SteppIR Antennas
Tennamast
comet
“While 3 operators will be running all 3 stations almost 24h a day, the rest of 3 operators will have sufficient time to relax after high pileups and to visit the island entirely. No wonder everyone of us want to meet the island as much as possible. There’s no other place like 
“Since
Easter Island (small dot on the Globe Photo – right) is a volcanic high island, consisting mainly of three extinct coalesced volcanoes: Terevaka (altitude 507 metres) forms the bulk of the island. Two other volcanoes, Poike and Rano Kau, form the eastern and southern headlands and give the island its roughly triangular shape. There are numerous lesser cones and other volcanic features, including the crater Rano Raraku, the cinder cone Puna Pau and many volcanic caves including 
Poike used to be an island until volcanic material from Terevaka united it to Easter Island. The island is dominated by hawaiite and basalt flows which are rich in iron and shows affinity with igneous rocks found in
The period when the statues were produced remains disputed, with estimates ranging from 400 CE to 1500–1700 CE. Almost all (95%) moai were carved out of distinctive, compressed, easily worked volcanic ash or tuff found at a single site inside the extinct volcano Rano Raraku. The native islanders who carved them used only stone hand chisels, mainly basalt toki, which still lie in place all over the quarry. The stone chisels were re-sharpened by chipping off a new edge when dulled. The volcanic stone the moai were carved from was first wet to soften it before sculpting began, then again periodically during the process. While many teams worked on different statues at the same time, a single moai would take a team of five or six men approximately one year to complete. Each statue represents a deceased long-ear chief or important person. Only a quarter of the statues were installed, while nearly half still remain in the quarry at Rano Raraku and the rest elsewhere on the island, 
probably on their way to final locations. The largest moai is known as “Paro” weighing 82 tons. There are several others close to this size.
Moving the huge statues required a miro manga erua, a Y-shaped sledge with cross pieces, pulled with ropes made from the tough bark of the hau-hau tree, and tied fast around the statue’s neck. Anywhere from 180 to 250 men were required for pulling, depending on the size of the moai. Some 50 of the now standing statues have been re-erected in modern times. The first moai was re-erected on the beach of Anakena in 1958 using traditional methods during an expedition to the island by Thor Heyerdahl. (Photo right– Aeriel view of Easter Island from Space ‘ISS’)
Logs plan to be uploaded once a day around local midnight or morning hours (so approx. 6.00 or 12 UTC hours). Detailed Qsl information can also be found on the website at http://rapanui2009.org/ .
High on my ”IOTA Wanted” list, I wish all the team a safe journey and look forward to hearing them from Easter Island!
73 de Charles…
PNG is ranked 91st most wanted in CDXC Clublog! … which puts it up with Willis and Palestine!! The three Islands however are claimed by less that 10% of IOTA chasers. Whatever the case, big pile ups are anticipated f
or sure so let’s hope propagation favours the UK (particularly the North for a change!). Operating times are expected to be around 18 hours per day (1600 – 0800 PNG time) on 160 through 15 metres with the possibility of additional activity on 12 and 10 metres, again dependent on conditions. Should anything untoward occur (bearing in mind the Earthquakes and Tsunami of recent weeks), then the operation will take place from Papua New Guinea mainland only, (IOTA OC-034).
The plans are to have four stations qrv, mainly CW and SSB although I understand that maybe RTTY will also be used. TX’s include an Elecraft K3, Yaesu FT-450 (CDXC loaned Rig), ICOM IC-706 Mk ll and a Kenwood TS-2000. They plan to have 3 amplifiers, one each for CW and SSB and another with mode allocation to be decided on site. Antennas will comprise of single band vertical dipoles for 15, 17, 20 and 30 metres, a loaded ground plane for 40M, an inverted L for 160 and 80 metres and a Butternut HF6V with 17m and 12m extensions.
Finally – the cost. Overall Budget is around $40,000 USD with team members contributing all of their personal costs. That includes their airfares, accommodation and the boat charter. They will also contribute towards the overall fuel and logistics. The DXpedition has a website with a Paypal donation facility through which donations would be gratefully received.
