The 8th International YL Meeting 2006 in Mumbai

The invitation by Sarla, VU2SWS, to this meeting from the 26th till 29th October had accepted 46 YLs from eleven countries (DL-F-HL-JA-LA-OZ-SM-VK-VU-W-ZS). Some YLs were in company of their husbands. For the first time YLs were present from five continents. Sarla was successful to take all organizational hurdles, to find sponsors, to organize together with Orbit Tours & Trade Fairs this high-quality meeting with following optional tour (Jaipur - Agra - New Delhi - Goa - Mumbai). The conference venue was the hotel Intercontinental The Grand in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The great pleasure of seeing again and cordial have dealings one another of attendees aroused attention by staff and guest in the hotel. So we could explain them that we are radio amateurs who form a big international‚family’.

With AT6MYL was continued the tradition of the International YL Meetings to activate a special call sign (SK0YL in 1991, DA0YL 1996, JW0YL 1998, IQ9YL 2002, DT04YL 2004). A hotel room was provided for radio operating and as equipment a transceiver IC-746 PRO and yagi and dipole antennas. Altogether we made about 320 QSOs in the three days, 75 % in CW. Sorry, that the extensive programme let us not time for more contacts.

At registration every attendee got a bag with T-Shirt, wooden button with laser- burned call and a small painting of meeting, besides an Indian cook book and a festival pack with exotic incense sticks. At the Welcome Party in the evening everybody was greeted with bindi chakra’ and a marigold garland. After the introduction and dinner we were fascinated by Indian classical dance programme.

Friday was the Half day conference with presentations of YL activities. So was presented for example the Special Event Station World Football Cup DQ2006J (only YL operating) by Conni, DF8MN, the Clubstation of Europe Council in Strasbourg TP1CE by Evelyne,  F5PRB, the contact of school station 8N5ARSS in Kochi with ISS by Ikuko, JA5GSG. After a break we were introduced the guests of honour. The President ARSI (Amateur Radio Society of India) OM Gopal, VU2GMN, welcomed us. Mrs. Noorjehan, the Postmaster General of Maharashtra, presented a map with the special cover and special postmark on the occasion of this meet.

In the afternoon Sarla dressed up all the YLs in colourful saris. We were just as photogenic how Indian ladies. At the Gala evening with Traditional Dress “the Asiatic YLs showed in their hanboks, kimonos and saris what colour is. In the first part the guests arranged a programme with songs, recitations, Samurai dance and Japanese tea ceremony. We missed Christine’s, GM4YMM, Scottish dance. After the dinner another Indian troupe performed beautiful and vivaciously folklore dances. At finish all joined in dance and was in high spirits.

On Saturday we visited the small Elephanta Island, only 10 kilometres away from Mumbai. Its caves house the Shrine of Hindu god Shiva. The carvings dated back to 5th century AD. The most famous is the six meters high sculpture of three-headed Shiva which symbolizes creator, receptor destroyer of the world.

A sightseeing tour of Mumbai on Sunday finished the very interesting programme of meeting. We were looking down from an overhead bridge on Malakshmi Dhobi Ghat what is a huge place of laundry, a typical Indian institution. In long rows of cement stalls stand about 5,000 washermen and beat the wet laundry clean, dry, iron and deliver the cleaned wash. We visited also Mani Bhavan, the house that Gandhi used to his stays in Mumbai is being converted into important Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Museum. The library consisting of more than 50,000 books, Gandhi’s living room and working place in its original setting and 28 diorama giving a glimpse of Gandhi’s life - that is well worth seeing. From Malabar Hill with its park is also named Hanging Gardens we enjoyed the attractive view about southern part of peninsula and of the Marine Drive. The sightseeing tour was finished at Central Railway Station, where the group started to the optional 7-day-tour to Jaipur, Agra, New Delhi, Goa and return to Mumbai. With Sarla, her husband und Mr. Venkat Iyer vom Orbit Mice India we were in best care.

It was for us unforgettable days in India with their wonderful joint experiences brought one another together. My thanks go to Sarla for inviting us to India for this marvellous Meeting and for the deep impressive round trip. Goodbye India!

