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9LY1JM – DXpedition to Banana Islands, Sierra Leone, by F6KOP Radio Club DL3GA's story
After several trips to countries in West Africa, the F6KOP team targets another one this year, but combined with an IOTA location. The Banana islands were activated by several expeditions before, so this location seems to offer some advantages. For Germany, traveling to Sierra Leone requires a visa. It can be obtained by internet and mail, but the return letter gets “lost” by Deutsche Post. I have to get a temporary passport and another visa from the embassy in Berlin. I receive it only three days before departure...
___ Wednesday, January 09, 2019 After having traveled via Strasbourg to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris the day before and some good sleep at night, I'm one of the first team members at the meeting point. A major traffic jam causes significant delay for the main group coming from F6KOP, but we all make check-in and baggage check for the first flight with Air France to Amsterdam. From there, a KLM Airbus 330 takes us directly to Freetown, Sierra Leone. As usual, the flights are uneventful; I manage to watch three movies. We clear all stations at the airport and find the minibus crew awaiting us. The vehicle is big enough for us, OR for our baggage. It takes a while to squeeze everything inside. It's late evening and at this time of the day, the ferry to Freetown city is not available. So we spend hours on the road before arriving at our guest house in Kent beach. We conclude the day with a late meal and some beer.
___ Thursday, January 10, 2019 I barely sleep before we get up at 7 and pack. Locals help us carrying all the bags down the beach to the fishing boat harbor. From here, we can spot the Banana islands, our final destination, in the mist. We have to pay a local tax, then two stately fishing boats appear that are first loaded with our bags. After a while, we board them and start heading towards the islands. The boats take a bow around the first island point and land on the beach at our guest house. The owner Greg welcomes us while locals unload the boats. Breakfast is served and Greg gives us information for the time of our stay. We'll almost be the only guests and have priority for our mission. We move into our rooms, mostly two-bed, and select good places for the antennas. Greg took care that we have two generators, one diesel and one gasoline, that we will use alternately. Team members prepare some electric installation while others erect antennas. This time, all antennas are ground planes (GP), placed directly on the beach. I work on the GP for 160m. Fiber mast and radiator wire are new, but the wire is way too long and must be cut to resonance. The beach at the guest house is mostly sand, but most of the island's water line is covered with massive black rocks. We place the 160m antenna in a gap to achieve a stable stand. We finish the antenna just before it gets dark. At dinner time, all antennas and four stations are ready for action. But first the entire team enjoys dinner. I get the first shift on 80m but can't get the radio to transmit. Only after exchanging the radio with another station, I can finally run the first QSOs. After only a few simplex contacts I have to run split because an enormous pileup builds. The band is very quiet, so I can listen on the GP without problem. Two Beverage antennas would be available, but I don't need them. I work mostly Europe and North America, but even some stations from Japan make it into the log. Eric, ON7RN, takes over at midnight. I walk to the room that I share with Herman, ON4QX. He's asleep and it doesn't take long until I fall asleep, too.
___ Friday, January 11, 2019 I get up around 08:00 and check out the shower. It works by scooping some fresh water from a bucket over the body. To flush the toilet, I pour a bucket of salt water. There is no air condition, the guest house is not a luxury resort. I walk to the shack, although my next shift is more than an hour away. I learn that the ocean flooded several antennas this morning. The team is busy moving the antennas further away from the water line. The 40m GP was placed at the end of a concrete wall about 20m into the ocean, which creates a calm landing area for boats. But when the water rose, it washed over the wall. Consequently, the feed point of the 40m GP is now under water; the antenna no longer usable. The CW station is lucky because the 80m GP remains dry. I take over from Franck, F5TVG, running a pileup on 17m. First I achieve a rate of over 200 QSOs/h, but then some QRM from our RTTY station on 15m, as well the time-consuming style of some callers, slows me down. However, I stay on 17m for my entire shift. At the end, I can only hear callers when the 15m station is not transmitting. Moreover, our CW signal timing is rather imprecise. Eric wants to find out why, but finds no solution. This is strange because the same equipment was used on former expeditions but never had this problem before. After lunch, all stations go QRT for antenna work. We can now salvage the 40m GP and move it to a dry place. The 160m GP feed point was also flooded, we just lift it to the top of the next rock and secure it there. In spite of this break, we find 4000 QSOs in our logs after the first 24h of operation – not bad. My next shift begins at 22:00. Franck worked 20m to North America, but now we want to check out 160m. Patrick, F2DX, sets up the Beverages and its preamplifier. After a short while, I have a big pileup from Europe. I can even hear first signals from the USA although it is not yet dark there. But switching to the second Beverage, I can quiet Europe and work a few more. After three hours, it seems that my earphones have penetrated the ears and reached the brain. But I stand the pain and finally hand over to Patrick with 360 QSOs in the log. After passing some info to him, I go to bed.	The accomodation
___ Saturday, January 12, 2019 Thanks to the Beverage antennas, but also to the good conditions, the 160m log could be filled with 760 QSOs last night. The Europe Beverage is completely quiet. The North America Beverage is a little noisier, but that is irrelevant in the light of the good strength of the incoming signals. At noon, I take over from Franck on 15m. Many callers in the beginning, but it gets rather quiet after a while. Patrick observed another strange detail about our imprecise CW signal timing. Speed 30 and 32 WPM show this effect, but 28 and 34 sound fine. Only a few callers are left, so I choose 28 WPM. One caller suggests QSY to 12m. I do that after a while and work about 50 QSOs there, mostly with South Europe, but also with a few North Americans. After some CQ, I'm asked for QSY to 10m and again I do it. But this time, I can work only 18 QSOs with EA and CT. I go back to 15m and call CQ for a while. Suddenly, maybe supported by a cluster spot, many stations from North America come in. But now it's time for Patrick to take over. It's weekend and some visitors arrive on the island. The first one is a young fellow called Charly, he wants to stay for one week. A group of young people from Belgium and Portugal arrive a little later, they return to the mainland after a few hours. And a group of local women shows up, having fun by taking photos on the beach. As is starts getting dark, I notice tremendous numbers of fruit bats above us. Now they fly to the mainland to find food, at sunrise they return to their sleeping places on the islands. And Greg returns from Freetown with his girl friend. She joins us for dinner, but she will stay only for the weekend. After dinner, I go to bed – my next shift begins at midnight.
