September/October 2000 NCJ

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DXpedition DestinationsSean Kutzko, KX9Xkx9x@uiuc.eduThis time aroundwe’ve got a neatstory submitted bySteve Herman,K7USJ/7J1AIL.Steve is a veteranbroadcaster who’sbased in Asia andworking for the DiscoveryChannel andKX9Xthe AP Radio Network.A DXpedition to Paradise—withRoom ServiceSteve Herman, K7USJ/7J1AILk7usj@arrl.netImagine you are taking a vacation to anexotic island paradise. You check into afive-star resort and have room servicedeliver a top-of-the-line transceiver with alinear to boot. You then simply connectthe rig to coax lines that feed an existingantenna farm that includes a tri-band Yagilocated high on a hill overlooking theocean. You make a few more connections,flip some switches and you’re instantlyQRV with a vanity call from a top 100most-wanted DXCC country.This scene is no fantasy—I got to live itrecently—and so can any ham whois willing to do a bit of traveling, but is shortof the funding or stamina necessary toorganize a full-fledged all-out DXpedition.Operating from PalauI’ve traveled to 40 countries inconnection with my broadcasting work,but despite being licensed since the ageof 13, I’ve only operated from a halfdozenor so nations. Most of the timelicensing procedures, lack of baggagespace for gear and antennas and littlefree time have made hamming difficult.A while back I was contemplating abusiness trip combined with a familyvacation to the Republic of Palau. I wascombing through the pages of Japan’sCQ Ham Radio magazine and found asmall ad offering a “rental shack” in ahotel in Palau.In a mutual effort to promote tourismand showcase new equipment, a Tokyotour operator, with support from severalequipment makers—including Yaesu andForce 12—has put together a tour packagetargeted for visiting hams from Japan.For the 800,000 hams in Japan, wherean urban living environment and lowpower operation on HF are the norm, thePalau DXpedition package has greatappeal. The package even includeshandling of the licensing arrangements(something I did on my own).Anyone contemplating Amateur Radio28operation from Palau, whether from thisrental shack or elsewhere in the country,is advised to apply for a license manymonths in advance. Palau’s bureaucracyis typical of that of tropical nations andthere are no automatic reciprocalprivileges for foreign hams in Palau, whichonly has a population of 15,000 (that’stotal population, not ham population!).Licensing is handled by the country’sMinistry of Commerce, using an application form left over from the KC6-prefixdays of the US Trust TerritoryAdministration. (My application was acopy of a previously completed form onwhich the data entered had been coveredwith whiteout.)In most cases, foreign hams with proofof current licensing will usually be granteda one-year license and a vanity call withtheir initials, if available. (I got T88SH.) Inreality, Palau, independent only since1994, which foreigners primarily visit forits world-renown scuba diving, has virtuallyno Amateur Radio regulations.Hams who operate there are on thehonor system. The government’s sole radiocommunication technician is a JapanesePeace Corps-type volunteer with no radioto monitor the HF spectrum. He is,however, a ham (JR7XDO) who is eagerto help Palau codify its regulations. I toldSteve and his son Ian Benjamin operatingmulti-multi from the well-equipped shackin Room 214 of the Palau Pacific Resort.The gear, delivered by room service,included a Yaesu FT-1000MP, an FT-920and a VL-1000 amplifier.The resort’s permanent antenna farmincludes an 8-element 6-meter Yagi, aForce 12 C3 and several wire antennas.Shiroto Yasutaka, whom I met in theMinistry’s communications department asI picked up my license, that I would sendhim a copy of the FCC’s US AmateurRadio regulations. I also plan to donate anHF receiver to the Ministry so that Shirotosancan become the Riley Hollingsworthof the South Pacific.One of the attractions of Palau forJapanese hams is that most hold a fourthclasslicense limiting them to 20 W on HF,but Palau has yet to codify restricting suchvisiting hams to that near-QRP status.“We’re a bit worried about a wave ofJapanese coming here who will beoperating a linear amplifier for the firsttime. Some have limited HF experienceof any kind and some do not speakEnglish,” said one official.Making Landfall and Station AssemblyWhen I arrived at the Palau PacificResort on Arakebesang Island—aleisurely 30-minute drive (everyonedrives slowly in Palau) from the airport—I couldn’t wait to get my hands on therental shack’s Yaesu VL-1000 amplifier.Much to my surprise, when I checkedinto Room 214 (the designated shack), Ididn’t see a trace of anything ham-like. Ittook a call to the front desk to get theequipment delivered (there had been amix-up on my arrival date). Theyinstructed me to look carefully in thecloset—where I found the feed lineshidden beneath a panel in the floor.About an hour later, I had the twosparkling new HF rigs (an FT-1000MPand an FT-920) hooked up, the VL-1000plugged into the 200 V ac feed, theantenna rotator control box wired andtwo of the four incoming coax feedlinesconnected—the HF Yagi and the multibanddipole. (I left the WARC-band dipoleand the 6-meter beam disconnected.)The rental shack also comes equippedwith two stuffed toolboxes, extra coaxand connectors, a soldering iron, mapsand instruction books. The only thingyou’ll need to bring from home is yourstraight key or bug and logbooks (bringlots of logbooks, I ran out much quickerthan I expected).The Family that Plays Together…I knew I would be shuffling my DXingamid business appointments, playingwith my son at the pool and on the beachand sightseeing with my non-ham XYL.In retrospect, it probably would have beenbetter to lodge them in an adjacent room.The perturbed XYL and fascinated son didnot find the key clicks, the panel lights andthe humming of the VL-1000’s fanparticularly conducive to dozing off. Withroom rates north of $200 a night, however,that was not an economical option.
