Licensing information
for
Prepared by: OH2MCN - Veke & 9M6DXX - Steve
Status: ‘08
Intro: You can try with the help of instructions below.
Licensing Authority:
Agence de Regulation et de Control des
Telecommunications (ARCT)
360 Ave Patrice Lumumba
PO Box 6702
Bujumbura
Burundi
tel. +257 221 0276
fax. +257 242 2832
email arct at cbinf.com
A few licensing issued after 2007 and accepted by DXCC.
NOTE from [425DXN] 425 DX News #408
BURUNDI ---> According to Bill Moore, NC1L ([email protected]), the list
of the 9U calls that will be affected by the purging process from the DXCC
database [425DXN 407] "includes the callsigns
listed below and may or may not be limited to these: 9U/F5FHI, 9U/EA1FH, 9U5W,
9U5DX, 9U5T, 9U5CW, 9U5DX. Remember, only the contacts dated January 1, 1994 or
after do not count. Some have credits before this and these would be OK. 4U9U
is OK."
9U5CW: two guys and a candlestick
"Lowbands and RTTY from
by Peter Casier
ON6TT - 5X1T
[email protected]
The idea to activate 9U on
the lowbands originated in 1995 when I was leaving
for 9Q. Long time friend John-ON4UN asked to go to 9U as this was one of the
countries which was not added to his list of 260 odd
he had worked on topband. John has always been a
great help in preparing my trips and assisting with his valuable knowledge
during our past DX operations, so.... Unfortunately, in 9Q, I was pretty much
glued onto my spot in Goma, so no 9U. When beginning
of this year, I took up a telecom assignment in the United Nations World Food
Programme (the main food aid organisation of the UN),
And 9U came unexpectedly. All was prepared in just a few days time, as due to
the worsening security situation, I had to plan the professional part of my
trip very fast. I contacted 9U5CW (EA1FH) whom I knew from the Goma days. Alfredo works in
Two days before the trip, I was proud to tell John abt
the plans, and made some 160m skeds with him, in case
conditions would be so bad I would not be able to hear his prominent signal. The
day before my trip, I finally received my Ugandan call, 5X1T, so I could not
resist running the piles from my base station in
We landed in Buja, as the locals call their capital,
on Friday May 31 in the afternoon. Picked up by the people of the local WFP
office, I was run through customs (no questions asked with a UN diplomatic
passport). This was the first time I actually entered
We had meetings in the office until 5 pm when Alfredo, 9U5CW picked me up and
drove me to his home. It was good to see him again after one year and a half. Certainly
one of the main characteristics of friendship made in troubled areas like
these, and working in the same field, is that they are more intense than day to
day friends or acquaintances. We both know that we work in high risk places,
and that one day something might go wrong. When we see a friend back, it feels
like 'hey we're both still alive and kicking!'. Alfredo
is a great guy, always well humoured and busy, whom you may ask any favour. He
had told me before my arrival that he was looking forward to do 80 and 160, two
bands which had not been activated since a very long time. I actually doubt if
9U has ever been on topband before. As both him and 9U5DX, Jean-Pierre, another collegue
from UNHCR, are very busy with their job, they had no time to put up anything
decent for the lowbands.
Alfredo's house looked great in the glare of the lights in the garden. It was a Spanish like villa, with a wide open porch and patio,
great layout of exotic plants and palmtrees. The
compound lays on the side of one of the hills, looking
over the lake - and towards EU, and
As it was already 6 pm, we decided to go out for some dinner first, before the
curfew of 9 pm. During the meal, we agreed to hook up the RTTY gear first, and
to do the lowband antenna tomorrow, as there was not
enough light in the back garden. Also, we did not want to take the risk of too
many muscitoe bites, as malaria is very common in
this area so close to the lake. I had taken a toolbox and spare connectors,
wires and plugs with me, so we improvised a connection between the modem and
the radio. After some fiddling around (which made us laugh by the idea that we
were supposed to be telecoms professionals, hi), we got the stuff to work. Some
more fiddling to get everything in tune with WF1B's RTTY program (tnx Ray!), and we were in business. First CQ and DF3HD came
back. And then... nothing. CQ after
CQ, but zip. New frequency. CQ
again. Rig heated up, decided to run 50 W max,
in the cramped 10 KHz of the 20m RTTY space. One station per 10 minutes came
back. We were a bit desillusioned. 4th station and
1st Stateside was N1RCT. 30 minutes and 6 stations further, we decided to call
it quits.
Then it was time to show Alfredo the present I had for him: A CW interface
cable for CT. I swear to God, he almost kissed me! He had mentioned in one of
the exchanges we had via Email, that running CW with a paddle and no keyer was a pain. I knew he used CT, so the use of an
interface cable was evident. I showed him the little label on the connector:
"for 9U5CW from ON4UN. Price: one 160m QSO!" "Tomorrow for
sure", Alfredo smiled. We run some SSB pile-up, and asked an ON to phone
John to say we would have the antenna up tomorrow. While Alfredo run the piles
in CW (with his new cable), I assembled the low band antenna in the living
room.