Rosel Zenker, DL3KWR   

The Attendees of Mumbai YL Meet

Special Station in Hotel, operator DL3KWR

AT6MYL QSL card

L to R: Sarla VU2SWS, Janet ZS5JAN, Vee ZR6ZEN

View of Mumbai

Chae, HL1KDW

Dancer

Dancer

Special Cover

Folklore Dancing

Mahalakshmi Dhobi Ghat

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The Attendees of Mumbai YL Meet

 

LIBYA 2006

It doesn’t happen often to receive an invitation to participate at a long expected and dreamed DX-Pedition and the word “LIBYA” sounded great to me. I didn’t need much time to take the decision to go or not, but my family was not very convinced to let me go to Libya, it took much time, patience and feminine tactic! To my husband I often talked about all the incoming e-mails, the preparations of the team, the journey, the visa-problems etc. and one day he asked me :Do you really want to go there? Well, of course but only with your permission, I said and soon it was a daily talking about Libya, the trip, how to reach Tripoli and so on. Well, I got the permission as my birthday-gift!

Now my personal preparations could start; I decided to travel on my own instead of joining the team in Frankfurt (a much longer way, with night overstays, twice). So I needed a personal Visa, not a collective one as for the rest of the team and this made things much more complicated. Our 2 main- organizers already had foreseen a date for this DX-pedition for March 2006 but the delay of the arrival of the visa made it impossible and they had to change the date for the last two weeks of November, which included the CQWW CW Contest.

I started the usual procedure for the demand of the visa quite early; luckily in Palermo we have the Libyan Consulate. In August, our main organizer Andy DJ7IK told me on his mail that very soon I would receive the official invitation - the visa, directly from Tripoli. Nothing seemed to go wrong until the departure day came closer and I had no visa in my hands. As days passed, nothing arrived from Tripoli, but as often happens in Arabian countries, things take much longer than expected. Mustapha DL1BDF our man with Arabian roots and perfect Arab - speaking, assured me that the visa would arrive in time, INCHALLAH! But “Allah” never is in a hurry! Day after day the promise for the visa, assured by phone calls from Mustapha, but nothing, what a stress. At the Palermo Airport they told me that without the official invitation - confirm from Tripoli, they would not let me take the plane, strict rules. Waiting was something I/we had to learn during our stay in Libya because the way of estimate or measuring time in Libya or other Arabic countries is much different from ours! Well, at the end, 2 days before my planned departure, the blessed visa arrived, but all written in Arabic, I could make out only my passport number. Let’s go!

The short trip from Palermo to Tripoli was ok, and at the arrival at the Airport in Tripoli I was supposed to be expected and picked up at the staircase of the plane. But nobody nearby, no known face, so I proceeded to the Main-entrance, then to the passport control, where a gloomy faced man asked me for the VISA which was not in my passport, but supposed to be deposited at his desk! Problems ahead for me. To make things short, I had to wait for hours, my passport was confiscated, disappeared together with a guy, who remembered his face? Then finally a girl shouted out my name, asked for my passport, I denied having it, and whatever she said was not understandable, her English was on a low level. She asked me for money to change for the payment of the visa and I trustfully handed her 100 Euro and she disappeared for an hour but came back with the rest of the money and the freshly stamped visa on my passport, cost 80 Euro. Finally, at last!

We claimed my baggage which was waiting lonely for hours, triple security checks where nobody really checked, (I could have illegally introduced a lot of stuff) then out of the building to a waiting car with two men - our body guards! I was happy, grateful to have finally reached my destination, tired and thirsty, 4 hrs after my arrival in Libya. The Janzour Tourist Village, 20km west of Tripoli, our Hotel for the next 2 weeks, very big and large, directly on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea and with plenty of good places around for all the antennas.

Hotel check- in, room-key handed over and passport taken in custody; I would see it again only on my departure, hotel bill paid and room-key returned - Rules! At this moment I understood that the girl meeting me at the Airport is a member of ASSAKER, the local radio club.

Our Team of 5A7A was quite international, 8 different countries representing:

The first thing I wanted to do was to see the operating sight, some antennas could be seen from far away and this made my heart beat stronger. OM’s at work all over, open boxes with electronic materials, ropes, cables, many Laptops spread out on the tables; it was only the first day after the arrival of the team and still much had to be done, no woman-help required; I could go right ahead and start ! But I decided that this could wait until the next morning. It was great to see the OM’s, old and new friends, some I knew from the former 2- DX Peditions to Kerkennah TS7N; I was welcomed after 4 years with hugs and warm greetings. We all felt like a family and the newcomers: Juki (JH1NBN) from Japan, Dima (RA9USU/N2OW) the Siberian, Krassy (K1LZ) from Bulgaria, David USA and Mitch VE6OH from Canada didn’t have any problems in our big family.

