XE2/WD9EWK on 26-29 May 2000

Updated 26 September 2008

I spent about 4 days in northern Baja California, around Mexicali, with a brief trip to the town of San Luis Rio Colorado in the northwest corner of Sonora, about 60km (40 miles) east of Mexicali and 40km (25 miles) south of the city of Yuma, Arizona, and other sightseeing around Mexicali and the mountains west of Mexicali.

If I could find "Murphy", I would kick him in the !@#^! for the equipment problems. I took with me several pieces of equipment (Icom IC-707, Kantronics KAM98, MFJ-945 mobile HF antenna tuner, in addition to VHF/UHF handhelds - Icom IC-T81A and Alinco DJ-190TD). The IC-707 had a very poor receiver, it would not even pick up the WWV broadcasts on 5 or 10 MHz. It would only pick up the strongest CW signals, plus some AM broadcast stations. I had brought some pre-assembled cables so I could connect the KAM98 to either my IC-707 or the Yaesu FT-920 HF radio at the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California (Autonomous University of Baja California, abbreviated to UABC) station in central Mexicali. That cable had more than the necessary 3 lines wired to its microphone plug (PTT, transmit audio, ground), and initially cause the FT-920 to go into a state of limbo. Later, I rewired the cable, only putting the 3 leads needed to feed transmit audio from the TNC into the radio and key the transmitter, and then the FT-920 worked fine. Unfortunately for me and my original plans, this happened on Sunday, knowing I had to leave on Monday for Arizona.

I also helped Alex XE2BSS to make his FT-920 work with his KAM Plus TNC, so he might be able to do some HF digital work, and also provide a 40m HF port for his JNOS gateway. Having a second TNC capable of HF work confirmed the radio would handle HF packet, RTTY, and Pactor just fine. Alex also had a handheld wide-band receiver, which allowed us to monitor our transmitted signals to ensure they sounded right.

Before I decided to make a cable that would work for the FT-920, I tried my hand at some SSB operation. I generally avoided CW for two reasons this weekend - I am not a good CW operator, and I did not want to violate the terms of my XE permit by operating in a contest (a restriction the Mexican authorities place on permits issued to US hams normally). On Sunday afternoon, I finally got the FT-920 to work with my KAM98, and then I focused my work that evening on digital modes (first RTTY, then a couple of Pactor QSOs). I worked 14 US states and 13 countries (includes USA) in a total of 33 QSOs:

Breakdown by mode
SSB: 18 (to EA, ES, GM, HC, JA, LU, OH, OK, VK, W's 4, 6, 7, 8, 9)
RTTY: 12 (to SP, YV, W's 4, 5, 7, 0)
Pactor: 2 (ZL, W6)
CW: 1 (JA)

All but three of my QSOs were on 20 meters. Two were on 40 meters, one was on 15 meters. A few of my QSOs would have been nice if they happened from home (HC, ES, VK4, ZL, North Dakota - all new states or countries for me), but it is OK that they happened from Mexicali.

My other activities while in Mexico
While in Mexicali, I finally took some time to drive around the city. Mexicali has a population around 500 thousand to 1 million people, and is much larger than the two California cities across the USA/Mexico border from it (Calexico, El Centro) - a situation unlike any other Mexican city on the border with the USA. Mexicali is not the tourist destination like Tijuana, Ensenada, or San Felipe are; it has many government offices (including the seat of the Baja California state government) and factories that ring the city.

I went with Alex to San Luis Rio Colorado to meet several other hams, help get a TNC working for one of them, and having some good Mexican food and drink on Saturday night. I spent part of Sunday afternoon driving west into the mountains that separate Mexicali from the Pacific coast, then returned to the city to finally get the FT-920 working on RTTY and several hours of operating before going to bed, and then one final QSO on 40 meters SSB with a friend in the Phoenix area before leaving for the border, and the 4-hour drive back home.

Need a QSL for XE2/WD9EWK?
For all USA stations and those non-USA stations that I could find a mailing address for, I mailed XE2/WD9EWK QSL cards for this weekend's operating by 12 June 2000. In addition, for non-USA stations, I also put an XE2/WD9EWK QSL card through the outgoing QSL bureau, a way to ensure those stations get a card for working me one way or another.

I posted my log from this trip, that you are welcome to search for your QSOs. This is a Java applet, so your browser must allow Java applets to run in order to use it.

If you use the QSL bureaus, please send XE2/WD9EWK cards via WD9EWK (definitely NOT to the XE bureau), or you may send your QSL card for XE2/WD9EWK directly to:

Patrick STODDARD
P.O. Box 1934
Scottsdale AZ 85252-1934
U.S.A.

Please do NOT write callsigns on the outside of the envelopes. I have had problems with malcontents in the neighborhood playing with the mailbox, so I probably don't need to encourage them further by having mail in the box with something other than my name and address on it until I ever decide to get a post-office box.

Final thoughts on this trip
Other than the equipment problems, I was able to do basically everything I wanted to do. I did not want to be on the radio the entire trip down there, as that would mean I would appear anti-social toward Alex XE2BSS and his wife (I stayed at their house while down there). I operated on HF, did some sightseeing, and met several other people. If my Spanish was better, I could talk with them in more than the simplest of conversations, but at least I tried my Spanish (and they with their English - some knew a lot, others did not). The hams I met down there are all friendly.

This was my first time operating on HF outside the USA. Before this, I had only operated on VHF/UHF repeaters on trips to Vancouver, Canada - but never on HF. This is indeed a learning process, operating from another country. Mexico may not be the rarest of DX countries, but I still have some learning to do to better handle pileups like I saw when I was doing RTTY. I know now that I can operate RTTY from the UABC station without having to bring my own radio equipment, but I will get my HF radio repaired and test it out before taking it south again. Visiting Mexico to operate RTTY on a major CW contest weekend probably wasn't the brightest idea. I cannot operate in contests from Mexico, but there are enough weekends where I could go down there and do some radio work. And the next time won't be the first time trying this, so I have my experience from this trip to fall back on.

Comments/Questions?
If you have further questions about this XE2 operation, or my future trips to XE, please feel free to contact me.

WD9EWK/VA7EWK - XE2/WD9EWK - QSL VIA WD9EWK