Don, KH8/N5OLS, waited us at the airport and after a short visit to his nice house (and 30 meters tall mast
with PRO 56 antenna on the top), we set out for the trip around the island. American Samoa is very nice island
and a little different from former Western Samoa. Don lives close the airport as he works as an air-traffic
controller so our first stop was Pago Pago the capitol city of the Am. Samoa. Comparing both islands the
US influence is obvious there. We have visited a lot of nice places surrounded by wonderfull nature.
After we returned to Don's house we were very keen to put our US calls on the air for the first time from
the rare DXCC country. Immediately after my first short call there was a huge pile-up of JA and W stations,
which made me very happy. Unfortunately we had
to move to the airport soon, and so we made about 100 QSOs each (Slavek as KH8/WP2AIH) in approximately
45 minutes.
Don and his very nice wife Mellisha invited us for another, only amateur radio visit, we decided to change our
plans and prepared for a two day stay there. The next flight was ordered on 19 March and we decided to split
our group into two parts and continue operation from Apia (Vasek bought the licence and worked as 5W0VD).
The flight back was booked for the next day afternoon so we had a chance to work more than 24 hours from
Don's well equipped QTH. In about 25 hours operating we made another 3200 QSOs. Don's QTH is very close to the
power lines and it was nearli impossible to work through the night for more than four hours when the QRN was
exactly 30 dB over S9.
Despite the QRN problems we were very happy and with great thanks welcomed the invitation for another visit.
