The Ghana DXpedition by DL1CW and DL3GA, February 2003

Some years ago, I searched the internet for hotels in interesting DX countries. I found one in Ghana (see www.biriwabeach.com.gh), but the license was a little hard to get. So I put the 9G plans to the waiting list.

In the spring of 2002, I contact Kofi Jackson, 9G1AJ, he says it would be possible to get a license and sends me a set of application forms. The hotel signals green lights for the radio operation. Arno, DL1CW, is interested and joins me again for this trip. A first attempt to travel in December 2002 fails due to lack of airplane space. We set the second attempt to the first half of February, where we should be able to work in contests during the weekends. All preparations go smooth this time. Our equipment is revalued by Thomas, DB2TR (who did the operation from TG with us), placing his IC-706 to our disposal, and Hardy, DF3GY, who makes a 6m wire Quad antenna for us. I do not expect super-pileups for us, since 9G is not really rare. So I even prepare an interface for digital modes other than RTTY (PSK, Hell etc). I want to have something to play with in case the demand for CW, RTTY and SSB ends too soon.

I hoped to get the licenses before our departure, or at least a fax stating that we can pick them up at the National Communications Authority of Ghana. That didn't happen. I even have to find out that the letters with the application forms have not arrived in Ghana. To improve our chances, I fax copys of the applications to the NCA. In another phone call, the NCA offices promises me that we will get our licenses, as soon as we payed the license fee. With that, we start our adventure.

___ Monday, February 3
The last packing items (covers for one end of the LP5 tube) are finished and picked up. At noon, I take off towards Stuttgart to meet Arno. We complete all packing, test the connection between our laptops and seize the day with a good dinner in a YU- (or 9A-?) restaurant.

___ Tuesday, February 4
At 6.15 AM, we get up and have some breakfast. At 7.00 we hit the road to Frankfurt in a rental car. It's about 0°C and cloudy. The forecast says dropping temperatures and snow – we are not very interested... We arrive in Frankfurt somewhat later than planned. After having no problems to check in our extraordinary equipment, we have just enough time to see the restroom and allow the last cigarette for Arno (non-smoking flight). Then we board the Airbus 340. I find out why there is a note „1 Stop“ on the ticket: Our primary destination is Lagos, Nigeria – not Accra. The flight is nice and smooth. My window seat doesn't pay off as there is rarely something interesting down there. The one hour stay in Lagos is too short to obtain a 5N license and do some QSOs. I expected that... We arrive in Accra well behind schedule, but all our equipement is here and we even get it through customs. The hotel manager recognizes our baggage and welcomes us. We stow the stuff in his Jeep. The trip to the hotel takes another three hours. Now we're finished and don't lose much time with radio preparations, that can wait, our stay is just beginning.

Arno, DL1CW, at the hotel entrance

___ Wednesday, February 5
We get up rather early and talk to our hotel managers. A trip to Accra could be done by bus, but the best time for that is early in the morning. The manager intends to go to Accra next day, so we decide to build antennas today and visit Accra tomorrow. Assembling the LP5 costs me three minor injuries and a blister on the thumb. It's a hard job in this heat but the antenna comes together at last. We decide to double-check with the NCA if our licenses are ready for us, so I call them. Everything seems to be OK, but the hotel managers doubt that. And in fact, when calling the NCA again, they find out that we will have to provide a bankers draft for the license fee. We can buy one at a bank, but they can't tell the „price“ at this time. We have to call again next day. With this info, it makes no sense to go to Accra. So we make an appointment with other hotel guests to join them on a trip to Lake Bosomtwi. We successfully install Arno's R7000 on the roof, some 25m away from the LP5. Both antennas play well on all bands they cover. Now we are ready to hit the air, as soon as we get this license...