___ Sunday, January 13, 2019 My cell phone alarm goes off 20 minutes late, so I rush to the shack. But they are just about to resume operation after fixing generator problems. Patrick says that 160m is extremely noisy, even on the Beverages. So I stay on 80m, using the Beverages with a good rate. I work a bunch of QSOs with Europe on that Beverage, followed by a bunch of QSOs with North America on the other Beverage. At 03:00, the generator quits and gives us another break. I help refilling gas and engine oil. Back at the station, I find the notebook in sleep mode. Win-Test has “forgotten” the computer network and must be restarted. Fun fact: The CW signal at 30 and 32 WPM is now fine again... The calling signals keep getting smaller and smaller. I can barely hear anyone in the noise of the North America Beverage, but I can work many of these stations on the quiet Europe Beverage. Eric, ON7RN, arrives on time to take over and I can go back to bed for some more sleep. The CW team pushes the 80m QSO count to 1750 this night. At breakfast, Patrick reports that 160m was still very noisy at sunrise. The sky is overcast today, a light breeze keeps the temperature comfortable. The breakfast omelette is served with herbs today, it's Sunday. At noon, I spend a while at the FT8 station on 12m. The callers are almost exclusively from Spain. Some strong signals are not decoded. Others are decoded and worked, but then they continue calling. Strange... My day shift starts at 13:00, taking over from Patrick on 20m. He warns me that the pileup is huge and wild. In fact, it spans over 5 kHz without significant gaps. Like Patrick, I work with high CW speed. Patrick takes over while I have lunch. The afternoon is rather boring. Operations are running smoothly now, nothing needs to be fixed or supported. After my dinner, I take over for Patrick so he can have dinner, too. He is now working on a 40m pileup that is even stronger than earlier on 20m. Signals from Europe and America are coming in with equal strength. Our team leader Frank reports that we have more than 16000 QSOs in our logs now. My next shift starts at 22:00. Jean-Luc, F1ULQ, has already checked the condition of 160m. It is noisy, but quiet on the Beverage. I start calling to Japan, listening down, but no success. I guess it's too late for that. But the signals from Europe are fine, and the first signals from North America are heard a little later. Patrick shows up early, but doesn't want to take over yet. When he went to sleep earlier that evening, he said (with a grin in his face) that he was not going to take over until I reach 1000 QSOs. The signals are smaller now, so it's harder to pull them out of the noise. But just before Patrick's scheduled shift, I log QSO #1000 so I can go to bed – with a grin in my face this time.	The 160m GP (actually inverted L)
___ Monday, January 14, 2019 After breakfast, I take over for Franck so he can have breakfast. But when he is finished, only 15 minutes of his shift are left and the next shift will be mine, too. So Franck lets me continue. I work on 15m and this time I end up calling CQ after a while. But 20m is available so I grab it. A good pileup builds over time, but it's hard to achieve a good rate. Too many medium signals merge in a limited range, rarely one sticks out to be worked. After three hours, I pass this pileup back to Franck for his next shift. Lunch is served a little late today (16:00) and Patrick shows up. Actually he planned to join the snorkeling tour today, but he canceled that because of a beginning cold... I take care of the FT8 station again to learn more about this mode. It seems that only two out of ten callers make it into the log. I wonder if the others have problems to understand that they are supposed to call in Hound mode, or if WSJT isn't working correctly on our side (Fox mode). We occupied half of the restaurant area for our shack. It is protected by a wooden roof, but otherwise open. The light breeze that kept mosquitoes away from us has died down, so the first one finds me today. We got some mosquito nets for the stations that were not used so far. But now I start installing them so we can use them during the night. When my next shift starts at 21:00, the team is busy switching to the other generator. This gives me the time I need to put the mosquito net in place. But it seems that it's Murphy day. I try to continue on 30m, but the band seems to be almost closed. So I try 160m, but the Europe antenna is too quiet. I can hear (and work) a DL station on the North America Beverage, but not on the Europe antenna. Patrick and Eric are still around, so I ask them for support. While I try listening on the GP, making only a few QSOs, they try this and that, and finally locate the problem in the coax cable. With a spare coax, the Europe Beverage is usable again. However, conditions are not good and I barely make 100 QSOs. So we agree that I change to 40m because we believe that there is a lot of demand. But first I choose the wrong connector (there are two “40m” connectors on the antenna panel, but we have only one antenna – remember: Murphy) and then the amplifier doesn't deliver power. Eventually I find the reason for this on the radio: It is still set for split operation and the other VFO is still on 160m. But I couldn't see that because the radio display was set for power output instead of the VFO B frequency... Having sorted out all these problems, I finally create another big pileup with many callers from the American west coast and even Alaska. At 01:00, Patrick takes over and I go to bed.
___ Tuesday, January 15, 2019 There's little news about last night. After breakfast, I take over from Franck. 30m is almost dead, so I try 12m but make only 20 QSOs with EA and CT. Our SSB station made 80 QSOs on 10m yesterday, but nobody seems to hear my CQ there today. So I take 17m from the FT8 station and another pileup builds quickly. There are many callers from Europe but also more and more from North America. Franck continues on 17m at 14:00. Our friend Charly flies his drone today, but suddenly it is attacked by a big bird of prey. The drone seems to drop into the ocean, but the fall stops just two meters above the water and it returns to Charly. Is this an emergency program for cases like this or just luck ? Our pilot in France reports many complaints about FT8 QSOs missing in the online log. We find a kind of event log that contains information about successful QSOs which we can't find in the ADIF log. I have a compiler on my private notebook, so I start writing a tool that converts the event log into a new ADIF log. I'm confident that it will solve the problem before we return home.	