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22nd September 2009
Having completed the log checking, today we uploaded our log to LoTW. The final tally was 10,594 QSOs and we immediately matched 3,325 LoTW QSO records, a response rate of just under one-in-three QSOs. Congratulations to all of you in the log. We are especially pleased to have given many of you your first ever QSO with ZL7 Chatham Island, and remain grateful for your patience both in the pileups and subsequently.
That concludes this particular DXpedition but we had such a good time, we are definitely contemplating another trip, perhaps next year. Maybe we’ll visit ZL7 again, maybe somewhere even more exotic. There is no shortage of beauty spots here on our doorstep but the trick is to find one we can activate, not just enjoy a holiday ... QRX ...
Thanks again to all our sponsors, helpers and supporters. Your encouragement and $$$ made a big difference.
73,
Gary ZL2iFB ZM4G G4iFB Webmaster for ZL7T and ZM2M
"Forget the Internet. Talk to people around the world on equipment you built yourself. Get on the air and make friends through amateur radio." Dave, VK2RD
9th June
All direct ZL7T QSLs received to date have now been answered - the final bunch was mailed today. I will respond to any further direct cards within a week of their arrival.
I am answering the buro cards as they come in.
Many thanks to all for your kind comments on our operation, and of course for your donations gratefully received.
73, Lee ZL2AL.
8th June
I have processed about 800 envelopes so far and have paid NZ Post a lot of bread. One little old lady postal clerk in Taradale (my local town) was stunned for words when I said "Have you got any $1.50 self adhesive stamps in the the little 5 pack books?" "Certainly Sir" she replied and put 1 pack on the counter. I said "Have you got 150 books in stock?" She looked at me incredulously "One hundred and fifty books!!!!" That'll do for a while I said and I gave her my EFTPOS card. I won't repeat what she said when I presented 300 IRCs which her supervisor said she would have to scan individually ...
I am catching up to current status as the inflow decreases and the outflow increases. QSL manager Barry, ZL2RR gave me a very heavy box of incoming buro cards in Wanganui. Not a pretty sight with ZL2AL, ZM2M and ZL7T callsigns visible when I had a peak. Responding to the buro QSLs will take a while. The only thing that keeps me going is reading the brilliant comments from guys who worked us.
Please pass the word that ZL7T QSLs are being processed just as fast as we can go.
73, Lee ZL2AL
27th May
The June 1st posting of 300 envelopes went out a bit early so some ZLs will get their cards today with VKs and more distant places in another week or so.
73, Lee ZL2AL
20th May
QSL processing is in progress:
Hi all
I am in the midst of QSLing, processing a batch every day. I have completed about 200 out of 700 envelopes so far. It takes me about 15 minutes to process, mark, print and stuff 20 QSLs in their envelopes. I am getting very good comments and loads of "thanks for the new one".
The first batch of cards will go out on June 1st, the next on June 15th and the last batch on June 30th which will put me in current status. I am expecting a huge load from the QSL buro shortly. They will be easy .... no stuffing in envelopes. I have all the QSLs from Tony in Bulgaria and they are suburb. They are also quite thin and light to go thru the printer so I don't get jams as the printer spews them out at a great rate of knots.
73, Lee ZL2AL
[Aside from QSL duties, Lee is actively involved in organizing the NZART annual conference in Hastings Opera House at the end of this month. Busy chap!]
9th April
Just in case by some terrible oversight you missed it, the Gisborne Herald carried a nice article about the DXpedition.
22nd March
 We’ve sprinkled a few more photos around the website.
This site will be archived before long, in other words we will not be making many more updates.
The advice to callers section will however be transferred to ZM2M.com and maybe other websites in due course. If you found it helpful and wish to reproduce it on your website, newsletter or journal, please contact the webmaster.
Watch out for a forthcoming write-up of the ZL7T DXpedition in your favorite radio journal.
15th March
Added the log analysis page with basic stats on the QSO breakdowns by band, mode and country.
12th March
Update from Lee, stuck at Auckland airport en route home to Napier:
Hi all
We are back in NZ after shutting down on Wednesday before lunch just before bad weather hit our QTH. We averaged 2,200 QSOs a day with three radios for 5 days with over 11,000 QSOs in the log. The final logs will be uploaded to the website in a few days.
We had a great time and appreciate the wonderful support and messages of good wishes to the team.