Preparing the LP5 antenna

___ Thursday, February 6
We get up early to take our mini-bus to Lake Bosomtwi. On the way, I see christian churches, prayer camps and so on, in a wide variety. If you haven't found your church yet, maybe it's here... The lake is believed to be the crater formed by a meteorite impact 1.5 million years ago. It is growing (from 10 km diameter to 16 km in a few years), but the reason for this is yet to be explored. For now, it's a nice place to sit and relax, enjoy the surrounding nature and have a cool drink. At 3 PM, the driver of our mini-bus wants to leave, he wants to be back before it gets dark. There's a good reason for this: It's much harder to spot and avoid the numerous holes in the road surface when it's dark... At the hotel, good news is waiting for us: Tomorrow we can go to Accra and get our licenses.

___ Friday, February 7
We get up early (see the last two days...), take a taxi to Cape Coast and from there a mini-bus to Accra. We try to find a bank that would sell us a bankers draft, but no success. The best clue we get is that it would be possible, even without being a customer of that bank, but it takes at least one week. We give up and drive to the NCA, where we meet Mr. Codjoe, 9G1PC. He doesn't seem to be surprised that we come without bankers draft. Instead, because it is a small amount of money, we may pay cash in the bureau of the financial manager of the NCA. He agrees that the procedure with the bankers draft is too difficult for short-time visitors, and promises to look for a better way. After taking the receipts to Mr Codjoe, we get our callsigns and the papers. For the way back to our hotel, we happen to sit in one of the slowest buses in service. Very few cars (mostly the heavily-overloaded) are even slower than our vehicle. We arrive at the hotel tired and exhausted. My lesson learned today is that light clothes are 'no good' when traveling in african mini-buses... Arno runs the first batch of QSOs this night, mostly on 30 and 40m.

LP5 and R7000 at sunset

___ Saturday, February 8
I do not want to get up early another time ! The WPX RTTY contest is running, and since Arno doesn't want to join me for a multi/single entry, I am single op limited to 30 out of the 48 hours. I start with almost 9 hours off-air time. My expectations concerning the results of this contest are not very high, but it should be fun. Shortly after the first CQs on 10m, a massive pileup from EU begins. The propagation doesn't always allow to run high QSO rates to a main target area, but the numbers climb and climb. I take another 150 minutes off in the late afternoon, and use the time to go swimming in the ocean. I was afraid that RTTY on 20m was going to be very difficult and/or boring. Not at all !!! When the time is right, the path to the USA opens with phantastic signals and rolling pileups ! Many low serial numbers get into the log, showing that Ghana is also interesting for the north-american RTTY DXers. At midnight, Arno takes over for some more CW on 30 and 40m.

___ Sunday, February 9
I get up early (again...) to catch the long path opening to Japan. It is working very well, but when the main pileup sets in, the QSO rates drop because it gets hard to get through to the station I want to work. As predicted by the propagation software, the show is over after an hour. Cluster-driven pileups and boring CQ-CQ periods follow, and the numbers continue to climb. Milestones are taken: a million points, one thousand QSOs. During another hour off-air, we install Arno's prepared dipole for 160 and 80m, using the TV-antenna mast, Arno's fiberglass mast (at the feeding point) and a palmtree. This antenna is not hanging very high and has its prime directions to east/west – not very promising for Europe, but we'll see how many QSOs it is good for. At the end of the contest, I have almost 1350 QSOs in the log and almost reached the two million points. Amazing !

___ Monday, February 10
Arno's night shift lets the logs of 40m and 30m grow. No signs on 160m, nothing useful on 80m either. However, e-mails show that he was heard in Europe. KYFC! I start CW operation on 12m, creating a pileup 3 kHz wide – on a monday morning ! Even SSB works well on 12m with callers from UA0 and east-coast USA at the same time. After lunch, with the antenna pointing to USA, the european/american pileup gets even wilder. Again, I must learn that my expectations of the need for Ghana were set too low. Today is a power failure day. The public power supply fails and the hotel's generator comes up. But it needs service, so we spend some hours QRT... Some operators don't get the final „thanks“ of their QSO because failing power doesn't let us send it...