Various GPs on the beach
__ Wednesday, January 16, 2019 At 01:00 I take over from Patrick, he is logging the last QSOs on a closing band. 40M would be available, but we check 160m first. The conditions are not as good as during the first night, but good enough to keep me on the band for the entire four hours. 1 kHz above my signal I hear many stations that seem to listen to someone else, so I work “up 2”. Many callers give me 559, so my signal seems to be weaker than before. But I can work stations in the northern west coast of America and push the QSO count to 1600 until Eric takes over. He adds 30 more and then changes to the 30m band. I wake up before breakfast time and take another look at my FT8 log converter. I correct one detail and now my log lists 1232 QSOs vs. 1110 QSOs in the original ADIF log. It's excursion day for many of us. Some go hiking with a local guide, others go snorkeling with our host Greg. I sit at the FT8 station again when Franck asks me to take over the CW station. He tried 10 and 12m with few QSOs, so I take 17m with me from FT8 to CW. Some pileup unfolds but after a while I start calling CQ. Someone asks me for 20m, but the RTTY station is active there and the op wants to stay. Patrick is back from his tour and takes over. He goes back to 12m, switching bands with the FT8 station again. Later I take the FT8 station to 30m, this seems to bring more QSOs than the upper bands. We are one of the first DXpeditions using the brand new Fox/Hound mode. I notice several stations that repeatedly don't manage a QSO with us. After a while they try again and now they get into the log. Apparently they changed the decisive detail in their setup. Later I take over from Eric on the CW station and QSY to 20m. A strong pileup builds with callers from Europe and North America. The QSO rate starts high but gets slower and slower. Primarily European stations extend their QSO with me transmitting unnecessarily long sequences of phrases at the end. Patrick takes over after 90 minutes, it's dinner time. We can enjoy a grilled Barracuda, caught by Charly. We setup a CW shift plan for the night and create an up-to-date FT8 log with my converter, then I go to bed.
___ Thursday, January 17, 2019 Once again my shift starts at 01:00, taking over 40m from Patrick. The pileup is strong and wide with signals from North America and Europe, but it seems to me that the demand is slowly going back. The wind is getting stronger and after one hour, a gust is almost blowing the vertical part of the mosquito net over the station and me. I take a short break to secure it with an unused coax switch and an empty bottle. Another hour later, a contest begins in the USA, causing lots of confusion in my split range. I try 7004 kHz, but our FT8 station on 80m causes significant noise here. Europe gets a chance now, but the signals are generally not very strong. The contest ends after one hour, so I return to 7024 kHz and stay until Eric arrives to take over. I'm very tired, so I go back to sleep. When I wake up at 09:30, I'm not hungry. But I get up and go to the shack anyway. Breakfast has been served, pancakes with honey or cocoa. I made it a habit to check the radials of the 160m GP in the morning. It's low tide now, but the wind caused bigger waves last night. The waves washed many radials out of place, coiled them up, buried the mess in sand or under a rock. Returning to the shack, Franck asks me to take over. So I work on 17m for an hour. Later, Charly shows us some videos he made with his drone. One of the videos stops just when the bird attacks. Charly was afraid of losing the drone, so he doesn't plan further flights. The ocean remains turbulent today, washing lots of debris on the beach and into the rocks. Besides tons of plastic, there are surprisingly many sandals and sneakers that don't look worn our at all... Lunch is lentil soup and fish today. I take over from Eric while he has lunch. He just QSYed to 10m and I hear some nice signals from Europe and also North America. Eric comes back soon, but loses some of this valuable opening because it's time for the regular generator change. I don't want to have another deep night shift, so I get the evening shift. I get myself a beer to celebrate the 10m opening, then I take some rest. Back in the shack, I spend half an hour with FT8 on 20m. We are making 80 QSOs per hour here – amazing ! At the scheduled begin of my shift, it is getting dark. But Franck is still quite busy on 10m, so I give him some extra time. Only 15 minutes later, the band has closed. I take over and QSY to 80m. My first CQ on our standard frequency 3524 kHz seems to be a bad idea. Later we find out that strong noise made a part of the band unusable at this time. 3504 kHz works much better, but it seems to be QRMed by policemen... I move half a kHz to the side and give “up 5”. Some stations hear me and get their QSO. Then I hear signals from Japan and immediately call “JA only”. Jean-Luc is doing the same on 40m SSB. But my signal doesn't seem to be very loud there, often I have to call a station several times before I get a response. The best time seems to be 22:30, after that the signals get weaker rapidly. I switch to “ASIA only” and work mostly stations from China and Siberia, these guys have waited patiently for their turn. Patrick arrives to take over, I recommend him to continue calling Asia because the signals are good. This night I can catch up with much appreciated sleep.
___ Friday, January 18, 2019 When I come to the shack, breakfast is served. Lots of variety today: Small pancakes with honey, scrambled egg and fried potatoes. Wind and ocean are calmer this morning. Franck is quite busy at the CW station. I spend some more time at the FT8 station and for an update of the corrected FT8 log. The upload to Clublog doesn't work, obviously our data volume has been used up... Then I start a shift on 20m CW. Many callers, but bad rate. Many callers don't come back when I call. QRM on my transmit frequency ? After some time it gets really bad, so I move one kHz lower and “up 4”, spanning the former mess. This improves the rate a lot and I pass this on to Patrick. After lunch (chicken and fried potatoes), I work some more FT8 on 15m, including QSOs with two friends back home in DL. Once, the QSO rate reaches 100 QSOs per hour, quite amazing. At the same time, the SSB station on 12m and RTTY on 10m have nice openings. CW remains on 20m and passes the mark of 4000 QSOs on this band. Patrick plans simultaneous CW operation on 160m and 80m tonight, sharing the Beverage antennas. So we reconfigure the FT8 station for CW and prepare everything else. The tide is quite high this evening, but the antennas remain dry. After dinner, we start operating with two CW stations. I start using the Mixed (FT8) station on 30m and get quite busy, but after a while I take 80m from the RTTY station that was rather busy there – even without using a Beverage. After just a few CQs I hear signals from Japan and work them exclusively. I make sure that I have the correct callsign before I give them a report, but rarely get an instant response. When a QSO is finished, dozens of others call on that frequency and I have to turn the dial for a better chance. Patrick is also working Japan on 160m. After a while he says the band was completely dead, but another while later he gets rather busy again. Japan signals get weak, so I start accepting calls from all Asia and still work some stations from Japan in between. From time to time, I have to remind callers from Europe that it's not their turn now. Finally, I can no longer copy signals from Asia. Accepting callers from Europe quickly fills my earphones with roaring. It's not long until I hear the first callers from North America, too. The QSO rate jumps up, thanks to numerous loud signals. Eric arrives on time for his shift, but has some talk with the other ops first. My earphones must be red-hot and I am tired, but go on for a full hour until Eric begins operation. I help passing 80m to the CW station, then I'm going straight to bed.	