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D60AE – DXpedition to Moroni, Comoros Islands, by F6KOP Radio Club DL3GA's story
After a break of more than two years, forced by the Covid 19 pandemic, the F6KOP team resumes launching their annual expedition this year. The target had been set in 2021, but the pandemic made it necessary to postpone from January to October 2022. I had met several team members in Friedrichshafen, everyone was eager to finally go on tour again.
___ Wednesday, October 05, 2022 In golden October weather with high temperatures of more than 20 degrees C, I take a local train to Strasbourg and from there a TGV to Paris. Three team members join me later on this train, most of the others arrive from various directions to Charles de Gaulle airport. Check-in and the following stations can be passed without serious problems. We board an Ethiopian Airways Airbus A350-900 and take off into the night.
___ Thursday, October 06, 2022 Although landing a little late in Addis Ababa, we can proceed to the connecting flight. Jeremy EI5GM and Dave EI9FBB join us here, completing the team. A Boeing 787 takes us to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, where most of the passengers leave the airplane. After fueling up, we fly to our final destination Moroni on Grand Comore island. Issuing 15 visas for us takes a long time. At baggage claim, we find that all pieces from Paris are there, but three of four bags of our Irish friends are not. Hotel staff take us and all our equipment to the Retaj Moroni Resort. Together with Kenneth OZ1IKY I have a room in the upper floor. It's late and not far from dusk, but we manage to erect ground plane antennas for 40m, 30m, 20m and 15m. The shack is a double room at ground floor. Two SSB stations are placed in the side room, the stations for CW and digimodes are in the main room with direct access to the lawn field with our antennas. However, for the first night we plan to run only one SSB and one CW station with shortened shift times to allow everyone enough sleep. Kenneth starts CW operation at 19:15 UTC, I take over 90 minutes later. I work on 40m with callers from Australia, East Asia, Europe and South America, creating a wild pileup. Philippe F4EFU takes over later, I'm happy to finally get some sleep.
___ Friday, October 07, 2022 Kenneth wakes me up for the team meet with breakfast, scheduled for 06:00 local time. Then we start mounting the remaining antennas. I participate in the two BOGs and the ground plane for 160m. First it's sunny, but then a giant cumulus cloud builds over the volcano in the center of the island. It is very welcome because it's warm and humid anyway, making antenna work exhausting enough. At noon, we have enough stations and antennas to hit the bands with five stations simultaneously. We also have a shift plan now. Kenneth and I are not on duty, so we participate in the assembly of a second hex beam. We can't finish this because the giant cloud starts pouring out a lot of rain. We go for lunch instead. Returning to the construction site later, we find that the antenna is already finished and operational. My first shift is at 5 PM local time. Misho F8GGV has been working on 10m CW and says “they are waiting for you, many of them”. The aftermath will show that I set a new personal record, working 567 QSOs in the next 175 minutes. At the end, I am working US west coast. It has been dark for quite a while when Kenneth takes over, continuing to work this great 10m opening. It gives me hope that we will have excellent conditions on all bands during our stay. I find out that I worked with the hex beam that we helped assembling earlier. After dinner in the hotel restaurant, I go to sleep because my next shift starts in the very early morning. And the weekend is lying in front of us!	The D60AE Antenna farm: Ground planes, Hex beams
___ Saturday, October 08, 2022 I was afraid to get the demanding160m band during our sunrise, but Misho has been working on 30m. He reports that there are some callers, but with rather small signals. I work mostly USA, again many of them from the west coast. The second CW station works on 80m and then 40m, but both with few QSOs. The sunrise doesn't seem to help a lot. After a while, the daylight lets my last callers sink into the noise. 20m and 17m are used by our SSB stations, so I grab 15m with the ground plane antenna I erected after our arrival. The band seems quiet, but some CQs bring in callers from Australia and Asian Russia. Some phase noise disappears as the other CW station leaves 40m for 12m. The band remains quiet, but in the last hour of my shift it appears like “switched on”. At the end, I hand over a 2 kHz wide pileup to Kenneth. At breakfast, Patrick reports that the BOG to Japan was operational, but the BOG to Europe and North America didn't work at all last night. Kenneth and I take a look at it and find a faulty coax connector. I replace it and Kenneth adds a pull relief. Julien comes to the shack with a big smile in his face and a bottle of Pastis in his hand. The Comoros are a muslim country, so we didn't dare to buy Pastis at the duty free shops. But alcoholic beverages are available here, so we are glad that this is not the first F6KOP expedition without Pastis. The QSO count exceeds 10k today, including more than one hundred via the QO100 satellite. My afternoon shift continues on 17m, working mostly Europe but there are also some loud signals from the US west coast. It seems that the pileup grows although I am logging callers with a good rate. With time, there are more and more callers from the Americas. Kenneth continues 17m during his shift. This evening, a long time after sunset, we work stations from the Caribbean on 6m FT8.
