The Tropics, the Doldrums, the Cluster, Kava and CW.

Tales and Anecdotes from Tropical Vanuatu – YJ0VK 2024

By Chris Chapman VK3QB

28 March – the Departure Lounge and a flooded highway.

Luke VK3HJ and I fly from Melbourne to Port Vila direct. A direct flight these days is a rarity and made for a smooth start to our travels. It is also pretty hard for an airline to lose your bags when it is a direct flight. Two recent DXpeditions to Norfolk Island suffered lost/delayed baggage syndrome, so we were especially pleased with the arrangements this time.

Matt K0BBC (from South Dakota) and Alan VK6CQ (from Perth, Australia) arrived in Vanuatu a couple of days earlier. Matt was to meet us at the airport on arrival at 2200 local time.

Matt messaged me whilst we were in the boarding lounge in Melbourne reporting that heavy rain had damaged the highway (the only sealed road around the island), and that numerous creeks and rivers were over the road. The 47km drive in the dark to collect us would take at least two hours, each way, and as our plane didn’t arrive until 2200 local, he asked that we find accommodation in Port Vila. He’d collect us the next day when the waters receded, and daylight offered safer driving conditions.

Of course, we agreed and found suitable accommodation in Port Vila for the night.

29 March

Matt collected us and we made the 47km trip north. On our last visit to Port Vila (2012) the main highway had only just been sealed. Prior to that it was largely unsealed and quite a pathway to navigate. During our 2010 visit, we had hired a bus to take us around the island – a full day excursion (122kms). Nonetheless, the torrential rains had left their mark; it was clear where the road had been underwater just 12 hours earlier, and the washouts and potholes made some sections hard going. It took about 90 minutes to cover the 47km.

Brownie was the local guard dog. He was not much of a guard dog but was a regular (and welcome) visitor to our shack.

1. Brownie – our mascot

The photos do not do the scene justice. We are following the white bus up a very steep incline and as you can see, the other side of the road was washed away by the rain.

The other photo is deceiving. One could never be certain if it was just a puddle of water, or a 30cm deep pothole.

30 March – On-air and Active.

By mid-day we had all three stations up and running. The main CW station comprised an IC-705 helped along with an SPE amplifier. The SSB station was an IC-7300 with some encouragement from an Elecraft KPA500, and Alan had setup the venerable IC-7000 as the main FT8 station. The Elecraft KX3 was connected to the four-element beam as our six-metre monitoring station and beacon.

Our antennas comprised a 40-metre doublet strung between a couple of coconut trees, not our normal 25-30 metre Norfolk Island pines, but adequate given the task at hand. It was fed with 450ohm ladder line into a (soon to be collector’s item) MFJ-962 antenna matching unit. We also took two DX-Commander Expedition verticals. One was setup on the beach, right at the high tide mark, and about 60 metres from the guesthouse/shack. The other was placed behind the guesthouse.

About antennas, band pass filters and interference.

Seventeen DXpeditions to small islands has taught us a thing or two about reducing cross-station interference and making the best of things when it cannot be avoided. As any DXpeditioner or multi-station contester will attest, the nemesis of a successful operation is interference from the transmitter sitting three metres to your left. Finding a way for all that RF to co-exist without causing unacceptable levels of RFI to receivers is a major planning consideration.

The cross polarisation and physical separation between our two main antennas made a huge difference. By the time band pass filters were inserted between the radios and amplifiers, all but the most stubborn of unwanted RF leakage was suppressed sufficiently. Even the high-duty cycle FT8, renowned for causing unwanted interference to nearby stations, appeared to have been calmed.

Our additional tactics for dealing with RFI included: to QSY to another band, wind the power back, or in rare but unworkable situations, one of the stations would take a break. However, I would say the latter only occurred on a handful of occasions.

Of course, ferrite rings and clip-on ferrites are also an important part of our RFI-killing arsenal.

Good housekeeping with feedlines and separation in the shack also assisted.

