By Stephen Pall , VK2PS

The charter boat was slowly approaching Imperieuse Reef. The 900 H.P. twin-srew engines of "Kingfisher III", the 17 meter long game fishing boat, throtted down from normal cruising speed of 22 knots to 10 knots.

All of the team were on deck, looking apprehensively at a slim, white sand line, barely visible in front of us - at a distance of about 3 kilometers. The white sand line was Cunningham Island a longitudinal sand cay (17º 31`31`` South , 118º 56`46`` East). The island appears much smaller compared to some old photos that were seen previously. There are no trees, shrubs or grass, just gleaming white coral sand. The line of sand is broken only a man-made stainless steel lighhouse, similar to a free standing rocket, about 40 meters in height that glittered in the sun. The lighthouse is situated on the north western side of this small island, about 200 meters away from our landing point, standing in the sea on the edge of a narrow rocky lagoon.

It was a early morning local time on the 21 st of September , 1999 .The charter boat has dropped anchor just outside the reef and the loading of almost 2.5 tonnes of equipment into two 4.5 m aluminium dinghies has begun. It took the two dinghies seven trips across the vivid green waters of the shallow coral reef lagoon, to land the equipment on the island. Fortunately the waters of the lagoon were very calm and crystal clear, so no mishapps ocurred. It is now 2340 UTC (0740 am) , we are narrow beach with mountains of bags, cables, waterproof boxes, generators, tent poles, tents packed in bags, disassembled aluminium tubes belonging to a variety of antennas, drums of fuel and barrels of drinking water.

The aluminium dinghies have departed - the charter boat is now only a small dot on the horizon and we are alone, no other sound except our own. The weather was fine, blue skies, no clouds and surrounded by the green-azure waters of the lagoon, a merciless, blinding sun shone on us.

The air was heavy with moisture.

Four radio amateurs facing the unknown on a tiny speck of sand, filled with the zeal of missionaries to activate amateur radio for the first time on a little island which is off limits unless one has a special landing permit.

The Rowley Shoals are located in the Indian Ocean in the tropical far north of Western Austrália. They are large emergent shelf attols rising from depths of between 440 and 230 meters along the edge of the continental shelf. They lie between 300 to 379 kilometers due west of Broome , a tropical town, home of the largest salt-water crocodiles and centre of a large cultured pearling industry.

Broome has a moving population of 12,000 and it is very busy this time of the year. Big offshore game fishing and casual holiday-making is in progress and accommodations are booked out 12 months in advance. The Shoals are ranked as one of the most remote and pristine marine areas in the world, and are part of a great Marine Park established in 1990. It is managed by the West Australian Department of Conservation and Land Management, (CALM). At low tide the water forms ponds within reef walls, gushing over them like waterfalls and our little island is only 1.5 meters above the high-water mark.

The Rowley Shoals consist of three atolls. We are on the most southern, "Imperieuse Reef", that is approximately 18 kilometers along and 10 kilometers wide. The only semi-permanent land in the atoll is Cunningham Island at the northern end of the reef.

Captain Rowley named Imperieuse Reef after his sailing in 1800. The island itself changes shape and size often due to the seasonal cyclones which can be very severe sometimes.

The lighthouse which now stands in water was originally built in the centre of the moving island.

After a 20 hours sea voyage from Broome, luckily for us a very smooth sea, we gradually haul our dx cargo form the beach, bit by bit, to the middle of the little sand island. Our immediate aim is to establish out shaded area and this was a large tent-like, square struture that could be raised and lowered, made of green 90 % shade cloth.

The tent was over two metres in height and 7.5 meters square with open sides. This was our home !! The "Rowley´s Cafe". Originally there had been plans for two tents, one for the SSB station, one for the CW station, and individual small tents for each of us. Due to the intense heat these plans were changed. Only one tent was erected for the SSB stations and the CW station was squeezed onto a small table in "Rowley ´s Café" wich became sleeping, recreational and storage area. In one corner a field gas burner represented the kitchen and meals area. We had a short flag raising ceremony at 0430 UTC time, or just after noon local time.