___ Sunday, October 09, 2022 An obtrusive Mosquito bites me and the itching wakes me up ahead of time. I stop by in the restaurant for some breakfast before my shift. Misho has already switched to 12m but there are few callers at this early time of the day. I have a hex beam, so I try to turn it to northeast for a better takeoff to Japan. But I work only one station from Japan plus a bunch of VKs. After half the shift time, I start hearing more signals from Europe, so I turn the antenna back to that direction and suddenly I hear many more callers from Japan also... The QSO rate goes up and by the time I hand over to Kenneth, 12m is the band with the highest number of CW QSOs so far. I notice that the 40m ground plane has partly collapsed, so I try to fix it. I thought I could do this alone, but the fiber mast falls over while I straighten the guys. Two off-duty ops see my misery and come to help. Later today, the CW ops run QSOs on the QO100 satellite. This is quite unlike our regular “job”. Everything has to be sent by paddle and we have two sets of earphones on. One for the the CW we send, the other one to listen to the signal coming back from the satellite. Moreover, the chair is very uncomfortable for my back, so I stop after 35 QSOs. After dinner, I take over a huge 20m pileup from Misho. It is about 6 kHz wide and the callers are mostly from Europe. The signals have some echo and it is hard to extract a call for a QSO. After a while, someone calls on my transmit frequency, triggering the unavoidable police chaos. I just call CQ 500 Hz higher and listen into the pileup range. It's amazing how quickly I can run QSOs at a decent rate again because there are no longer so many callers now. The whole thing repeats after another while, now I change back to my original transmit frequency. Kenneth comes for his shift, he has more callers from the Americas now. The total QSO count exceeds 20k today.	F2DX running CW on QO-100. Photo by F1ULQ.
___ Monday, October 10, 2022 Two 4-hour shifts for Kenneth and Misho give me enough time to sleep this night. In the bathroom, I spot a Mosquito that leaves a red fleck on a tile as I kill it. Gotcha... Back from breakfast, Kenneth reports another vast pileup on 20m with callers from America and Japan last night. At 9:00 I take over 17m from Misho. There are not many callers but I can log a rather continuous stream of QSOs. After two hours, it seems that hams with low power and/or compromise antennas are now trying to reach us. It's not a good time for this because the conditions seem to be rather bad. I call CQ a lot and even switch to auto-CQ after a while. Ten minutes before the end of the shift, my hex beam is given to an SSB station and I get the 17m ground plane instead. I don't hear any callers so I end my shift a little early. I help Kenneth to switch to 12m and he continues there. Patrick reports that both BOGs perform way below any expectation. We suspect that the dry and coarse volcanic soil provides bad grounding. We need to buy some wire for radials that might improve this... After lunch, I try CW on QO100 again, but this effort results only in a few QSOs. I return to the shack early and witness several power outages. The hotel generator starts instantly, but each time our amplifiers take three minutes for warm-up. This continues during my shift. I take over 40m from Misho who reports that he often needs to repeat the report for a caller before a response comes back. I have the same problem which is probably caused by the significant ionospheric D layer reported on solarham.org. Every QSO is a real effort, but the situation improves near the end my shift. Sunrise in Japan supports many QSOs with that area and I hear the first callers from North America also. Kenneth comes and looks somewhat tired. He prefers to continue on 40m instead of checking propagation on 160m.
___ Tuesday, October 11, 2022 I feel recreated and relaxed this morning. I take over 12m from Misho, working on a ground plane antenna. The signals get smaller and smaller. Two times I'm forced to change transmit frequency, each time I go 1 kHz lower. After another power outage, my station doesn't transmit anymore. I can solve this by restarting Wintest. A few minutes later, I notice that the amplifiers of both CW stations are inactive. They are switched on correctly, but appear like switched off. Someone changes something, and after the usual warm-up time they work properly again. I pass a calm job to Kenneth and go for lunch. When chewing my first bite, a large group of people lines up at the buffet. It gets rather loud in the restaurant, so I don't stay longer than necessary. This night I have a four hour shift. I take over 30m from Misho. Most callers are from Europe and not loud, but there are a few signals from Asia and the first callers from North America also. At sunrise in Japan, I call CQ for Japan only, and surprisingly Europe remains silent. However, I can't work many QSOs. Frank asks me to check 160m while he starts running RTTY on 30m. I can make a few QSOs while listening on the ground plane. None of them is audible on one of the BOGs. Frank has a wild pileup on 30m, but he gives the band back to me and now I can log many good signals from Japan. When it seems to be over, I call for North America and hear many good signals from there also. But there are not many, so I continue working everyone. And this means callers from Japan, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Kenneth shows up for his shift, but there is not much left for him. The total QSO count exceeds 40k now.