___ Tuesday, February 11
Arno wakes me up very early, after having enough of his night shift... A major thunderstorm and power failure forced him to go QRT for several hours this night. The intense lightning activity didn't let him copy anything on 80m again. Later today, some emails give good clues of useful frequencies and reflect the need for QSOs. The 12m CW pileups are not getting as hard as yesterday, but there is still a lot to do, especially to Japan in the morning. For a few minutes in the middle of the afternoon, it seems that I worked the last few stations calling. But then people come home from work and another pileup builds. Via SMS, Arno arranges a sked with his club station friends back home. A few other DLs join in when 9G5ZZ and DL0ALC hop from band to band. We learn that Arno's IC706 is fine, but Thomas' 706 has a terrible SSB modulation. Later, we find out that the 706 has this sort of trouble when the supply voltage is less than 14V. When making the first attempts of PSK, it turns out that the setup optimized for Thomas' rig results in very weak modulation on Arno's rig. Accessing the standardized modulator input might have avoided this problem... When I am finally ready for QSOs, the condx don't cooperate.

Andy, 9G5GA, working the RTTY pileup

___ Wednesday, February 12
Today I don't operate in the morning and instead catch up with sleep. After a lazy breakfast, I go swimming in the ocean and take some pictures. After noon, I start working on 10m CW. This turns out to be a smooth and fast-going band. Even stations from the US are already coming in with remarkable signals. After a few hours I notice that my error rate is increasing, so I announce QSY to 12m SSB. The band is full of signals, I'm lucky to find a free spot at the top end. After some time there, my split frequency is QRMed by a german ragchew QSO, so I announce QSY to CW. Some will think „again 12m CW ???“ but this is where I want to give a chance to as many people as I can. And this is the time when the working european is coming home, to his rig. I manage to work the pileup down to no more callers. I meet DF3GY and he takes me down to 20m RTTY where I then make some 70 QSOs with EUs. After dinner, I call CQ again and work a few stations from the americas (USA, C6, XE, PY and LU). There is not much going, so I take the time for some longer QSOs, some with stations I worked in the RTTY contest last weekend.

___ Thursday, February 13
I take another early shift on 12m CW but the condx for long path to Japan are very bad today. After some CQs, I go down to 15m and try there. Instead of JA, EU calls so I turn the antenna to EU and work them. We have not done a lot on this band yet, so there is quite some demand. After a while, JAs show up and get stronger and stronger. Finally I call for JA only and a remarkable pileup builds. Obviously, some EUs dislike the idea to miss a 9G QSO and try to mess up the pileup by intentional QRM – but without success. Then I continue on 12m CW, getting more JAs and EUs into the log, but again there are many dupes... Arno takes the 80m dipole down, so the fiberglass mast and coax become available for the 6m quad. While he works on 18m, I install it at the other corner of our apartment roof, opposite the LP5. There is a bit of interference between the 6m and the SW station, but it doesn't seem to be much. We cannot find out if they can be operated simultaneously, as there is nothing happening on 6m... Finally I have a terrific opening on 10m SSB with QSOs even to the US west coast. Many 59+20db reports from EU also. Later there is not much activity, so I round off with some chat QSOs on 20m with interesting states like Nevada, New Mexico and Arkansas.

___ Friday, February 14
Again no long path to JA this morning. Arno and I have breakfast separately to expand operating time. There is not much left on 12m but I get very close to 2000 QSOs there. Just before noon, the hotel's housekeepers install new lamps in our room, so we have to go QRT for about two hours. After that, I run 10m with an endless pileup. Arno nets a few CW ops on 6m, but the interference between the stations is significant. After 250 QSOs in 100 minutes, we switch to Arno on 17m. A round with some Bosch friends back home rounds off the day for Arno, he takes some rest before he starts the ARRL contest. I use the time to work RTTY on 15m and later on 20m. The latter is amazing, as lots and lots of JAs with strong signals come in. All of a sudden, they seem to disappear and North America breaks in. The result is just over 200 QSOs and our very first ZL QSO.

