VK9LA Lord Howe Island DXpedition 2009
VK9LA personal blog by SQ8X & SQ9DIE
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Welcome to the VK9LA Experience!
Posted on March 18th, 2009 · 16:14 UTC No commentsWe are two of 16 seasoned operators to join the dxpedition to Lord Howe Island as VK9LA between March 22 and April 3, 2009. The goal of this inforal blog is to share our own, private impressions and experiences we will encounter while leaving Poland and then – on the island. Please refer to the official VK9LA website for the latest OFFICIAL information available. Cross fingers for us, please! Stan SQ8X & Pete SQ9DIE -
VK9LA’s video at Dayton Hamvention 2009!
Posted on May 13th, 2009 · 7:02 UTC No commentsIf you plan to attent the annual Dayton Hamvention this year, don’t miss the Icom’s stand. You’ll have a chance to see a video documentary/presentation I’ve shot in HD at LHI during VK9LA. The presentation will be narrated by Bob N2OO. You can see its teaser at dx-hamspirit.com now. Enjoy! -
Final part of the jigsaw!
Posted on April 11th, 2009 · 15:39 UTC No commentsThis was a really historical moment to me today. One day I mentioned I’ve managed to work Vk9GMW from Lord Howe as VK9L/SQ8X (check their online log ;) Today I managed to find a very end part of the Lord Howe puzzle as I’ve been fortunate to contact those guys at Mellish Reef from my home QTH after coming back home from Lord Howe Island with my 100 watts and vertical GP at almost the end of the Mellish Reef expedition! This feels like this is a sort of end chapter to the expedition I’ve been so fortunate to participate. We used to help those terrific guys while on route to Mellish Reef since Bill VK4FW has been to that entity and got some experience to share with them. We’ve been following their attempts all the time at LHI. This is why we all feel that much related to VK9GMW. It’s great, isn’t it! Can’t find any other words to describe it. Will remember this QSO forever. Million thanks go to George AA7JV and Tomi HA7RY for this unforgettable moment! Here comes the recording of our QSO:Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
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Yet another recording
Posted on April 10th, 2009 · 6:41 UTC No commentsHere comes another recording of VK9LA on CW received thanks to Igor RA3CQ. The recording includes VK9LA on 30m cw on March 28, 2009 operated by Stan SQ8X. We had a really nice opening towards EU that day, and pileups were huge :-)Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
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Warsaw
Posted on April 9th, 2009 · 10:42 UTC 1 commentWarsaw… It’s really strange to be back here again after 3 weeks which seem to be rather mist of crowded memories, reflections and conclusions for now. I still feel like I left this place not 3 weeks ago, but 5 days ago! We’ve experienced a really bad thing yesterday at Heathrow. Due to wrong information provided, we missed our flight. We were forced to buy new tickets from London to Warsaw for another flight to Poland. And it was painful as prices in prior Easter holidays in Poland are high, really high… I wonder how will I get a long with a minus value at my bank account for the rest of the month… :( Anyway, I – as somebody from SP-land described me in the cluster – “the rookie from the Bieszczady mountains” – am trying to get some relief after the long trip and to sort out memories and conclusions. The first ones are rather sort of constructive self-criticism. Yes, running cw pileups was absolutely pure joy. But there is a lot of things I must learn yet. I try to read all comments received. Including comments that criticised my cw operating skills a lot. They are good advices, however I’m conscious I rather shouldn’t get into paranoiac moods due to lack of some cw skills;-) It’s so easy to judge while sitting in a comfty chair in front of rtx. while having no well formed idea what’s going on “on the other side of the pileup”. Well, one could try to picture it to himself. But you may believe me. Those imaginations are sometimes out of reality on the band on the other side. And again, like Australian boomerang, a rhetorical question returns: is the cluster or similar source of information a reliable opinion making source of information about the am radio? I really doubt it from the very beginning of their existence… I consider myself I really got along with dropping me into deep dx-waters. I’ve never participated any cw contest in prior the expdition, nor participated any expeditions at all. I had to have a super fast course of running pileups at once from the very first minute at VK9LA. And while on the air, I could count only on myself. It’s been a fantastic motivation for self-development, being consequent in what I’m doing and a kick to start planning new dx-ventures. I’m so happy I could bring some joy not only with this blog, abut also with some QSOs we had. THIS S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO ME NOW.Stan SQ8X aka “the rookie from the Bieszczady mountains” ;-) P.S. Somebody just convinced me to write a larger story/article about VK9LA. I’m sure it will be published here, but it needs some time. Stay tuned :-) P.S. II Due to VK4FW Bills’ decision the online log is removed now. If you have any log inquires, you should point your steps directly to him now.
