CHATHAM   ISLANDS   NEWS

"The Story of ZL7C"

The Story of ZL7C - October 2002

By Ken Holdom ZL4HU and Stan White ZL2ST

The Chatham Islands is a group of ten islands, two of which are populated - Chatham with 700 people and Pitt with 50. The islands are situated 770 km or 1 hour 40 minutes flying time southeast of Wellington, New Zealand. Enclosed within the main island of Chatham is a very large lagoon which is only open to the sea occasionally. The Chathams were first inhabited by Moriori people for 700 years and then Maori. The statue of the last full-blooded Moriori, Tommy Solomon who died in 1931, stands at Owenga on the East coast.

In the 1960s there was an invasion of fishing boats and their crews in search of riches from crayfish (rock lobster), wetfish and paua (abalone) and these areas were considerably over fished . These days some wealth still comes from crayfish and paua exports while sheep farming also produces revenue. There is a small but growing tourist industry. The occasional 'ham' visit contributes to this!

Following on from two very highly successful DXpeditions to ZL8RI in May 1996 and to ZL9CI in January 1999 the Kermadec DX Association began planning a further DXpedition to ZK3, Tokelau Islands in July/August 2002. Initial enquiries were made regarding the cost of chartering a suitable vessel and when costs were realised, it was out of the question to ask the international DX community to support such a venture.

With the blood pressure still at a high level and the adrenaline pumping a decision was made to undertake a 'fun' DXpedition to ZL7 in October 2002. A majority of those who had already contributed towards ZK3 were only too willing for their support to be transferred to ZL7 and the planning commenced immediately. Whilst this was to be a 'fun' DXpedition it still had to be conducted in the same professional manner as were ZL8 and ZL9 and we certainly did not wish to tarnish our reputation in any way.

When this DXpedition to Chatham Island was announced, advice like 'Its not worth it. Its been worked out', 'You are wasting your time' - negative comments a plenty! But determination prevailed from a leader who doesn't understand the meaning of the word "NO"!

Some initial enquiries were made with friends in the Chathams as to a suitable venue and a trip was made there in March 2002 by Ken ZL4HU to confirm all that was needed. Our initial site was dismissed for a number of reasons and an alternative site was located at the local race course named the Norman Kirk Memorial Reserve in honour of one of New Zealand's more prominent leaders and a former Prime Minister, the late Rt. Hon. Norman Kirk.

Immediately, Ken negotiated a formal lease agreement and the DXpedition was destined to be a success. Having a site, we then needed to begin working on a team and arranging air travel, accommodation etc. There was significant interest in our plans and we had enquiries from several enthusiastic operators throughout the world. Having finally decided upon an adequate number to get a discounted air fare deal we settled on a group of 4 from the USA, 1 from Japan, 1 from England, 1 from Germany and 5 from New Zealand. Past experience and reputations were of paramount importance in selecting this team.

With the team selected, the organising of equipment etc. was to become a significant part of the operation. Originally there were to be no on line logs, no web site and no pilots. We just wanted to do another "back to the basics" DXpedition. Other members had different ideas to Ken and he reluctantly relented to their desire to have all the aforementioned. In hindsight this was a wise move.

Approaching our loyal and faithful previous sponsors was not an envied task especially as the status of ZL7 was not even within the top 100 most wanted countries. Surprisingly most were receptive to our call and responded positively. ICOM America loaned us two transceivers. Vertex Standard (formerly Yaesu of Japan), Cushcraft Antennas of USA, SCS of Germany and our extremely supportive local cable company General Cables of Christchurch, New Zealand all provided additional equipment. With over 1 kilometer of cable supplied by General Cables over the span of the last three DXpeditions we were right on track.

Ken loaded a truck with all of the antennas, coax cable, tools, masts, guys etc. at his home in Clyde in the southern part of the South Island of New Zealand and set off for Christchurch airport. Other team members met progressively as they assembled in Christchurch or Wellington, the airports with scheduled flights to the Chathams.

The team consisted of Al Hernandez K3VN, Bill Beyer N2WB , Bob McQuarrie ZL3TY, Dave Anderson KW4DA, Hiro Miyake JF1OCQ, Murray Woodfield ZL1CN, Paul Rubinfield WF5T, Reinhard Maute DF4TD, Stan White ZL2ST, Steve Taylor G4EDG, Wilbert Knol ZL2BSJ and Ken Holdom ZL4HU, the team leader. A total combined operating experience of 350+ years.