I met the entire team at supper-time, which we usually took all together in the Restaurant just below our operating level. The group was quite big, 27 operators from 8 different countries + 5 persons (wives, daughter, friends), all non hams from Germany, had joined us, we were a bunch of 32 people. Among all OM’s I had a prestigious place as the only YL operator and was respected, spoiled and I always found help in critical situations, mainly with the Laptop or the antenna…..

During the first days of our stay, the OM’s were occupied with the set-up of the 6 stations, getting all the antennas up in the right place, connecting all the 10 Laptops from different countries. The cooperation of our specialists was perfect, each one of the team gave his valuable contribution in order to make the operating plan efficient. Rein PA0R and Pirmin HB9DTE took are of the WIN-TEST installation and Mitch was our man for a WLAN. The Butternut HF9V was the first antenna up followed by the 2 Spiderbeams for 5 bands, two 4-Square for 40 and 80 meters, the Titanex V160E for 160 meters and finally the giant Spiderbeam for 20, 30, 40 meters which required strong physical forces. Friday morning 17th of Nov. the last antenna was installed, farther away from the main operating sight, with nearby a military observation point on a hilltop, present night and day, they also kept an eye on what was going on around them and at the sight of the last antenna they asked to move it further away from their watching position, too close by, they said.

The direction of the Hotel gave us an entire large floor above the Restaurant at our disposal with a beautiful view over the beach, large balcony on 3 sides with good access for all antennas. There the stations for 10, 15, 20, 40 and 80 meters SSB and CW found plenty of space, moreover we had lots of room for tables, chairs, a kind of living room for receiving visitors and VIP’s ( local TV, journalists, the Libyan Radio). Our presence in town was well publicized from the Media, several members of ASSAKER radio club came to see or control us while operating (ASSAKER practically exists only on the paper, the former club station of 5A1A/5A1ACS).

The first QSO from 5A7A was aired less than 1 day after the arrival at 10.37h the 16/11/06 with DK6ZZ in the presence of Andy DJ7IK our team leader, Mustapha DL1BDF the Arabic area coordinator and Ali, operator of the former 5A1A. The whole DX community worldwide knew that 5A7A was ready to start!

My first “get-in-touch” with the pile-up was the morning after my arrival, at 7 UTC on 40m with an incredible Italian-Spanish hubbub. “Let us see how you manage your country fellows”, my colleagues said. The shouting, yelling instead of behaving in correctly, the manners of some operators, not listening to the operators advice made it really hard for me and my companion Adriano ON6GA, with whom I often shared the same station. One talking the other typing, changing every 30 minutes for 3- 4 hrs, this was also to save to occupy another station. The spelling of the calls of the Italian OM’s in a very personal way didn’t make the understanding or unravelling of the pile up in the middle of QRM easier. The big shots of our team, told us to be and act as “pile up eaters”, of course the daily amount of QSO’s was important and at the end of the first week, after 4 days of activity, we had 25,000 QSO’s in the log; finally all OM’s of the technical team had completed their job and could take part of the enormous ever present pile-ups. The first Monday, an excursion to Sabratha, interesting archaeological site, was on the cultural program but I had already planned for several skeds with YL friends from many countries so I decided to stay in the Hotel. For me a full day of QSO’s on many bands, we were few operators and had access to many empty stations; Thursday 23 of November, just one week after the beginning of the transmissions we had 52’000 QSO’s, fantastic!

For a good and correct occupation of all radio sites, we made a working-plan with a 3hr shift corresponding for 24/48 hrs for each station, exposed in the main shack where we could register our own operating time, predilection and mode, it worked out fine.

During our evening meals, (the lunch we cancelled), we usually had a briefing; lots of items to discuss, improvements to submit, updating of the operating plan, proposals for cultural entertainments and invitations to be present. Mustapha DL1BDF, our man keeping relations with impending local situations and always of big help, gave us important and helpful instructions about our behaviour in- and outside of the Hotel: always wear your personal badge, to be careful about giving out information’s about our stay in the Hotel, about the radio-business to the many people coming in and staying around visiting our operating sites, never leave the village alone without a driver and the escort, kind of body guard for our own safety! Sometimes I went along with Sigrid, the wife of Volkmar, to go shopping for our night team, changing money, which could be done also at the fruit-vegetable store or Supermarket (better changing rate than the Bank). We were always escorted and never had problems, nowhere, on the contrary, people were very friendly, some spoke few italian words and asked about our famous football clubs or just mentioned Ferrari. I was very impressed about the friendliness and honesty of the local people, no stealing, no bag-snatching; a forgotten pullover could be found at the same place after several days. Just like back home!