__ Wednesday, October 12, 2022 At breakfast I learn that two bags of our two friends from Ireland have finally arrived, but one is still missing. With Kenneth I take an hour for a walk into Moroni. Then I have just enough time for a shower before my next shift begins. Misho has been working 10m on the ground plane and reports that the conditions are up and down. First I can log many stations from Japan, but it seems that I have QRM on my transmit frequency. No wonder because the band is in good shape with lots of activity. Turning the VFO knob down, I end up at 28002 and there I can work successfully. Not a big pileup, but a continuous stream of QSOs gets into the log, still many from Japan. There is not much left for Kenneth as he takes over, but that may change. It's late but I can still have lunch at the restaurant. Some ops are there and we discuss how we could improve the situation on 160m. Shall we extend the wire into the ocean? It would mean to add about 10m, but I don't change anything now. I take some rest until my shift at 23:00. Frank wants me to test 160m again and Misho sends a cluster spot. And it works quite well, the next cluster spots from Europe are promising. Some signals are audible on the BOG, but their readability is much better on the ground plane. Some callers are easily logged, others don't seem to hear me. At the end of this shift, I have added 140 QSOs to the log, three times as many as we had before. Kenneth continues this and Patrick after him during our sunrise, but in the end the QSO total is no more than 220. The two must have had a hard time, but at least we tried...
___ Thursday, October 13, 2022 Kenneth wakes me up at 07:30 because the team photos and videos are scheduled for 08:00. The location is the platform near the ocean, and near our 160m inverted L antenna. Patrick uses his drone to streamline this, but it still takes one hour before all photos and videos with country flags, sponsor flags and two different T-shirts are taken. I add some photos with Kenneth at the 160m antenna, then we go for breakfast. According to the statistics, we exceeded 50k QSOs this morning. My next shift starts at noon and I continue 10m on a hex beam to northwest (Europe). There are not many callers, no pileup. With 3B9FR I can log the 100^th DXCC entity on this band. Sometimes I call CQ, sometimes someone calls CQ on my split frequency. When Kenneth arrives for his shift, I have logged the first stations from North America where they just have sunrise. I am surprised that I still get lunch and “enrich” the usual bottle of water with some Pastis today. During sunset, Eric helps me to try nice silhouette photos, but the result is not what I had in mind. I guess it would take a better camera...	DL3GA and the 160m inverted L antenna.
___ Friday, October 14, 2022 My night shift begins at 01:00. Misho says that I was expected on 160m. The BOG is much more quiet than before. But the band is too noisy in general, so I switch to 80m. The conditions are somewhat better here and I can work a number of QSOs with the USA. For the last hour of my shift I grab 20m. We were running FT8 on this band but the computer developed problems and the SSB ops are now working on that. The first caller is from Spain, followed by many from North America. Kenneth comes on time to continue and I go to bed, hungry... At breakfast, I meet Philippe who reports that he made his first-ever QSOs on 160m. He did a pretty good job, adding another 40 QSOs to our log. No wonder that there was not much left for me. Later I go for another walk with Kenneth, we take some photos of the nearby UN vicinity and the soccer stadium. Then we go for lunch before my shift begins, but I can't eat much and no dessert at all... I take over 12m from Misho. A team from Comoros Telecom visits the shack today and measures our emissions. Everything is within the limits, so they leave after a while. Every now and then, a DX cluster spot brings a bunch of callers to me and I log them. In between, someone starts CQing on my split frequency, but another bunch of callers makes him QSY. One of our SSB stations is now also working on 12m, causing some splatter, but not too much so I can handle that. After my shift, Olivier prepares his QO100 station for CW. My idea is that people in Europe are now back home from work, but one hour of activity results in only four QSOs. Some more stations call me, but don't come back when I give them a 599... I feel rather tired and take some rest, but then I get hungry again and walk to the restaurant for dinner. I go to the shack to get some Pastis for dessert, but Patrick asks me to take over for him while he has dinner. He says that 40m was rather noisy, but the Japan BOG was now delivering useful signals with preamp. And indeed, I can log callers at a rate of 100/h, listening alternating on ground plane and BOG.
___ Saturday, October 15, 2022 My night shift starts at 02:00. On my way to the shack, I hear a number of roosters calling – apparently their night shift crew... I spend three hours on 80m with callers from Europe and Asia, but more and more North America with time. Often the band is very noisy and I can't copy anyone, but sometimes it gets quiet and I can log a bunch of QSOs. The highlight at the end is a station from Oregon. Kenneth shows up on time and takes care of the rest while the sun starts rising. On my way back to bed, the roosters are still calling, now accompanied by the Muhezzin. I noticed a group of Sparrows in the restaurant. They capture some crumbs from floor and tables, usually keeping a distance to us humans. I have just sat down with breakfast, as a truly insolent Sparrow lands on top of my head. But with nothing edible in sight, it doesn't stay long. Kenneth joins us and reports that almost nothing was left on 80m and he switched to 17m soon. We say goodbye to our friends from Ireland, they travel home a few days before the rest of us. My next shift starts at 14:00 and I continue working on 12m again. And like yesterday, one SSB station is active on this band and its splatter buries many of the CW callers with weak signals. After some cluster spots, my rate goes up to 80 for a short while, then it drops back down. As usual, Kenneth appears on time and carries on. In just one hour, the Worked All Germany contest starts and I give some info about it to the SSB and CW ops. We will not participate in the contest, but we should accept callers from Germany, even if they are already in our log, because we are a multiplier for them anyway. I also learn about our plans for Monday, when we will pack all the equipment and begin our trip home. According to the shift plan, I'll have the night shift just before QRT. This evening, I catch an impressive sunset for beautiful photos.	