LA6K/P 144MHz EXPEDITION JP43BH 21-22 May 1993

By LA4XGA & LA7DFA

This time the team planned to activate JP44 (Linesoya island), but due to limited time we decided to go to JP43 Smola island instead.

LA6K operated from a tent outside LA9WBA's hut in JP43. We had a list of 12 skeds before departure plus some tailenders. At departure from our home QTH, we had a lot of gear in the back of the van. A large tent (to operate from), MS gear (including LA4XGA's KW PA etc.

Two ferries later, we started assembling the equipment on Smola island. Fortunately the tent was big enough for a table and two chairs to operate from.

The first contacts were tropo QSO's. LA8KV & LA1K were 59 and all equipment including PA & preamp were working well. We got no reply to our CQ's from 20-21, so we were a bit worried about the MS conditions this weekend...At 21:00(Z) the first sked started: G4APA LA6K... at 1000lpm. When we changed to receive period, both were anxious to see if we could copy anything. A few seconds later we copied several S9+20dB bursts :-) The QSO was complete after 16 minutes and then worked Colin, G0CUZ on random.

In the nighttime the propagations were not so good (plus some quite long distance skeds). It was quite cold and both had to sit inside the sleepingbags to keep warm.In the morning hours, conditions were much better and we had a nice pileup at times. LA6K stopped operating at 0930. We only slept 30 minutes during the night, so both were tired when we drove back home.