I will post an epilog with more information in a few days after I have some sleep. A full article will appear in the various DX Jounals in a month or so. It's great to see the "DX-IS spirit still alive in the face of ever shrinking sunspots.
73, Lee ZL2AL
On behalf of the ZL7T Team
11th March
A sad day for ZL7Team, closing down, packing up and heading home. The last QSO took place around 21:00z on the 10th so the “on air” page is now “off air”. No time for a log update from the team yet, I’m afraid, but we’ll load it up and pop a note on the home page “as soon as” (as we Kiwis say).
FWIW here’s my thoughts on the experience of being ZL7T’s volunteer webmaster:
I’ve enjoyed the challenge of creating this website from scratch, registering the domain name and publishing it on the Web not long before the team set off. My design brief consisted of the initial press release announcing the trip and basic info from Lee ZL2AL about the team and location, but after that I basically made it up as we went along, hence the simple design and flat site structure.
Of course I owe a debt of gratitude to many other ham and DXpedition websites that inspired me, such as K5D.com most recently.
Researching the Chatham Islands for the site was fascinating. Some of the most useful information came from the New Zealand Department of Conservation and a handful of Chatham businesses, residents or visitors, even someone’s school project! Thanks to Google for pointing me at those.
The propagation page with hints on how best to work ZL7T turned out to be a very worthwhile addition, generating some very supportive feedback. Many of the ideas in there were contributed by Mike ZL2CC and other members of the KiwiDX Group, plus elements from elsewhere on the Web through yet more Google searches and a few of my own DXing tips, particularly the “What we will be doing for you” angle that I don’t recall seeing on other DXpedition or contest club websites. Parts of that page will probably appear in Break-In before long and most will be copied to a more permanent home on the Web after this DXpedition is merely a distant and hopefully happy memory.
Updates were soon flowing thick and fast as the DXpedition kicked off and the DXcluster spots and QSOs started to flow. Duncan ZL3JT and Lee ZL2AL were immensely helpful in providing news and feedback comments, plus photos from the island to make the site more interesting, although the very limited Internet connection to the island QTH made it awkward for all concerned. I’d certainly recommend future ZL7 DXpeditioners taking their own facilities to link to mainland ZL via HF packet or some other data mode rather than relying on the phone system - we are radio hams after all!
Collecting ZL7T DXcluster spots became something of a personal obsession after the first day or so, with updates to the propagation page several times a day. Spots provided a surrogate for the actual log, allowing a reasonable analysis of the times, frequencies, modes and paths in use. The spot filtering facility at DXwatch.com was very helpful - I simply set the filter to ZL7 since ZL7T was the only one active at this time. Getting cluster data onto the website was not quite so easy, involving processing, collating and sorting via both MS Word and Excel, and manually editing out the less interesting spots before cutting-and-pasting the table into the Web authoring tool I use, ready to upload. [There’s certainly latitude here for automation if there are any programmers reading this with lots of spare time on their hands!]
When the ADIF logs arrived by email, uploading them to Michael G7VJR’s excellent Clublog for the online search facility was straightforward. However, I soon realised that I lack any easy way to analyse the logs for even relatively simple statistics such as number of QSOs on each band, mode, continent etc. My preferred logging program Logger32 can count DXCC countries but has very limited reporting. I contemplated running the log through contest logging software such as N1MM but ran out of time. While all of this was going on, I still had the day job to do and antennas to assemble in time for the RSGB Commonwealth Contest this coming weekend (yes, that’s another shameless plug!!).
Overall, it was great fun to be a part of ZL7Team spreading a little happiness to DXers around the globe.
73 all de Gary ZL2iFB
10th March
A message from Duncan, Tuesday 09:00z:
I thought it was going to be an onerous task, this "pilot" job... But it has turned out far different than I ever imagined. This has been a real pleasure receiving the compliments, suggestions, and even some messages of unhappiness.
My condolences to anyone who failed to be logged. The Team have been fantastic in "obeying" (to a certain degree), and they have really gone out of their way to help the needy DXer's of the World.
Although RFI problems were apparent, a bit of inter-station interference, RF in the keyers, a deaf transceiver, ZL7Team is one of the most co-operative bunch of guys I have ever had the pleasure to work, to log and to assist with "pilot duties".
Filtering out duplicated messages, forwarding suggestions and getting the Team feed back, applying that feed back to the correspondents has been uplifting.
Explanations about the log problems have been understood and accepted, and messages of thanks received.