The flags of Austrália, Portugal and the United States of América fluttered in the breeze, whispering to our silent friends. We continued with the installation of the 20 meter 4 square antenna. With a temperature of 40º plus Celsius in the open, only 20 minutes of work in the sun was followed by a short pause in the tent, where the 32ºC in the shade was a welcome relief. The level in our individual 20 litre drinking water barrels started to recede, we were sweating and feeling dehydrated. In addition one of the team was still suffering the effects of a food poisoning bug which he picked up a few days before our departure. All three generators were now working and the chemical portable toilet was in place. The afternoon was spent on laying power and transmitting cables and the shape of the vertical Butternut antenna started to emerge from the evening dusk. The length of the dusk in the tropics is very short and at 1810 local time it was pitc h d ark. The great moment finally arri ved after 12 hours and Rowley Shoals, VK9RS was on the air. The first contact was made with KD1CT on 20 meter band at 1139 UTC time. Floodlights, brought with us, came into action to complete the remaining setup and at midnight local time - after the hard work we were all ready.

Originally the team consisted of 5 expeditioners , Sam, CT1EEN from Massamá, Portugal, Jim, K9PPY from Itasca , Illinois USA, Dave, VK6DLB from Karratha, Western Austrália, Steve VK2PS from Sydney and the organizer and leader of the expedition Malcom VK6LC form Perth. Michael VK6BHY from Karratha provided th 80 metre support link with the mainland.

When we left Broome there were only four of us as Dave VK6DLB had dropped out due to ill health. The reduction in manpower meant that the physical work involved in setting up increased for the rest of the expeditioners , delaying the early on-air schedule.

Who took part ? Here is now a thumbnail sketch of the participants.

SAM, CT1EEN was the youngest in the group, in his early 30´s . Sam is a builder who graduated from CB radio. He has had his amateur licence for nine years and after chasing DX soon became na "island hopper" from a variety of Portuguese and Spanish islands and also Cape Verde D44. Sam flew into Perth via Frankfurt and Singapore , and travelled with Mal form Perth to Broome a distance 2.232 kilometers. During the road-trip they changed vehicles at Karratha, upgrading from a sedan car and one tonne trailer to a 4 wheel drive and two tonne trailer. Four heavy duty tyres were ruined on the trip from Perth due to road conditions. When I asked Sam what was his most memorable event on the trip to Broome he listed kangaroos kissing the front of the vehicle, the closed roadhouse which meant slowing down to conserve fuel and the innumerable occasions when tonnes of equipment were loaded and unloaded from trailer, storage places, up steps and down steps. According to my calculations the equipment was m o ved 23 times on the return journey from Perth-Broome-Perth .

JIM, K9PPY our SSB/CW operator is a profissional mechanical engineer and comes from the small town of Itasca , near Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is in early 50´s and a keen supporter of IOTA . He has operated from many American and Canadian island , and also from Sirat-Al-Kaywar na IOTA island in the Gulf of Oman as A61AH . He was 16 years old when he started listening on short-wave on a simple set bought by his father. For a number of years he was chasing DX and then in 1989 was introduced to IOTA by a radio amateur friend of his. He now has approximately 870 islands confirmed. Jim arrived in Broome via Los Angeles, Sydney and Darwin. He was disappointed when he was unable to have a short stopover in Darwin due to changes in plane schedules.

MAL, VK6LC is a professional electrical design engineer, also in his early 50´s. He is the "total" dxpeditioner. He has had his amateur license for 16 years and started activating many Australian and overseas islands about 11 years ago. Malcolm has na excellent record as na IOTA dxpeditioner and has activated 22 islands establishing 11 brand new references.

His self designed 20 and 40 meter vertical 4 square antennas have never let him down. Mutch of the auxiliary equipment on this expedition was designer or manufactured by Mal, includingthe 56 square metre "Rowley´s Café" tent. He was the organizer, designer, antenna assembler, chief mover of equipment, security, medic, generator attendant and manager for the group. He even made some time between sleep periods to operate on SSB as a duty operator.