Good luck to all the team, I hope to hear and work you if possible from all locations. Thanks also to the group for the use of the photos on this page and for putting these intended Islands on the Air. Anyone wishing further information, or to make a donation towards the cost of the trip, please see their website at http://www.425dxn.org/dxped/p29_2009/
73 de Charles….
The current International Reply Coupons expire at the end of 2009. This isn’t new news but a reminder is always helpful. Postage can be costly and despite expecting ‘ham spirit’ in the hobby, you can guarantee some of the unscrupulous ‘colleagues’ will try and offload any expired coupons they have, on the unsuspecting Manager to whom they send them. For those of you who have not been involved with using these ‘IRC’s’ in the past, let me try and describe a little more about them.
The IRC is a postal product which is exchangeable for one or more postage stamps. The stamps would be to the value of the minimum postage for an ordinary priority letter for most post-mail items or, for an ordinary air-mail letter sent abroad. IRC’s were first issued in 1907 and 2.2 million coupons are used each year for various aspects.
The main users seem to be of course us, the Radio Amateurs who exchange Qsl cards and also Students. Students use them for exchanging correspondence with regards to their academic studies between the Universities and other teaching/learning institutions.
The current issue (called the ‘Beijing 2’ – Photo: Right) can be exchanged up to the 31st December 2009 but will cease to be sold from the 31st August 2009. The new IRC (called the ‘Nairobi’ model – Photo top left) went on sale on the 1st July 2009 and is valid for exchange until 31ST December 2013.
So, to summarise – take steps and try to get rid of all your ‘Beijing 2’ International Reply Coupons asap and in any event certainly before the end of the year. If you don’t, then you could end up seriously out of pocket!
73 de Charles
STS-128 Commander Rick Sturckow was joined on the mission by Pilot Kevin Ford, Mission Specialists Pat Forrester, Jose Hernandez, Danny Olivas and European Space Agency astronaut Christer Fuglesang. NASA astronaut Nicole Stott flew to the complex aboard Discovery to begin a nearly three-month mission as a station resident, replacing Tim Kopra, who returned home on Discovery.
Weather concerns prevented the crew from returning to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the primary end-of-mission landing site. In 7-10 days, Discovery will be transported approximately 2,500 miles from California to Florida on the back of a modified 747 jumbo jet. Once at Kennedy, Discovery will be separated from the aircraft to begin processing for its next flight, targeted for March 2010.
A welcome ceremony for the crew’s return to Houston was held yesterday at Ellington Field’s NASA Hangar.
In addition to carrying a new station crew member, Discovery and the crew also delivered a new sleeping compartment, an air purification system and a treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert. The mission included three spacewalks that replaced experiments outside the European Space Agency’s Columbus laboratory and an empty ammonia storage tank. Ammonia is needed to move excess heat from inside the station to the radiators located outside.
Disney’s toy astronaut Buzz Lightyear also returned from the space station aboard Discovery. He flew to the station in May 2008 on shuttle Discovery’s STS-124 mission 
and served as the longest tenured “crew member” in space. While on the station, Buzz supported NASA’s education outreach by creating a series of online educational outreach programs.
Advances in the fight against food poisoning, new methods for delivering medicine to cancer cells, and better materials for future spacecraft are among the results just published in a NASA report detailing scientific research accomplishments made aboard the International Space Station during its first eight years. The results include more than 100 science experiments, ranging from bone studies to materials research
NASA’s research activities on the space station span several scientific areas, including exploration technology development; microgravity research in the physical and biological sciences; human physiology research; Earth science; and education. The report details 22 different technology demonstrations; 33 physical science experiments; 27 biological experiments; 32 experiments focused on the human body; Earth observations and educational activities. In addition to science important to long-duration human spaceflights, most findings also offer new understanding of methods or applications relevant to life on Earth.
Keep your eye out for the ISS now we approach Winter. Early darkness means we will see more of the Station than through the summer although since the ISS nears completion, reports are common of it being visible during daylight (approaching dusk) in recent months. This final photo shows a view of Heathrow Airport, London, taken by the ISS Crew in a recent pass over the Capital.