The shack. Front: ON7RN at the CW station.
___ Saturday, January 19, 2019 It's the last full day of operation. The 160m antenna will be dismantled today, and the high band GPs will be removed once these bands have closed. The weather has calmed down further, light wind goes toward the mainland, for a change. A local employee cleans the beach, removing lots of plastic and some pieces of wood. My next shift starts after breakfast, I continue on 15m with few callers. Two hours later, Eric takes over and laments that I left nothing to do for him. We take advantage of the low tide, remove the radials of the 160m antenna and then the rest of it. Lunch is served unusually early today, so we interrupt work and complete it after the dessert. It's also time for the team photos, so all stations go QRT for a while. After that, we find the high bands wide open. I try 15m FT8 on the Mixed station, but no response. So I reconfigure for CW and start another wild pileup with callers from Central Europe to western USA. But now the high tide turns out to be a little too high, the water reaches the 17m GP. We have to move the antennas closer to the shack. By the time we are done with that, 15m is almost closed... I can work a few last mini-signals, then Eric takes over and QSYs to 30m. I go for some swimming in the ocean, but this is not really fun with all the plastic garbage in the water. After dinner, I take over from Eric on 30m. The pileup is still strong, but getting weaker over time. Eric comes back shortly before midnight, the pileup is down to a few callers now. All ops of our team seem to be rather tired, so I wonder if all four stations will be manned during the night. Before I sleep, I set an alarm for 03:00...	The operator team.
___ Sunday, January 19, 2019 My room mate Herman helps me to get awake. Three ops are at the shack, but nobody for CW. Our team leader Frank is one of them, he is afraid that we might miss the goal of 50000 QSOs – about 180 are missing. The rate on the active stations is low, so he gives me 40m and I try my best although I'd rather get some more sleep. There's some noise from the FT8 station on 80m, but the incoming signals are good and with the help of the Europe Beverage, I can achieve a rate of 100 QSOs/h for two hours. Two stations are running FT8 in parallel, this should be sufficient to surpass our goal. At 05:30, team members start tearing down the last antennas, so I stop and go back to bed. But I can't sleep, so I pack my suitcase and get my last pieces of equipment from the shack. Then I help cleaning and packing the radio equipment in the shack. Breakfast is served at 09:00, Greg is there with news for our trip to the airport. Our “taxi” boat arrives, so we say good-bye to the guest house crew and Charly. He will also leave today, but much later. Greg takes most of us into his boat, the others go with all the baggage in the second boat. After arrival at the harbor and saying farewell to Greg, we find two minibuses awaiting us. This time we can take the ferry, so the buses take us to and through Freetown. At the ferry harbor, we have to wait quite a while before we can roll aboard. We use the time for a final update of the FT8 log and its upload to Clublog. During the short ferry trip, a dozen merchants offer all kinds of portable goods to the passengers. Once arrived on the other side and rolled off the ferry, it's only 30 minutes until we arrive at the airport. We are very early, we even have to wait outside the terminal building. Finally we may enter and absolve the check-in procedures. We have time for a meal in a burger restaurant, including some beer to celebrate that we actually surpassed our goal of 50000 QSOs. The nicer part of our trip back home ends here. On board the plane, the captain announces that this is KLM's last service to Freetown and Monrovia. And departure is delayed because of fueling problems at our next stop Monrovia, so we add fuel here in Freetown. The flight to Monrovia takes only 30 minutes. The fuel pump has been repaired, so we fuel up once more. With a delay of 20 minutes, we take off to Amsterdam.
___ Monday, January 20, 2019 Murphy is certainly flying with us. We are promised that all connecting flights will be reached, but then a ground vehicle blocks the parking space for our airplane. Just a minute after leaving the plane, I am stopped by policemen and lose more time to explain why I have a preliminary passport. I can catch up with the team before carry-on baggage check, but the checking position closes right in front of me. I have to line up again at the next position. I cannot use the automatic passport check and the officer asks me (again) why I have a preliminary document. Finally arriving at the gate of our connecting flight, I meet the entire team - we missed it. We have to wait three hours for the next flight. We get ourselves some coffee and wait. At the gate of the new connecting flight, we see many people and we hear that the flight was canceled. WHAT ?? Just kidding, the flight leaves ten minutes late. After arrival in Paris Charles de Gaulle, I watch how bags are unloaded from our plane – few bags ! But at baggage claim, we get every single piece – phew ! It seems that Murphy stayed in Amsterdam. The F6KOP support team gives us a warm welcome. We stow the equipment in their vehicle and wave good-bye, then we disperse for the last part of our trip home. Jean-Luc and I have to buy another train ticket because with all the delay, we missed our booked train. In the TGV to Strasbourg, our seats are already (legally) occupied. But we get nice seats in a quiet compartment at the end of the train. We find some time to check mails and summarize our expedition. After saying good bye to Jean-Luc, the rest of my trip is dominated by on-time trains. Dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (no chicken, no fish, please) concludes my day.
Sincere thanks to the F6KOP team for making it possible. Thanks also to Greg and the crew of the “Dalton's Guest House” for the valuable preparations and friendly support ! 9LY1JM operators: Jean-Luc F1ULQ (co-leader), Frank F4AJQ (team leader), Jean-Michel F4DLM, Jean-Baptiste F4ERY, Franck F5TVG, Julien F8AVK, Herman ON4QX, Eric ON7RN and Andy DL3GA.
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9LY1JM – DXpedition to Banana Islands, Sierra Leone, by F6KOP Radio Club
DL3GA's story