We passed a pleasant day in Tripoli at the National Museum, very impressing and interesting, then a visit to the Kasbah for shopping of souvenirs; the same evening we had a special dinner offered by our friend Krassy who had bought a whole lamb, then cooked by the Hotel cook in a traditional Libyan way, served with couscous and lots of local vegetables. The weather was pleasant warm, 24-26° always sunny and we could have taken a swim in the pools but they were all empty but some bold OM’s took a daily swim (Dima from Siberia found the water very warm), but sun-bathing was fine too. Some strong wind came up just few days before the beginning of the contest weekend and one of the 4-Square antenna’s was found the next morning with only 3- squares, and at night a violent thunderstorm made us shut off all the equipment during hours for precaution. Not all went the planned way, ADSL arrived after one week only, the connection with all different, also international! Laptops were quite an undertaking but Rein PA0R, helped by Pirmin HB9DTE, never gave up until all worked fine. Some days the current QSO’s in the Laptop disappeared from the screen while transmitting. QSO’s lost? Who could regain them? Rein or Pirmin were the persons for all Laptop problems, with cool and ability they recovered the lost ones; I often had to ask them for help when the screen became black!

Then finally the possibility of using WLAN and Internet resolved many problems: the on-line logs, (http://5a7a.gmxhome.de/),then reading hundreds of e-mails, and also observe how the DX-pedition was going on and how the world was taking it and where things could be altered or had to be modified. The contact between the distant operating sites became easier; but not all problems were resolved only by the Internet connection!

The cultural aspect of this Dx-pedition and our visit in Libya was quite important, to accept all invitations was important and an honour for us; we paid a visit to the University of Tripoli, very important for the Arab countries and our colleague Manfred DK1BT gave a speech and slide show about his activities at the South pole region some years ago. We participated at a party -farewell of the celibacy of Ali, our friend of the local radio club; couscous with camel meat, spicy vegetables, fruits and alcohol free beer, out in a patio in the countryside. No women present besides Sigrid and me but their wives and children observed us from the windows of the house next door and when the party was over, our OM’s had already left for boarding the Pullman, a group of women and children came out running towards us, staring, touching us and taking pictures while hugging us, unforgettable moments. This is an important part of getting in touch and making friends with the local folks during a DXpedition. Accepting invitations and taking part of excursions gave us a chance to hear and see much of this fascinating country. - We learned much about this place, its surroundings, the beautiful sights to visit and to enjoy the tourist attractions; Amateur radio is a wonderful way to open “doors” to the world and for better understanding with Arabian people. I’m convinced that in a few years the development of Tourism will make big efforts and who knows, maybe we may enter the country without Visa’s! One important thing I would like to emphasize, from the Media we mainly hear and read not is correct information about Libya, the reality is much different. JAMAHIRYA is great and worth a visit.

The CQWW DX CW Contest in cat “Multi/Multi” was supposed to be the highlight of our DXpedition; days before the contest team prepared all meticulous, receiving-antennas for the search of multipliers, operating schedules, nothing should go wrong and at the end, the 5A7A team was with 17703 QSO’S and over 46 Million points in the list; this with the sunspots at minimum level!!

Our team closed the transmissions at 7.00pm on November 29th, 2006 and during 13 days we filled 112,232 QSO’s in the log, hooray! For the 80 and 160m bands alone we had 25,674 QSO’s, setting a record of former DXpeditions. It was our goal to reach 50,000 QSO’s, an aim set too low for us, because after the Contest- weekend, early morning while Andy DJ7IK worked NA and Juki JH1NBN the JL-area , they reached 100,000 QSO spot, great.

I left the team one day earlier, all dismantling of the stations and antennas was done in a perfect way, carefully packed for the air transport and addressed for its owner, few little items went to the wrong place but reached its holder after few days.

My departing day: I paid the Hotel bill, returned the room-key and only then I was handed out my passport. The “mark” in the passport, obligatory for leaving the country, I paid the day before and two friends escorting me at the Tripoli Airport made my departure easy and without problems.

I wish to thank our local friends: Haytem, Ali, Tarik, Mohamed and others for the hospitality and friendliness, with ability they always resolved little upcoming local problems. A special, heartfelt thank to Andy DJ7IK for his enormous work for this DXpedition, with still much work to be completed, thanks to Jutta, our book-keeper and treasurer; to Mustapha DL1BDF without him we never would have reached Libya! for all his trips to find a suitable site for our undertaking and for the engagements with Libyan people; but least not less a special “Grazie” to the whole team which made me feel at ease and welcomed. I would like to return to friendly and hospitable JAMAHIRYA!

IT9ESZ Ruth