Carl and Vicky

YK9A - A DXpedition to the Syrian Arab Republic in February 2001.

At the Pacific Northwest DX Convention in Vancouver, BC in August last year, Al K7AR asked my wife Vicky AE9YL and me if we'd like to join him on a DXpedition to YK (Syria). Al was with the 1994 YK0A operation, and wanted to go back at sunspot maximum. We said we'd love to go, and were eventually joined by Dick N7RO, Lee VE7CC, Lee's wife Melissa VA7MI, Bob W4DR, Bob's wife Rosalie N4CFL, and Jim W4PRO.

Our goal was to provide YK as a new country to as many as possible and to provide YK to North America and Japan on the low bands. The YL DXCC chasers were pleased to find out that there were three YLs going along on this DXpedition. Due to our low band goal, we decided on early February for the operation. Al was in contact with Omar YK1AO, and soon Omar advised that all was "go". We would be YK9A.

The Syrian Embassy in Washington quickly turned around our visa requests, we bought our airline tickets, and equipment planning began. We planned on having four stations, which included 6m and RTTY capability.

We all met in Paris on Friday morning February 2, and then flew to Damascus later in the afternoon on Air France. We were all loaded down with luggage, as YK1AO advised that we would have to bring everything in with us in our luggage. "Everything" means all the items required to put four stations on the air, including antennas. Think of a competitive high power 4A operation for Field Day, and then take it almost half way around the world in suitcases. Most everyone ended up paying excess baggage and/or overweight charges.

YK1AO met us at the Damascus airport Friday evening. We quickly cleared Customs, and transported all of our equipment to the operating site in YK1AO's car, YK1AU's pick-up truck, and a rented mini-bus. We left everything at the operating site and headed to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

We began setting up Saturday morning (late Friday evening in North America), with teams divided between antenna erection and station set-up. Our antennas consisted of an R5 vertical, a C3SS HF Yagi, a 3 element 10m Yagi, a 2 element 40m Yagi, a Battle Creek Special vertical for the low bands, a 15m inverted-vee, an 80m inverted-vee, a small loop for low noise reception on the low bands, and a 5 element 6m Yagi.

The operating site was on the top floor of the Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (STE) building. Our antennas went on the roof, so the cable runs were not too long. The operating room was about 15 feet by 20 feet, and had ample space for our four stations. We used IC-756PROs and AL-811 amps. The roof was about 50 feet by 140 feet - it was a bit crowded with nine antennas up there (especially with the Battle Creek Special and its radials and guys wires), and we had to be careful where we walked.

Our first QSO was around noon local time on Sunday February 4 with DJ9GS on 20m RTTY. We tried to man all four stations as much as possible during the day, and at least two of the stations during the night. With only nine operators, this gave all of us ample operating time. We tended to gravitate toward our favorite bands and modes. Our pilot stations (W3UR, N6FF, and JH3VNC) provided valuable updates via e-mail with respect to where we should be in order to keep the multitudes happy. We ended up with just over 26,000 QSOs in seven days.

Being so close to Europe made it especially tough to work non-EU stations. We stood by for North America, South America, Africa, JA, and VK/ZL as much as possible. We ended up with about 24% of our total QSOs with North America, and about 5% of our total QSOs with JA. Our YLs made over 2000 QSOs, making many YL DXCC chasers very happy.

Our hotel was about 2 miles away from the STE building, and we enjoyed walking back and forth every day. Those of us on the day shift especially enjoyed the walk back to the hotel in the evening with the full moon shining brightly on Damascus. Temperatures ranged from around 40 degrees at night to around 60 degrees in the day. We ate breakfast at the hotel, usually snacked for lunch with the help of a little bakery around the corner from the STE building, and regularly ate dinner at a restaurant across the street from the STE building. The food was great and the Syrian people were very friendly. Hand gestures and very basic English words allowed us to bridge the language barrier.

We didn't just play radio, either. We took one morning off to go on a tour of Damascus. We saw the old walled city, the bustling market places, and the second biggest mosque in the world. We also took one full day off to head up to north central Syria to view the ancient ruins at Palmyra, and to west central Syria to view a castle way up on a mountain top that was built during the Crusades. Toward the end of our stay we enjoyed evening tea with YK1AO and his lovely wife Siham YK1YL at their apartment. A going-away dinner was also held with several of the local Syrian hams.

In summary, we had a great time putting a rare country on the air and visiting a very historical part of the world. We all agreed we'd love to return someday soon to learn more about Syria (and to play radio a little bit, too!).

We'd like to thank Omar YK1AO and the Technical Institute of Radio (the Syrian amateur radio club) for their help in getting us on the air. And thanks to all of our sponsors, donors, and pilot stations as listed on our QSL and on our web site at http://www.qsl.net/k7ar (then click on the Syria link). In additions to the pictures on the FWDXA web site, K7AR posted more of our pictures on his web site, so please visit it and enjoy.

Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA

Carl and Vicky