After several trips to countries in West Africa, the F6KOP team targets another one this year, but combined with an IOTA location. The Banana islands were activated by several expeditions before, so this location seems to offer some advantages. For Germany, traveling to Sierra Leone requires a visa. It can be obtained by internet and mail, but the return letter gets “lost” by Deutsche Post. I have to get a temporary passport and another visa from the embassy in Berlin. I receive it only three days before departure...

___ Wednesday, January 09, 2019

After having traveled via Strasbourg to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris the day before and some good sleep at night, I'm one of the first team members at the meeting point. A major traffic jam causes significant delay for the main group coming from F6KOP, but we all make check-in and baggage check for the first flight with Air France to Amsterdam. From there, a KLM Airbus 330 takes us directly to Freetown, Sierra Leone. As usual, the flights are uneventful; I manage to watch three movies. We clear all stations at the airport and find the minibus crew awaiting us. The vehicle is big enough for us, OR for our baggage. It takes a while to squeeze everything inside. It's late evening and at this time of the day, the ferry to Freetown city is not available. So we spend hours on the road before arriving at our guest house in Kent beach. We conclude the day with a late meal and some beer.

___ Thursday, January 10, 2019

I barely sleep before we get up at 7 and pack. Locals help us carrying all the bags down the beach to the fishing boat harbor. From here, we can spot the Banana islands, our final destination, in the mist. We have to pay a local tax, then two stately fishing boats appear that are first loaded with our bags. After a while, we board them and start heading towards the islands. The boats take a bow around the first island point and land on the beach at our guest house. The owner Greg welcomes us while locals unload the boats. Breakfast is served and Greg gives us information for the time of our stay. We'll almost be the only guests and have priority for our mission. We move into our rooms, mostly two-bed, and select good places for the antennas. Greg took care that we have two generators, one diesel and one gasoline, that we will use alternately. Team members prepare some electric installation while others erect antennas. This time, all antennas are ground planes (GP), placed directly on the beach. I work on the GP for 160m. Fiber mast and radiator wire are new, but the wire is way too long and must be cut to resonance. The beach at the guest house is mostly sand, but most of the island's water line is covered with massive black rocks. We place the 160m antenna in a gap to achieve a stable stand. We finish the antenna just before it gets dark. At dinner time, all antennas and four stations are ready for action. But first the entire team enjoys dinner. I get the first shift on 80m but can't get the radio to transmit. Only after exchanging the radio with another station, I can finally run the first QSOs. After only a few simplex contacts I have to run split because an enormous pileup builds. The band is very quiet, so I can listen on the GP without problem. Two Beverage antennas would be available, but I don't need them. I work mostly Europe and North America, but even some stations from Japan make it into the log. Eric, ON7RN, takes over at midnight. I walk to the room that I share with Herman, ON4QX. He's asleep and it doesn't take long until I fall asleep, too.

___ Friday, January 11, 2019

I get up around 08:00 and check out the shower. It works by scooping some fresh water from a bucket over the body. To flush the toilet, I pour a bucket of salt water. There is no air condition, the guest house is not a luxury resort. I walk to the shack, although my next shift is more than an hour away. I learn that the ocean flooded several antennas this morning. The team is busy moving the antennas further away from the water line. The 40m GP was placed at the end of a concrete wall about 20m into the ocean, which creates a calm landing area for boats. But when the water rose, it washed over the wall. Consequently, the feed point of the 40m GP is now under water; the antenna no longer usable. The CW station is lucky because the 80m GP remains dry. I take over from Franck, F5TVG, running a pileup on 17m. First I achieve a rate of over 200 QSOs/h, but then some QRM from our RTTY station on 15m, as well the time-consuming style of some callers, slows me down. However, I stay on 17m for my entire shift. At the end, I can only hear callers when the 15m station is not transmitting. Moreover, our CW signal timing is rather imprecise. Eric wants to find out why, but finds no solution. This is strange because the same equipment was used on former expeditions but never had this problem before. After lunch, all stations go QRT for antenna work. We can now salvage the 40m GP and move it to a dry place. The 160m GP feed point was also flooded, we just lift it to the top of the next rock and secure it there. In spite of this break, we find 4000 QSOs in our logs after the first 24h of operation – not bad. My next shift begins at 22:00. Franck worked 20m to North America, but now we want to check out 160m. Patrick, F2DX, sets up the Beverages and its preamplifier. After a short while, I have a big pileup from Europe. I can even hear first signals from the USA although it is not yet dark there. But switching to the second Beverage, I can quiet Europe and work a few more. After three hours, it seems that my earphones have penetrated the ears and reached the brain. But I stand the pain and finally hand over to Patrick with 360 QSOs in the log. After passing some info to him, I go to bed.

The accomodation

___ Saturday, January 12, 2019

Thanks to the Beverage antennas, but also to the good conditions, the 160m log could be filled with 760 QSOs last night. The Europe Beverage is completely quiet. The North America Beverage is a little noisier, but that is irrelevant in the light of the good strength of the incoming signals. At noon, I take over from Franck on 15m. Many callers in the beginning, but it gets rather quiet after a while. Patrick observed another strange detail about our imprecise CW signal timing. Speed 30 and 32 WPM show this effect, but 28 and 34 sound fine. Only a few callers are left, so I choose 28 WPM. One caller suggests QSY to 12m. I do that after a while and work about 50 QSOs there, mostly with South Europe, but also with a few North Americans. After some CQ, I'm asked for QSY to 10m and again I do it. But this time, I can work only 18 QSOs with EA and CT. I go back to 15m and call CQ for a while. Suddenly, maybe supported by a cluster spot, many stations from North America come in. But now it's time for Patrick to take over. It's weekend and some visitors arrive on the island. The first one is a young fellow called Charly, he wants to stay for one week. A group of young people from Belgium and Portugal arrive a little later, they return to the mainland after a few hours. And a group of local women shows up, having fun by taking photos on the beach. As is starts getting dark, I notice tremendous numbers of fruit bats above us. Now they fly to the mainland to find food, at sunrise they return to their sleeping places on the islands. And Greg returns from Freetown with his girl friend. She joins us for dinner, but she will stay only for the weekend. After dinner, I go to bed – my next shift begins at midnight.

