Sleepless in Sydney

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.