My toughest field work ever... And something like tragedy has happened during my absence...

Real field trip to middle of nowhere for whole one month, Aug 30 - Sep 30. Tired...
You can see how I (and other colleagues) survived during my mission here officially.

Licensing in Kazakhstan is another trick. First I tried to find an organization like IARU member society, but I was surprised there was not in Kazakhstan !! (I recently found on IARU Calendar that one Kazakh organization wishes to join to IARU recently) Kazakh, you can imagine how they are active during contest. No IARU society??

Then I tried to make a list of Kazakh hams whom I have worked before and checked their e-mail address on QRZ.com. Finally I had more than ten e-mail address to ask the licensing situation. Most of them were friendly, most of them wanted to see me when I am in Kazakh. (sorry I had no free time in the cities. I only have tons of free time in the middle of nowhere...) I found Lev UN7DA, who lives in Semey (previously Semipalatinsk), can help my license as he has a good connection with telecom office. Vlad UN5J in Ust Kamenogorsk, which is the largest city in the region, also helped me a lot.

Of course, licensing is not easy, not straight forward. After a lot of communications with them, Vlad succeeded to get a temporary import permit for my equipment in mid August, and Lev got my operation permit almost end of August. Lev was kind enough to scan the license to send me by e-mail. Anyway I received a (copy of) license at last minutes !!

My trip started on Aug 30. After a couple of nights staying out of Almaty (where I had some free time to play radio :-), I moved to "Semipalatinsk", former "Test Site" without stopping Semey (real Semipalatinsk). The main site I have stayed for more than 3 weeks is 4hrs away by car from nearest "town" (Kurchatov, where I have stayed for a couple of days at the end) and 6hrs from Semey.  I have operated sporadically in the field. I also operated in Kurchatov at the end.

Here are some photos of my operating position, radio and antenna.

Almaty
6th floor of the hotel. The antenna worked very well

In the field
As private cabin was limited, all equipment is on the floor. Antenna was hang on the tent. It looks nice, eh?

Kurchatov
"Hotel" in Kurchatov, 3rd floor without elevator !