___ Sunday, January 13, 2019

My cell phone alarm goes off 20 minutes late, so I rush to the shack. But they are just about to resume operation after fixing generator problems. Patrick says that 160m is extremely noisy, even on the Beverages. So I stay on 80m, using the Beverages with a good rate. I work a bunch of QSOs with Europe on that Beverage, followed by a bunch of QSOs with North America on the other Beverage. At 03:00, the generator quits and gives us another break. I help refilling gas and engine oil. Back at the station, I find the notebook in sleep mode. Win-Test has “forgotten” the computer network and must be restarted. Fun fact: The CW signal at 30 and 32 WPM is now fine again... The calling signals keep getting smaller and smaller. I can barely hear anyone in the noise of the North America Beverage, but I can work many of these stations on the quiet Europe Beverage. Eric, ON7RN, arrives on time to take over and I can go back to bed for some more sleep.
The CW team pushes the 80m QSO count to 1750 this night. At breakfast, Patrick reports that 160m was still very noisy at sunrise. The sky is overcast today, a light breeze keeps the temperature comfortable. The breakfast omelette is served with herbs today, it's Sunday. At noon, I spend a while at the FT8 station on 12m. The callers are almost exclusively from Spain. Some strong signals are not decoded. Others are decoded and worked, but then they continue calling. Strange... My day shift starts at 13:00, taking over from Patrick on 20m. He warns me that the pileup is huge and wild. In fact, it spans over 5 kHz without significant gaps. Like Patrick, I work with high CW speed. Patrick takes over while I have lunch. The afternoon is rather boring. Operations are running smoothly now, nothing needs to be fixed or supported. After my dinner, I take over for Patrick so he can have dinner, too. He is now working on a 40m pileup that is even stronger than earlier on 20m. Signals from Europe and America are coming in with equal strength. Our team leader Frank reports that we have more than 16000 QSOs in our logs now. My next shift starts at 22:00. Jean-Luc, F1ULQ, has already checked the condition of 160m. It is noisy, but quiet on the Beverage. I start calling to Japan, listening down, but no success. I guess it's too late for that. But the signals from Europe are fine, and the first signals from North America are heard a little later. Patrick shows up early, but doesn't want to take over yet. When he went to sleep earlier that evening, he said (with a grin in his face) that he was not going to take over until I reach 1000 QSOs. The signals are smaller now, so it's harder to pull them out of the noise. But just before Patrick's scheduled shift, I log QSO #1000 so I can go to bed – with a grin in my face this time.

The 160m GP (actually inverted L)

___ Monday, January 14, 2019

After breakfast, I take over for Franck so he can have breakfast. But when he is finished, only 15 minutes of his shift are left and the next shift will be mine, too. So Franck lets me continue. I work on 15m and this time I end up calling CQ after a while. But 20m is available so I grab it. A good pileup builds over time, but it's hard to achieve a good rate. Too many medium signals merge in a limited range, rarely one sticks out to be worked. After three hours, I pass this pileup back to Franck for his next shift. Lunch is served a little late today (16:00) and Patrick shows up. Actually he planned to join the snorkeling tour today, but he canceled that because of a beginning cold... I take care of the FT8 station again to learn more about this mode. It seems that only two out of ten callers make it into the log. I wonder if the others have problems to understand that they are supposed to call in Hound mode, or if WSJT isn't working correctly on our side (Fox mode). We occupied half of the restaurant area for our shack. It is protected by a wooden roof, but otherwise open. The light breeze that kept mosquitoes away from us has died down, so the first one finds me today. We got some mosquito nets for the stations that were not used so far. But now I start installing them so we can use them during the night. When my next shift starts at 21:00, the team is busy switching to the other generator. This gives me the time I need to put the mosquito net in place. But it seems that it's Murphy day. I try to continue on 30m, but the band seems to be almost closed. So I try 160m, but the Europe antenna is too quiet. I can hear (and work) a DL station on the North America Beverage, but not on the Europe antenna. Patrick and Eric are still around, so I ask them for support. While I try listening on the GP, making only a few QSOs, they try this and that, and finally locate the problem in the coax cable. With a spare coax, the Europe Beverage is usable again. However, conditions are not good and I barely make 100 QSOs. So we agree that I change to 40m because we believe that there is a lot of demand. But first I choose the wrong connector (there are two “40m” connectors on the antenna panel, but we have only one antenna – remember: Murphy) and then the amplifier doesn't deliver power. Eventually I find the reason for this on the radio: It is still set for split operation and the other VFO is still on 160m. But I couldn't see that because the radio display was set for power output instead of the VFO B frequency... Having sorted out all these problems, I finally create another big pileup with many callers from the American west coast and even Alaska. At 01:00, Patrick takes over and I go to bed.

___ Tuesday, January 15, 2019

There's little news about last night. After breakfast, I take over from Franck. 30m is almost dead, so I try 12m but make only 20 QSOs with EA and CT. Our SSB station made 80 QSOs on 10m yesterday, but nobody seems to hear my CQ there today. So I take 17m from the FT8 station and another pileup builds quickly. There are many callers from Europe but also more and more from North America. Franck continues on 17m at 14:00. Our friend Charly flies his drone today, but suddenly it is attacked by a big bird of prey. The drone seems to drop into the ocean, but the fall stops just two meters above the water and it returns to Charly. Is this an emergency program for cases like this or just luck ? Our pilot in France reports many complaints about FT8 QSOs missing in the online log. We find a kind of event log that contains information about successful QSOs which we can't find in the ADIF log. I have a compiler on my private notebook, so I start writing a tool that converts the event log into a new ADIF log. I'm confident that it will solve the problem before we return home.

