Operating from the Andaman and Nicobar Island as VU4AN/VU4SIG

The Indian National Institute for Amateur Radio (NIAR) issued a general invitation for a Ham Fest in Port Blair on the Andaman Islands in April 2006. Lothar, my OM = DJ7ZG and I were very interested.

Port Blair is the provincial capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Island group. We registered take part in the ham fest, as well as operating from such a rare DXCC location. We had to apply for our visas and operating licenses, and get lots of vaccinations too. The license application was over 7 pages long, 2 passport pictures were required and copies of your own license and visa had to be submitted. Not once, no it was wanted 5 times by the authorities.

We were able start our journey from Frankfurt airport with Lufthansa on the 13^th of April 2006. Jose, VU2JOS, was waiting for us in Chennai (Madras) to help with the transfers. Jan DJ8NK arrived on the next plane, and we were staying in the same hotel for the stop-over. Jose took us to the hotel to rest and wait for the next flight to Port Blair. It was very muggy when we left the airport, and we had to get used to the high humidity. 50 Indian as well as 25 International Radio Hams were expected to arrive in a day or two. The next morning we met with 10 more DX hams and 4 Local’s, one of them was of course Bharati VU2RBI, who wanted to get to the Island ahead of most to finalise last details. She had done most of the organising and all of us have to thank her that this great Expedition took place. She was on the air and operating on 25^th Dec 2004, when the Tsunami struck the region.

I was at home in Kassel listening to her description of the earthquake happening around them and that all amateur transmitting would stop, so that the emergency communications could be started. She and her team helped the emergency services and officials with all the contacts to India and on the neighbouring Islands. This instant involvement brought them all great recognition for their efforts from the local officials, as well as great respect from the worldwide amateur community.

I met Bharati at the Hamfest in Friedrichshafen in June 2005, where she delivered one of her special lectures to the YL’s forum about the activities of the relief effort as well as the expedition before the disaster. I was able to thank her then for my last DXCC country that I got confirmed with 3 qso’s.

It was so good to meet her again on the flight out of Chennai to Port Blair. Temperatures rose to 34 decrees C. and 80 to 90 % humidity. We were in need of a shower on arriving at the Hotel Sinclair. We had booked three rooms and one was to be our shack. Bharati looked in on us to make sure we had settled in OK, and she told us that they had used this hotel as well in 2004. The hotel sits on a cliff top and the whole building shook enormously when the tsunami struck, and everybody was evacuated to the garden. They slept outside under mosquito nets with their generators and radio equipment next to them.

Port Blair has the main harbour for the island group, and the provincial seat of government are there with all its offices. The town is bustling full of people and the traffic is rushing past at a very high rate. Mopeds, taxis and 3 wheeled tuk-tuks (local taxis); busses and lorries make a lot of noise. If you don’t get across the street quick enough you get a barrage of horns telling you to hurry up, but we managed to arrive safely on the other side.

Jan DJ8NK forgot to pack a long sleeved shirt, and we decided that he should have a new tailored one on the spot. The choice of material was exceptionally good and 3 meters cost only 5 Euros. The tailor measured him up and the sewing came to 1.80 Euros, and the shirt was ready the next day, Jan was more than pleased with his purchase. I could have filled a suitcase with all the exciting fabrics that I saw.

The Ham Fest started with an introduction from the Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and a local celebrity sang beautifully for us at the opening. Several of the Islands Ministers and the Governor lit a candle to wish this expedition well. Many greetings were exchanged and we listened to many interesting lectures before we could go to operate. Lots of Indian YL’s took part too, and they wore their colourful saris with pride. They were pleased that so many international DXers had come to their island to talk to them. At the end we all got our licenses with our photos on it, and we were allowed to operate for 8 days. The official club call had to be used with the new personal one, so that it seemed to be a mouthful or tongue twister to get VU4AN/VU4SIG out correctly. Over the next few days I managed to log 2000 QSO’s on SSB and 1500 on RTTY/BPSK31. Conditions were not too good as I was only able to log 2 DL YL’s. I tried listening for the YL nets, but heard nothing at all. The 5 YL’s with licenses were Bharati VU4BRI, Jeanie WA6UVF, Claudia K4LEO, Mio JR3MVF and I, DL7FAS.

We all experienced a great hospitality from everybody. At the end of the ham fest we hoped to prolong our stay by going to the island of Havelook, the next island outside Andaman to enjoy its renowned beeches and tranquillity. This dream evaporated fast, as a cyclone was hitting the area and nobody was able to move in or out of Port Blair over the next 3 days. The storms rattled and shook anything that was not secured down; it felt as if the roofs were lifting off in the strong winds. Luckily no great damage was done although we saw a few fallen trees around the hotel. The local paper then reported that the cyclone had moved on to Myanmar (Burma). We were therefore still in our hotel and enjoyed the sandy beeches nearby. Most Indian people do not learn to swim which is sad. They just play ball at the edge or mothers get wet to their waist in their sari’s, when the children are in the sea to play. We managed to take a few trips around the island and saw how the local population lived and worked. Many women worked in the road construction and have to carry heavy loads on their heads or backs. Their smiles sparkled at us. We enjoyed the trouble free sightseeing trips on Andaman Island and thank everybody for their great welcome.