The DX-Commanders did a great job. Nothing beats resonance when you are in a remote location with limited resources. There simply is not much that can go wrong.

About the only thing we will do better next time is to pull the tensioning shock cords tighter on the radiating wires. On occasion the wind gusts were sufficient to dislodge a radiator and upset the SWR.

2. DX-Commander on the beach – looking North.

In addition, when collapsed the Expedition model poles fit nicely in a standard suitcase. These poles are extremely strong and we saw no signs of wear and tear after 14 days on the beach in pretty harsh conditions. These will be a permanent part of our antenna compliment for future DXpeditions. Check them out here.

31 March – The Doldrums

“The doldrums is a popular nautical term that refers to the belt around the earth near the equator where sailing ships sometimes get stuck on windless waters.”

Ref: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/doldrums.html

It is also a term that refers to the boredom and frustration suffered by Dxpeditoners (and chasers) when the ionised layers around the Earth sometimes get over-energised and absorb our radio signals, resulting in eerily silent bands.

An M-class flare from AR3615 graced us with its presence, producing strong fadeouts on HF. Our 20m FT8 signal was only being decoded in VK4 and ZL. Our CQs on CW were not being heard by the RBN…. not even in VK or ZL.

3. IPS Map of HF Fadeout – coming right at us
   

The higher bands were not much better. FT8 on 12m hobbled along in a lacklustre fashion. By early afternoon the effects of the flare were waning, and we started to see activity again on 15, 12 and 10m. Nothing remarkable, but worthy of calling CQ with the paddle. 10 and 12 m produced just enough activity to keep things interesting… but certainly not hectic.

Most of the team used the opportunity to grab a midday nap as well as having a fiddle around with radio control software for the new IC-705 and checking some cards for the ARRL DXCC program. On the flip side, conditions were great later in the day and the 31st March proved to be our busiest day by QSO count.

ARRL Card Checker Matt K0BBC checks cards for ARRL Card Checker Luke VK3HJ… on-location at YJ0VK. Kinda cool – that is a lot of kilometres to get a card confirmed.

Luke was pretty chuffed.

About The Cluster…

I use DX-Summit. What can I say…  the Cluster provides an endless source of amusement and insight into those on the ‘other side’.  It really proves the old adage that ‘amateur radio is a broad church’.

4. Courtesy of “the cluster” explaining where we were if you couldn’t hear us. And it’s not true. He was an English cook.
   

Oh, and for the record, having “gud ears” is a compliment… as is “big ears”, unlike what we called Billy Smith at school. But, and I’m sure you know this, “cloth ears” is not a compliment. You do not want to be called cloth ears on the cluster. One correspondent scolded me for being too QRS. At the time I was exchanging callsigns at 26WPM.

It can be very difficult finding the sweet spot when on the pointy end. We try to keep a balance and I use the keyboard function keys rarely. I tend to find that 24-28WPM achieves the best efficiency with minimal repeats. This also appears, anedotally, to be a range where I believe most people are able to copy their own callsign, if nothing else. Of course, many operators fire their callsigns at us at higher speeds and after some hours I found I could copy callsigns probably somewhere around 33-35WPM.

Much faster than this (say 28WPM) and error rates tend to increase and the pileup gets frustrated. On more than one ocassion a QRQ operator missed a QSO simply because he/she would not QRS when asked.

Having said that, I know some very skilled and experienced CW operators can maintain QSOs rates of 150-180 per hour. But it does rely very much on a well behaved and equally skilled pileup; and well behaved pileups are a rarity. It will come as no surprise to many, but I could rarely fault the excellent operating practices of the JAs. When asked to QRX whilst we worked EU or NA it was extremely rare to hear a JA calling. 😊

Messages like this one always make it worth the effort. It was our pleasure.

6 April – The doldrums. Again.

01:50Z: The doldrums.  Even with three FT8 stations we worked only five QSOs in one hour.

And I can assure you that if FT8 is dead then there will not be any CW or SSB activity.