Sunset in Moroni.
___ Sunday, October 16, 2022 Half awake and half asleep I get ready and walk to the shack. I take over 20m from Misho and there is a lot of demand. Most callers are from North America, but there are also some German contesters. The rate climbs to almost 200 but after 90 minutes it's over as if my transmit frequency had been occupied – but that is not the case. Some cluster spots bring small groups of calls into the log, but the entire band appears to be dead now. I get 80m from a FT8 station that kept CQing, hoping for some contest callers, but only a few actually appear. I can see that the same stations have QSOs with Xavier on 40m after me. Then it remains quiet for some time, Xavier is taking a break also. During sunrise, I log some final QSOs on 80m. Then I go back to 20m on a hex beam that I turn to Northwest. But my CQ results in one QSO with Arizona and a few with Russia. Kenneth shows up and takes over. Breakfast is being prepared in the restaurant and I take the opportunity, but then I go straight back to bed. I can't sleep long enough because it rumbles in my guts. Since we will travel home tomorrow, I take the initial dose of Imodium. My shift begins at 15:00 and I continue working on 15m. But there are not many callers and then a contest station captures my frequency – thanks a lot. I find a new one further up, but I add only a few QSOs there. Frank offers 20m, but Xavier says I should try 10m. Our SSB ops run a pileup in FM on 10m, I had suggested that. I lose some time with a defective 10m band filter, but I find another one so I can hand out some more contest multipliers. There are also several callers from the rest of Europe and North America. My shift will end when the WAG contest will end, so I call CQ DL during the last minutes to make sure that the German contesters can work a multiplier. However, many big signal Europeans keep calling me anyway. I leave them to Kenneth who comes on time to take over. Among them there's a station sending only Dah's, the Dit's are missing. We can't log him like that... I return to our room and pack my suitcase. The QSO count has exceeded 70k now and the SSB ops keep running FM on 10m until the band closes. I decide to idle about my last night shift and catch up with sleep instead.
___ Monday, October 17, 2022 Kenneth and I get up in time for the breakfast with the entire team. Jean-Luc reports that D60AE is now QRT with 73k QSOs in the logs. After breakfast, we dismantle and pack all the equipment. Together with Kenneth, Misho and Eric I take care of the verticals for 160m, 80m and 40m. At 09:00 the antenna job is done and we are released. Others make sure that everything is packed into the right bags and suitcases with the respective weight limits. In our room, we finish packing and take the bags to the hotel lobby. We learn that there will be a general strike in France tomorrow, we hope for the best... The entire team has a final lunch before our equipment is loaded on a van and we are taken to the airport. With traffic jam every once in a while, the trip takes more than an hour and several times the rain pours down. Fortunately, it's dry at the airport. It takes time to clear all the check-in stations, but we make it without problems. An Airbus A350-900 takes us to Dar es Salaam. After one hour, additional passengers have occupied almost every seat and we take off to Addis Ababa. We have a lot of transit time there before we board our flight to Paris.
___ Tuesday, October 18, 2022 The flight is not so nice. I have a seat at the aisle of the very last row, near the restrooms. The crew passes by with meals and drinks several times and the air is quite unsettled, making it hard to avoid spilling drinks. Nevertheless, I find a boring movie on the entertainment system that lets me fall asleep soon. Our arrival in Paris is on time, but services are affected by the strike. For the passport check, we are sent to a huge line for non-EU citizens. Fortunately, one of our team is employed at this airport and he manages that we can proceed to the EU line. Some of us make it through the check, while me and some others are held up because the check software suddenly blocks all available cabins... Eventually we make it and meet the others at baggage claim where all bags are already loaded on trolleys. We proceed to the waiting F6KOP team at the parking lot and load all the equipment into their cars. Half the team leaves here by car or for connecting flights. The rest of us has time for a second breakfast before we board our TGV trains. My train is rather crowded, but it goes on time and is not affected by the strike. My connecting train from Strasbourg to Germany is also going on time – amazing! Remember: General strike in France. I think I was very very lucky...
Sincere thanks to the F6KOP team for making it possible. Thanks also to the crew of the Retaj Moroni Resort ! D60AE operators: Jeremy EI5GM, Dave EI9FBB, Jean-Luc F1ULQ (co-leader), Patrick F2DX, Frank F4AJQ (team leader), Damien F4AZF, Bruno F5AGB, Xavier F5NTZ, Julien F8AVK, Philippe F8EFU, Misho F8GGV, Olivier HB9GWJ, Eric ON7RN, Kenneth OZ1IKY and Andy DL3GA.
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D60AE – DXpedition to Moroni, Comoros Islands, by F6KOP Radio Club
DL3GA's story

