eyeball with
ZK1JD/ his antenna farm 
WITH ONE CALL
QRV FROM 2 DXCC-ENTITIES AND WORK TWO TIMES DXCC,
ZK1AXU, JULY 2000
In Western Samoa in 1999operating as 5W0GD, I was given a wonderful book; "Pacific Travel, Fact File". It had extensive data on the Pacific Islands including accommodations. The xyl and I decided that after activating 3D2(1997), A35 and 5W (1998) and 5W (1999) a nice target for the 2000 holidays could be ZK2.
Going to a travel agent in a nearby village and investigating the possibilities of getting to ZK2 resulted in the question : "Where is that?". It turned out to be a rather risky travel proposition. Bookings were only possible on the basis of "if" and " when". This was later also confirmed by W7TVF/ZK2VF , who said after his DX-pedition to ZK2, that he and his group had waited 4 days in Auckland (ZL) for a plane.
An alternative would be ZK1 and, looking for something special, ZK1/N was an appealing spot. I posted a question on the "dx-list " moderated by KH2D : "What are the islands belonging to the South Cooks and what are the islands of the North Cook group ?"
From all over the world I got answers, including an answer by Tom, N4XP. He gave a complete overview of the islands. He was an expert !!. In my collection of QSL ’s I found a card of a contact I had with Manihiki Island. The internet gave the information that Manihiki had been partly destroyed by a hurricane. I mailed this info back to Tom. His answer on was: "We can do better. I have contacted Warwick (ZK1WL )on Penrhyn and he is willing to . . ."
I could go to Penrhyn and operate from ZK1/N if I wanted!
So back to the travel agent, and again the same question . . . "Where is that?". However, we soon got it worked out and after some e-mails to the KiiKii-motel on the Northeastern coast of Rarotonga, the Cook Island Telecom Authority and to ZK1WL, the outline of the trip was easily made: Go to Rarotonga, settle in the motel, pay your licence fee, fly to Penrhyn and back, return to the motel and then fly back to Amsterdam.
Some details had to be arranged: try to reserve the call ZK1AXU, get seats on the weekly flight by Air Rarotonga to Penrhyn, including a child seat to allow more than 10 kg of luggage; and try to find some sponsorship.
With the help of Warwick the flight from Rarotonga to Penrhyn (which was pre-paid by ZK1WL) was smoothly arranged …He was a wonderful host - even Heineken was thought of . . . and it appeared as cargo on our plane into the remote atoll.
Some sponsorship was found: the NCDXF and the GDXF provided some funding; the QSL-shop would partially print the QSLs for free; Chromapix and DX base 2001 licenses were provided for free by the authors; and my 50 MHz friend, Peter, PY5CC, showed his great heart by ordering a 3 el M2 50 MHz beam, which unfortunately never turned up.
On July 1st, my xyl Ria and I left Amsterdam with about 90 kg of luggage. What does one take on such a trip? My Kenwood TS-450S, an ICOM 706 MkIIG, and an Alinco DX-70; 2 power supplies; 2 laptops; 1 GPA-30 groundplane and 2 meters of aluminium piping (= mast) all cut in pieces to fit in a suitcase , an FD-4 windom, 60 meters of coax, tools, 1 cw-straight key, 1 DSP 232 TNC, 1 antenna tuner, tools, soldering iron, spare parts and, last but not least, Dutch coffee !!! Ria took a load of books.
On July 3rd, at about 06.00 hrs local, after stops in London, Los Angeles (with 1 night rest), and Papeete, an Air New Zealand Boeing 767 delivered us to the ‘ airport’ on Rarotonga. It was nice not to have to change my watch as the time difference from home was -12 hours.
Off to the KiiKii Motel. The location proved to be a perfect one; right on the beach overlooking the Pacific, no other guests interfering with the activity, and continuous power, (240 V).
The first QSO of ZK1AXU was logged at 19.08 GMT. It was AC5TF who answered the CQ on 21 MHz to test the ground-plane. But I did not have my license in hand…
The only licensing person of Cook Telecom had a day off -- he would be in ‘tomorrow’. Nevertheless I decided to go on the air.
Real activity started at 21.36 GMT. Arnold W2HCW started the first pile up on 28 MHz, which lasted till 23.45 GMT. After 174 QSOs were logged, K6TA asked to QSY to 21 MHz. Here the show continued with another 200 QSOs….Even ZK1/S turned out to be a real wanted DXCC-entity !!!
On Tuesday, my second day, my S-meter went over the top…40dB over S-9 and several hundred more QSOs. A highlight of the day was when ZK1JD, Jim showed up. He lived only 400 meters away from my temporary QTH !!! Soon he was having his cup of Dutch coffee and we had a eye-ball QSO discussing my first impressions of operating habits including the QRM-ing, the insults, the whistling and so on., said Jim, "Oh that is not unusual and one of the reasons that I mostly operate in lists"
eyeball with
ZK1JD/ his antenna farm
Although it was not always a pleasure to face the pile ups it gives you a thrill when well known DX-ers like OH2BU politely ask you to give him number 300 in RTTY, or when people ask you where are the Cook Islands??
After 2634 QSOs, PA0WRS was the last station worked for ZK1AXU South’s first stage of operations and late on Friday afternoon we were packing again and preparing for the four hours flight to Penrhyn.
