Marquesas again

The fight with mosquitoes, "nono" flies, horses and DX - maniacs on the Marquesas Islands

    After finishing the amateur radio expedition in 2000 to the Australs Islands and Marquesas (FO0WEG and FO0POM), we intended with Rafal SQ9LR to visit again the Marquesas, because the request for establishing connections from that place was very big. The travel was planned on the second half of October 2001. At that time we had some bad luck. Just before the departure we got to know that Rafal couldn't get the vacation time from work, because of the sudden duties to fulfil. The search for a person who could replace Rafal also failed. We thought for a moment that Janek SP2BMX would go, a good CW operator. But no American visa, necessary for transit through the airport in Los Angeles deprived him of this possibility to go.

Tahiti at dawn

   Bad luck also didn't let us to take the amplifier. There was no volunteer for borrowing a lightweight amplifier and heavy equipment was out of question because of exceeded weight on the airlines.

    Despite the bad luck, I have decided to go by my own taking the ICOM-746 and 9 band ham radio vertical HF9V with me and lots of wire for building the other antennas. In my big suitcase I found the place for a laptop and other necessary equipment. The newest equipment was the headset ProSet manufactured by Heil Sound. It was working so well, that I couldn't imagine working on expedition or contest radio - station without it. I was able to log DX QSOs with both hands, not like on my previous expedition with only one hand.

   Because last year we learnt the topography of Nuku Hiva Island (mainly there were the mountains, the fjords and woods in the fjords), I knew that with minor power and lack of directional antennas the proper station placement was crucial. After few discussions and consultations the Toovii plateau at around 830m above sea level was chosen. There is a farm where you can book a bungalow. The better place would be the airport but there is no place to stay.

Fortunately we landed on Marquesas

   Preliminary HF9V antenna set-up and unpacking the equipment took me early morning on the 23 October and at 16.19 that is at 6.49 local time the FO/SP9FIH started to unload the pilup on USA and Europe on 10m. After a couple of days of work I noticed that opening for EU, especially to OK, OM, SP, UT and the adjacent regions was very short and signal was weak. The morning of local time was not very busy (not many stations called at this time), so I could try several simple wire antenna constructions. At first there was 42m Long Wire - hanged slantwise, installed on 15m tree, then the Inverted V and the slopers, which were the most accurate. Two slopers on 10 and 15m completed "the antennas garden".

  The hopeless fight with mosquitoes and small "nono" flies was lasting by the whole time. The "nono" flies stung much harder than mosquitoes. The anti mosquito's specific was quickly run off, and smoking the incense sticks wasn't also very helpful and going outside in order to tune the antenna resulted with dozen of new blisters on skin. The itching all over the body stopped after returning to Poland. During the one contact, the operator form Uruguay advised to smear with vanilla oil (!), it supposed to scare off the mosquitoes.

Sloper from fishing-rod

  The number of connections was increasing systematically. Even on 80m, the 42 QSO contacts were done, within two of them were with EI stations in Europe! The best band for that minor power was 10m, where I have totally logged 3887 contacts. It was nice to meet Jurek and Wojtek on the ether waves - the members of another Polish expedition to Norfolk VK9N. Also the contacts with stations from: W/K, ZL, DL, VE, UA, HA and even with JA and 9V1 were made in Polish.

  Besides small "nonos" and mosquitoes, the horses from farm were making troubles, which chose the place for night walks where the HF9V stood. In effect every morning I have to unscrew break down radials and solder them.

  The propagation was that at 23.30 of local time the QSO with Western Europe was possible on 20m and later on 40m with Japan, so I went sleep after midnight. You had to get up very early at 4.30 - 5.00 of local time because the propagation was good for connections with USA and during that time the bands 20 and 15m "the long path" were accessible for Europe.

Volcanic interior of Nuku Hiva is a bit mountainous

  Unfortunately I have discovered the operators who didn't even hear but they reported 59. With 2 - 3 kW of power they know that they are received. So they think, that it will be written in logbook. They don't receive the report for them but they consider the connection as a success. It was the reason for me to give the EU station the different than standard 59 reports, and demanded the confirmation of that reports. Without the confirmation I have removed the DX from logbook. The report in QSO supposed to be done by both sides, not by one-way "diode" connection and shouting out "59!" with a couple of kW. A couple of stations have done contacts under the different call signs. It was obvious, but hard to prove (the same signal power, the same world region, the same tone of voice, connections in 1 - 3 other QSO periods). The feeling of disgust developed by mentioned situations was so big that I thought of quitting our hobby and the meaning and sense of all rankings and radio amateur competitions.

One of horses who distroyed radials of my antenna

  Non the less I was glad that to 10 November that was through 19 days I have done almost 12 000 QSOs where for many of them I was "the new one". I'm sure that especially the EU stations feel the insufficiency, the propagation was too short and my signal too weak, and many of them couldn't count up the connection on the missing bands. I tried to do everything what was possible for increasing the number of contacts with Europe, even with cost of other continents in logbook and QSO rate. But regardless the good will and propagation for Europe, e.g. from 2-4 UTC on the 20 and 17m very little number of stations were calling - I suppose that they went to sleep.

  It is only a hobby - there will be a next travel. Maybe with an amplifier, maybe with two directional antennas, maybe with a couple of operators, maybe from better station location. This time I would like to thanks my fellow from previous expedition SQ9LR for backup, advise and donation - SP7HT and for help in logistics N4PL and of course CDXC, EUDXF, GDXF, NCDXF.