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| We settled in Lagos by May 1994 for a new professional
assignment. General view > |
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| QTH
was a 3.500 sqm plot within Apapa residential area, opposite Tin Can Island, at 3 ft
a.s.l. next to (far from blue) Badagry lagoon: quite a good location for ham radio. |
| After the
"usual" domestic improvements (50 kva gen., fuel and water tanks, security, etc
...), this place would prove to be a busy radio spot for the following 4 years. Towers in the background > |
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| We had been lucky enough to be
introduced to NARS Secretary General Oyekunle Ajayi interfacing with Ministry of
Communications Abuja. By mid 1994, 5N0ETK signed his first QSO using FT847 + HL2K + DX88: I mean here that 5N
licencing is neat and fast, as long as one first registers with the national Society. |
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<NARS logo We soon got invited by NARS to enter the national Society's Managing
Committee, in charge of Packet Radio and Contesting, also station manager for 5N0EF, 5N0HQ and 5N4IOTA. |
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<Sailing on Lagos lagoon. It is no licence reciprocity to/fro Nigeria. So check IARU Societies
website for NARS details and contact adresses in advance. |
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As to drop with a 1x3 letter callsign, Kunle 5N0OBA suggested us by late
1994 to organize ourselves as a club station: this is how TU5NC and myself ended up as the
2 "foundating" members of 5N0GC! Now you know the trick. |
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5N0HQ showed
up only once, when entering 1997 IARU HF Championship as NARS Headquarter station. What a
contest ! A car breakdown made a multi/multi to boil down to a merely single op operation,
but still a pleasure to put 5N Society on the air. |
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< Bonny Isl. map 5N4IOTA had been issued with intention to activate the new AF-76 BONNY Island in
the southeast part of the country: lack of security on the island at that time did not
make this operation possible. |
| A first 50 ft tower went up with 20/15/10 6 el.
and a 17/12 4 el. beams, and vertical delta loop on 40. We were operating at this time
FT990 + HL2K as main and FT847 + TL922 as backup. |
| Packet and DX cluster soon became a time consuming
affair, with 2 dedicated HF rigs + 1 VHF into a 2 PC LAN under BPQ, FBB and DxNet,
maintaining 24/24 links with AF* and EU* on 7, 10 and 21 Mhz: true experience that
powercuts, RFI with the main station, etc ... quickly turned into a real nightmare. NEVER
AGAIN! |
| On the othe hand, 5N0EF 7.065 khz
"AFRICOM" continental daily Net was a real fun, with super controllers like
Alfred TU2DP
and Francois TJ1AG in particular: lot of friendly DXing on 40. |
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A full size 1/4 wave self supported vertical was in use on 75 meter, made
of a converted sailboat aluminium mast atop a telephone pole: nice industrial QRM
collector but very poor performer! |
| Configuration changed for FT1000mp + AL1500 as main, and FT990 + HL2K as
backup, with reasonable results on 40 and above. Create beams were taking care of 20 to 10, and KLM on 40 (why this stuff still on market ?). |
| We had trained a nigerian team that was great doing antenna works,
although not really concerned by basic safety procedures: no safety belt, and rubber
slippers iso safety boots ... |
| This peculiar gang rigged a second tower, also redeploying the
20/15/10 6el. tribander + 2 el. 40 m on the 50 ft tower, and the 17/12 4 el. beam on a new
40 ft tower. |
 North view 1996
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Also a 75 m. vertically polarized delta loop
had come up as a replacement to the junky 1/4 wave vertical, being a good and quiet
performer. It is is also about this time that 2 beverages running outside the compound got
stolen during a contest night. |
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| By 1997 something
serious was to be done for low band operations, and the project for 75 meter came out from
a phonecall with John ON4UN: |
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< Logistics on site, and Badagry lagoon right behind the fence. A 4 square went up a new 80 ft tower (see pics at left),
being 4 x 1/4 wave wire slopers fed through 1/4 wave 75 Ohm coax lines into a Comtek
hybrid coupler/switching box, and 12 x 1/4 wave elevated radials (see John's book
"Low Band DXing". |
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< Starting assembling the 4x20 ft sections. This aerial dramatically improved performances on 75 m.,
bringing effective gain and impressive F/B (assumed being not less than 20 to 25 Db).
Unless a yagi on 75 meter, a 4 square is definitely a very interesting and affordable
antenna system on this band. It
just requires room around a 80ft mini high tower, and preferably use of non conductive
guywires to keep a clean field pattern. |
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<Top sections going up in one go. Now 5N0YL, Nicole had assembled a Long John 205 CA that found a place atop tower #2
at 50ft, shooting right over the lagoon to the west. We were then able to instantly switch
between 3 different beams on 20, and 2 beams on 15 and 10 thru an homemade relaybox. No
phasing, just a great time saving and rotators relief. |
|
< Re-rigging the 40m yagi by our chief helper. 160 meter antenna system was still poor, and we had almost given
up with it after a water tanker had hooked up our top band dipole one day, driving away
with 240 ft of copper wire. One should remember that low band aerials must always be HIGH
! A last attempt with an inverted L aside tower #2 proved again unlucky: due likely to
excessive coupling with the tower, it just helped smoking a remote control box. Top band
was not made for us those days! |
| When closing 5N0T
operations by spring 1998 after more than 60.000 QSO's (too much work to do more ...),
also several contest top ten positions and a great fun, the last station configuration
was: |
Tower #1 @ 80 ft |
(5N* production all fiber guywired) |
| KLM 2 el. 40 m. @ 82 ft (a true headache) |
| 75 m. four square @ 80 ft (homemade beauty) |
| Cushcraft
A3, 3 el. 20/15/10 @ 30 ft (standard) |
Tower #2 @ 50 ft |
(TU* production, good investment) |
| HyGain Long John 5 el. mono 20
m. @ 50 ft (a killer) |
| 160 m. inverted L (unlucky
affair) |
| 30 m. dipole + VHF |
Tower #3 @ 40 ft |
(5N* reconditioned, a funny one) |
| Create 318C, 6 el. 20/15/10 @ 40 ft (an asset) |
Tower #4 @ 40 ft |
(5N* reconditioned, short but heavy) |
| Create 248, 4 el. warc @ 40 ft (light and superb) |
Inside |
| station #1 |
YAESU FT 1000 MP + Ameritron AL 1500 |
| station #2 |
YAESU FT 990 + Tokyo High Power HL2K |
| packet #1 |
YAESU FT 747 into W3HH folded dipole |
| packet #2 |
KENWOOD TS
50 into 30 m dipole |
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