In New Zealand our two non traveling vital team members were webmaster Gordon Stewart, ZL2ARN and pilot Lee Jennings, ZL2AL who undertook their most appreciative supportive role for the DXpedition.

The first group left Christchurch on Tuesday October 15 complete with all of the gear from Ken's home and other equipment that team members had brought with them. The air service to the Chathams is provided by Air Chathams using one of their four aeroplanes, a rebuilt 1956 Convair. The airline which is owned and based in the Chatham Islands also leases two planes to other New Zealand operators. Air Chathams main cargo consists of crayfish and paua from the islands to New Zealand for on forwarding to overseas destinations where these delicacies are very popular.

The second group left the following day from Wellington on the scheduled service. Meanwhile the first group which had already established themselves at the Backpacker accommodation in the main village of Waitangi had returned to the racecourse to begin assembling the beams in the wet and windy conditions. When the second team arrived late on Wednesday afternoon as the rain eased, they assisted with the completion of the antenna assembly and to run out the coax cables etc. The antennas were positioned in two groups, one for digital modes and one for phone. This was carefully planned by Dave KW4DA in order to give the least interaction between modes and bands. On Thursday 17 October we started early on the erection of the 8 metre (24 foot) masts with the beams atop. A crane was called in to assist with the 20 metre 4 element monobander which was difficult to handle because of it's size. This same antenna was reduced to an effective 3 element beam at ZL9CI.

By late afternoon all of the antennas were up and these included Cushcraft Monobanders 20-4CD 20metres, XM515 15metres (2), XM510 10metres (2), Force 12 EF320 20metre monobander and WARC 2/2 , Nagara T2-3VX WARC beam, Create CV48 40/80 vertical, Create CL6A 6metre monobander, KY0A 80/160 vertical, K7ZV 30metres vertical, G4EDG 40 metres vertical, 1160ft Beveridge, 12 element 2 metre beam. It was time to dry ourselves and warm up while the rigs were set up for operation.

The comfortable lounge on the top level of the operating site provided us with magnificent views of the total racecourse and surrounding areas. It also contained a small kitchen. We set up the operating stations in two groups with two stations per table along the sides of the lounge. The SSB setup consisted of four rigs plus three amplifiers, while the CW setup had three rigs and two linears. The VHF equipment was situated between the two areas.

The equipment used consisted of Yaesu FT900, FT920 (2), FT1000MP (2), FT1000MP Mk V, FT100, FT817, and Icom 756 Pro II (2) with FL7000 (2), FL2100B, SB 220, Acom 1000 (2) linear amplifiers. S.C.S. Pactor II with an upgrade was used for loading logs and photos to the website daily and for receiving daily reports and requests which proved to be a huge success.

Our first QSOs were about 5 pm local (0315Z - Chathams time is 45 minutes ahead of New Zealand) on Thursday. We were amazed at the QSO demand and by the end of the first 24 hours we had clocked up 10,000 contacts. The next 24 hours produced another 10,000 QSOs and then the rate dropped a little to about 6,600 per 24 hours. We continued with 24 hour operation and gradually introduced more low band operation including the 80 metre SSB and 160 metre European windows at 0600Z followed by USA and Asian openings.

All team members had an enjoyable time handling the pileups which were generally well behaved and we endeavoured to make ZL7C available to all, whether they be the big guns or the small pistols or even the dupes making sure of contacts with us. Operating for 24 hours per day provided us with some interesting and exciting moments especially when we worked several African stations (these are always difficult from ZL ) and YA5T in Afghanistan.

Various digital modes were used at times including RTTY, PSK31, SSTV, hand-sent CW by Steve G4EDG (for the benefit of the local newspaper) and Steve's 5 Watt 20M transceiver. Conditions were generally kind to us but on a few days 10 metres was poor. 160 metre CW was a struggle at times, particularly on the evening an electrical storm passed over us. Both our Web Site manager Gordon ZL2ARN and our ZL Pilot, Lee ZL2AL provided us with excellent backup and feedback and we were able to respond to concerns on a daily basis.

We also received much assistance from local people including Terry Kamana and his wife Trish. Both of whom had been operators at New Zealand coast stations in earlier days and Terry had recently obtained his new ham licence which he proudly displayed. During a quiet period, one afternoon Terry operated the 15 metre CW station and made some 16 contacts using his new call ZL7TK. A rig is being shipped to Terry and he hopes to appear on the bands from time to time. The only other resident ham is ZL7NAA who is at present inactive.

