Eight Days in Ghana – 9G5FD
(from July 2005 CDXC Digest)
I wasn’t going to write this one up as it was a fairly low-key operation, but when Martyn said he was low on material for this issue .. So more ramblings from G3XTT, I’m afraid.
This one came about almost by chance. I noticed that Sigi DL7DF, veteran of many fine DXpeditions (see www.dl7df.com as well as frequent CDXC Digest articles) was due to operate from Ghana as 9G5SP. From personal experience I was aware that Ghanaian licences are tough to get hold of unless you are already in the country and can chase them through the bureaucracy, which is why I had never applied for my own licence, despite four visits to the country since 1999. So I dropped Sigi an e-mail, asking him for his secret! It turned out that Thomas DL7BO, who has been on many of those expeditions with Sigi, is in Ghana for a year or so, with Siemens, managing a major broadband roll-out project. Thomas very kindly offered to help me with a licence, which was an offer I couldn’t really refuse, as I anticipated further visits to Ghana in the coming years, for example en route to Voodoo contest operations (I have transited Ghana in the past to both XT and 5U).
It didn’t take much longer to decide that the WPX CW contest might be a good basis for getting the licence organised. It gave us a target to work to, I had discovered that I could get a discount air fare with some of my Air Miles, and Thomas very kindly offered me free accommodation and the use of his station. It doesn’t get much better! The amateur radio fraternity really is something special. It’s not as if I had ever met Thomas, simply that we had this common interest in DX and contesting.
Preparation was minimal, for the reasons I have given. All I needed to take was my keyer (Thomas is primarily an SSB operator, and has already made over 20,000 contacts under his 9G5OO call) and some radio magazines (he does feel a little cut off down there). I scanned and e-mailed all the documentation to Thomas about two months before my trip, which he felt would be enough time to get the licence issued (it requires authorisation by the Director General of the National Communications Administration, after which it is issued by the staff member responsible for licensing). In the event it was touch and go – the DG gave his authorisation very quickly, but the bureaucracy grinds exceedingly slow in that part of the world when it comes to actually issuing the documentation! Incidentally, the charge was a $25 issue fee, plus $10 annual fee (payable yearly, with the DG’s authority valid for 5 years). While this sounds quite modest, it is way over the top for most Ghanaians – a two-tier fee structure for locals and foreigners would be much more appropriate but unlikely to happen, sadly.
The trip out was via Amsterdam on KLM and fine except for some delays on both legs. Thomas met me at Accra and we went directly to his home (which is also his work QTH, a large colonial house with extensive grounds close to the British High Commission). Thomas has installed two towers, a triband X-7 Yagi and, on a catenary between the towers, wire beams for 12, 17 and 40 towards Europe. 30 is catered for by a delta loop with the top around 60ft or so, while there is a dipole for 80 and an inverted-L for 160. The station consists of an IC-735 and a 1kW amplifier by UY5ZZ (who makes a wide range of modestly-priced amplifiers, very popular in Eastern Europe, see www.qsl.net/uy5zz). There are some excellent photos of Thomas’s station on www.qrz.com (see 9G5OO).
I arrived on the Wednesday evening before the contest and first order of the day on the Thursday was to go with one of Thomas’s colleagues to NCA to collect the licence, which still hadn’t appeared. Lo and behold, the gentlemen responsible wasn’t on site and unavailable via his mobile phone, and hadn’t left the licence with reception as he had promised to do earlier in the week. Welcome to Africa! That was a day’s operating lost, but in the end just that one day, during which I was able to catch up with some old friends and generally get myself organised.
I started operations on the Friday, but QRN levels were very high, after a night of violent thunderstorms. This was worrying but, fortunately, the QRN level gradually fell off for the remainder of my stay. I had checked on Sigi’s operating statistics and noticed that he had made a great effort on the LF bands in particular. I didn’t want to dilute demand on the main bands before the contest, so elected to focus on 12, 17 and 30. I also, because Thomas was doing such a good job on SSB and RTTY, decided to stick to CW. It quickly became apparent that the highest bands, which are usually very reliable from West Africa, weren’t in great shape, but 17, 20 and 30 were all wide open for long periods from late afternoon pretty much through to some time after dawn.
The contest was tough going. I have done pretty well in WPX CW from home on several occasions now, with a strategy of working the low bands throughout the hours of darkness, given that they score double points. From 9G, despite Thomas’s wire Yagi on 40, I really couldn’t generate and hold a pile-up, and I focused instead on going for high rate on the HF bands. There were distractions, too, like an excellent barbecue during Saturday evening. As single-ops are allowed only 36 hours operation, I elected to take some of my off-time, but ended up missing one of the few really good Stateside openings; Sunday was much poorer. The final outcome was just over 2,600 QSOs and a claimed score just above 6m, decent but nowhere near what D4B PZ5XX and other well-located stations will have achieved.
But I did enjoy operating after the contest, again mainly on the WARC bands, with some hectic pile-ups and the opportunity to work many old friends. For example, it was good to work Dave G3YMC’s QRP signal on three bands and John VK4OQ on two bands (see my “DX an’ all That column). It was also nice to have lunch with Ralph 9G1RQ, an old friend who helped the Voodoo Contest Group enormously during the years they were focused on TY, 5V and 9G. Sadly, though, Ralph’s news on amateur radio in Ghana was not good. There are very few local amateurs nowadays, most activity being by ex-pats, and the club (9G0ARS, the national IARU society, in fact) is almost defunct with the Accra Technical Training College, where it is based, wanting the space back again for other purposes. It was also good fun to go out with Thomas and his colleagues to various local pubs and clubs. As you can imagine with Thomas being of German origin, the sustenance was generally of the liquid variety!
The final QSO statistics, should they be of interest, are:
Band QSOs DXCC
80 3 3
40 241 47
30 969 55
20 856 65
17 1452 68
15 1842 82
12 587 46
10 175 42
Total 6125 117
1-band QSOs 3075
2-band QSOs 774
3-band QSOs 251
4-band QSOs 75
5-band QSOs 9
6-band QSOs 4
Logging was by way of the exemplary Starlog, linked with Winkey for CW generation from either paddle or keyboard (totally seamless).
QSL cards are printed and should be in the mail by the time this appears. I am happy to answer bureau cards or e-mail requests (with QSO details) to [email protected] My thanks to Sigi DL7DF for putting me in touch with Thomas, to Thomas himself (by the way his first call was, if I recall correctly, Y25OO, and he is also licensed as 4L7O and 4K0BO where he is currently building a permanent home and station for himself, his Azerbajani xyl and their young children, see also www.qsl.net/dl7bo), and to his colleagues in Ghana who put up with a visiting English amateur invading their work and living space. A very pleasant experience due entirely to being part of this worldwide community to which we as radio amateurs all belong.