Statistics and That mode.

It would be remiss (irresponsible?) of any DX-pedition article to exclude statistics; it seems the world is addicted to statistics; not to mention real-time logging, personalised sked planning via the Cluster and emails, and arbitrary QSO count milestones.

I still like to spin the dial and listen for new ones, or simply to hear who is on the band. Listening is a learned skill and opens up a lot of interesting and fun experiences for CW operators.

YJ0VK made 23,739 QSOs. 78% FT8, 19.5% CW, 2.5% SSB.

It was disappointing we did not achieve DXCC on CW.

Most DXpeditioners want to get you in their log. As many of you as possible. This means efficiency and maximising QSO counts. Nothing can achieve this like FT8. And it can be done with a fraction of the resources required for SSB and to a lesser extent, CW. Our primary FT8 station was a bare-foot IC-7000 running no more than 30-50W on average and radiating from a Terlin Mobile whip sitting on top of 24 ground radials.

This very basic station made over 9,000 FT8 contacts, adding to ATNOs, band slots, IOTA credits and various other award programs. I also recognised a lot of CW callsigns tramping down the FT8 screen when I was on watch. 😉 Even ‘we CW ops’ are not immune to that mode.

Of course, as all readers of Solid Copy will attest, nothing beats the satisfaction of learning, practicing, (mastering?) the best mode; CW and Morse Code.

A word about that mode (FT8) and SSB. FT8 seems to be the mode that everyone hates…. but uses anyway. There is no escaping its popularity and success, and for many, it is the only mode that allows them to remain active in the hobby. Those who use it enjoy it and invest a lot of time and effort in constructing a capable and functional station.

FT8 is supposed to be a weak-signal mode. This does not mean QRP… but some of the signals we saw (and heard) indicated without doubt that amplifiers and many hundreds of Watts have become the modus-operandi for some digital operators. This is a shame… it is cluttering the band segment and often splattering other signals. We appear to be caught in some kind of perverse arms race.

On one of our recent trips to the South Pacific, we received an email asking why we were not working a station. He was on the West coast of North America and informed us that he was running 1,000 Watts (FT8) into a five-element beam on 28Mhz… and a lot of his buddies were working us… and asking(?) why weren’t we working him? Of course we were hearing him. But we set our filtering to exclude any signals greater than +20dB.

You simply do not need hundreds of watts to make QSOs with FT8 under decent band conditions. If everyone committed to run the minimal practical power required to make the QSO we would get more in the log, and those truly ‘little guns’ would have a fair go. Next time, turn your amplifier off.

Magic Band.

FT8 is a good early warning alert for CW openings – especially on 6m – and it would be remiss of me not to make mention of 6 metres. We had the KX3 monitoring the FT8 channel (50.313MHz) and whenever that familiar warbling graced us with its presence someone would have a look at the action. If the opening looked reasonable (… and I’m informed any 6m opening is reasonable), we would swing into action. Action usually started with a run on FT8 and as signals peaked, we would move to SSB or CW. We made 1,400 FT8 QSOs and just shy of 400 for each CW and SSB. Our most remarkable QSO was to Angola; around 15,000km. In all we worked 19 DXCC entities on 6m.

All is not lost.

The CW pileup (left-most huddle of signals) is larger than the FT8 channel (18.100MHz). This happens on many DXpeditions. All of us want a slice of the action at the same time.

Of course, it makes sense that we CW operators spread out for the rest of the time.

But there is nothing like a huge pileup lasting for several hours to attest that CW is far from dead.

The IC-705 & IC-7300

We have used the IC-705 as a main radio for CW and Data for our last two DXpeditions. An SPE amplifier helps with a little extra punch. But the radio itself is versatile, robust and has a great receiver in it. The bonus of course is the spectrum scope, touch screen, easy computer interface (USB cable and plug n play) and intuitive user interface. It is not an IC-7610, but for all but the most intense pileups, the receiver did a fine job with its filtering. When tested with strong signals, the PBT and filter options were usually sufficient for our purposes.

