Watching the video that Jeannot shot during the trip from Conakry to Roume Island, I seemed calm… but I wasn’t.
The jolts of every wave forced me to hold on tightly to avoid falling into the water, and I was afraid my suitcases would end up in the water and my desire to activate the island would be dashed before it even began! Once we reached land around sunset, I discovered there was no landing stage, but need to descend into the water between the rocks and then climb a path of large volcanic rocks. Once I reached the top, I looked around; the landscape was beautiful, the ocean below, but my first thought was where to place the antennas. It wouldn’t be easy because the spaces were very narrow and surrounded by large boulders similar to those on the Comoros Island, but there were also large expanses of grass there. It would be impossible to distance the antennas . But it doesn’t matter, I’ve overcome so many problems. Tomorrow morning, by daylight, I’ll find a solution.
In the bungalow, there’s only a 12V plug powered by solar panels for a small fan, whose rotation isn’t enough to relieve the humid night heat. The thought of the generator running 24/H comforts me, and I fall asleep mentally making a list of things to do…
In Africa, there’s no rush.
For breakfast, I can’t resist a hot cup of Nescafe while my gaze searches for where to place the masts for the three antennas I brought with me: a Delta loop for 6m, hoping for magical openings, a DX Commander, and one for the low bands, which are the most popular.
I don’t have much choice, and in the end I’m thinking of anchoring the DX Commander to a gazebo pole, the Delta to a corner of a terrace, and the Low bands to the other side of the gazebo, hoping to attach the inverted L-shaped radiating antennas in the right places and avoid problems with the close proximity of the antennas, but there’s no other solution. Meanwhile, I’m starting to unpack the equipment: the two ICOM IC 7300 radios, my faithful companions on every expedition, the three laptops, and the router for the internet connection. Speaking of which, I have to say that finding a SIM card was an impossible task, but luckily Jeannot found one for me to borrow before I arrived. Since there’s no electricity, only the bare minimum of solar panels, I had to buy fuel for the generator in advance to ensure power, and the cost here is also high; I have to buy it in Conakry and bring it here by speedboat.
First antenna is up!
Second antenna is up!
Third antenna, with a little difficulty, is up too!
Now, the final test with the radios to see if there are swr on the various frequency bands… the DX Commander is quite acceptable, the Delta is perfect, the Low bands is a disaster: it would have been so nice to have the 40s and 80s ready right away, but there’s a solution for everything, in the meantime I can get started!
I turn on the router following the instructions from Mauro IV3AZV (an excellent CW operator as well as a reliable friend) and everything works without problems even if the signal isn’t the best. Meanwhile, my friend Francesco ik0xbx, a regular pilot on all my DXpeditions, also asks me for information on how I’m setting up the radio station.
The station is almost ready and I’ll be on air soon.
Everything seems fine except for the low-band antenna, which I’ll fix tomorrow morning.
During the night, a strong wind and storm really damaged the Low bands antenna. No big deal, in fact, I had to take it down and adjust the 40s, which were resonating too high. I cut 40 cm of wire from a radial on the DX Commander, added the necessary centimeters, and with my fingers crossed, it goes up again and no SWR on the 40s. Hurray!
Francesco lets me know there’s an opening for 6m. I quickly set the Delta loop on Radio 1, and here come the EA and CT, and little by little, some F and I… about 160 connections.
At dinnertime, there’s an invasion of large flying ants that have gotten closer with the storm, ending up in my hair on the table and on the food. So I eat quickly to get back to the bungalow for safety.
I set up radio 2 on 40m and let it run all night, much to the delight of the US who were waiting for them… at 4:30 an unexpected event occurs: the generator stops working, but I’ll have to wait until daylight to figure out what happened. Outside, it’s pitch black.
At 9:00 the generator is back on, so I start Sunday on SSB, first trying the really closed 10m bands, then moving on to the 20m bands, but everything is closed and I have to hope it opens in the afternoon. In the meantime, I set both radios to FT8 because I have no other choice.
I see that 12m is better than 10m (it’s 11:00 local time), the signals are still low, but the JAs are starting to arrive.
I take a lunch break and try on ssb again, calling first but getting no response, but soon the pilup arrives on 15m.
While I was on the radio, I heard a loud noise: it was the low-band vertical antenna that had collapsed! Luckily, with Jeannot’s help, we got it fixed and ready to hit 30m tonight.
Huge pileup of US all night, and as I write, a large black millipede
is circling the cables under the table, but I let it go: just as it came in, it will come out.
R1 is now at 40 and R2 at 30, and once the US is over, the EU waves start arriving.
It’s Monday, I’m continuing with Radio 2 on 30m open towards JA (insert photo PC 30 JA). Now the EU waves are starting, and I see ik0agu and i0jbl pass by just before the generator cuts out.