After a break of more than two years, forced by the Covid 19 pandemic, the F6KOP team resumes launching their annual expedition this year. The target had been set in 2021, but the pandemic made it necessary to postpone from January to October 2022. I had met several team members in Friedrichshafen, everyone was eager to finally go on tour again.

___ Wednesday, October 05, 2022

In golden October weather with high temperatures of more than 20 degrees C, I take a local train to Strasbourg and from there a TGV to Paris. Three team members join me later on this train, most of the others arrive from various directions to Charles de Gaulle airport. Check-in and the following stations can be passed without serious problems. We board an Ethiopian Airways Airbus A350-900 and take off into the night.

___ Thursday, October 06, 2022

Although landing a little late in Addis Ababa, we can proceed to the connecting flight. Jeremy EI5GM and Dave EI9FBB join us here, completing the team. A Boeing 787 takes us to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, where most of the passengers leave the airplane. After fueling up, we fly to our final destination Moroni on Grand Comore island. Issuing 15 visas for us takes a long time. At baggage claim, we find that all pieces from Paris are there, but three of four bags of our Irish friends are not. Hotel staff take us and all our equipment to the Retaj Moroni Resort. Together with Kenneth OZ1IKY I have a room in the upper floor. It's late and not far from dusk, but we manage to erect ground plane antennas for 40m, 30m, 20m and 15m. The shack is a double room at ground floor. Two SSB stations are placed in the side room, the stations for CW and digimodes are in the main room with direct access to the lawn field with our antennas. However, for the first night we plan to run only one SSB and one CW station with shortened shift times to allow everyone enough sleep. Kenneth starts CW operation at 19:15 UTC, I take over 90 minutes later. I work on 40m with callers from Australia, East Asia, Europe and South America, creating a wild pileup. Philippe F4EFU takes over later, I'm happy to finally get some sleep.

___ Friday, October 07, 2022

Kenneth wakes me up for the team meet with breakfast, scheduled for 06:00 local time. Then we start mounting the remaining antennas. I participate in the two BOGs and the ground plane for 160m. First it's sunny, but then a giant cumulus cloud builds over the volcano in the center of the island. It is very welcome because it's warm and humid anyway, making antenna work exhausting enough. At noon, we have enough stations and antennas to hit the bands with five stations simultaneously. We also have a shift plan now. Kenneth and I are not on duty, so we participate in the assembly of a second hex beam. We can't finish this because the giant cloud starts pouring out a lot of rain. We go for lunch instead. Returning to the construction site later, we find that the antenna is already finished and operational. My first shift is at 5 PM local time. Misho F8GGV has been working on 10m CW and says “they are waiting for you, many of them”. The aftermath will show that I set a new personal record, working 567 QSOs in the next 175 minutes. At the end, I am working US west coast. It has been dark for quite a while when Kenneth takes over, continuing to work this great 10m opening. It gives me hope that we will have excellent conditions on all bands during our stay. I find out that I worked with the hex beam that we helped assembling earlier. After dinner in the hotel restaurant, I go to sleep because my next shift starts in the very early morning. And the weekend is lying in front of us!

The D60AE Antenna farm: Ground planes, Hex beams

___ Saturday, October 08, 2022

I was afraid to get the demanding160m band during our sunrise, but Misho has been working on 30m. He reports that there are some callers, but with rather small signals. I work mostly USA, again many of them from the west coast. The second CW station works on 80m and then 40m, but both with few QSOs. The sunrise doesn't seem to help a lot. After a while, the daylight lets my last callers sink into the noise. 20m and 17m are used by our SSB stations, so I grab 15m with the ground plane antenna I erected after our arrival. The band seems quiet, but some CQs bring in callers from Australia and Asian Russia. Some phase noise disappears as the other CW station leaves 40m for 12m. The band remains quiet, but in the last hour of my shift it appears like “switched on”. At the end, I hand over a 2 kHz wide pileup to Kenneth. At breakfast, Patrick reports that the BOG to Japan was operational, but the BOG to Europe and North America didn't work at all last night. Kenneth and I take a look at it and find a faulty coax connector. I replace it and Kenneth adds a pull relief. Julien comes to the shack with a big smile in his face and a bottle of Pastis in his hand. The Comoros are a muslim country, so we didn't dare to buy Pastis at the duty free shops. But alcoholic beverages are available here, so we are glad that this is not the first F6KOP expedition without Pastis. The QSO count exceeds 10k today, including more than one hundred via the QO100 satellite. My afternoon shift continues on 17m, working mostly Europe but there are also some loud signals from the US west coast. It seems that the pileup grows although I am logging callers with a good rate. With time, there are more and more callers from the Americas. Kenneth continues 17m during his shift. This evening, a long time after sunset, we work stations from the Caribbean on 6m FT8.