The other bonus with the IC-705 is the battery. It is not uncommon for power disruptions when on Pacific Islands; they simply don’t have the reliable power infrastructure we have on mainland Australia. The batteries meant we could keep operating, albeit at QRP levels. But especially on the higher bands, 10W of CW or FT8 is more than enough to maintain a flow of QSOs.

The IC705 is a capable radio for any portable or DXpedtion style operation. Whilst our antennas were resonant, coupling the IC-705 with the AH-705 really cements a great configuration.  With an amp, its makes a good home radio as well.

The IC-7300 is pretty much the same as the IC-705 for our purposes (HF & 6m DXing); the main difference being the IC-7300 has 100 watts (but no battery ☹ ). Operationally for HF DXing, I didn’t see much difference between the IC705 and IC-7300. In fact, the IC-7300 is a great allrounder for the price and the best bang for buck your money can buy. This is probably why Icom have sold 100,000 of these radios.

I know Nick will look after anyone interested in an Icom radio.

9 April – The Humidity.

When we planned the trip, we were focussed on avoiding the cyclone season. Sadly, Vanuatu gets its fair share of wild weather in the wet season. We were confident a late March arrival would avoid any straggling cyclonic weather.

Most days were a pleasant 28-30c with humidity in the low 80% range. This was not particularly comfortable, especially for those of us not accustomed to the brutal reality of tropical living, but we managed.

However, on 9 April the humidity increased and rarely dropped below 90%. This made hard work of just about everything. Even the locals complained. Outside activities were very limited. Antenna maintenance was performed before 0800 local or after 1700 local.

Next time we will leave our visit until September.

5. Guesthouse & shack
   

The windy and salty environment was not easy on the DX-Commander antennas. Nonetheless, we were extremely impressed with the quality of the product and engineering design. The only lesson we need to apply next time is to really pull the radiating elements’ tensioning shock cords more tightly.

On the last day we dismantled the verticals and washed them with clean water prior to packing. Everything was in really good condition; no sign of degradation to the wires, clamps or shock cords after two weeks in a harsh tropical environment.

6. Luke VK3HJ attends to antenna maintenance
   

Kava – could this be the answer to pileup fury?

Kava is a plant native to the Pacific Islands. It has traditional uses as a ceremonial drink and is a well-known alternative to alcohol in this part of the world. The shrub kava originates from the South Pacific, where Islanders use it to promote psychological and physical relaxation. Within traditional cultures, the root of the plant is crushed, ground, and then combined with a mixture of water and coconut milk to make it drinkable. It has an earthy taste, and it would be fair to say you don’t drink it for the flavour!

Kava bars are commonplace across Vanuatu. Smaller villages offer local Kava bars on the road-side. As there was one about 1km from our QTH we thought we would try it out. Luke, Matt and I ventured out early evening and tried a bowl. Whilst not providing the ‘buzz’ of alcohol, it certainly created a sense of relaxation, calm and social licence. And I think we all slept better as well.

The evening pileups also seemed to be a little less hectic after a couple of bowls of Kava.

In closing….

Overall, our 14-day trip to Vanuatu was a great success. Had it not been for the high humidity and two or three days impacted by HF fade-outs I think we would have rated it a resounding 10 out of 10! As always, these trips rely on both sides of the QSO to be a success, and 99% operators were just great. Sure, there is always the apparent messy and incoherent commotion of the pileup, but that is what makes DXpedtions and ‘working that rare one’ so much fun for both sides of the QSO.

From the YJ0VK team, we thank Roman, RX0F for our first contact, Jan, SP2ESG for the last, and the 23,737 contacts in-between. We hope you got in our log and enjoyed chasing us as much as we enjoyed working you. We hope to hear and work you all again next year.

73, Chris VK3QB (YJ0VK team member)

7 Matt K0BBC, Alan VK6CQ, Chris VK3QB & Luke VK3HJ