NEWS UPDATE – Many thanks to Joerg, OE6VHF for passing on the photos of David’s 7O activity.
Jeorg goes on to say:
David told me that Socotra has a quite fine cell coverage. Outbound it only has one satellite link, which is not the best one. He is well, but weather and surrounding conditions are hard. He wants to keep it clear: 7O/DL7ZM is no DXpedition. It is a propagation study on defined frequencies, which were coordinated with several authorities and ministries of Yemen.
Today 30-06-2022 he turned off his equipment at approx 17:00UTC. The last hours he made CW / Split only on 6m to save energy. Nearly all the time clouds, fog and high winds on the mountain. Today he lost his little wind generator. He tries to repair it overnight to gain even 30W of energy tomorrow. Solar power works (when sun comes out.) He saves energy on batteries for Japan FT8 in the morning. Because of the signals no CW to JA seems possible. Some FT8 JA contacts today. Antenna is at the highest point, his tent is some meters away behind some rocks. For possible communication via mobile phone he has to climb to the antenna, and make his messages there, but is very cold and windy. Yesterday the fiberglass mast and the 6m Yagi broke in the wind. Overnight he has built up new 6m/10m dual band Antenna. With some damaged material he has built up a new mast (see photo).