___ Sunday, October 09, 2022

An obtrusive Mosquito bites me and the itching wakes me up ahead of time. I stop by in the restaurant for some breakfast before my shift. Misho has already switched to 12m but there are few callers at this early time of the day. I have a hex beam, so I try to turn it to northeast for a better takeoff to Japan. But I work only one station from Japan plus a bunch of VKs. After half the shift time, I start hearing more signals from Europe, so I turn the antenna back to that direction and suddenly I hear many more callers from Japan also... The QSO rate goes up and by the time I hand over to Kenneth, 12m is the band with the highest number of CW QSOs so far. I notice that the 40m ground plane has partly collapsed, so I try to fix it. I thought I could do this alone, but the fiber mast falls over while I straighten the guys. Two off-duty ops see my misery and come to help. Later today, the CW ops run QSOs on the QO100 satellite. This is quite unlike our regular “job”. Everything has to be sent by paddle and we have two sets of earphones on. One for the the CW we send, the other one to listen to the signal coming back from the satellite. Moreover, the chair is very uncomfortable for my back, so I stop after 35 QSOs. After dinner, I take over a huge 20m pileup from Misho. It is about 6 kHz wide and the callers are mostly from Europe. The signals have some echo and it is hard to extract a call for a QSO. After a while, someone calls on my transmit frequency, triggering the unavoidable police chaos. I just call CQ 500 Hz higher and listen into the pileup range. It's amazing how quickly I can run QSOs at a decent rate again because there are no longer so many callers now. The whole thing repeats after another while, now I change back to my original transmit frequency. Kenneth comes for his shift, he has more callers from the Americas now. The total QSO count exceeds 20k today.

F2DX running CW on QO-100. Photo by F1ULQ.

___ Monday, October 10, 2022

Two 4-hour shifts for Kenneth and Misho give me enough time to sleep this night. In the bathroom, I spot a Mosquito that leaves a red fleck on a tile as I kill it. Gotcha... Back from breakfast, Kenneth reports another vast pileup on 20m with callers from America and Japan last night. At 9:00 I take over 17m from Misho. There are not many callers but I can log a rather continuous stream of QSOs. After two hours, it seems that hams with low power and/or compromise antennas are now trying to reach us. It's not a good time for this because the conditions seem to be rather bad. I call CQ a lot and even switch to auto-CQ after a while. Ten minutes before the end of the shift, my hex beam is given to an SSB station and I get the 17m ground plane instead. I don't hear any callers so I end my shift a little early. I help Kenneth to switch to 12m and he continues there. Patrick reports that both BOGs perform way below any expectation. We suspect that the dry and coarse volcanic soil provides bad grounding. We need to buy some wire for radials that might improve this... After lunch, I try CW on QO100 again, but this effort results only in a few QSOs. I return to the shack early and witness several power outages. The hotel generator starts instantly, but each time our amplifiers take three minutes for warm-up. This continues during my shift. I take over 40m from Misho who reports that he often needs to repeat the report for a caller before a response comes back. I have the same problem which is probably caused by the significant ionospheric D layer reported on solarham.org. Every QSO is a real effort, but the situation improves near the end my shift. Sunrise in Japan supports many QSOs with that area and I hear the first callers from North America also. Kenneth comes and looks somewhat tired. He prefers to continue on 40m instead of checking propagation on 160m.

___ Tuesday, October 11, 2022

I feel recreated and relaxed this morning. I take over 12m from Misho, working on a ground plane antenna. The signals get smaller and smaller. Two times I'm forced to change transmit frequency, each time I go 1 kHz lower. After another power outage, my station doesn't transmit anymore. I can solve this by restarting Wintest. A few minutes later, I notice that the amplifiers of both CW stations are inactive. They are switched on correctly, but appear like switched off. Someone changes something, and after the usual warm-up time they work properly again. I pass a calm job to Kenneth and go for lunch. When chewing my first bite, a large group of people lines up at the buffet. It gets rather loud in the restaurant, so I don't stay longer than necessary.
This night I have a four hour shift. I take over 30m from Misho. Most callers are from Europe and not loud, but there are a few signals from Asia and the first callers from North America also. At sunrise in Japan, I call CQ for Japan only, and surprisingly Europe remains silent. However, I can't work many QSOs. Frank asks me to check 160m while he starts running RTTY on 30m. I can make a few QSOs while listening on the ground plane. None of them is audible on one of the BOGs. Frank has a wild pileup on 30m, but he gives the band back to me and now I can log many good signals from Japan. When it seems to be over, I call for North America and hear many good signals from there also. But there are not many, so I continue working everyone. And this means callers from Japan, Asia, Europe and the Americas. Kenneth shows up for his shift, but there is not much left for him. The total QSO count exceeds 40k now.