Mal´s words after the operation: no accidents, no equipment failures, I´ve done my job !!

We are all back in one piece ??? Time for a cold Beer !!

STEVE, VK2PS, in his late 70´s, flew in from Sydney via Perth. He is a retired insurance broker and a keen DX´er. For almost 10 years he was the DX-Editor of the national magazine of the Wireless Institute of Austrália, "Amateur Radio". Steve´s amateur activity started in 1938 in Europe when he was a 16 year old high-school student. He re-activated his amateur life in 1979 and was always a keen suporter of Mal´s island activities. This expedition was life dream come true and was a good introduction for future IOTA activities. Steve likes to operate in the CW mode and according to Mal this was one of the few IOTA expeditions where operating CW made a good contribution to the overall number of QSO´s.

As we all know , Dxpeditions to the remote parts of the globe cost money and despite the mandatory personal contributions by the operanting participants, outside help in sponsorship and donations is needed. This was the most expensive Dxpeditions for Mal , as previous ones were financed mostly from Mal´s private resources. Despite careful costing the final budget of the dxpedition came out at US$ 15 000 (about A$ 24 000), due to a lot of unexpected expenses. Mal´s friendly bank manager is not in a good mood.

At the end of our activity the expedition had approximately 10.800 contacts in the log with seven continents, 132 DX entities and 165 islands. All this was achieved in four 24 hour days i.e. 96 on-air-hours on the following bands: 80-40-20-17-15-12 and 10 meter bands. Most of the operation was in SSB mode with over 1000 contacts made on CW .

There was only a minimal activity on 40 meters because we were all worn out and down one operator. Jim and Sam made most of the contacts and Mal contributed to the numbers when his other duties allowed. Our 100 watt CW operation started on the 22nd September with intermittent activity depending on availability of antennas. We had a 4 square vertical for 20m , na Australian six element log periodical for the higher bands, a multiband Butternut antenna and three transceivers.

These were all backed up by a 100% redundancy ac/dc power system.

The 4th station was step up with 2 commercial radios used for medical emergency (VZB01) and ship to shore liaison with the charter vessel.

Here is a typical 24 hours day from our lives on the island:

I wake up, and stare at the shade cloth above me. There is na absolute silence, the SSB tent is quiet. It is 05.30 am . It is dawn but the sun is not up yet. There is a medium breeze from the south-west. The breeze is our natural airconditioner and the usual day-time temperature of our tent is 30-32ºC. It is now a very pleasant 23ºC . I can hear the fluttering of the national flags above me, on the main mast of the tent. As I turn around, I notice that there is a light dew on everything. The air was full of moisture during the night with the result that everything is now moist. It is now 06.10 am and the sun is up, moving rapidly on the eastern sky. The bluish haze on the horizon dissolves and the water in the lagoon turns a vivid green-azure blue with reflections of bright yellow from the sun, the tide is coming in. Sam and Jim are a sleep wrapped up in their sleeping bags as protection against flying sand and bright daylight. They are very tired , and went to bed about 3 hours ago , (19.0 0 UTC) when propagation ceased towards Europe and North America. Malcolm and I are sharing a king-size air-mattress , as mine attracted a loose fishing hook during the sea voyage, and the temporary repair did not work. I switch the electric kettle on, power is supplied by our small reserve generator , and look into the portable refrierator and out storage bins for something to eat. Meals are taken when there is no propagation. All our bread became mouldy and useless from the high humidity by Wednesday morning, so there was no need for breakfast cooking.

Some canned fruit, breakfast cereal and specially prepared milk and coffee was quite na adequate breakfast.

The cool breeze has stopped, there is now a warm breeze from the east and the temperature is rising in Rowley´s Café . At 09.00 am it is now 30ºC . I walk 50 paces down to the lagoon for my morning swim . The water is very salty and warm. One would want to spend hours in this water but it is not possible. The heat affects us and the reflected light on the coral sand of the beach is blinding. We have to be constantly alert for stings from floating sea wasps ( a type of box jelly fish) and possible mishaps from deadly sea snakes. We try to avoid stepping on spiky rock fish and wear special reef shoes to avoid cuts or scratches which could result in coral poisoning.