The occasional Whoopee! or Bingo! from a far off DXer has given great pleasure to myself and no doubt been appreciated by the ZL7T team on the Island.
Sadly, on Wednesday local time, they will begin taking down the stations and packing up ... Perhaps enjoying a Team dinner together ... Some will get a well deserved good night's sleep, ready for the flight home.
Well done guys and gal. You've done us proud!
Vy 73
Duncan ZL3JT, Christchurch NZ
Added a whole bunch of nice comments from delirious DXers to the feedback page.
The QRZ.com page for ZL7T has only very basic information and no locator. ZL7T is located at AE16ug. If your logging program uses QRZ.com location data to give you a beam heading, it will most likely be using the default locator JJ00xa which is in West Africa and is patently wrong. [I would gladly change the ZL7T details on QRZ.com except that the Lee ZL2AL is the manager for that page and he’s busy working the world from Chatham! I originally applied to manage the QRZ.com entry for ZL7T but the system wouldn’t let me and emails to QRZ.com’s owners have gone unanswered. Perhaps I was on the wrong frequency? ;-( ZL2iFB]
9th March
News from Lee, Monday 18:40z:
The propagation was not all that good during the day but sunset saw hordes of callers come out of the woodwork. The low bands were fantastic with 80M CW running hot after 0800UTC. 160M produced a lot of local ZL/VK contacts and then 160M came into it's own at 10.30 UTC at the USA sunrise. I worked W, VK, ZL, PA, RA, UA and others on top band and was astounded at the performance of the inverted "L" with ground strewn radials. One of the Icom Pro radios has gone deaf so we pressed the IC-7000 into service but it is not ideal on 160M for sure.
Propagation continues to affect us measurably but we keep at it. Leonie ZL2LE gave some contacts to the Counties net and to the WARO ladies for a short while last night. It is amazing the number of ZLs that have worked us. I am also amazed at the number of ZLs that haven't used CW for years and once they had blown the dust off their hand keys, managed to make a contact with us on CW.
We won't set any DXpedition QSO records with 8,000 QSOs so far but we have introduced a few non DXers to the black arts of DXing and DXpeditioning! [Hopefully a few more VEs, Gs, VKs and ZLs will be inspired enough to have a go in the RSGB Commonwealth Contest next weekend!]
Tear down begins Wednesday morning [in ZL = Tuesday evening UTC] with 40m and 80m off the air early morning and then 17m, 10m, 15m and 20m will disappear in the afternoon. We will be QRT about 01.30UTC Wednesday as all the gear has to be packed and back in ZL Thursday morning. If we miss the plane we may be stuck here for another 7 days!
It poured down rain last night and the camp is quite soggy but the sun is out this morning. There will be no further updates to the logs until at least next weak for those who are worried about you top band contacts. Do NOT send me an email about the log before March 18 until we finally upload them to this website. My post lady on her delivery bike is about to get a nasty shock with her mail deliveries.
73, Lee ZL2AL and the ZL7T Team
A few more photos have been uploaded.
 8th March
Here’s Mark ZL3AB quickly checking the ZL7T spots on DXsummit while the dial-up Internet works. Wayne ZL2WG (to the left) and John ZL1BYZ (standing) are looking on. Other photos from ZL7T are now dotted around the site.
ZL7T is now QRV on RTTY - check the on air page for a sample printout.
Online log search database updated with QSOs to 18:57z today.
Update from Lee ZL2AL, Sunday 20:00z:
We will be looking for EU on 1820 kHz at 06.30UTC again tonite. Our inverted L is great but we have a very high local noise level we are trying to solve. We have been heard in east coast USA and also by VE1ZZ in eastern Canada last nite. Propo on most bands this morning very poor. 20 and 17M nothing. 80M was great last night on CW.
73, Lee ZL2AL and the ZL7T Team
From Lee ZL2AL at ZL7T, Sunday 0200 UTC:
We have been plagued with the SFI god's wrath but he can't hold us back much longer. It's been gratifying to work so many ZLs over the past few days. The totals are piling up and most of the guys are going thru a big learning curve. WX has been good and the antennas are staying up.
Some of the pileups have been horrendous. John ZL1BYZ and John ZL1ALZ have been tireless in trying to shovel them out but they just keep coming. Mark ZL3AB now has a gleam in his eye when he hears a pileup and his on screen rate meter is driving him mad trying to get it over 100 per hour. He will eventually leave SSB behind and become a fanatical CW op I am sure. He blames Bill for all his newfound addiction.