The next morning, a Saturday, we raised the antenna, and laid out about 20
ground radials on the grass. The SWR on 80, 75 and 160 was perfect, but when we
listened on the bands, there was very high electrical interference,
probably caused by one of the generators in the neighbourhood (we had no
electricity for days in a row). We were worried. Fortunately, this was the
first and last time we heard the interference! During the day, we run the piles
in CW and SSB. Around 13:00 gmt,
I tried 20m RTTY again, and by jolly the hords had
heard me. A whole range of diddles came back to my first CQ. Now this was a
challenge, I have to tell you: managing the piles with 50W, a vertical and a Kam+ with NO filters. The Kam
could not decode any signal once there was more than one guy calling, and it
was clear that my signal was covered by callers. I went for split, spreading
the piles open. One to two stations per minute was as fast as I could go. A
great opening to JA, fed the run for a long time. This felt great. Yes, 9U was
wanted on diddle-mode! Once the piles died out, we went for some more CW and
SSB, until 19:00. Time for lowbands
to JA (JA sunrise). Numerous CQs
on topband, but no reply. Could not hear any
signals neither. Nobody waiting for us on 80 neither. At
19:22, SP5EWY was logged as the first 80m contact. A few others followed, but
nothing much. As it was too early for a decent EU run, Alfredo decided to go
for a sleep, and I continued on the other bands. Around 22:00 gmt, i
tried for another strategy: instead of calling endlessly on 80m cw, I would look for a good signal on 75m phone, raise a
pileup and then announce we would go for cw. After that, we would announce to
go to 160. I call it the 'pick and drag' technique, which I use often to drag
guys from 15 to 12 and 10m, when I know there is an opening, but nobody is
listening there.... So said, so done. I8UDB was on 75m
phone. I called in, and as usual, Dom gave me the frequency. Signals were good,
and I run a pile in phone. I announce we would go to 3505, woke up Alfredo and
let him run 80 cw. The callers were numerous, our reception was great, but it
was clear that our low power and the high static in the northern hemisphere
bothered the reception of the others. So the QSOs did
not go very fast, and demanded slow CW and loads of explicit repeats. We
announced to QSY to 1823. We thought of running split from the first moment so
went RX on 1835. No-one came back. This was sked time
with John, ON4UN, but no signal. We looked at eachother
and were worried. And then, from the darkness of QRM, came a biiig signal. D-E O-H-1-X-X O-H-1-X-X. Hannu! No
surprise he was the first one! We worked him, and listened for some more. No-one. Decided to just call for
'up'-'up'. And sure enough, there they were. About 10 QSOs and that was it. Back to 80. More piles. Around 02:00gmt, the first North-American came
in: K1ST, shortly followed by Jack, VE1ZZ. More EU, and then more NA. We tried to drag the Americans to 160
but no go. Could only work some EU. Each 80/160 m band
switch, I had to run out, climb onto the roof to shorten or open the strap on
the toploading wire. The guards must have thought
this was very funny! Back to 80, more NA. And then it
died out. Tried 40, but no go. It was 03:00 and 80 had died. We went to bed.
Next day, the Sunday, same routine: run piles on CW, SSB, RTTY the whole time,
but propagation was real lousy. It became also clear that
Coming back home, it was straight to the radio, mainly RTTY,
then later in the night 80-160. Got up at 00 gmt for EU on low bands, and 03 gmt
for NA. Still no JA in the early night. Actually, we
heard nothing on the low bands until around 21 gmt, way too late for JA... And this is how it went
for the next days: to work early, home around 6 pm, and straight to the radio. We
made it a point to get on the bands at 03 gmt,
05 am local time, for NA, and the harvest was good for us.
On Wednesday, I left for a fieldtrip to Ngozi,
upcountry in
I flew back to
One night, our generator run out of diesel, so we operated by candle light, as
long as the battery of the portable computer would allow it. It sure must have
looked funny to anyone who would see us: two guys and a candlestick, intensily looking at a computer screen and fiddling with a
little black box, and from time to time shouting and laughing when once a
again, a friend was worked on the low bands...
The Monday came, and we decided that I would leave the lowband
vertical in
I bid farewell to Alfredo, flying back to my base in
CU from 5X or some other countries in the region before the
end of the year. And.... cu from
73-Peter ON6TT - 5X1T.
Sidenote:
Every year, reliefworkers die in the line of
duty, in Africa, in Central America, in Asia or in the
Here is an extract from the WFP weekly emergency telex published that same
week. It gives you an impression what is going on in this region. The report is
weekly distributed over Internet by Deborah Hicks ([email protected]):
"
(...)
2.
a) Three ICRC delegates killed in ambush north of Cibitoke
on 4 June. ICRC suspends all humanitarian operations in
b) A group of 85 French nationals evacuate from
c) Massacre in IDP camp in Butezi, Ruyigi province, leaves 50 dead, mainly women and children.
d) Further displacement of population takes place due to confrontations between
military and rebels in Kayanza.
e) Refugees from
3.
a) Disturbances take place involving soldiers in Goma
town; airport closes between 31 May and 4 June; food distributions and
monitoring activities are interrupted.
b) Attack on Bunagana, one of two truck entry points
from
c) Both roads into Goma from
4.
a) Some 6,000 Burundian refugees try to cross into
5.
a) Heightened insecurity in Cyangugu.
(...) "
-------------------------------------
Peter Casier
TCU Telecom Projects Manager
United Nations - World Food Programme
Transport Coordination Unit
tel: +256 41 231112/251113/251758 fax: +256 41
250485/251760
Email: [email protected]
Email home: [email protected]