___ Saturday, February 15
Murphy strikes when Arno begins the ARRL contest. Although he tested the whole setup before he went to sleep, the computer makes problems, the keyer fails completely and the IC706 starts to suffer from a sticking rx/tx relay... 90 minutes late, he starts operation with my equipment. After 500 QSOs, he worked almost every multiplier except DC, ND and a few canadian provinces. I go for another run on 12m CW in the morning, followed by SSB. At 12.00 UTC, I start working in the ARRL contest on 10m single band. There is no significant pileup, rarely more than five callers at a time and some CQ periods also. When nobody from W/VE calls, I accept other callers, but they are not many. A power failure costs me 15 minutes and my frequency. At 660 QSOs, my multiplier list covers almost everything except DC and most of call area seven. The band closes more than one hour earlier than the propagation software predicted... Arno takes over on 20m.

___ Sunday, February 16
Arno works until about 05.00 UTC and his log grows to 1200 QSOs. When power comes back after the early morning failure, I turn the antenna to JA and start calling on 12m. There is still need for this, as another 200 QSOs are added to the log in 100 minutes. The average signal strength is much lower now, so we are serving the „100W and vertical antenna“ hams. Also, listening hard into the noise exhausts much more than before, so I switch to RTTY on 12m for some recovery. There is not much going and another power failure takes me off the air at 09.12 UTC - time for breakfast... When I get back, I am asked to QSY to 17m RTTY, which I do. A tremendous pileup begins, there is a remarkable demand for this ! However, at one point I have to shout at the callers because they are calling and calling instead of listening. During the hour before my second part of ARRL contest, Arno does some more CW on 17m. The contest doesn't bring me another big QSO count. After looong CQ runs and few cluster spot bursts, the band closes with 970 QSOs in my log, including dupes and some EUs. Call area seven multipliers are worked now, except WA. Also, VE6 and VE7 are still missing. Well, at least I should have won the 10m single band entry in Ghana... Arno can complete all US multipliers later, only NWT, LAB, NS and NU never make it into his log of 1500 QSOs.

6m Quad and LP5 antenna

___ Monday, February 17
I begin the day with another run on 15m CW. Many JAs again and also the EUs are still very interested in this band. At breakfast, we plan the timing of our QRT. Until then, we want to hand out as many QSOs as possible, but electric power failures won't really let us as we would like to... Some more activity on 20m and 17m by Arno, as well as 10m let our CW logs grow. A final big surprize is RTTY on the WARC bands, I can't give QSOs to all callers. At 17.15 UTC, we get the ladder for roof access and thus pull the plug to dismantle the 6m quad and the LP5. All metal parts are roughly cleaned from the salty layer they have gathered in these two weeks. We just make it before its gets dark... I manage to get all the LP5 material into the two tubes, and there is even more space left this time. Arno works 30m and 40m on the remaining vertical antenna, mostly to the USA. Final QRT is around 02.00 UTC.

___ Tuesday, February 18
We get very busy with packing. After breakfast, we remove the R7000 from the roof and pack all remaining equipment. We copy all logs to both laptop computers for redundancy. A mini-bus takes us and all material to the airport and we proceed directly to check-in. Lufthansa shocks us: „These pieces are too long, we can't check them. You have to take them to Cargo.“ We try to find solutions and finally avoid the cargo version. We will stay in one airplane until final destination Frankfurt, no connection flights – this saves us... I spend the last bundle of Cedi bills at the duty-free shop, then we board the A340 and fly to Lagos. The final view is from 1000m on illuminated Accra, then we push through a cloud layer. After refueling and with a new crew in the plane, we leave Lagos for an overnight flight.

___ Wednesday, February 19
We can again enjoy some sights of nightly illuminated cities like Strasbourg and Karlsruhe. Touchdown is soft and after passing the various checkpoints, we arrive at baggage claim in the very moment when our antennas are taken off the bulky luggage conveyor belt. No problem at customs, just the rental car takes a little longer than expected. At 09.00 CET, Arno is at home. The keys for my car and appartment have disappeared – another story... After getting hold of them, I drive home in beautiful sunny weather, but it's only 4°C here. I'm on vacation for the rest of the week, so I have a lot of time for the work that needs to be done after such a trip. And maybe the first preparations for the next trip will take place too, it's already being planned concretly. See ya !