Various GPs on the beach

__ Wednesday, January 16, 2019

At 01:00 I take over from Patrick, he is logging the last QSOs on a closing band. 40M would be available, but we check 160m first. The conditions are not as good as during the first night, but good enough to keep me on the band for the entire four hours. 1 kHz above my signal I hear many stations that seem to listen to someone else, so I work “up 2”. Many callers give me 559, so my signal seems to be weaker than before. But I can work stations in the northern west coast of America and push the QSO count to 1600 until Eric takes over. He adds 30 more and then changes to the 30m band. I wake up before breakfast time and take another look at my FT8 log converter. I correct one detail and now my log lists 1232 QSOs vs. 1110 QSOs in the original ADIF log. It's excursion day for many of us. Some go hiking with a local guide, others go snorkeling with our host Greg. I sit at the FT8 station again when Franck asks me to take over the CW station. He tried 10 and 12m with few QSOs, so I take 17m with me from FT8 to CW. Some pileup unfolds but after a while I start calling CQ. Someone asks me for 20m, but the RTTY station is active there and the op wants to stay. Patrick is back from his tour and takes over. He goes back to 12m, switching bands with the FT8 station again. Later I take the FT8 station to 30m, this seems to bring more QSOs than the upper bands. We are one of the first DXpeditions using the brand new Fox/Hound mode. I notice several stations that repeatedly don't manage a QSO with us. After a while they try again and now they get into the log. Apparently they changed the decisive detail in their setup. Later I take over from Eric on the CW station and QSY to 20m. A strong pileup builds with callers from Europe and North America. The QSO rate starts high but gets slower and slower. Primarily European stations extend their QSO with me transmitting unnecessarily long sequences of phrases at the end. Patrick takes over after 90 minutes, it's dinner time. We can enjoy a grilled Barracuda, caught by Charly. We setup a CW shift plan for the night and create an up-to-date FT8 log with my converter, then I go to bed.

___ Thursday, January 17, 2019

Once again my shift starts at 01:00, taking over 40m from Patrick. The pileup is strong and wide with signals from North America and Europe, but it seems to me that the demand is slowly going back. The wind is getting stronger and after one hour, a gust is almost blowing the vertical part of the mosquito net over the station and me. I take a short break to secure it with an unused coax switch and an empty bottle. Another hour later, a contest begins in the USA, causing lots of confusion in my split range. I try 7004 kHz, but our FT8 station on 80m causes significant noise here. Europe gets a chance now, but the signals are generally not very strong. The contest ends after one hour, so I return to 7024 kHz and stay until Eric arrives to take over. I'm very tired, so I go back to sleep. When I wake up at 09:30, I'm not hungry. But I get up and go to the shack anyway. Breakfast has been served, pancakes with honey or cocoa. I made it a habit to check the radials of the 160m GP in the morning. It's low tide now, but the wind caused bigger waves last night. The waves washed many radials out of place, coiled them up, buried the mess in sand or under a rock. Returning to the shack, Franck asks me to take over. So I work on 17m for an hour. Later, Charly shows us some videos he made with his drone. One of the videos stops just when the bird attacks. Charly was afraid of losing the drone, so he doesn't plan further flights. The ocean remains turbulent today, washing lots of debris on the beach and into the rocks. Besides tons of plastic, there are surprisingly many sandals and sneakers that don't look worn our at all... Lunch is lentil soup and fish today. I take over from Eric while he has lunch. He just QSYed to 10m and I hear some nice signals from Europe and also North America. Eric comes back soon, but loses some of this valuable opening because it's time for the regular generator change. I don't want to have another deep night shift, so I get the evening shift. I get myself a beer to celebrate the 10m opening, then I take some rest. Back in the shack, I spend half an hour with FT8 on 20m. We are making 80 QSOs per hour here – amazing ! At the scheduled begin of my shift, it is getting dark. But Franck is still quite busy on 10m, so I give him some extra time. Only 15 minutes later, the band has closed. I take over and QSY to 80m. My first CQ on our standard frequency 3524 kHz seems to be a bad idea. Later we find out that strong noise made a part of the band unusable at this time. 3504 kHz works much better, but it seems to be QRMed by policemen... I move half a kHz to the side and give “up 5”. Some stations hear me and get their QSO. Then I hear signals from Japan and immediately call “JA only”. Jean-Luc is doing the same on 40m SSB. But my signal doesn't seem to be very loud there, often I have to call a station several times before I get a response. The best time seems to be 22:30, after that the signals get weaker rapidly. I switch to “ASIA only” and work mostly stations from China and Siberia, these guys have waited patiently for their turn. Patrick arrives to take over, I recommend him to continue calling Asia because the signals are good. This night I can catch up with much appreciated sleep.

___ Friday, January 18, 2019

When I come to the shack, breakfast is served. Lots of variety today: Small pancakes with honey, scrambled egg and fried potatoes. Wind and ocean are calmer this morning. Franck is quite busy at the CW station. I spend some more time at the FT8 station and for an update of the corrected FT8 log. The upload to Clublog doesn't work, obviously our data volume has been used up... Then I start a shift on 20m CW. Many callers, but bad rate. Many callers don't come back when I call. QRM on my transmit frequency ? After some time it gets really bad, so I move one kHz lower and “up 4”, spanning the former mess. This improves the rate a lot and I pass this on to Patrick. After lunch (chicken and fried potatoes), I work some more FT8 on 15m, including QSOs with two friends back home in DL. Once, the QSO rate reaches 100 QSOs per hour, quite amazing. At the same time, the SSB station on 12m and RTTY on 10m have nice openings. CW remains on 20m and passes the mark of 4000 QSOs on this band. Patrick plans simultaneous CW operation on 160m and 80m tonight, sharing the Beverage antennas. So we reconfigure the FT8 station for CW and prepare everything else. The tide is quite high this evening, but the antennas remain dry. After dinner, we start operating with two CW stations. I start using the Mixed (FT8) station on 30m and get quite busy, but after a while I take 80m from the RTTY station that was rather busy there – even without using a Beverage. After just a few CQs I hear signals from Japan and work them exclusively. I make sure that I have the correct callsign before I give them a report, but rarely get an instant response. When a QSO is finished, dozens of others call on that frequency and I have to turn the dial for a better chance. Patrick is also working Japan on 160m. After a while he says the band was completely dead, but another while later he gets rather busy again. Japan signals get weak, so I start accepting calls from all Asia and still work some stations from Japan in between. From time to time, I have to remind callers from Europe that it's not their turn now. Finally, I can no longer copy signals from Asia. Accepting callers from Europe quickly fills my earphones with roaring. It's not long until I hear the first callers from North America, too. The QSO rate jumps up, thanks to numerous loud signals. Eric arrives on time for his shift, but has some talk with the other ops first. My earphones must be red-hot and I am tired, but go on for a full hour until Eric begins operation. I help passing 80m to the CW station, then I'm going straight to bed.