Air Rarotonga operates on a regular basis the inter-island flights with the Brasilian built Embraer Bandeirantes -- an 18 seat, 2 engine plane. After a stop on Aitutaki to refuel, the arrival on Penrhyn on July 8, at about 22.00 GMT was an event! A good part of the 600 people who live on this tiny atoll showed up on the airstrip to welcome the visitors with prayers, singing and the famous Pacific flowers.
Initially I put up the windom – quite the task in temperatures of over 30 Celcius. -- but it worked and on July 9th, at 02.53 GMT, Jim, WA6HZY was the first to answer the CQ call on 18 MHz. Soon the pile up grew enormously and at a rate of about 90 QSOs/hour the demand for ZK1/N on 17 meters was satisfied.
It happened to be the weekend of the IARU World Championship and it was almost impossible for a station with just 100 Watts and an omni-directional antenna to survive the QRM. Apart from that, only a few contest stations were beaming to the South Pacific, so I decided to focus on RTTY and WARC that weekend…In the spare hours Warwick and I put up a 5 element beam for 50 MHz. Unfortunately 6 days monitoring 50110 and a number of known beacons on my ‘spare’ ICOM IC 706MkIIG resulted in nothing but noise.
That week the disaster that is most feared by DX-peditioners appeared. Hours of noise resulting from solar activity with only a few short openings and very unstable signal strengths…On July 9, I logged 590 QSOs, The following days 455, 290, 485, 270, 275, and the final score was 2831 QSO’s. And again the Europeans were the most difficult to find on the bands…USA/West Coasters that have not ZK1/N in their logs either have not been alerted by the DX-clusters or just are not interested….
assisting ZK1WL with the launch of the weather balloon
Although conditions were really bad, only little time was spent on discovering Penrhyn. With Warwick ZK1WL as our guide we crossed the wonderful water of the lagoon, and went out to the blue Pacific for a while. And of course some black pearls had to be bought, as that is what Penrhyn has made really famous.
Between my thoughts about conditions, rudeness towards a DX station and fighting the flies, it is so wonderful to give a former DX-peditioner to Penrhyn a new country in CW (N4XP), or have a RTTY contact with the grey old man of my local radio club (PA0ALO who is 89 years old). A surprise was a QSO with ZK1AND, Andy and his xyl ZK1SCD; they had taken over the South Cook activities, hi J
The hospitality of Warwick, ZK1WL was unsurpassable, and after a week, with regrets, we had to say good-bye to Penrhyn and our fine host.
The deal with Ria, my xyl, was that during the last period of this trip, more emphasis would be on behaving like ‘normal tourists’…whatever that would be…So on the KAWASAKI 100, the 2 oldies toured Rarotonga, had a look at the waterfall (about 20 meters high); attended an "Island Night" with traditional dancing; and had a look at the Saturday market. A tour of the Rarotonga National Museum took about 30 minutes, and and a look around the library revealed the ARRL Handbook for 1989. Of course another eyeball QSO with Jim, ZK1JD and a very pleasant lunch with ZK1AND and ZK1SCH.
And back to Ham Radio -- late afternoons it was 20 meters with Europe, and in the evenings it was CW ,RTTY or SSTV time while the xyl was asleep….This resulted in nice QSO’s with stations such as: 5N3CPR(cw); again PA0ALO(rtty); and SM5EEP and SP4KM (SSTV) -- and I will never forget my last SSB-QSO with Walt FO0PT, who told me about his fighting the intruders on the amateur radio bands…
SSTV QSO with SP4KM
This all resulted in 5084 QSOs from South Cook, with KQ0B as the absolute top scoring station : 13 QSO’s, 8 bands and 3 modes…
QSO'S BY MODE SSB CW RTTY PSK SSTV TOTAL
ZK1AXU-SOUTH 3682 1051 309 29 13 5084
ZK1AXU-NORTH 2326 355 131 10 6 2828
DXCC/BAND DXCC 28 24 21 18 14 10.1 7 3,5
ZK1AXU-SOUTH 111 411 221 1450 594 2108 120 164 6
ZK1AXU-NORTH 104 310 3 86 399 1816 28 186 -
Three weeks operating from 2 DXCC entities using one call was really an experience. Sometimes I was really annoyed about the QRM, which prevented me from finishing QSO’s , and people making dupes. After 3D, A3, 5W and ZK1/S and ZK1/N I am already thinking about my next stop in the Pacific – perhaps C2 or T2 or indeed ZK2 if Air Rarotonga proves to have a reliable service Rarotonga-Niue with their new SAAB plane.
However . . . after 3 trips in a row to the South Pacific I have some observations. Some operators behave as if the traveler should obey them -- the DX-station should finish the QSO the way "he" wants to do, unless it is "his" QSO; the DX-station should handle the pile-ups the way "he" wants it, split, by numbers, by country as long as "he" gets his QSO, the DX-station should work the mode "he" needs. What does ‘he’ forget ? Simply that the traveler pays (most) of all his travel, takes his time off and spends money and time on the QSL’ing, even when the single IRC does not cover the costs of 2 cards and the postage…. Sometimes it gets so ridiculous: Andy ZK1AND told me that one night somebody in the pile-up told him that : "if the DX-station cannot handle the pile up he should go QRT", which he (=Andy) indeed did – working only 30 stations when he might have worked many more. It is sad when the rudeness of a few poor operators makes hamming so unpleasant that it takes away the opportunities for the many courteous operators who are patiently awaiting their turn.
Generally speaking I enjoyed all the fine QSOs, they will be remembered as my holiday 2000 experience.
Gerard Dijkers
e-mail : dijkers@skynet.be