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Sleepless in Sydney
Posted on April 5th, 2009 · 10:04 UTC No commentsWe left Lord Howe Island for Sydney on Friday April 3. It’s been really sad to leave as we’d love to operate from the island much longer. Some of us just experienced something new, almost addictive ham radio experience and it’s so hard to get out of this feeling while not on the air now. Since now, our ham radio activity will change in a way. I’m sure of it. It’s pretty hard to express or explain but being on the other side of the pileups is a real, good lesson how much efforts such a venture cost, what takers’ expectations are, what I could do better next time. Apart from ham radio related topics, it’s been really interesting to meet a wide variety of differences how people from different countries deal with one another, too. I was told by Bob N2OO Who has been to many dxpeditions that each dx trip develops its own “personality” and mood. This one was supposed to be easy one at glance: nice lounges, restaurants, beaches, sightseeing etc. But sleeping for 2-3 hours, and then riding a bike in a middle of a night to get to the cw camp 5 nights in a row was tiring. Then min. 3 hours of battling with pileups can crash drill your mind for good. Without a good will and devotion to the hobby – who could enjoy those things? Sometimes I had that feeling like I should tour the island more and that was probably the only chance to see it in my life (maybe). But then I’ve been realizing it’s always like finding a right balance between different hobbies. Talking about the ham radio now. I’m not the one to judge whether this expedition was successful or not. Despite of technical problems (issues with Acom and 40m antenna) we had to deal with unexpected problems like sudden rainfalls, high humidity, wildlife (cows and radials….). We were experiencing the very low bottom of Suns activity those days. There were no sunspots but a strong solar wind blowing from a coronal hole spoiling bands for good. To our surprise we also had no permission to set up a beverage for 160 at those places we were staying at and this was a real problem to us – and to you. The best thing I’ve experienced during VK9LA (next to running pileups) was finding flexibility in dealing with different types of personalities of team members. People are so different and there’s no chance to avoid little harmless ‘short circuits’ among of them. But how you find a way to get things better – that’s a task! And if somebody had never a chance to listen to Australian English longer, believe me – it’s a little bit challenging in first several days :-) Nevertheless those 30.000 QSO’s we managed to log isn’t bad while keeping in mind lack of solar activity. No wonder CW camp did better than SSB one as we were able to pick up MUCH weaker signals than on SSB. Personally, this was something I loved the most when I’ve been tuning out of crowded pileup and being able to pick up a very very weak taker to give him 5nn. I must say I personally paid a pretty high price for getting up that early all the time to be on 30, 40 and 160 for you. No no, I don’t blame you, but me as I have been postponing seeing a doctor too long. While leaving Poland I’ve been suffering from little cold I caught a few days before my departure. I didn’t care of it too much. Then I’ve been getting more and more sick. My little cold turned to a strong throat and ear inflammation. The flight from Lord Howe to Sydney was really painful as air pressure inside the plane changes during a flight. I had a really strong ear ache on the other night in Sydney. I didn’t sleep whole night and I was close to call an ambulance as I couldn’t resist the pain. I couldn’t eat, drink, talk. I called a doctor next morning and received a prescription for a strong antibiotics and codeine-based pain relief pills. What a relief! I feel so much better just after one day! Nevertheless if I had to do the same again to be on bands for you, I’d never hesitate at all. We already said good byes to Bill, Lans, Bob, San who are on their way back home now. Tony and Maddalena started their Australian 2-week long tour across the eastern coast of the country. We’ve (Stan, Vicky, Kasia & Pete) been touring Sydney for last 2 days. This city is amazing. It’s funny to say but it doesn’t make you that tired as ie. smaller Warsaw does. There’s more space everywhere, more places to take a break. The Darling Harbour skyline is amazing. We’ve been fortunate to visit the Aquarium and Wildlife museum next to the harbor with all those indigenous Aussie animals. One of the best organized museums I’ve been in my life so far. We also joined an open air Hindi festival and listened to some traditional and Bollywood’s tunes there. That was a great fun. I must also say I haven’t seen anywhere such a huge internationality in streets but here. You can walk in a street and hear like 10 different languages at the same time. I experienced something like that only in London so far. But not that intensively! What points my attention everywhere (and what some of VK’s told) Australians are really a tolerant nation. There’s a space for each nation, minority… This is something what some of European countries (especially Eastern European ones) should learn from, I think… Weather is excellent now. We decided to go to the Blue Mountains tomorrow. This is gonna be our last day in Australia. We depart for London on Tuesday, April 7. Then Warsaw and Athens to be back home right for the Easter Holidays. P.S. I will definitely post some updates soon. I feel like there will be more things to tell. Stay tuned.
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