VK9CV
VK9CV Story
One of Australia's most beautiful destinations is the Australian Cocos Islands. The Cocos Islands offer beautiful scenery and diverse underwater life. That’s why we went on a DX-expedition to this interesting destination.
The decision was made in the spring in 2024 when we agreed to organize the DX- expedition with the same line-up as we had on St. Brandon Island (3B7M). We applied for a licence at that time but the Australian Telecommunications Authority was changing the licencing conditions at the time. Therefore,we approached Grant, VK5GR, and asked for his help in arranging the licence. Grant also offered to be our operator and took an active role in organising the expedition. In the summer, we bought flight tickets and arranged the accommodation. The island offers apartment-type accommodation but finding a place for nine people was a problem. Moreover, the accommodation on the island is sold out for a year in advance. Therefore, we had to split up and booked 3 QTH, which were200 and 700 meters apart. This brought some advantages but of course, also disadvantages. The advantage was that we could operate on the same band with all modes and eliminated interference. The disadvantage was the synchronization of the diary as well as the overview of who and where was transmitting. Grant, VK5GR, sent about 100 kilograms of material (such as antennas, coaxial cables, masts) in advance to the island as our weight was already at maximum.
Slovak crew OM3PC, OM4AYL, OM4MM, OM4MW, OM5RW, OM5ZW left the city Vienna on 29 October,2024, Czech crew OK2ZA, OK6DJ travelled from the city Prague. We met at Istanbul airport and continued together to Kuala Lumpur (9M2). Relatively tired after a 10-hour flight, we were waiting for another flight to the west of Australia to the town Perth. We landed in Perth in the morning and had plenty of time to repack our suitcases as Virgin Airlines accepts 23 kilograms of weight while Turkish Airlines accepts 30 kilograms of weight. For that reason, we unpack more bags and suddenly, from the 30 kilograms luggage becomes only 23 + 7 kilograms. At 5:00 am of local time, we meet Grant, VK5GR. At the airport, we take a little rest after the long flights and at 8:15amwe are finally flying to the Cocos Islands with a stopover in Exmouth. There we have a technical break, refuel and continue to our final destination. After a 5-hour flight, we land in the Cocos Islands to a beautiful 29°C. The air conditioning in the planes has taken its toll on Lubo's health and he has to take antibiotics. Sylvia has the same healthy problems after 2 days later and the transition from cold to warm weather is clearly not doing us any good.
We are hiring a car to move between QTHs, but only Grant, VK5GR, can drive it as he has an Australian licence. Our accommodation is quite close to the airport so the transfer to the accommodation is going well. We split into 3 groups and start to build simple antennas. The verticals and dipoles are finished in a few minutes and we can be on the air during the night. Sylvia begins operating on SSB, but conditions are already poor, so we move to 30 meters. In the morning, we build the main antennas in the following composition:
- QTH 1: Spiderbeam 20-10 m, dipoles 12 and 17 m, verticals 30, 40 m
- QTH 2: Spiderbeam 20-10 m, DX-commander 40-10 m, vertical 160 m, DHDL
- QTH 3: Spiderbeam 20-10 m, Hexbeam 20-10 m, vertical 80 m, 3el. Yagi 6 m, vertical 40 m
We are building in the morning and in the evening, during the day it is practically impossible as it is scorching and we must cool off in the sea. Along with this, we are also trying to operate and on SSB we rotate OM4MM, OM4AYL, OK2ZA and VK5GR; on CW OM3PC, OM4MW, OK6DJ, OM5RW and OM5ZW. Conditions are in our favourfor the first few days and we are making 12-13 to QSOs per day. This is quite good considering that the European Union /EU/ is 10,000 km far away, JA 7,000 km far away and the USA 17,000 km far away. However, nothing is forever. Every day we try to be active on 160 and 80 meters, but the reception conditions are poor and we register high noise levels. Only strong signals can pass through, so we prefer FT8 mode in poor conditions. The same is true for 80 meters. Grant regularly monitors 6 meters and we move up there and try QSOs at the first opening. 419 QSOs from this location is really a success, we are making Caribbean 18 000 km QSOs. These are connections not made every day on 6 meters.
