The Call It The Smiling CoastHenryk Kotowski
(SM0JHF) on March 25, 2003 Add a
comment about this article!
Place: The Gambia, West Africa - CQ Zone 35 Time: November
2002 Mission: No-Aluminium DXpedition
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A typical beach in The Gambia - a
country sometimes called "The Smiling Coast". In the
background the Yagi antenna of C53M/C56R - Station
One |
I could not find any more exotic place to go to around CQ WW
Contest last November. One week before the contest I saw a
last-minute charter flight and hotel package for around U$400 to The
Gambia. I did not hesitate too long in spite of the news coming from
this otherwise peaceful country that Ron C56RF had just been found
murdered there. I packed my ICOM 706, a power supply and an
automatic antenna tuner. Clothing ? - a few tee-shirts, a few long
sleeved shirts for the evening, a couple of shorts and long pants
for the evening, two or three hats, that's all you need there. Took
my malaria pill and phoned Juha OH9MM in Finland to ask him if his
team would be on the same flight. I had exchanged some e-mails in
the summer with Juha regarding his plans for The Gambia but I was
not really raving about going to the same spot for the third time...
and on a fullpriced airticket. The flight departed quite early in
the morning but I made it to the airport on time. We landed in
Canary Islands for refuelling and I could meet Juha OH9MM, Kimmo
OH9MDV, and a few others when they rushed into the smoking area of
the transit hall of Las Palmas airport. They told me which hotels
they had booked in The Gambia; those were known to me from my
previous trips. I found myself in Kololi, The Senegambia area, late
in the evening. I cursed when I discovered that the hotel was
equipped with British wall outlets and I did not bring my mains
adapter. Previously I stayed in Scandinavian-build hotels and it
never crossed my mind that there might be anything else than what we
have in Sweden. In the United Europe, I have seen at least five
different wall outlets. Maybe that's the next step after
implementing EURO money - introducing a unified wall outlet (maybe a
US type to simplify it).
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The equipment in the operating position
of C56JHF (G&T is missing) |
The QTH of C56JHF November 2002. An
all-band wire antenna supported by a 7-m fishing
rod |
Though the British wall sockets are very difficult to penetrate,
I managed to rape the one in my hotel room. I always carry a Swiss
army knife and a miniature fake Leatherman tool with me. A 7-meter
(23ft) fishing rod served as my antenna-wire support on the balcony.
I listened on 10 MHz and heard very strong C56R, the callsign of
this international DXpedition that I met on my flight. How come ?
Next morning, in Kotu, I learned that Franz DL9GFB had arrived a few
days earlier and was staying in Senegambia Hotel, which explained
his strong signals at my QTH. They were using the same callsign from
4 different locations. Next morning I also met Jeff N0DY and Stein,
nicknamed Rag, LA6FJA who'd been here also for a couple of days. The
group was large - 5 guys from Latvia, 3 from Finland, and those 3
just mentioned. When I offered my help, the mastermind of this
DXpedition, Juha OH9MM said: We are quite many and I am afraid some
of us are going to be idle at times.
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Jeff N0DY (left) and Stein
LA6FJA (right). The man in the middle is not Jeff
Steinman, he is Juris YL2GM. |
Station Number One - a tunable
Yagi (steppIR) and verticals on the roof of Kombo Beach
Hotel, Kotu |
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A close-up view of Juris YL2GM at
station One |
Larry YL3CW operating at station
One |
The station number One was assembled and set up in Kombo Beach
Hotel with a 3 element yagi and some fibreglass verticals on the
roof. This yagi was also made of fibreglass, an innovative design
called SteppIR using moving copper strips inside fibreglass tubing
(more information on http://www.steppir.com/). The
station was accomodated in the hotel room shared by Jeff and Stein.
Station numer Two was set up in Bakotu Hotel. The roof was easily
accessible and the Latvians, like spiders, kept on spinning wires. I
could not really figure out which wires were parts of which antenna
but it seems they worked allright. Station number Three was in
Bungalow Beach Hotel but it was mainly a 6-meter position with an
optional vertical dipole for 12- and 17-meter bands. The 6-m
yagi was made all of fishing rods - a home made design of Raimo
OH3BHL. There was a station number Four, in Senegambia Hotel, but I
could not find it. Franz DL9GFB must have had a Stealth antenna, I
presume.
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Station Two - Arvis YL2LY - using IC
7400 |
On the balcony
outside station Two - from left Girts YL2KL, Juha OH9MM, Jeff
N0DY |
I visited the 3 stations in Kotu almost every day, checking for
the progress of antenna growth and offering my assistance. It seems
that the main headache was the wireless computer link. The distance
between stations One and Two was no more than 500 meters but
something swallowed the bytes. I visited one more station in The
Gambia. A commercial AM radio station called Radio Syd. It was an
offshore station south of Sweden that found shelter in this newly
independent country at the end of 60's. However, this turned out to
be a quite hostile environment near Banjul. The coastal erosion
advances rapidly and this radio station is now on an peninsula. Last
September a storm toppled the 150ft antenna tower so the radio
station is QRT but luckily no one was hurt. The elements are not
favorable here. Even the local people show more violence than I
noticed before. I once took a taxi but the driver was from another
village and he was literarlly attacked by other, local, taxi
drivers.
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Radio Syd - a
commercial AM station that went QRT on Sep 11, 2002 |
The antenna tower
of Radio Syd in RIP position |
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A taxi ride to Kotu
? - No way. Local taxi drivers of Kololi stopped this man...
and I had to take another cab. |
A view from my
hotel balcony. These lizzards engaged in sexual activity are
more than 5 ft long. |
The propagation, though, is favorable. With a piece of wire as
the antenna and a few other wires acting counterpoise, I made
thousands of contacts. Hundreds of them were on 6-meter band which
can be very hot here. It did open to Europe only, though. During the
CQ WW Contest I made a thousand QSOs, mainly on HF bands. My only
80-meter contest exchanges were with XT2DX and EA8ZS. On Top Band
this 23ft wire did not tune at all. I gave the C53M team a few
multipliers (C5) in the contest. A detailed write up of
C56R/C53M DXpedition is due to appear in the National Contest
Journal. If anyone reading this does not know the NCJ, then I
recommend going to http://www.ncjweb.com/ and
checking the obvious advantages.
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Girts YL2KL at
station numer One |
Jeff N0DY at the
second operating position of station Two |
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Kimmo OH0MDV at station
Two |
Kaspars YL1ZF at the second operating
position of station Two |
Encouraging to see a few young guys on a DXpedition. Stein LA6FJA
was 23 years old and Kaspars YL1ZF 25 years old at the time of their
stay in The Gambia. My previous visit to The Gambia, in January
2000, is described on www.qsl.net/c56jhf My
next trip to The Gambia is... not improbable.
Henryk Kotowski SM0JHF copyright 2003
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