__ Wednesday, October 12, 2022

At breakfast I learn that two bags of our two friends from Ireland have finally arrived, but one is still missing. With Kenneth I take an hour for a walk into Moroni. Then I have just enough time for a shower before my next shift begins. Misho has been working 10m on the ground plane and reports that the conditions are up and down. First I can log many stations from Japan, but it seems that I have QRM on my transmit frequency. No wonder because the band is in good shape with lots of activity. Turning the VFO knob down, I end up at 28002 and there I can work successfully. Not a big pileup, but a continuous stream of QSOs gets into the log, still many from Japan. There is not much left for Kenneth as he takes over, but that may change. It's late but I can still have lunch at the restaurant. Some ops are there and we discuss how we could improve the situation on 160m. Shall we extend the wire into the ocean? It would mean to add about 10m, but I don't change anything now. I take some rest until my shift at 23:00. Frank wants me to test 160m again and Misho sends a cluster spot. And it works quite well, the next cluster spots from Europe are promising. Some signals are audible on the BOG, but their readability is much better on the ground plane. Some callers are easily logged, others don't seem to hear me. At the end of this shift, I have added 140 QSOs to the log, three times as many as we had before. Kenneth continues this and Patrick after him during our sunrise, but in the end the QSO total is no more than 220. The two must have had a hard time, but at least we tried...

___ Thursday, October 13, 2022

Kenneth wakes me up at 07:30 because the team photos and videos are scheduled for 08:00. The location is the platform near the ocean, and near our 160m inverted L antenna. Patrick uses his drone to streamline this, but it still takes one hour before all photos and videos with country flags, sponsor flags and two different T-shirts are taken. I add some photos with Kenneth at the 160m antenna, then we go for breakfast. According to the statistics, we exceeded 50k QSOs this morning. My next shift starts at noon and I continue 10m on a hex beam to northwest (Europe). There are not many callers, no pileup. With 3B9FR I can log the 100^th DXCC entity on this band. Sometimes I call CQ, sometimes someone calls CQ on my split frequency. When Kenneth arrives for his shift, I have logged the first stations from North America where they just have sunrise. I am surprised that I still get lunch and “enrich” the usual bottle of water with some Pastis today. During sunset, Eric helps me to try nice silhouette photos, but the result is not what I had in mind. I guess it would take a better camera...

DL3GA and the 160m inverted L antenna.

___ Friday, October 14, 2022

My night shift begins at 01:00. Misho says that I was expected on 160m. The BOG is much more quiet than before. But the band is too noisy in general, so I switch to 80m. The conditions are somewhat better here and I can work a number of QSOs with the USA. For the last hour of my shift I grab 20m. We were running FT8 on this band but the computer developed problems and the SSB ops are now working on that. The first caller is from Spain, followed by many from North America. Kenneth comes on time to continue and I go to bed, hungry... At breakfast, I meet Philippe who reports that he made his first-ever QSOs on 160m. He did a pretty good job, adding another 40 QSOs to our log. No wonder that there was not much left for me. Later I go for another walk with Kenneth, we take some photos of the nearby UN vicinity and the soccer stadium. Then we go for lunch before my shift begins, but I can't eat much and no dessert at all... I take over 12m from Misho. A team from Comoros Telecom visits the shack today and measures our emissions. Everything is within the limits, so they leave after a while. Every now and then, a DX cluster spot brings a bunch of callers to me and I log them. In between, someone starts CQing on my split frequency, but another bunch of callers makes him QSY. One of our SSB stations is now also working on 12m, causing some splatter, but not too much so I can handle that. After my shift, Olivier prepares his QO100 station for CW. My idea is that people in Europe are now back home from work, but one hour of activity results in only four QSOs. Some more stations call me, but don't come back when I give them a 599... I feel rather tired and take some rest, but then I get hungry again and walk to the restaurant for dinner. I go to the shack to get some Pastis for dessert, but Patrick asks me to take over for him while he has dinner. He says that 40m was rather noisy, but the Japan BOG was now delivering useful signals with preamp. And indeed, I can log callers at a rate of 100/h, listening alternating on ground plane and BOG.

___ Saturday, October 15, 2022

My night shift starts at 02:00. On my way to the shack, I hear a number of roosters calling – apparently their night shift crew... I spend three hours on 80m with callers from Europe and Asia, but more and more North America with time. Often the band is very noisy and I can't copy anyone, but sometimes it gets quiet and I can log a bunch of QSOs. The highlight at the end is a station from Oregon. Kenneth shows up on time and takes care of the rest while the sun starts rising. On my way back to bed, the roosters are still calling, now accompanied by the Muhezzin. I noticed a group of Sparrows in the restaurant. They capture some crumbs from floor and tables, usually keeping a distance to us humans. I have just sat down with breakfast, as a truly insolent Sparrow lands on top of my head. But with nothing edible in sight, it doesn't stay long. Kenneth joins us and reports that almost nothing was left on 80m and he switched to 17m soon. We say goodbye to our friends from Ireland, they travel home a few days before the rest of us. My next shift starts at 14:00 and I continue working on 12m again. And like yesterday, one SSB station is active on this band and its splatter buries many of the CW callers with weak signals. After some cluster spots, my rate goes up to 80 for a short while, then it drops back down. As usual, Kenneth appears on time and carries on. In just one hour, the Worked All Germany contest starts and I give some info about it to the SSB and CW ops. We will not participate in the contest, but we should accept callers from Germany, even if they are already in our log, because we are a multiplier for them anyway. I also learn about our plans for Monday, when we will pack all the equipment and begin our trip home. According to the shift plan, I'll have the night shift just before QRT. This evening, I catch an impressive sunset for beautiful photos.