On the sixth day, conditionsare breaking down, so we decided to take a trip to nearby Home Island. Weare travelling to Home Island by boat for an incredible 2.5 AUD! Incredibly cheap compared to other prices on the island - pizza 30 AUD, fish 50 AUD etc. In general, the island is not very suitable for holiday destination. The prices are quite high. We visited a local radio amateur VK9FCAN of Malaysian origin on the island, but he is not very active in that way.
An enjoyable stroll around the island in connection with dinner is a pleasant change for the expedition. In the evening, we go back to West Island and remain in operation. Conditions are no longer favourable and the upper bands are closing fast. The window to NA endures for a very short time, so we give directional calls to CQ NA. Unfortunately, not everyone is getting a chance and only the big stations are coming through.
From VK the operationis allowed on 30m SSB, so Grant makes QSOs with VK stations on 30m SSB. We are trying to activate the upper bands as much as possible, even though the conditions last for a very short time. Mostly in the morning LP South America and the USA, then the bands areclosed all day, and around 4:00 pm of local time, the EU and finally NA start to open up. This scenario is similar every day, so anumber of connectionsdoes not add up as much as we would like to. In spite of that, we have 80,000 QSOs in the log on the 8th day of operation. We are struggling with interference on 160 meters and the stations tell us that we are deaf.
On the tenth day, the construction workers and the police are coming to notice us that they are going to dig and reinforce the protective dikes. The antennas have to be taken down. QTH 2 was installed close to the undersea fibre optic cable that ran to Perth (VK6). “Everything bad is good for something” - after the construction work we were able to receive signals on 160m. We do not know what happened, but the noise on 160 m disappeared. Since then we have been much more active on 160 m and have been trying QSOs with OM stations. We are also trying QSOs during the sunset from the USA on 160/80 m. We are managing a few lovely QSOs on 160 m. The conditions of spreading seem to be getting worse and worse from day to day, so the daily number of QSO is dropping, but on November 13, we overcome the border of the 100,000 QSO, which was the secret goal of the expedition. We really did not know what to expect, since none of us except OM5ZW had transmitted from such a remote location. In the end, we were satisfied toovercome the magical 100,000 QSO border and we were slowly packing up the antennas. Last night we left one antenna for QTH and finished in the morning with a number of 105,794 and 26,188 unique stations. We manage a few more nice QSOs on 160 m from the western EU. Overall, we are satisfied and in the morning, we pack up in style.It is necessary to pack it into 2x23 kg and repack it again into 1x30 kg in Australia. Fatigue is taking its toll on each of us and we are running on empty. We are heading to the hotel where everyone is looking forward to bed and dinner. In the morning, we are meeting local radio amateurs, namely Steve VK6SJ, Zeljko VK6VY, Alan VK6CQ (VK0LD) and we are spending a pleasant breakfast with them. Grant, VK5GR, is leaving us and is heading to VK5 Adelaide for another flight and we are moving to the Northern Corridor Radio Group in Perth (VK6ANC). There we are welcomed by other HAMs and are shown their QTH. How amazing!
We are spending the afternoon by exploring downtown Perth and shopping for souvenirs. In the evening, we are waiting for a series of further flights to 9M2-TA-OE. In Istanbul we are saying goodbye to the guys form OK who have less than an hour to transfer to Prague. The OM crew has 4 hours for the next flight, so we are drinking the world's most expensive beer (Istanbul airport). At 10pm we are landing at Vienna airport and are waiting for the next transfer to OM. Wearrive in Slovakia on Monday, November 18 and we are happy to deal with it. Thank you all for your support of the expedition, both financial, moral andfor connections as well and for being with us during the expedition. For more information, visit www.vk9cv.comor the Facebookwww.facebook.com/vk9cv.