73 de Charles
I am please to announce that the first GFF Awards have now been dispatched. Along with several thousand Qsl Cards, the Awards arrived from the Printer yesterday. Late last night the first 8 of the certificates were completed, (2 x level III Bronze, 2 x level II Silver and 4 x level I Gold Awards). The first applicant for all 3 levels was Gino – ON3SSB, (Photo left) well done!!
News • WFF Award Committee announced this week that it’s 600th award in WFF series had been issued. More than 50% of these awards were a direct result of being applied for via the EW4DX LogSearch system. More than 20 DXCC Countries had also applied for the various WFF 100 HR Plaques and 100% of these had applied via the LogSearch system.
WFF LogSearch service (http://ew4dx.org/WFFsearch.html) started on April 1st 2009 by Igor EW4DX. Now, through the LogSearch system it is possible to create an Award Certificate request (GCR list & email) within 1-2 minutes without difficulty. As well as being able to apply for the WFF awards or WFF HR Plaques, you can now also claim ‘domestic’ FF Awards this way including CTFF, IFF, RFF and of course us in GFF! (more to be added with available time).
What the system does is to continually upload logs from WFF Dxpedition areas and 
stores them. All you have to do is to enter your (or any) callsign into the system and within seconds it will tell you how many areas you have worked (and/or are verified). It produces them in the form of an excel sheet which is seen in the example here to the right. 
The smaller table (to the right of them both) actually informs you of which Award you have currently achieved and is displayed in ‘red’. If you wish to claim the Award then all you have to do is to click on the ‘red’ coloured text and it will produce the standard ‘GCR List’ leaving you nothing to do. If that wasn’t good enough, at the same time it sends a copy of the GCR list to the appropriate Award Manager which informs him of the pending application. All you have to do is to make the appropriate payment. ‘Where do I find out how much they cost?’ you are asking! Well, at the same time as the Award Manager 
is sent a GCR List, you yourself will receive the same GCR list in your email box and in the message, all the details of cost and who/how you need to make your payment to – ‘simples’ as the ‘Meerkats’ say!
At present time the EW4DX service has more than 500 WFF eLogs from all continents of the world, and the total number of contacts are in excess of 800.000 QSO’s. Well done Igor, keep up the FB work!
Try your callsign in the LogSearch just click here, you may be surprised! For further information on WFF, see the side bar Menu for ‘World Flora Fauna’ and if its the UK you’re after (GFF) then again, see the sidebar Menu. Any questions contact me using the above information.
73 de Charles…..
The Storm – January 2007
Winds in excess of 90mph swept across England and Wales, wreaking havoc on roads and railways over this weekend in January 2007.At the time my antennas were pretty basic and most of the mast i had ‘installed’ was home brew. It consisted of 2 lengths (6M & 4M) of steel scaffold poles, a rotator and a modified 2 element Moseley beam on the stub mast above the rotator. The mast was held secure with 8 steel guy wires and several positions up the body and secured to concrete posts at the opposite ends. It had been secure in very strong winds before and i had no reason to think that it would be any different when the forecast was made of 60MPH winds – how wrong could i be?
It was a strange old morning and having regularly checked on the antenna during the night and early morning, all was good. The mast was solid although the antenna was being tossed about a little in the increasing strength of the wind. Around lunch time i went to the rear garden to check on the antenna and i was concerned. The worry was that the centre part of the mast had started ‘juddering’ a little. I had never seen this before. The antenna was always being thrown about but never had i seen the mast move atall. For sure, from the howling sound the wind was making, it was definitely far stronger than the forecast had stated. There was nothing i could do anyway, it wasn’t safe to lower it in the garden as the wind would have taken it sidewards and i would have had no control of it whatsoever. I popped back to the shack to collect my camera and when i returned the sky was bare – no mast, no antenna!
I couldn’t believe it. In the space of less then 90 seconds it had gone. 
There she lay, right across the (new) garage roof belonging to my neighbour. On examination, the steel wires had all snapped and although the mast had held secure in its wall bracket, it had bent like a piece of plastic at a 90 degree angle, amazing! The antenna was itself not too badly damaged although a couple of the elements were like bananas, other than that all in reasonable order and not damaged beyond repair at all. In fact the antenna went back in to service soon afterwards and worked very well given the condition.