Sunset in Moroni.

___ Sunday, October 16, 2022

Half awake and half asleep I get ready and walk to the shack. I take over 20m from Misho and there is a lot of demand. Most callers are from North America, but there are also some German contesters. The rate climbs to almost 200 but after 90 minutes it's over as if my transmit frequency had been occupied – but that is not the case. Some cluster spots bring small groups of calls into the log, but the entire band appears to be dead now. I get 80m from a FT8 station that kept CQing, hoping for some contest callers, but only a few actually appear. I can see that the same stations have QSOs with Xavier on 40m after me. Then it remains quiet for some time, Xavier is taking a break also. During sunrise, I log some final QSOs on 80m. Then I go back to 20m on a hex beam that I turn to Northwest. But my CQ results in one QSO with Arizona and a few with Russia. Kenneth shows up and takes over. Breakfast is being prepared in the restaurant and I take the opportunity, but then I go straight back to bed. I can't sleep long enough because it rumbles in my guts. Since we will travel home tomorrow, I take the initial dose of Imodium. My shift begins at 15:00 and I continue working on 15m. But there are not many callers and then a contest station captures my frequency – thanks a lot. I find a new one further up, but I add only a few QSOs there. Frank offers 20m, but Xavier says I should try 10m. Our SSB ops run a pileup in FM on 10m, I had suggested that. I lose some time with a defective 10m band filter, but I find another one so I can hand out some more contest multipliers. There are also several callers from the rest of Europe and North America. My shift will end when the WAG contest will end, so I call CQ DL during the last minutes to make sure that the German contesters can work a multiplier. However, many big signal Europeans keep calling me anyway. I leave them to Kenneth who comes on time to take over. Among them there's a station sending only Dah's, the Dit's are missing. We can't log him like that... I return to our room and pack my suitcase. The QSO count has exceeded 70k now and the SSB ops keep running FM on 10m until the band closes. I decide to idle about my last night shift and catch up with sleep instead.

___ Monday, October 17, 2022

Kenneth and I get up in time for the breakfast with the entire team. Jean-Luc reports that D60AE is now QRT with 73k QSOs in the logs. After breakfast, we dismantle and pack all the equipment. Together with Kenneth, Misho and Eric I take care of the verticals for 160m, 80m and 40m. At 09:00 the antenna job is done and we are released. Others make sure that everything is packed into the right bags and suitcases with the respective weight limits. In our room, we finish packing and take the bags to the hotel lobby. We learn that there will be a general strike in France tomorrow, we hope for the best... The entire team has a final lunch before our equipment is loaded on a van and we are taken to the airport. With traffic jam every once in a while, the trip takes more than an hour and several times the rain pours down. Fortunately, it's dry at the airport. It takes time to clear all the check-in stations, but we make it without problems. An Airbus A350-900 takes us to Dar es Salaam. After one hour, additional passengers have occupied almost every seat and we take off to Addis Ababa. We have a lot of transit time there before we board our flight to Paris.

___ Tuesday, October 18, 2022

The flight is not so nice. I have a seat at the aisle of the very last row, near the restrooms. The crew passes by with meals and drinks several times and the air is quite unsettled, making it hard to avoid spilling drinks. Nevertheless, I find a boring movie on the entertainment system that lets me fall asleep soon. Our arrival in Paris is on time, but services are affected by the strike. For the passport check, we are sent to a huge line for non-EU citizens. Fortunately, one of our team is employed at this airport and he manages that we can proceed to the EU line. Some of us make it through the check, while me and some others are held up because the check software suddenly blocks all available cabins... Eventually we make it and meet the others at baggage claim where all bags are already loaded on trolleys. We proceed to the waiting F6KOP team at the parking lot and load all the equipment into their cars. Half the team leaves here by car or for connecting flights. The rest of us has time for a second breakfast before we board our TGV trains. My train is rather crowded, but it goes on time and is not affected by the strike. My connecting train from Strasbourg to Germany is also going on time – amazing! Remember: General strike in France. I think I was very very lucky...

Sincere thanks to the F6KOP team for making it possible. Thanks also to the crew of the Retaj Moroni Resort !

D60AE operators: Jeremy EI5GM, Dave EI9FBB, Jean-Luc F1ULQ (co-leader), Patrick F2DX, Frank F4AJQ (team leader), Damien F4AZF, Bruno F5AGB, Xavier F5NTZ, Julien F8AVK, Philippe F8EFU, Misho F8GGV, Olivier HB9GWJ, Eric ON7RN, Kenneth OZ1IKY and Andy DL3GA.

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