The shack. Front: ON7RN at the CW station.

___ Saturday, January 19, 2019

It's the last full day of operation. The 160m antenna will be dismantled today, and the high band GPs will be removed once these bands have closed. The weather has calmed down further, light wind goes toward the mainland, for a change. A local employee cleans the beach, removing lots of plastic and some pieces of wood. My next shift starts after breakfast, I continue on 15m with few callers. Two hours later, Eric takes over and laments that I left nothing to do for him. We take advantage of the low tide, remove the radials of the 160m antenna and then the rest of it. Lunch is served unusually early today, so we interrupt work and complete it after the dessert. It's also time for the team photos, so all stations go QRT for a while. After that, we find the high bands wide open. I try 15m FT8 on the Mixed station, but no response. So I reconfigure for CW and start another wild pileup with callers from Central Europe to western USA. But now the high tide turns out to be a little too high, the water reaches the 17m GP. We have to move the antennas closer to the shack. By the time we are done with that, 15m is almost closed... I can work a few last mini-signals, then Eric takes over and QSYs to 30m. I go for some swimming in the ocean, but this is not really fun with all the plastic garbage in the water. After dinner, I take over from Eric on 30m. The pileup is still strong, but getting weaker over time. Eric comes back shortly before midnight, the pileup is down to a few callers now. All ops of our team seem to be rather tired, so I wonder if all four stations will be manned during the night. Before I sleep, I set an alarm for 03:00...

The operator team.

___ Sunday, January 19, 2019

My room mate Herman helps me to get awake. Three ops are at the shack, but nobody for CW. Our team leader Frank is one of them, he is afraid that we might miss the goal of 50000 QSOs – about 180 are missing. The rate on the active stations is low, so he gives me 40m and I try my best although I'd rather get some more sleep. There's some noise from the FT8 station on 80m, but the incoming signals are good and with the help of the Europe Beverage, I can achieve a rate of 100 QSOs/h for two hours. Two stations are running FT8 in parallel, this should be sufficient to surpass our goal. At 05:30, team members start tearing down the last antennas, so I stop and go back to bed. But I can't sleep, so I pack my suitcase and get my last pieces of equipment from the shack. Then I help cleaning and packing the radio equipment in the shack. Breakfast is served at 09:00, Greg is there with news for our trip to the airport. Our “taxi” boat arrives, so we say good-bye to the guest house crew and Charly. He will also leave today, but much later. Greg takes most of us into his boat, the others go with all the baggage in the second boat. After arrival at the harbor and saying farewell to Greg, we find two minibuses awaiting us. This time we can take the ferry, so the buses take us to and through Freetown. At the ferry harbor, we have to wait quite a while before we can roll aboard. We use the time for a final update of the FT8 log and its upload to Clublog. During the short ferry trip, a dozen merchants offer all kinds of portable goods to the passengers. Once arrived on the other side and rolled off the ferry, it's only 30 minutes until we arrive at the airport. We are very early, we even have to wait outside the terminal building. Finally we may enter and absolve the check-in procedures. We have time for a meal in a burger restaurant, including some beer to celebrate that we actually surpassed our goal of 50000 QSOs. The nicer part of our trip back home ends here. On board the plane, the captain announces that this is KLM's last service to Freetown and Monrovia. And departure is delayed because of fueling problems at our next stop Monrovia, so we add fuel here in Freetown. The flight to Monrovia takes only 30 minutes. The fuel pump has been repaired, so we fuel up once more. With a delay of 20 minutes, we take off to Amsterdam.

___ Monday, January 20, 2019

Murphy is certainly flying with us. We are promised that all connecting flights will be reached, but then a ground vehicle blocks the parking space for our airplane. Just a minute after leaving the plane, I am stopped by policemen and lose more time to explain why I have a preliminary passport. I can catch up with the team before carry-on baggage check, but the checking position closes right in front of me. I have to line up again at the next position. I cannot use the automatic passport check and the officer asks me (again) why I have a preliminary document. Finally arriving at the gate of our connecting flight, I meet the entire team - we missed it. We have to wait three hours for the next flight. We get ourselves some coffee and wait. At the gate of the new connecting flight, we see many people and we hear that the flight was canceled. WHAT ?? Just kidding, the flight leaves ten minutes late. After arrival in Paris Charles de Gaulle, I watch how bags are unloaded from our plane – few bags ! But at baggage claim, we get every single piece – phew ! It seems that Murphy stayed in Amsterdam. The F6KOP support team gives us a warm welcome. We stow the equipment in their vehicle and wave good-bye, then we disperse for the last part of our trip home. Jean-Luc and I have to buy another train ticket because with all the delay, we missed our booked train. In the TGV to Strasbourg, our seats are already (legally) occupied. But we get nice seats in a quiet compartment at the end of the train. We find some time to check mails and summarize our expedition. After saying good bye to Jean-Luc, the rest of my trip is dominated by on-time trains. Dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (no chicken, no fish, please) concludes my day.

Sincere thanks to the F6KOP team for making it possible. Thanks also to Greg and the crew of the “Dalton's Guest House” for the valuable preparations and friendly support !

9LY1JM operators: Jean-Luc F1ULQ (co-leader), Frank F4AJQ (team leader), Jean-Michel F4DLM, Jean-Baptiste F4ERY, Franck F5TVG, Julien F8AVK, Herman ON4QX, Eric ON7RN and Andy DL3GA.

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