Contacts
At the end of our activity the expedition had approximately 10,800 contacts in the logs with seven continents, 132 DX entities and 165 islands. All this was achieved in four 24 hour days, i.e. 96 on-the-air hours on the following bands: 80, 40, 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters. There was only a minimal activity on 40 meters because we were all worn out and down one operator. Jim and Sam made most of the contacts and Mal contributed to the numbers when his other duties allowed. Our 100 watt CW operation started on the 22nd of September with intermittent activity, depending on availability of antennas. We had a 4-square vertical system for 20 meters, an Australian six element log periodic for the higher bands, a multiband Butternut antenna and three transceivers. These were all backed up by a 100% redundancy ac/dc power system. The 4th station was set up with 2 commercial radios used for medical emergency and ship to shore liaison with the charter vessel.
The Team
Originally the team consisted of 5 expeditioners. Sam, CT1EEN from Massama, Portugal; Jim, K9PPY from Itasca, Illinois; Dave, VK6DLB from Karratha, Western Australia; Steve, VK2PS from Sydney and the organizer and leader of the expedition, Malcolm, VK6LC from Perth. Michael, VK6BHY from Karratha provided the 80 meter support link with the mainland. When we left Broome there were only four of us as Dave, VK6DLB had dropped out due to ill health. The reduction in manpower meant that the physical work involved in setting up increased for the rest of the expeditioners, delaying the early on-air schedule.
Click on a picture for a thumbnail sketch of the participants.
Sam, CT1EEN Jim,
K9PPY Mal,
VK6LC Steve, VK2PS