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Environment Center
    Geophysical Alert Message
    Solar flux 175 and mid-latitude A-index 17. The mid-latitude K-index at 0900 UTC on 03 June was 3 (35 nT).
    Space weather for the past 24 hours has been minor. Radio blackouts reaching the R1 level occurred.
    Space weather for the next 24 hours is expected to be minor. Radio blackouts reaching the R1 level are expected.
  • DX de IK4JPR 18071.7 F/ON6JUN/P 10:02UTC

  
  

• Last day: 4th of June
  • WWV: 04-Jun-02 06:00Z SFI=170 A=7 K=2
  • W8JV 10109.9 F/ON6JUN/P CQ'n 04:06Z 4-Jun-02
    K1GU 10116.4 F/ON6JUN/P 03:35Z 4-Jun-02
  • Ended their great expedition on late Tuesday morning.
    They made over 3000 QSO's!
  • Click here for all the F/ON6JUN/P spots in the DX-cluster
    

Photo's of the 2002 Expedition

Some of our SSTV QSO's, de ON6BV

• General info about the expedition 2002

  Our group of Radioamateurs organised a special event station to commemorate the 58th anniversary of the landing in Ranville Normandy (France)! This World War 2 event started the liberation of Europe (D-Day second World War 1940-45).
  Our special call is F/ON6JUN/P what means "France On the 6th of June at Pegasus".

  QTH was the garden of the "Memorial Pegasus Museum", just next the original Pegasus bridge.
  Locator: IN99UF
  
  The station was QRV from the 1st of june until the 4th of June 2002 on HF and VHF bands in SSB, CW and some digimodes like SSTV and RTTY.
  
  The station setup:
  Station 1: HF CW
  Station 2: HF phone and digi
  Station 3: 2 m, 6 m phone (when there are conditions)

HF
- 2 Levy antennas, 1/4 lamda groundplane for the 20-meter band, 1 multi-band dipole for the WARC bands (30, 17 and 12 meter bands) and a verical 1/4 lambda for 40-meter band

VHF
Steven, ON4CLC made for two meters two stacked Yagi's (a 9-element and a 11-element) to use on the expedition (due to broken boom could only use the 11-el tonna). For 6-meters an inverted V antenna was used. Click here for more details about Steven's experiment.

• Information about D-Day Normandy
• Ivor F. Anderson, G3OAX SFDXAG honour page 2002
• Technical specs of the VHF antenna system
• Memorial Pegasus Museum
• F/ON6JUN/P in CW