Mal gets up, does his regular intruder watch, refuels the generators and checks all the equipment and antennas that have been operating continuously without failures.

It is getting towards midday, the bands are dead, Jim and Sam are up now and we all compare notes from last nights activity. We discuss bands , the number of islands worked, the number of contacts and the daily reports from our pilot stations. Jim is looking after the Americas. Sam is trying to cover Europe and "keep some volatile southern European´s" in order .

With my limit CW operation, I use the "first come first served method". Here I am, fighting my way through endless barrages of stations, dog-piles that never seem to end. In the background I hear a loud vibration from Mal, "The pilots have request more CW"!!

Today was a happy day. Unexpected visitors ? The charter fishing boat "Kingfisher III" reappeared on the horizon and tells us, on our special comercial marine transceiver, that they had a very successful side trip of deep sea game fishing, and will send over a large coral trout and a bag of ice to be melted down for cold drinking water. This was the first and last time we did any serious cooking. The fish wonderful - maybe we were hungry too. Mal checks the bands and calls out "10 metres is wide open" . Jim and Sam disappear into the SSB tent and soon one hears the familiar monotone noises "four Delta Lima you are five and nine". The long periods of activity is on again and the water and black coffee supply to the SSB tent gets under way. Steve is in Rowley´s Café and on the Bencher key. The Yaesu FT900AT is on a small picnic table and is connected to the auxiliary generator. There is propagation to Japan and North America on 15 metres and the log pages rapidly fill up. It is now lat e afternoon and the breeze is from the South. The temperature in the shade is 26ºC. There are dark contours on the horizon where the sky meets the sea. Shortly after 06.00 pm we witness a majestic sunset as the sun goes down and within 10 minutes there is total darkness . Everybody is now on the air. Malcolm is using my station, so I catch up with my notes. Tomorrow is the last day of our activity.

Saturday, 25th of September. The good weather is still holding but the breeze is getting stronger, and I see a few small tuffs of cloud on the horizon . Last night we finished with about 8900 QSOs , most of them in SSB . Everybody is anxious to fit in as many contacts as possible. All three stations are working at overload capacity, the coffee pot goes cold. At midnight the dismantling and pulling down of VK9RS has begun. The 6 elements log periodic beam is laying already very proud on the sand.

Soon to follow the 20m 4 square verticals, still glowing with corona.

Our charter boat arrives tomorrow, Sunday , 26th at 11.00 am (03.00 UTC).

Approximately 10.800 combined QSOs were logged. A summary follows:

We made 9.400 QSOs on SSB, 1.400 on CW . Most of the contacts were made on the 20 meters band with 4.050 , 3.850 on 15 meters and 10, 12, 17, 40 and 80 meters shared 2.900 QSOs. The last QSO was at 17.41 UTC hours on Saturday, 25th September , on the 20 meter band with IK4DRR .

Everything is packed up and transported to the beach, ready to go. Time for a final swim and prepare for the 24 hour sea voyage back to Broome.

Its Sunday morning - still beautiful weather. It is high tide and the two dinghies are busy, ferrying our equipment and ourselves to the anchored charter boat well outside the reef.The beach on Cunningham Island is now deserted, empty, clean and pristine again. Our footsteps in the sand are the only visible signs, but not to long, there is a southerly breeze and silence.

The Rowley Shoals VK9RS IOTA dxpedition is over ...

VK9RS would like to thank many overseas companies and Amateurs who supported us. Being with the team for the past eighteen months, helping to meet our goal, the "Rowley Shoals".

Special coloured double folded VK9RS QSL cards are available with return postage from the direct QSL manager . I1HYW Gianni Varetto, P.O. Box 1 , 10060 Pancalieri, Torino, Italy . Standard QSL cards are available via the buro , from the VK9RS Manager VK6LC Malcolm Johnson.

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