The photographs give a good idea of the damage sustained and in the weeks following the storm, the mast and antenna were replaced with more substantial gear and thats what remains today as the main station at my QTH. Lessons learned? Of course. It was the first time we had manufactured a mast and to be fair, it had done a good job for many years, maybe a little complacent? I had no reason to think it would fail as it had stood in the winds of that speed before, (the forecasted speed!). It was no surprise to find in the days that followed that the winds were well in front of their predicted speeds.
We all suffered that day, I wasn’t the only amateur in trouble. Reports that other stations in the UK had been hit sustaining far more expensive damage. To put it into prospective though, no one was injured here, that couldn’t be said for other areas of the country where several people lost their lives and destruction and devastation was widespread. Here is a summary of just some of the incidents that happened over that terrible 24hours in January 2007.Up to nine people were killed Four adults and three children as the severe storms battered the UK. There was 
transport chaos and damage which would run to millions of pounds. Locally to me The M1 and M18 motorways in South Yorkshire were closed after dozens of lorries were blown over. Most of the fatalities that day were caused by falling trees, collapsing walls or vehicles crashing in high winds. Two other people died in Cheshire, two in Greater Manchester, one in North Yorkshire, one in Berkshire, one in Shropshire and one in Humberside.
Gusts of up to 99mph have seen flights cancelled, rail speed restrictions enforced and sections of other motorways also shut. Among the deaths thought to be linked to the weather was that of a two-year-old boy who was killed in Belsize Park, north London, when a 2 metre-high wall collapsed on him as he walked down a road. One man was killed after being blown into metal shutters in an industrial area of Strangeways, Manchester.
An elderly man in the Wirral, Merseyside, died of a suspected heart attack while working outside on a fence in the stormy weather. 
Two schoolboys in Merseyside were badly injured after being crushed under trees. There were heavy downpours too and winds there reached 90mph across many parts of the country brought heavy snowfall in northern areas. Roads, rail services, airports and ferry crossings were all affected, A major rescue operation was launched after the crew of a sinking British cargo ship abandoned the vessel around 50 miles off the Lizard, in Cornwall. All 26 crew left the listing MS Napoli, which had a hole in one side and a flooded engine, in a lifeboat. They were later winched aboard a rescue helicopter. A woman was crushed to death in Marple, near Stockport, Greater Manchester, when a wall collapsed on top of her. There were two deaths in neighbouring Cheshire, where it was thought that a man who was declared dead at Leighton hospital had been hit by a falling tree, police said. A male lorry driver was also killed when another vehicle was blown into the lorry’s path on the A55, near the Forte Posthouse hotel in Chester. 
Another lorry driver was killed in North Yorkshire when his vehicle left the road and overturned in high winds on the A629 Skipton western bypass. In the Midlands, the managing director of Birmingham airport, Richard Heard, 54, was killed on his way to work when a large branch smashed into his car windscreen on the B4373 near Bridgnorth, Shropshire, at 5.45am. Further south, in Streatley, west Berkshire, a passenger in a Ford Fiesta died shortly after midday when a tree fell on to the car, police said. British Airways cancelled 130 flights on domestic and short-haul routes in and out of Heathrow and Manchester airports. At the main line station at London Bridge, part of the forecourt roof collapsed. There were no injuries but part of the main concourse was blocked, disrupting services. The Met Office warned that the severe conditions had disrupted travel across the UK for most the day, while the Environment Agency issued 36 flood warnings for England and Wales. Peak gusts of 99mph were recorded on the Isle of Wight. Forecasters said other gusts could hit 80mph on high ground and in coastal areas, and up to 70mph across the rest of the UK…..(too late now!) Channel crossings, the M25 Dartford bridge and the M2, M6 and M20 motorways were all hit by the stormy weather, police said. Scottish Power said around 30,000 homes were without electricity in Cheshire and mid and north Wales. The gales led to the port of Dover being closed to ships. P&O Ferries, which operates services between the Kent port and Calais, advised passengers due to sail not to travel at all. In Scotland, the A9 was shut after storms brought the first major snowfall of the year and two lorries jackknifed between Dalwhinnie and Blair Atholl in the Highlands. Snow also fell on the Pennines stretch of the M62 in Yorkshire.