We entered the Multi-2 section of the CQ Worldwide SSB contest with two rigs. One designated for 10 and 20 metres while the other was used on 15 and 40 metres. In the 30 hours of the 48 hours of the contest we had 5,500 plus QSOs. Meanwhile operation continued on SSB on the WARC bands and on digital modes on all bands. All up, in 11 days we had an amazing 72,213 contacts including 30,819 CW, 39,002 SSB, 2059 RTTY, 333 PSK.

On 6 metres Bob ZL3TY or 'Mr Static' as we knew him, spent many hours listening to noise and running the 6 metre beacon on an FT100 rig and 5 element yagi. He was rewarded with three FSK441 meteor scatter and two CW QSOs on 6 metres with ZL stations and then on our last operating day a nice opening to Japan which produced 136 CW QSOs.

On 2 metres Bob used the FT100 with a Daiwa 150 Watt amplifier adjacent to the 12 element yagi to make four JT44 moonbounce QSOs with USA stations. Bob also spent some time dealing with HF pileups.

SSB operation was handled by Ken ZL4HU, Murray ZL1CN, Bill N2WB, Al K3VN, Reinhard DF4TD, Hiro JF1OCQ, Stan ZL2ST, Bob ZL3TY, while digital operation was carried out by Paul WF5T, Dave KW4DA, Steve G4EDG, Wilbert ZL2BSJ, Stan ZL2ST, Hiro JF1OCQ. Wilbert also spent many hours 'working' on our logs for the daily transmission to webmaster Gordon ZL2ARN.

Our eating arrangements were very flexible indeed and if you are fond of burgers and chips or chips and burgers then you guessed it. However, they were tailored to suit the tastes of the various team members by a very helpful local café. We were provided with two most welcome barbeques and on a more exotic occasion we were treated to cooked crayfish and a green salad, compliments of Terry and Trish, the fine hosts of Ken's XYL Emily and son William who joined us on this DXpedition.

The weather on Chatham Island is a little cooler than what we are used to in New Zealand, courtesy of a regular cool south-westerly wind. However during the period we were operational and particularly at assembly and dismantling times we were treated to more rain than is normal. Most of us walked the 1.5 km from the backpackers to the racecourse daily but on occasions during the showers the rental car was most welcome.

The operation was closed down at midnight local time on 28 October to allow us to have some well earned rest before dismantling the aerials early next day. As we finished, the pileups were still there but somewhat diminished after 11 days operation. Following the pack up on Monday the group with some invited guests enjoyed a dinner at the Waitangi Hotel which was settled with some fine New Zealand wines and Chatham Island 'Black Robin' beer. The beer is named after the Black Robin bird which is a local endangered bird of which there were only about 5 in existence in 1980. It was the world's rarest bird. After careful management numbers of the birds are now increasing.

On Tuesday morning most of the gear was loaded on to the Air Chathams truck and the Christchurch bound group also set off for the airport. The Wellington group occupied themselves on their final day on Chatham Island by sightseeing.

From Waitangi which is towards the bottom of the western side of the island we went east to look through the local (diesel powered) electricity generating station and on to Owenga on the east coast to view the Tommy Solomon statue and village. We then went up back to the west coast and north to the top eastern corner of the island (about one and a half hour trip) and viewed the centuries old Mori Ori tree carvings nearby and the village of Kaingaroa. We the headed south and then west to walk to the basalt columns on the coast and then drove on to Port Hutt village with it's shipwreck on the beach. Each of the villages has it's own fish processing factory.

On return to Waitangi the group proceeded up the hill to the old ZLC coast radio station which now houses the telephone exchange. Only one mast remains for various VHF telephone services. We then visited the local TV studio which is closing soon because many of the islanders are now receiving TV signals directly via satellite. The TV station is above the local wharf where the shipping service to New Zealand calls regularly. Next day it was the turn of the second group to leave for Wellington.

We were supported extremely well by the local Chatham Islands people and our heartfelt thanks goes to them. As a result of placing an advertisement of the TV a number of folk visited us to gain for themselves an appreciation of what we were up to.

To all our supporters/sponsors we would like to take the opportunity to say a big thank you to you all and without this support this DXpedition would not have taken place. We hope that you will continue to support these ventures and hopefully or even maybe, the Kermadec DX Association will again be heard on the Airwaves.

ZL4HU
ZL2ST