Nothing in Palau is cheap. South ofGuam and east of the Philippines, justabout everything in Palau is importedfrom afar and the tourist culture, dominatedby Japanese and Taiwanese tourpackages, features Tokyo-level prices.The only tourism bargain I found wasthe moonshine available in a local shop.The sign at the counter actually read“Moonshine,” and it came in a tall beerbottle with no label and sold for $1.50.It’s actually fermented tapioca. Downinga bottle will leave you in no condition forhi-speed CW.T88SH is QRVI wisely eschewed the local brew andspent much of my spare time pumping akW to the Force-12 C3 Yagi. The antennais mounted at 45 feet in a location thatoverlooks the Pacific. When it waspointed just off due north to Tokyo, Icould usually generate a JA pileup withinminutes on 10, 15 or 20 meters—regardless of the time of day.Disaster struck on the third day, whenfollowing a long evening working bothCW and SSB, I awoke the next morningto find my voice gone and my fist wornout. Not being an active contester, Irealized that I had put my body throughthe equivalent of a half-marathon withoutthe benefit of proper training. In reality Ihad allowed myself to dehydrate andhad caught a cold. The symptomsincluded laryngitis and exhaustion.Phone operation was out of thequestion, so I switched back to CW. Ifound that my fist was as shaky as a justlicensedNovice. My new call, T88SH,has a lot of dits on the end and—evenafter slowing down—I just couldn’t get itout smoothly. I admitted defeat anddecided to spend the remainder of theday at the beach.A monsoon-like afternoon downpourtempted me back to the shack. Althoughmy voice was still mostly gone I couldn’tresist one of my true ham radiopassions—10-meter FM DXing.I spend much of my driving time inTokyo (where I have a home) sitting intraffic with my 10-W rig amid canyons ofskyscrapers, thrilled just to be able tohave QSOs with the Japanese hams inthe next prefecture.Tuning up to 29 MHz, at first I wasdisappointed to get an earful of what isusually heard on the band from Tokyo—the voices of unlicensed Chinese yellingon just about every frequency. Finally, Ifound a quiet spot at 29.26, trimmed theamp back to 500 W, and handed JF3XDXin Kyoto his first T8. DS5ICY in SouthKorea soon followed.Unfortunately, despite listening atvarious times of the day and night, I neverheard any North Americans on 10-meterFM. Some days later I came across Chris,ZS6EZ, in Pretoria on 10-meter SSB. Herequested we try a QSO on 12 meters.After that I lured him to 29.01 and baggedSouth Africa on FM. Running 640 W atthat point and beaming to the southeast,he gave me a solid 59. This was thehighlight of my room service DXpedition.When I had scheduled my Palau trip,I had not realized I would be there duringthe weekend of the CQ WPX CWContest. About an hour after the ’testbegan I realized what was going on.Despite a busy weekend of appointmentsI managed to spend just enough time inthe contest to hopefully qualify for a topcountry score certificate.There apparently is only one otheractive resident ham in Palau and I hadno indication he was participating in thecontest. Ironically one of the very fewresident hams is the Japanese chiefengineer at the Palau Pacific Resort—Sone-san, T88SS—but he told me hisjob keeps him too busy to operate.T88SH is QRT—For Now…When it was time to go QRT, I hadracked up over five leisurely days ofoperating with some 604 QSOs and 49countries. My secret goal, I’m ashamedto admit now, had been 1000 QSOs and100 countries, which I belatedly realizedmight have been possible had I not hada family in tow and had been willing to gowithout a couple nights of sleep.Nonetheless, I intend to go back soonand get those 400 additional QSOs andthe 51 remaining countries soon. I alsodeliberately left 6-meter operation untilnext time. The hilltop tower is crownedwith an 8-element 6-meter Yagi, whichI’m sure will thrill pileups of JAs whenT88SH returns to the air.Thanks, Steve! That’s it for this issue.Keep those suggestions and information onother QTHs coming in! Be sure to visit theQTH Rental Page for listings of many rentalsavailable all around the world. You canfind it on the Web at http://hobbes.ncsa.uiuc.edu/sean/qthlist.html.Until next time, see you on the OtherSide.■29
Page 4 and 5: The National Contest JournalVolume
Page 6 and 7: The Polish Yagis vs QuadsBig Gun Sh
Page 8 and 9: “Team New Hampshire”—(left to
Page 10 and 11: stay off. During that time, we were
Page 12 and 13: tained stations at home as well.Aft
Page 14 and 15: To Contest—Covenants Be DamnedMik
Page 16 and 17: Antennas with Gain andBandwidth for
Page 18 and 19: Figure 5—The SWR plot for the N6L
Page 20 and 21: failed and Ann and I had to start o
Page 22 and 23: International ContestsJoe Staples,
Page 24 and 25: on the availability of electricity
Page 26 and 27: Contest Tips, Tricks & TechniquesGa
Page 28 and 29: Contest DX-VenturesThe Contest Trav
Page 32 and 33: Contesting for FunBob Patten, N4BPn
Page 34 and 35: Trooper was eating lunch across the
Page 36 and 37: on your toes. Very strange, though,
Page 38 and 39: Table 1The approximate total time s

September/October 2000 NCJ

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