I hope to hear you or see you soon again.

73, 33’s    Babs

(Translated by Christine with Babs’ permission)

NATIONAL MILLS WEEKEND

The National “MILLS” weekend was held on May 13^th & 14^th 2006 – presenting the Windmills of Great Britain. To celebrate this event WILTON WINDMILL which is located 35 miles from Trowbridge is between Great Bedwyn and East Grafton, near Marlborough Wiltshire. Wilton windmill was built in 1821 and restored in 1976 and is the only working windmill in Wiltshire – producing stone ground 100% Wholemeal flour. The mill is managed and operated by the Wilton Windmill Society.

To mark this event Trowbridge & District Amateur Radio Club set up a “Special Event” station at the Wilton windmill site with call signs GB1WW & GB4WW and issued Q.S.L.cards with Hazel’s drawing of Wilton windmill.

From 10 00am of Sunday May 14^th aerials were erected the Transmitters were wired up to Wilton tea rooms mains power supply and Hazel's V.W. trooper and Kitchen tent were used as the' Shack' for the day.

The equipment used YAESU HF Transceiver and Dipole antenna Radio frequency (RF) power 100watts and on VHF/UHF a Kenwood transceiver with 25 watts RF power. used. with vertical dual-band colinear. Transmission commenced at 11.00 am. The group then took it in turn to transmit throughout the day. During the five hours of transmission over 60 contacts were made -mainly from the S. East of England – Kent & Eastbourne. QSL cards with the call sign GB1WW / GB4WW were sent marking the windmills event. The group from TDARC:- 

• Ian Carter GOGRI club secretary

• Alan Rowe MOPUB with daughter Jo Rowe

• Dennis Shields M3JWJ

• Terry Thompson MOALZ

• Hazel Yates Jones G7RGI

During the day few visitors attended- Dave m / SQ7DU0 from Poland visiting Bristol and James Roff 2E1EMK

Other visitors were escorted around the mill and tour guide related the history of the mill. The mill was built in 1821 after the Kennet and Avon canal had been built through the site of some local watermills and the pumps providing the water for the canal had lowered the river levels so that other watermills were no longer viable.

Hazel Yates Jones G7RGI

Midwintercontest rules

The Dutch YL Committee organizes this HF-contest every year in the second full weekend of January, which is January 13 and 14 in 2007. The contest time is as following:

Saturday 13 January - CW - 14.00-18.00 utc and Sunday 14 January - SSB – 10.00-14.00 utc.

Bands: 80, 40, 20, 15, and 10-meterband (no crossband). To make your calls in SSB pse use the following frequency segments: 3.600-3.650, 7.080-7.090, 14.270-14.300, 21.270-21.300, 28.470-28.500 Mhz. This is useful so you will sooner meet other contest stations instead of scanning the entire contest-segment for YL's.

Only single stations and single operators can participate in this contest. There are 5 categories in which you can participate: YL SSB, YL CW, OM SSB, OM CW, SWL.

Procedure:

In SSB YL's call 'CQ midwintercontest', and OM's call 'CQ YL's'. In CW pse use 'CQ OMS' or 'CQ YLS',  to avoid any mix-ups with OM and YL countries.

Exchange:

Call, RS(T) and sequence number. OM's start with 001 and YL's start with 2001. Both SSB and CW part should start with 001/2001.

Points:

Every QSO with a YL=5 points

Every QSO with an OM=3 points

Qso's from OM to Om do not count for points or multipliers!

Qso with PI4YLC counts for 15 points, the club station will be active on both days on several bands.

A station can be worked once on every  band. Qso from OM to OM = 0 points!

For example: PA3YLC may be worked on Saturday in CW on 80, 40 and 20 meter band and on Sunday in SSB on 80, 20, 15 and 10 meter band. For the CW part this will count for 3x5=15 qso points and for the SSB part 4x5=20 qso points.

Multiplier:

Every worked DXCC-country counts as multiplier (that is the total number of countries on all bands for CW or SSB, not per band).

For example: If you work I, DL and F on 20 meter band and DL, OH and G on 15 meter band, that would make 5 multipliers (not six).

Total score: points of all bands together times’ multipliers.

SWL's:

Every heard YL counts for 5 points, PI4YLC counts for 15 points, multipliers as above. The log should also contain the qso partner.

Log:

For CW and SSB separate logs and separate points!

The log should also contain: time, band, date and yl or om.

Logs that are not filled in right, unclear or unreadable can be ignored by the manager and if so do not compete as contest log.

In every category, places 1,2 and 3 will be rewarded with a certificate. If there are less then 10 participants in the category only number 1 will receive a certificate!

Logs should be send before 15 February 2007 (date postmark) to the following address:

PA3GQG -

Contestmanager Midwintercontest

Keulenheide 1

6373 AP Landgraaf – The Netherlands

jckoekkoek@home.nl

Good luck, 73 de Chantal-PA3GQG