VK9LA Lord Howe Island DXpedition 2009

VK9LA’s video at Dayton Hamvention 2009!

SQ8X — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:02:41 +0000

If 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!

SQ8X — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 15:39:17 +0000

This 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:

Yet another recording

SQ8X — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 06:41:11 +0000

Here 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 :-)

Warsaw

SQ8X — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 10:42:07 +0000

Warsaw… 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.

Sleepless in Sydney

SQ8X — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 10:04:55 +0000

We 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.

Sydney

SQ8X — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:00:49 +0000

We had a big delay with our plane from LHI but finally we arrived to Sydney at 7:30 PM local time on Friday. We also had an official dinner that brought a real end to the expedition. Preparing a big update to the blog. Hope I’ll manage to post it before departing for EU on next Tuesday. Meanwhile – touring Sydney!

VK9LA QRT

SQ8X — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:35:44 +0000

Each dx-pedition must bring to its end. So do we…. VK9LA officially went QRT on April 2, 2009 around 9.00 local time. We had to put the antennas down earlier due to rough wx conds (again!). We ar also supposed to leave our apartments earlier than scheduled. We will upload the newest and the latest log update soon. Everybody is really exhausted due to lack of sleep and physical efforts to keep everything running. Feeling sort of melancholy when seeing all things being put down and packed… The night before I was so happy to bring more Q’s on 160m to EU. I’ve been there for 2 hours at EU SS, then I have been swapped by Bill VK4FW for another 1 hour. I had a really huge pileup on 30m that night. We tried 160 today to, but after 1h of CQ calling nobody replied. 40 & 30 were in poor conds, too. However we managed to work some EU on 80m SSB. I’ll do another blog update maybe today evening our time inc. a story about our hard hike trip to Mount Gower. Pictures are already in the gallery.

Last 24 hours on Lord Howe

SQ9DIE — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 23:51:59 +0000

Yesterday Kasia and I were at the local hill around 300 a.s.l. The view to the ocean, Neds Beach and the mountains was perfect. You are gonna see it on the photos we provide after we get to some decent Internet connection or at least when we get home. By the way – there will be a film available after we get to Poland as well. Speaking about climbing — Stan, Vicky, Tony and Maddalena has managed to get the tallest mountain on the Island — Mount Gower. It was pretty hard and they looked really really exhausted in the afternoon. We had a nice conditions to Europe this night. I was working on 80m SSB for couple of hours late night. There are couple of SP as well, dzięki! Thank you all for your efforts I hope that all of you managed to make QSO with us. We are getting closer and closer to the end of our lovely stay at Lord Howe Island. Last night was the last one we were active on air. We are going to put down all the rest of antennas today. There will be only one CW station on the air (40/80/160) no stations, we are QRT. Tomorrow we fly back to Sydney. Part of the team goes off the Island today. Weather is bit worse since couple of days. There is no such a great sunshine which colorized the island in so spectacular way. Strong wind, some rain and cloudy sky is what we have since then. But this is even better for us. Hopefully it will be easier to leave the island. Today we will be signing out some of the operators. We hope that it is not the last time we see each other. I am pretty sure that this expedition will be a beginning of some cross-continental friendships. I will do my best to get to the next dxpedition organised by Bill VK4FV and ODXG. We’ll keep you updated about our moves. The closest one is Sydney.

New photos

SQ8X — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:32:06 +0000

Just uploaded some new pictures of LHI’s landscapes, you can find them here.

We are back online!

SQ8X — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 23:17:16 +0000

After 3 days of lack of the Internet access we are back online! I just updated the online log which I prepared on Saturday. Will make another update tonight our time. Now it’s clear the island has been hit by a tropical storms which are remains of the TC “Jasper”. Winds are still VERY strong and I can’t even imagine how they would be strong like if this was the TC itself! High QRN continues unfortunately. I’ve been to 30/cw today morning for almost 3 hours but I was forced to give it up due to extremely noise level making reading takers impossible. If the wind continues, we will be forced to take some beams tomorrow (Wednesday, April 1) leaving verticals and dipoles for 160/80/40/30. Feels like VK9LA starts to bring to its close… We leave on Friday Apr 3rd.