Logs: a few of you have been worried about your calls not in the logs. Keep in mind the following:
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It is only the third day of ZL7T and I have only them uploaded ONCE!
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The dialup telephone line where we are is 16.6 kbps with untold noise.
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Gary is an unpaid long suffering volunteer.
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I am hoping to take logs, merge them and send to Gary after lunch Monday [~02:00z March 9th] and again on Wednesday [March 11th].
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Gary does have a life outside mucking around with ZL7T logs.
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It will happen and your call will be in the log I am sure and if we get it wrong... talk to us when we get back.
The bands are opening well today and Mark tells me that 15, 17 and 20 are humming as he recovers from a 3 hour pileup.
Speaking of pileups... they have been extremely friendly and most orderly from nearly all parts of the world. Quite amazing actually.
73, Lee ZL2AL and the ZL7T Team on Chatham
7th March
The team is suffering equipment problems, particularly inter-station interference from the 30m vertical. They have moved the 30m antenna four times already in an attempt to find a position that reduces the interference, but had not made any 30m QSOs as of 02:00z today, when their first log was successfully emailed to the mainland. The log has been loaded into the database and the log search function enabled for DXers to check whether they are in the log. Hopefully this will eliminate the need for “insurance contacts” just to be sure.
Analysis of the log shows they had worked 64 different DXCC countries by 02:00z on March 7th:
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Band
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160m
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80m
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40m
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30m
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20m
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17m
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15m
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12m
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10m
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6m
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DXCC
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0
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34
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47
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0
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38
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29
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0
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0
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0
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0
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From Lee ZL2AL at ZL7T at 08:40z:
We were on 1812 kHz at 0630 UTC and have been calling heaps. We are hearing USA on 160 and will be on for USA on 1812 KHz at 10.30 each evening [=09:30z]. 30M now going extremely well but we are down to 4 radios. Logs are uploaded to the website. I worked 146 stations on 3799 and expect to do well tonite. QRN high. Gear and antennas now all sorted but we are stuck with a deaf Icom Pro but still have 4 radios left.
See ya all tomorrow on the bands
Lee
From Gary ZL2iFB the ZL7T webmaster at 19:40z:
The website has been updated with information on the actual propagation gleaned from DXcluster spots (to compare with our preductions) and feedback from happy DXers. We will continue updating the site throughout the DXpedition.
6th March
ZL7T is QRV on 17, 20, 40 and 80m today, and though the 80m SSB op (Mike, ZL2CC) said he thought they were on 160m at about 08:00z, no signals have been heard there as yet. Mike complained about high QRN on 80m.
From the pilot:
The ZL7T team has 4 stations operating now. Everybody is fine and enjoying the challenging pile ups. Accommodation is fine, but the Internet is extremely slow dial up stuff... at 16kbs!...and intermittent. As pilot I am receiving lots of "special requests" for 160m in particular... but everyone will have to take chances on conditions, hearing ZL7T and being heard by them on any band. They were a very good signals today on 20m, 17m, and of course 40m.
While monitoring their activity, quite a few local stations are calling them on simplex. They will not hear you, as they are listening up the band a few khz. Calling on ZL7T transmit frequency only attracts the attention of frequency "cops" and the associated QRM for all listeners...Please take care!
73, Duncan ZL3JT
From Lee ZL2AL in ZL7 at 22:30z:
Set up a sked on 3620 for 0900 UTC and I will work the VKs. I caused a total shambles on the counties net last nite working 20 ZLs in 5 min without net ctl help. Brilliant and they loved it.
Gear problems today plague us ... just over 2K contacts. Not so good but having fun.
73, Lee
5th March
The team assembled, loaded the plane and then departed Napier airport at 15:30 local time and should have landed on Chatham Island about 2 hours later. There was no problem with the weight or size of the equipment, even the partially-assembled HF beams were slid into the Air Chathams cargo hold without drama. They will be upacking and assembling at least some of the gear and antennas this evening and could conceivably be QRV by about 08:00z today, if not tomorrow by about 12:00z.
UPDATE: ZL7T was first spotted at 22:00z on 17m and shortly afterwards on 20m. Their signal were quite weak in ZL, consistent with groundwave propagation as they were most likely beaming away from the mainland towards the North East for USA. Download a sample audio recording and check the size of the pileup here.
