The LY96BDX story - by John, G0NPI
by John Podvoiskis G0NPI/LY1GI The Baltic DX meeting (BDX) is becoming a tradition. The July 1996 one was the fourth in the series. Its location is always Lithuania and the main organisers are Willy Vaseikis LY2PX, Linas Balsys LY2BHP and Tadas Vysniauskas LY2BAW. The attendees vary though some have returned more than once. The theme: to enjoy radio and to see Lithuania. It was definitely a great radio holiday. Even though we did not spend every waking hour at a transmitter and made only a few thousand QSOs, we feel we did a lot. What this summer's group lost in size it gained in mobility. This helped when crossing the country, working from two of the 'mountains', enjoying QRO from the super LY2ZZ station, working from the centre of continental Europe and joining the LY hamfest. We also found time for visits to the 2 main BBSs in Lithuania, to meet local hams in their QTHs and to sample the local beers. This year's group comprised Boris RW3AY, Dave Reid PA/G0BZF, John Podvoiskis G0NPI, Robin Hewes G3TDR and Steve Wilkins G0NIF. Tadas provided the 4-wheeler and the very effective mobile and static station equipment while Linas helped with the extra car and second mobile 2m rig. We had the special call LY96BDX, which we used when operating together, and, under the newly implemented CEPT regulations, LY/own for local working.
ALL-NIGHTER
The highlight of the week was definitely the all-night stand at LY2ZZ in Siauliai. This station has more awards than walls to hang them. Each room in the detached house is packed with radio. The 15m and 80m desks are in one room with their own linears, the 160m desk is in the back of the workshop, the 40m position is on the landing and the 10m station is in the kitchen but was QRT. There are two bedrooms upstairs. Each rig has its own antenna: two 5 element yagis for 15m, a 6 element yagi for 20m, a 3 element yagi for 40m and a vertical delta loop for 160m. They are held up by a tower farm, almost 50m high! Robin observed the closed band situation as he took on 15m. But it wasn't quiet for long, day or night. Steve had never worked a pile-up before but after 13 hours on 40m had to be peeled from the rig: he was elated. John battled on on 160m against heavy QRN in west Europe and finished up in Canada by dawn. The super pile-up on 20m was left to Dave. If you've never done this kind of operating before, you should try it at least once in your life. This station is good experience and training even for experienced operators. Most of the equipment is (was) soviet military. Its performance leaves many oriental rigs standing. What a delight to try something like this. The LYs thought we were crazy for drooling over it.
/MOBILE
The operation from Lithuania's 'mountains' was on 2m and 70cm. No decent tropo so results were poor. On 70cm we only made one FM contact: it is still an empty band here. These hills are all less than 300m asl and smaller than the Vilnius TV tower (4th highest in the world). The country is not as flat as Holland but once you get above the trees, the signal should go for miles.
CENTRE OF EUROPE
Operation from the centre of Europe was good fun. The actual spot is on a hill, off the main road. The inscription stone has been stolen but the signposts are still there. No trouble for the 4-wheeler to get up to it. We worked on HF up to 10m using the call LY96BDX/E and, in the short time we stayed there, made over 40 contacts. This is one of a number of centres of Europe, apparently, and was determined by the French Academy of Science. Because our base was close to Vilnius, we had a walk-about tour around Old Town and then spent some time at LY1BZB, the technical school station. This houses the only packet link between LY and the world, running on 20m. We operated from there too and managed the Falkland Isles and Alaska amongst many South Americans. Their antenna is a self built cubical quad on the roof of the 9th floor. Another city visit was to Kaunas. Leonas LY2AE showed us the very smart city centre, and we met some of the local hams including Vytas LY2PU who is sysop of the next biggest BBS in LY. He told us the packeteers in the south of Lithuania are attempting to get a 70cm link to the Polish BBS SP4KTO in Suwalki. The packet network is growing slowly but is still inadequate for many of the smaller centres of population. In fact, Internet is being used by many as a way out.
HAM-FEST
The culmination of BDX96 was near Moletai, in the east of the country (KO26), where most of Lithuania's radio amateurs were holding their annual ham-fest. We set up in a detached house on the site which is a holiday camp belonging to the national fertiliser company Azotas. Poles and antennas were everywhere. The blast from the 1kW camp station on 20m, LY96RMD, made us work the other bands instead. However, the chat, the beer and the barbecue reduced our operation even more. Anyway, we did rather nicely on 6m around Europe and worked quite a few G's too. Apart from radio, we had visits to the seaside and to a flying club. We did so much this year and yet so little but we all had a really good time and came home tired but satisfied. Next year, BDX97 may have something similar to offer so may be it is time to start planning.
THANKS
The group would like to thank the organisers and those who looked after us at different stages in our stay in Lithuania. Thanks to all the local amateurs with appologies for any QRM and QRL on 2m from our activities. Best 73 to you all.