73 de Charles….
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I bought my first rig a TS130 and got on the air with a dipole. In came stations from all over the globe though mainly from USA. I made some good friends on the air and one of them, Keith G4RZQ, became my QSL manager. I also acquired an Elmer in the form of Dick CE3DWL, an American also living in Santiago. Nightly he transmitted to me in CW on 10 metres as I prepared for my UK radio examinations. The problem being that the UK did not recognise the Chilean licence so it meant taking my City and Guilds in the British Council in Santiago – specially sent out to me and later my morse test at the coastgards in Southampton.
By 1983 the economic situation was becoming difficult in Chile so we left to come back to the UK and I looked for a new job. Shortly afterwards I obtained a lecturing post in Malaysia and off we set again this time with a TS430 and a TET triband antenna in the luggage. I had also picked up a UK licence G4VHO. We soon made contacts in Malaysia (Photo’s above & right) and through them Linda and I were able to obtain local licences – I became 9M2DC (my initials) and Linda was 9M2LA. Some local lads helped me put up the antenna and I was on the air. I was soon building up QSOs but where were my QSL cards. I contacted 9M2SS Sangat who was the President of MARTS and he took me into a room in his house which was stacked high with cards. There was no one to sort them out. Well the only way 
to get my cards was to sort the whole lot out so we made several trips by car and brought all the cards back to our house. Over a month I had them all stacked on the floor in piles – there were about 70 amateurs in Malaysia at the time – no one in 9M6 and only later one in 9M8 – 9M8EN. I soon got to know all the active members and have fond memories of 9M2DW (Two Dancing Witches), 9M2CO Adrian – very active, 9M2FZ Leong and my lifetime friend 9M2BB whom we still affectionately call Two Bravo Bravo – now living in VK. I made about 5000 contacts in Malaysia and sent out endless packets of cards monthly wrapping them in plastic bags from the local supermarket to protect them from the tropical rain. In 1986 I ended my contract in 9M2 and we returned to the UK.
By now teaching jobs were getting more difficult to get and the XYL made it clear that she did not fancy three years in South Sudan even though the callsign would have been exotic. So I retrained as a solicitor and took a teaching post at the University of Glamorgan near Cardiff. Up went the TET tribander with the help of my friend Ron VK7RN visiting us from Tasmania and I was back on the air as GW4VHO. However my days as a ham were to be limited as my neighbour complained of TVI. Unable to resolve it to his satisfaction I gave up the hobby for the next 15 years.
In 2006 I had reached retirement age and Linda and I agreed that we wanted to move abroad again. After visits to different parts of Spain we finally settled on Northern Chile as the best place to set up home. We returned in late 2006 sailing out on a container ship a journey of 46 days. Shortly after our arrival we joined the local radio club and within six months I had recovered my licence. I was back on the air as CE2EYN still with my TS430S and TET tribander.
In September 2008 I was invited to join the Atacama DX group and in 
October I was off to Bahia Inglesa (English Bay) with the group to operate CE1W in the CQWW contest. We made 4000 QSOs over the weekend helped with Chilean wine of course. The group will activate CE1W again this year. I also help out the local radio club in contests – we usually operate as CE2LS and the club has a good record in contests. In December I applied to Telecomunicaciones in Santiago to change my licence for a 2 letter call. This involved providing evidence of publications – luckily I had written an article some years ago in Practical Wireless – and at least 25 years operation as a ham. The application was processed quickly and when we rang Santiago to ask on its progress we were advised that I had been granted the callsign CE2WZ which was much better for contest work.
As for the future I hope to be able to pension off the TS430S soon and replace it with something newer. I have been working on my CW and hope to get on the air in that mode soon. My favourite band is 10 metres 
and I have been considering joining 10-10 International. I just love it when 10 metres opens up and I can make QSOs to Europe and North America.
So if you hear me please give me a call particularly if it is on 10 metres. I qsl via LOTW and/or via M0OXO (M3ZYZ Qrz.com) and it would be my pleasure to both send you and receive your Qsl Card in return.
73 & regards,
David
CE2WZ