I am going to tell you about my VHF experience in Lebanon this Summer. I think this article will interest you especially if you want to contact OD5 by VHF or going on a DX expedition there. I had a contact with Samir (OD5SK, an official ham in Tripoli) three years ago on the ten meters band. He told me it's not possible to get a transceiver in the luggages. But this year, few weeks ago, I contact him again. He told me it's not a problem now and I can get a transceiver and use it in Lebanon. I took a 2 meters 25 W multimode transceiver and a 9 elements yagi on the plane. F1TFF (Marie-Therese, my wife) and me arrived on the Beirut airport on the 31 of July. A customs asked us about the antenna packet but we are surprised to see we haven't any problem with the radio equipment. On the 1 st august, I put my 9 elements antenna, direction Cyprus, on the roof of the house we were living in Beit Chabab, 750 meters about the sea level, in front of the Mediterranean sea. I switched my transceiver power supply to 110 V but unfortunately we have only 2 x 3 hours a day of electricity (public and private respectively). So, I got a car battery and a battery loader to be QRV as long as possible. We came to the Ministry of Telecommunication to inform them and to get a licence. Unfortunately, they said that we can't have a licence because it is necessary to stay a minimum of 5 months in Lebanon. So they told us to use our callsign with the Lebanon QTH, without official paper. If you need a licence in Lebanon, it's better first to contact the RAL (Lebanese Radio Amateurs League : PB 8888 Beirut, Lebanon, tel. 09_911223 or 01_581912). Every day, I had a QSO with 5B4AAI (25 W, 11 elements horizontal antenna), Nicolas, 59++ on 144,300_SSB. He is a very friendly ham and he like very much VHF. He would like to be QRV on MS and EME. Since august 93, he is QRV on 6 m. The first day, I heard 4X1IF (250 W SSB in KM72), but it is totally forbidden to contact Israel from OD5. So, I didn't try to contact this country. We met with Samir, OD5SK, a friendly and dynamic ham. He has a good equipment, but he is not QRV on SSB 2 m. He will try to be QRV soon with a horizontal yagi antenna. He is probably one of the hope OD5 station we will contact on 2 meters next years. He is probably now the only one station QRV on 6 meters. On the 3 rd of august 1993, at 14 h UTC, OD5SK had received on his all bands professional receiver : Yugoslavians and Greeks stations calling Es on 2 m. Unfortunately, at this time, I hadn't electricity and I was looking for a car battery. But on the 7 th of august 1993, from 17h30 UTC, during more than one hour, I worked a strong Es opening with North Italy and ex-Yugoslavia (Best distance was 2430 km). At the beginning, I took a quarter of an hour to call few stations in local QSO, but they didn't reply. So I called on the net 144,300 and It was a very good surprise for us. They gave me report from 55 to 59+. I thought I was the only one station QRV on the DX band in this part of MDLE. I gave them my locator KM74, but it was wrong. As I calculated later, it was KM73TW. I have contacted : I3LTT, S51SLO, IW3GGU, IV3GBO, S53AC, S57MJM, S53VV, S57HUK, IK3MAC, I4XCC, 9A3JH, 9A1HST, 9A3NC. Except this propagation, I haven't done any DX because of the poor SSB 2m horizontal polarized activity on this part of the world. I had only two others SSB contacts with 5B4XA Andy, and 5B4AET Panicos. I had few interesting FM repeater QSO with Rodhes (SV5/OE7BZJ) and Turkey (TA5W, TA4T/M in direct, TA4B). But to use repeaters is difficult because many of them have a special acces code (as 88,5 Hz permanent) and I can't use many of them. I didn't contact TA5C, who is QRV SSB on 2 m and 70 cm. During the maximum Perseid shower, I was QRV all the night on 144,200. I heard many station, especially Yugoslavians, Italians, Bulgarians, and Ukrainians. But not very long and strong bursts. So I can't do a complete QSO. From 0220 to 0330 UTC I heard LZ1KWT with a permanent report from 41 to 53, with peaks up to 55 on the bursts. He didn't heard me because of my QRP power. I think also that a lot of stations, at good MS distance, were beaming an opposite direction. To use 2 m in Lebanon is very difficult. Near Beirut, at 750 m asl, I received hundreds pirates stations on the 2 meters band : industries repeaters, commercials, CB on 2 m, phone patch, music broadcast, wireless telephone, ... I took about one week to clear (not totally) the 144,300. At the beginning it was impossible to hear something on this frequency : too many strong FM pirate stations. All the 2 meters band is like this. Except at the full night, I was not able to hear the SSB_MS_net during the Perseid Shower. It is so easy to buy a transceiver in Lebanon and to use it. The situation seems the same on the TV (22 Lebanon stations for 2 millions people) and for FM broadcast (sometime 3 stations by channel). Really now, telecommunications are totally disorganized. But the situation will be changed soon because the government have too many problems with pirates on maritime, flying and police VHF frequency. After 15 years of war, the second ham radio exam will be on October 1993. Unfortunately some people I spook with want to pass this exam to have a permanent licence, without taxes and to use ham radio band for business ! Lebanon is a beautiful country, with a very good weather in summer and many monument to visit. Weather is hot and charged near the sea, but dry and pleasant with height. After the war, except in some places as the center of Beirut, and few village (I don't saw the south !), a majority of houses are rebuilt. Marks of war are disappearing. Now, water, electricity and telephone substructures don't work normally, but it will change soon. For VHF, Lebanon is exceptional because of the good Es distance from Europe, and it is a new country for a majority of hams. All the North Lebanon Mediterranean coast is near hills and mountains up to 3088 meters high. Many points can be use for DX expedition. You need a all power supply transceiver (110V, 220V, 12V), a car battery and a generator if possible. At this time, thousands generators are used in the country to complete the 3 hours/day official electricity. So, it's not a problem to get one : petrol is not expensive (5 $ = 20 liters). If you need an antenna rotor, know that many house use one. There are not many hams in Lebanon : about 120 at this time, only one station QRV on 6 meters and nobody QRV on 2 meters SSB. Every OD5 stations are on a special FM net 144.600. They use DTMF code to not be disturbed by pirates. So, even you call on this frequency during a Es opening, it is not obvious to contact them. OD5 hams are above all active on short waves. We met OD5CN, OD5KB, OD5KU, OD5MU, OD5JU, OD5KI. Apparently they don't know about DX by Es propagation on 2 m. I hoppe some of them will try next year. Good sites for radio :
You need a international driving licence to drive in Lebanon. The traffic is dangerous, so renting is expensive. There are many holes on roads and no roadsign. 73 QRO. Good luck with Lebanon. Marie-Therese F1TFF, and Jean-Pierre F6FLV
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