4th March
The ZL7T DXpedition Team will leave for Chatham Island tomorrow around 0130 UTC and expect to be on the ground in ZL7 around 0400 UTC. The schedule is as variable as Air Chatham is. Work will begin on assembling the antennas Thursday night in the dark. We will do as much preliminary work and preparation as we can before Friday morning.
We are hoping to have the two Yagis and 30M vertical up by lunch on Friday and will work through the afternoon to get the 80M, 40M wire antennas up in the trees. The 160M inverted "L" will be the last antenna to go up. We should be on the air with two stations on the higher frequencies sometime after 1200 UTC Friday and will probably activate all four stations by the early evening.
Keep a watch on packet cluster or go to www.dxsummit.fi/DxSpots.aspx and you will see us spotted for information on our active frequencies. If you are new to DXing, go to the ZL7T website at www.zl7t.com and have a read of tips on how to work us. Don't be afraid to call. Our aim is to help all of you who want ZL7 to get it in your log over the next 5 days of operation.
On behalf of the ZL7T DXpedition team please accept our heartfelt thanks for your support, kind words of encouragement and donations which will help defray some of the cost of this operation. It makes all the effort required in mounting a DXpedition worthwhile when we receive your good wishes.
73, Lee ZL2AL
See you in the pileups! DX IS!!
2ndFebruary (OPDX)
ZL7, CHATHAM ISLANDS (Update). Lee ZL2AL, informs OPDX that a team of 9 operators will be activating Chatham Island as ZL7T during March from the fabulous Chatham Fishing Lodge in the fishing village of Kaiangaroa on the far Northeastern tip of the island. The operators are: Lee/ZL2AL, Morrie/ZL2AAA, Lee/ZL2LE, John/ZL1BYZ, Mike/ZL2CC, Phil/ZL2RVW, Mark/ZL3AB, Wayne/ZL2WG and John/ZL1ALZ. The pilot station will be Duncan/ZL3JT. The four station setup will operate 160-10 meters, using CW, SSB, RTTY and the PSK modes. Operations will be on between March 6-11th. Donations would be appreciated. The ZL7T Web site is available at: http://www.zl7t.com A logsearch will be available on the team's return. Logs will be uploaded to LoTW within 6 months. QSL via ZL2AL, by the Bureau or direct (CBA or QRZ.com).
20th January 2009
ZL7 CHATHAM ISLAND: A team of eight ZL operators will be activating Chatham Island in March 2009. The team leaders are Lee ZL2AL and Morrie ZL2AAA, The rest of the team will be Lee ZL2LE, John ZL1BYZ, Mike, ZL2CC, Phil ZL2RVW, Mark ZL3AB and Wayne ZL2WG. Chatham Island is located about 550 Km east of New Zealand about 3 hours by air. Although ZL7 is not particularly rare but is in the top 100 at 87 needed for DXCC and it still generates much activity on the bands. Our Pilot will be Duncan ZL3JT in Christchurch zl3jt@paradise.net.nz The team will be hosted at the Chatham Fishing Lodge in the fishing village of Kaiangaroa on the north eastern tip of the Chatham Islands You will see ZL7T on the map. www.chathamfishingexperience.co.nz/ .
We will be looking for newer ops wanting to work ZL7 for the first time and will be listening for VK/ZL and Pacific stations at the end of each hour for a few minutes. We will not be working specific call areas or any region to the disadvantage of any other region. The ICOM four station setup with amplifiers will operate 160M to 10M with CW, SSB, RTTY and PSK modes. Wire loops will be used on 80M and 40M, a vertical on 30M and Yagis on 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10M. We also will try 160M with the 80M station from time to time.
Most of the experienced operators are DXCC members and look forward to the pileups. Frequencies will be in the usual SSB and CW DX haunts on each band with SSB split up 5 kHz and CW split up 3 kHz. Our callsign will be announced at the beginning of the operation on March 6, 2009 and ending on March 11, 2009. Although ICOM New Zealand has offered limited sponsorship, donations would be appreciated as the team will have to cover all expenses including the QSL printing. Logsearch will be available on this website but not until after the DXpedition is finished and we upload the logs.
QSL Direct via ZL2AL: 87 Auckland Road, Greenmeadows, Napier 4112, New Zealand
We will be uploading the logs to LoTW at a later date. We will also QSL via the Buro
73, Lee ZL2AL
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